Archive for the ‘Halloween’ Category
THE WORLD TURNED TO ICE, THE LAST WEEKEND
The world turned to ice for me tonight. Only the second time in my life that’s happened. Let me explain, I’m sure others have experienced the same. Time slowed down is another way to put it. I was out by the lake waiting for the sunset. A woman with her two toddler children was to my left. One of the kids made a run for the lake. Across the road. I was like, whoa, hope no car is coming … glanced to my right, oh yeah, there’s the car moving right along … And that’s when the world froze. I was paralyzed for a moment, I was not close enough to get to the kid, so I started moving towards the car. No thought involved. It screeched to a halt, the driver saw me or the kid. Everyone was very upset, but we all went our ways. Halloween night, guess being scared is on point so to speak.
Still calming down. Good to know I’m still alive actually. I’m guessing that my body fired off a spurt of adrenaline and other chemicals. I wasn’t exactly calm before either. So there’s a limit to how far I can calm down. I have, as they say, the anxiety. The election is three days away, and I am not sanguine about the outcome. As in, I fear it’s going to be ugly. Republic changing ugly. Trump is no Caesar, but he might be the end of the republic nonetheless. His followers are capable of anything.
This for example: Biden Team Cancels Texas Event After Highway ‘Ambush’ by MAGA Cavalry. Yes, the Biden campaign bus was ambushed and surrounded on its way to a campaign event. This isn’t “protest.” In any previous election year this would have pretty much been a campaign destroying scandal. Now, it’s the new normal. Trump is not exactly known for his efforts at reconciliation and compromise. What’s going to happen if he openly encourages armed revolt? What will his followers do? I hope we don’t find out.
The few Trump supporters I know think Trump’s going to easily win reelection, and the whole left wing media hoax that is Covid-19 will fall apart having failed to dislodge Trump, and things will get back to “normal.” And Trump’s second and third terms will be even better! The libtards will finally be put in their place! And America will be great again. I would call this a reality testing issue. On the left, we have the flip side to Covid-19 denial. Trump denial. Still a lot of leftists claiming Trump and Biden are equivalent, and support for either is selling out. Well, good for them, vote for your candidate of choice. They’re wrong though.
There’s a class of people in history whose gravitas or whatever one wants to call it sucks in huge numbers of, well, supporters? It’s more than that though. There are people who just are shining stars in their age, movers and shakers, people who had a vision and compelled others to follow. Washington. Joan of Arc. Lincoln. Mussolini. Ghenghis Khan. Jackson. Hitler. Julius Caesar. Churchill. Mao. Caesar Augustus. Many others, but still, once in a generation leaders. Trump is one of those, Biden isn’t. Trump and Biden are not the same.
If Trump was a Lincoln or even a Caesar Augustus, I’d be “Go Trump!” No, he’s a Jackson or Mussolini at best. Trump lives in a world where science is fake news. That disqualifies any leader, and makes messianic leaders like Trump even more dangerous. Biden may be a corrupt Washington insider, but he still lives in the real world. This election comes down to a vote between reality and fantasy. Or look at it this way. Our house is on fire. Trump says it’s too expensive to fight the fire, it’s no big deal. Biden says letting the house burn down is going to be a lot more expensive than fighting the fire. Seems like a no brainer decision to me.
Vote Biden. Or vote green or whatever, vote for your candidate. Don’t vote for Trump, his rejection of a science based response to Covid-19 has killed tens of thousands of Americans already. Hell, the man is trying to spread Covid-19, not fight it. Stanford study estimates that 18 crowded Trump rallies ultimately resulted in 30,000 coronavirus cases.
Image above is an artist’s impression of a view from the surface of Titan, a moon of Saturn. The only moon in the Solar System with a significant atmosphere. Clouds, rain, weather, lightning, rivers, lakes, seas. Must be freaking beautiful. Would require one hell of a space suit, hundreds of degrees below zero. A world turned to ice.
Stay safe everyone, enjoy the last weekend. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Artist’s impression of a view from Titan’s surface. Credit: unknown, used without permission, claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law.)
TERRORISM IN FRANCE, EXPLODING COVID-19, AND OTHER NEWS
Well, a few terrible terrorist attacks in France. Macron has deployed troops to defend public sites: Macron deploys 7K soldiers to protect against attacks. Under the circumstances he has to do something, and this seems like a good call to my limited understanding. These attacks are by a small number of disaffected extremists, that ISIS and other actors have figured out how to activate so to speak. (Egged on by Nazi extremists as well.) A job for crack police and intelligence assets to root out. Unfortunately, the root cause of this horror, the endless European wars and propping up of criminal regimes in the Middle East/North Africa, probably won’t get addressed. We’re not really an intelligent species.
