it is Sunday night, January 17, 2021. For some reason, I keep thinking today or yesterday is somebody’s birthday that I should remember, but I can’t.

Just one of those things I guess.

The Chiefs won their divisional playoff matchup today against the Cleveland Browns. It was a bit touch and go at the end, with Patrick Mahomes going out of the game with a blow to the head, but early report out of the locker room have him as OK. It was a bit scary, though.

I’m writing this on my desktop computer. I picked up a cool looking retro keyboard with the old style typewriter keys on it. It’s OK, but I wonder sometimes if this is the best fit for me. Somewhere out there is the right keyboard for my keyboarding style, and I am rather quickly coming to the conclusion that this one ain’t it.

This next week is a prep week, and I have plenty to keep me busy. (Note to self: pay close attention to the typos with this keyboard – when “prep” morphs into “preop”, it’s not a pretty sight).

Tomorrow will be a good work day. It’s nice to have a little time to organize my head, and the following week I get to coteach along with another instructor, and the advantage there is that he is the course lead on the new class, so I should be able to harvest quite a bity of information about how I want to teach the class in the future.

Time to scoot off to bed.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It’s Saturday, the 16th day of January, and I’m currently watching a little playoff football, the Bills looking to knock off the Baltimore Ravens. If the Chiefs win tomorrow versus the Browns, then the Bills would travel to a quiet Arrowhead stadium to play for the AFC Championship and a chance to go to the Superbowl.

(OK, just had something funny happen. Superbowl flagged the spellcheck and wanted to change the phrase to “Superb Owl”. I just thought that was funny.)

My wife has been having some trouble sleeping. I hope she can get a good night’s sleep.

I have spent the day thinking and organizing, pondering the flow of a class I’ve got coming up in another week. I’ve reached out to the other instructor to coordinate. We’ll get things organized, and then I’ll feel a little better.

Chiefs host the Browns tomorrow at 3:30 in the afternoon. We’re going to record it and watch it a little later. Dane has a game in town with his friends, and I have a game online with the crew I’ve been gaming with. We’ll get organized and get together after our sessions are done, and both the boy and I will have to go on a media blackout while we’re in our gaming sessions.

Puppies are getting so big. I ought to upload a picture. I’ll get that figured out.

I think I have a book on WordPress around here somewhere. I’ll add that to my light reading list.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It’s been a week. Friday night, and Lisa Dane, and I watched a fun family comedy, “The War with Grandpa”, featuring Robert DeNiro, Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Christopher Walken, and Cheech Marin. It was a lot of fun. The rental lasts until Sunday. so I’ve let the girls know that the rental is in the queue if they want to see it.

The basketball game tomorrow has been postponed, COVID-19 protocols, as apparently there have been some positive tests with the Iowa State team. I’ll spend some time tomorrow being productive, get some reading done, and likely get the new pen set up for the puppies. Bubbles and Blossom, Freya’s little girls, are growing up quite fast. They’ll be three weeks on Sunday. Caught Blossom trying to crawl out of the box earlier today. I have a feeling she’s going to be a little handful.

I need to spend some time reading this weekend. I’m close to finishing my first book of the year, and need to get another two or three in to stick with my intended pace. A few hours on the cans will get me through the audiobook I’m listening to currently, one of the Craig Alanson “Expeditionary Force” books. I have enjoyed that series.

I have some other personal improvement titles I should wade into. Niec thig about those books is that they can be pretty quick reads, making it easier to stay on track with my reading goals. Get them in an epub format, then pop them into my speed reading app – next thing you know, you get flipping through at 650 words per minute and you can get through a decent length book in a couple of hours.

That’s about all I have for now.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It’s Thursday night, and we’re within a week of the new administration taking over, along with a new House session, and a new Senate as well. The first hundred days of the Biden/Harris will likely be one of the most closely watched in history, as every conspiracy theorist in the country will be looking for some odd thing in Joe’s speech or Kamala’s facial expressions as a sign that the entire country has been told out to a foreign interest for 30 pieces of silver and a 6-pack.

The single best thing Trump could do for the country, he won’t do. If he were to come out and just recognize the legtimacy of the Biden Harris election, and recognize that there was no massive conspiracy and voter fraud. This was the most closely watched election in US history, and it was quickly audited and certified in every state. But for this country to heal, Trump would have to do something he’s not very good at… he’s have to tell the truth. He’s rather burn down the entire country than admit that he was a liar and a fraud, despite all of the evidence in front of him.

Class is over for the week, and now I need to prepare for a more advanced class coming up in the next couple of weeks. I have some prep to do, but I’ll be good. I’ll be working with one of the better instructors on the course.

