Doug's Darkworld

Survived another weekend. The weather is getting a little chilly, but still hitting 50F (10C) during the day, so good enough for me. Lots of fall colour showing up, which sucks for me because I have to rake up the leaves. I suppose I should be happy because I did say that exercise in chilly weather is a good way to lose weight. Most of the lake’s docks have been pulled out for the winter. The Lady of the Lake has gone to wherever it goes in the winter. It’s basically a barge with a bar built on top of it, powered by two tractor motors. Iowa through and through, like pocket corn strippers. I spent thirty years making fun of California, starting to hit my stride in Iowa.

I will be posting on Thursday, as that is Halloween. Used to be a fun holiday where kids wore costumes and went trick or treating. Now commercialized and child-proofed to the point of sadness. Kids aren’t even allowed to go trick or treating in my little town, no, they go to some police run function in downtown Clear Lake while it’s still light out. An entire kid’s holiday helicopter parented out of existence. The next step will be moving it all to virtual reality where the risk to the kids will be even lower. I digress. I came across a true story that is so freaking horrific that it beats anything Hollywood would dare film. In other words, the perfect Doug’s Darkworld Halloween post, brace yourselves.

In California more mass evacuations and power outages. Welcome to global warming. A one-two punch in this case. Global warming has lengthened and intensified the fire season in California (and around the rest of the globe.) And since our infrastructure was built and designed for the stable climate regime we enjoyed since the last Ice Age ended over ten thousand years ago, it is being overwhelmed by the new more extreme climate. The negative effects of global warming are starting to really kick in now, gonna be a fun ride.

Sadly, even though almost everyone agrees that global warming is a reality, they are still mostly missing the point. Even if global warming isn’t being caused by humans, it is still the biggest planetary emergency the race has ever faced. The freaking planet is warming at a frightening rate folks, and it’s just going to get worse, not better. And except for the Pentagon, we are doing nothing to prepare for it. Great, our economy will be destroyed and hundreds of millions of people will be homeless world wide, but America will still be able to continue its endless wars on poor brown countries. So much greatness, brings tears to the eyes.

And speaking of greatness, Trump claimed the US military killed the leader of ISIS. Some have claimed this is a cynical attempt to distract the media from his impeachment issues. Seems farfetched to me, like the people for whom Jeffrey Epstein’s murder is a “fact.” Doesn’t matter how suspicious circumstances are, minus actual evidence, they are just suspicions. That being said, the US and Israel routinely announce the killing of some insurgent leader or another. We’re all supposed to cheer, and not notice that this never seems to bring the situation closer to a solution. That’s because when the leader of an insurgent organization is killed, he is almost always replaced by a leader more inclined to violence and less inclined to compromise. If ISIS killed Trump or any prominent American, what would be the typical American’s response? Safe to say there would be few calls for compromise and negotiation. Basically the “War on Terror” is just an endless gang turf war.

One last point from items in the news. An old painting found in a woman’s house, a long lost piece from the thirteenth century, sold at auction for nearly $30 million, far more than expected. And Curt Cobain’s dirty sweater, right from his body to the buyer’s, sold for nearly $350 thousand dollars. The high end collectibles market has exploded since the 1970s, with new records being set all the time. Isn’t it great that the super rich have taken such an interest in preserving art and history that they are spending staggering sums of money on it! Snort. No, it’s another symptom of the rich having far more money than they could possibly need, and how worthless our money is really becoming.

Have a great week everyone.

Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: My life. Credit: Anonymous Facebook meme, used without permission. I will properly attribute or remove as needed should I become aware of the copyright holder.)