America broke its record for daily new Covid-19 cases yesterday. Covid-19 Live Updates: The U.S. Hits the 9-Million Mark as Infections Keep Surging. It’s going into a second wave in Europe as well. The US is still the world’s Covid-19 basket case though, as Trump has stopped even trying to do anything about Covid-19. That’s what the election days from now is about. A guy who literally thinks he’s the greatest POTUS ever, and Covid-19 is no big deal exaggerated by his enemies. Versus a guy who acknowledges Covid-19 is real, and requires a rational science based response. Fantasy vs reality basically.
Will Biden live up to his promise and launch a Federal effort to crush Covid-19? Damned if I know. Democrats have been promising stuff for decades and instead just selling out to corporate America. Still I can’t imagine that corporate America sees any profit in letting Covid-19 kill hundreds of thousands of people.
We’ll see. Or not. My current thinking is that Trump will declare victory on election night, McConnell and the SCOTUS will fall all over themselves backing him, and all hell will break loose. Will the Dem elite just roll over like they did in 2000? Will people take to the streets like during the Occupy protests? Will there be an explosion of civil unrest? Damned if I know, but whatever happens, I’ll be sure to blog about it.
Still seeing people who think things are going to get back to “normal,” that Covid-19 is just a temporary aberration, it will go away, and we can all go back to pretending that everything is under control. I’m sorry to say that when reality changes, it never goes back to the way it was before. Welcome to Earth.
One last link. A nice article in Alternet talking about how America is well on its way to becoming a failed state. Donald Trump and the American descent toward failed-state status. Alternet is a sketchy source, but this jibed with my understanding. America is not a failed state yet, but we had serious problems before Covid-19, and it hasn’t brought out the best in us. The GOP’s winning (short term) strategy of “Anything the libtards suggest is a plot to take away your rights” has rendered large parts of the country essentially ungovernable. Hope I’m wrong.
First full moon Halloween since 1944. Weird synchronicities there. By October 1944, any German (or Japanese) of sound mind knew the war was lost, Hitler was not going to lead them to victory. Not debatable. By the same token, any American of sound mind knows that Trump’s leadership is no better than Hitler’s, and horrible defeat looms. Hope I’m wrong.
Five more days until the solid human waste matter intercepts the rotating turbine blades. (Election 2020.) Thank you Ralph Johnson. Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. Credit: Public domain. Another instance where fantasy strategy failed.)
TRUE HALLOWEEN HORROR
This is a true story. A story so gruesome and horrifying that it puts Hollywood to shame. I saw it on Forensic Files and was like, well, there’s my Halloween post for this year. Not for the faint of heart, but doubt many of my readers fall into that category. Still, didn’t want anyone to read what they couldn’t unread. Fair warning: Gruesome content ahead.
So, middle aged man wakes up one morning. Goes to the bathroom, shaves, usual morning routine. Goes downstairs, packs a lunch, loads the dishwasher, signs checks to pay off his son’s parking tickets. Goes outside to get the newspaper, locks himself outside, but is able to retrieve the hidden house key and let himself back in. Then, as the photograph above shows, fell down and died in his front hall.
OK, so what did he die of? Well, during the night a fire axe wielding maniac (more than likely his sociopathic son) attacked him and his wife while they slept. Cut them both up pretty badly. So when he woke up in the morning, the only parts of his brain left functioning were the ones than were running on habits. He simply didn’t register the bloodstained bed, his mutilated (but still alive) wife, or the head injuries he had sustained. He just started his normal daily routine like he did every day, while he slowly bled out and died from his injuries.
Grizzly enough? It gets worse. Yes, he shaved, brushed his teeth, and carried out his normal routine. With his lower jaw sliced off. Best not to even to imagine him shaving or brushing his teeth. The gentle reader was warned.
We really are creatures of habit. In this case Mr. Porco was essentially an animated corpse. Not unlike Miracle Mike, the headless chicken. I suppose if he had gotten medical attention, he might have “lived” longer, but who knows. No happy endings here. His wife lived, but disfigured, missing an eye. And convinced her son is innocent, even though he was convicted of the attack with good evidence.
And what a horror story for their friends and loved ones. It could have been worse I suppose. Mr. Porco could have been in the habit of sending selfies.
Have a great Halloween everyone.
(Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: The unfortunate Mr. Porco’s legs, deceased. Credit: Crime scene photo, public domain in some states from what I can tell. I got it from this site, copied without permission. RIP Mr. Porco, may your friends and family find peace and healing.)
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