I’ll be alright.

In the meantime, I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday, January 13, 2021. This is one week after the Capitol of the United States of America was overrun by a mob, leading to at least 5 deaths directly, once Capitol police officer, and five others. There have been a couple of suicides since the event. On this day, the US House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump for a second time.

A few years ago I bet a couple of guys that Trump wouldn’t make it through his first term, he would either quit, get impeached, or be found to be unfit for office.

Next Wednesday, barring Trump’s resignation, I’ll have lost those bets. Trump might get impeached twice. He might tell one of the biggest lies in US history (See “The Big Lie” from yesterday), but I’ll have to take care of a small political bet I made.

I will have been wrong.

I doubt Trump will cut and run between now and then. He’ll be too busy getting writer’s cramp from signing pardons. The last pardon he writes will likely to be to somebody that can safely secret him and some family members to a safe location, free of the burden of extradition treaties.

But, I’ll have lost a bet. I’m usually better at making bets, as I do hate to lose them. I should’ve bet that Trump would be the first president in US history to get impeached twice.

Kind of crazy that double impeachment would’ve been the safer bet.

Back to the classroom tomorrow. Two modules to cover and a closing.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday night, KU lost to Oklahoma State in men’s basketball, and I’m sitting here watching an episode of “The Great British Baking Show” and trying to figure out my own brain.

Earlier today I came across a tweet from a gentleman named Timothy Snyder. He wrote a series of ten tweets, and I’m going to copy and paste them into my blog, but I do want to give him complete credit for his authorship. I’m not earning any income from my blog, so I promise to pay him 15% of all I earn from this post.

The first of these tweets can be found here.

Timothy Snyder@TimothyDSnyderLevin Professor of History at Yale. Author of “Our Malady,” “The Road to Unfreedom,” “On Tyranny,” “Black Earth,” “Bloodlands,” and “Reconstruction of Nations”

1/10. The claim that Trump won the election is a Big Lie.

2/10. A Big Lie changes reality. To believe it, people must disbelieve their senses, distrust their fellow citizens, and live in a world of faith.

3/10. A Big Lie demands conspiracy thinking, since all who doubt it are seen as traitors.

4/10. A Big Lie undoes a society, since it divides citizens into believers and unbelievers.

5/10. A Big Lie destroys democracy, since people who are convinced that nothing is true but the utterances of their leader ignore voting and its results.

6/10. A Big Lie must bring violence, as it has.

7/10. A Big Lie can never be told just by one person. Trump is the originator of this Big Lie, but it could never have flourished without his allies on Capitol Hill.

8/10. Political futures now depend on this Big Lie. Senators Hawley and Cruz are running for president on the basis of this Big Lie.

9/10. There is a cure for the Big Lie. Our elected representatives should tell the truth, without dissimulation, about the results of the 2020 election.

10/10. Politicians who do not tell the simple truth perpetuate the Big Lie, further an alternative reality, support conspiracy theories, weaken democracy, and foment violence far worse than that of January 6, 2021.

___________________________________________________________________________

And there you have it. Thoughts on the subject of the Big Lie from a distinguished history professor from Yale.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

I’m 57 years old. The whole point of my nubering system on my posts is for me to keep track of the number of days I have lived, and the number of days I might have ahead of me. The average human being will live about 30,000 days. With that in mind, two-thirds of my time is up.

The next ten years should be the most productive of my life, intellectually… whatever that means. I will try to be a notch or two above mediocre.

Right now folks in America, and other parts of the world, feel left out. They don’t feel like they are a part of the decision making processes that affect their daily lives. They’re frustrated that the folks that pick and choose where tax dollars and debt dollars are spent are affected less by need and more by who the politician’s major sponsors are.

I get it. Money runs the game. We elect new people that will tell on day -1 that they’ll do everything they can to implement campaign finance reform, and on day +1, they get their first fundraising check from a lobbyist, and then the whole horizon changes, the flowers blossom, the sun comes out, and the dog stops humping your leg.

At the heart of all of this is money. The wealthiest hire the semi-wealthy charismatic orators to charm the affluent into believing that the poor are coming after their breadcrumbs.

Our society has had moments that make it look pretty great. There are other times where it becomes so very, very apparent that we have a lot of room for improvement.

In the end, all we can really hope for is that we elect people that make their decisions more based on wisdom and less based on greed.

Time for me to call it.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all

Sunday, January 10, 2021. It’s a little after ten at night, and I’m watching the Pittsburg Steelers perform a comedy of errors versus the Cleveland Browns in a playoff game with implications that affect the Kansas City Chiefs – Browns win, they go to Arrowhead to face the Chiefs next week.

I probably made a mistake earlier today. I rejoined a FB forum that I abandoned almost two years ago. I thought the forum had some posters that exhibited some pretty blatant racist tendencies, and with a new gig on the horizon, I thought it best to disassociate myself from that group.

But… here’s the thing. I made a couple of bets with guys on that forum. I had bet that Trump would not complete his term. And here we are, ten days left in the Trump administration, and I may have a couple of bets to pay off. I’m going to pay my bets if I lose. I made a bet, and I’ll stand by it.

One of the guys I bet with likely won’t be getting his winnings… he’s now in prison for assault of a teenage kid in North Carolina.

After I pay off my debt (if necessary), I’ll quit this forum, but if Trump gets impeached and booted, I might have to read the posts as they appear. I read some and responded to some of the inanities – lots of folks having no concept where privately owned businesses begin and freedom of speech ends.

Part of me wants to mock their ignorance, but I have tried to stay focused on informing them about the difference between social, economic, and political ideologies. Might have caused a stroke when I explained that someone can be liberal socially and a capitalist economically.

Back in the classroom tomorrow morning, Azure Administration.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It’s Saturday morning, January 9, 2021.

In the last 24 hours, Trump has been banned from multiple social media platforms, and one of the primary platforms for the Trump revolution has had their app pulled from the Google Play store and the Apple store.

I’ve got an opinion on that.

Bartenders are held to account when they pour that extra drink or four then let someone they suspect to be intoxicated out the door to drive home.

The same thing goes for social media services that don’t stop messages designed to incite violence and loss of life. Don’t feed me some line about freedom of speech or suppression. You can go downtown, stand on a chair and spout the most vile crap on the planet. Nobody is going to sue the megaphone manufacturer.

Twitter, Google, Instagram… they all have stockholders that don’t want to see their earnings drop when they get sued for fomenting discontent. It’s responsible, and it’s capitalism. Just like you don’t yell “Fire” in a crowded theater, or “Voter Fraud” without a shred of evidence (that will stand up to scrutiny in court), don’t post lies and present it as the truth.

Meanwhile in the real world, I’m feeling like I’m standing on fairly solid ground. I’ve got my fair share of issues, etc., but my life is good. No pending arrests for insurgency, no accusations of being a traitor by right wing nut jobs. More than a couple of folks out there are coming to their senses as they realize how freaking insane this week has been and how gullible they have been. Many, though, not so much.

But this paper cut on my knuckle, though…

Trump’s getting a second impeachment starting Monday.

So much winning.

Make America Great Again? Trump and his cult have turned this country into an international laughingstock.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

OK, looks like the issue with my WordPress database has been resolved by the elves working in the background. I tried to get in to write a post last night, but couldn’t.

It’s has been a crazy couple of days. This stuff is historic, boys and girls, and there are going to be lots of folks clutching their pearls and suffering from an attack of the vapors (Yes, I’m talking about you, Ladybugs).

Following the storming of the Capitol by Trump’s MAGA Army, there have been five deaths, including the death of a Capitol police officer, 42-year-old Brian Sicknick, who was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher. He was a military veteran.

Another veteran that died was Ashli Babbitt, a 14 year Air Force veteran and Trump supporter who died after breaking into the Capitol. She was shot in the neck and died of her injuries.

I don’t know about the other three victims.

There has been talk about invoking the 25th Amendment, which would leave it up to the Cabinet and the Vice President to declare whether Trump is fit to continue in his role. In light of that, multiple members of the administration have resigned, including two cabinet members. I can speculate as to the reasons why they are bowing out at this point in time – maybe they want to get out quick, maybe they don’t want to be in the room when a 25th Amendment vote is taken. Who knows? All I know is that there are a lot of comparisons that can be drawn to rats and sinking ships.

I posted a brief note on the passing of the Officer Sicknick, and it was shortly after that a right-leaning high school classmate and middle school bully posted a response blaming Antifa for the death of the officer. I deleted his post shortly after. My tolerance for fictional bullshit is an empty vessel. I do not support the assault and murder of police officers, just like I don’t support the assault and murder of innocent folks at the hands of law enforcement.

Part of my mind is just focused on going from moment to moment, like Dory from “Finding Nemo” – keep on swimming, keep on swimming.

This whole mess has got me a bit edgy, and rightfully so. All of this could’ve been avoided if Congress had done their damned job a year ago when Trump was impeached. Now, papers are being drawn up to impeach Trump a second time. This is nuts.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep on keepin’ on.

I hope the world treats you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.