Please Indulge Me

I sometimes wonder what my father would have made of our politics today. I'd always assumed he was a conservative but the only evidence I have of that was his subscription to the Wall Street Journal and his career in finance, neither of which is strong evidence. He seemed more of a cynic than anything about all things political. Perhaps he became disillusioned after Nixon resigned in disgrace. I have a lasting memory of him calling me out for having Nixon's memoirs in a collection of books I brought home with me after my enlistment in the navy: "Why do you have that?" he inquired of me.

The last year of his life involved being tethered to his supplemental oxygen while resting in his easy chair, intently watching the O.J. Simpson trial for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend. 

I'm quite sure he would never have joined Trump's cult of followers. He would have seen his lack of morals and lack of honesty for what they were: a con—the biggest con in our country's history.

But it's not just Trump's con—it's also conservative media's con as well, maybe every bit as much. The video below was released yesterday and shows damning testimony of one of Trump's lawyers testifying about John Eastman (a central figure in drafting up plans for the disgraced president to usurp our democracy from the will of the voters) and a conversation he had with him the day after the January 6th insurrection. 

I actually recorded Fox and Friends this morning to see what they had to say about it. As I expected, not a word. But Fox and Friends did do an entire segment this morning about Hunter Biden's laptop and how he was gifted with lucrative positions based on his name. I agree that that's wrong. How many millions did this involve? I've heard estimates of as much as $5,000,000. That's a lot of money but it's a small sum when compared to Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner who received $2,000,000,000 from the Saudis for his nascent hedge fund, something he has zero experience with managing and something FOX News has yet to mention to their viewers. $5,000,000 vs $2,000,000,000. Makes you wonder, no?

I recall in school learning about propaganda and thinking how it could never be a problem for a country such as ours; that we would be too smart to allow such disinformation to ever take root. I was wrong.

And so it goes. The first night of hearings for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol drew a larger than expected audience but not from FOX viewers because FOX chose not to air it, preferring instead to air (commercial-free out of fear of losing any viewers to the January 6th hearings during a break) their usual programming. 

That's what propaganda looks like.

I can hear it now from the few conservative friends who remain among my circle and may be reading this: but what about the Russia hoax!? 

I'm glad you asked. 

You don't get to dangle pardons for those who would testify against you while obstructing justice numerous times, all the while refusing to testify in an investigation that would clear you of wrongdoing if in fact you were an innocent man. It wasn't a hoax.

Okay, I've said what I needed to say. Thanks for indulging me.

Tammy and I (and Charlie) made an impromptu trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula last week. It was a short but a nice getaway. We drove by the old farmhouse where my mother spent part of her youth and that my parents purchased along with its 200 acres in the late '60s. We would spend at least a couple weeks each summer there making memories and visiting with so many of our relatives who used to also vacation in the U.P. The farmhouse was a gathering place for all. It's disappointing to see how rundown it's become in recent years. How I remember it and how it is today.

I've had a couple of friends recently mention the Merlin Bird ID app for easily identifying the different calls of birds I hear around me. It's especially nice to use when I'm sitting out on our deck. While it's in 'record' mode, it will populate the screen with the various types of birds it's picking up. The birds highlighted in yellow are birds that are currently singing. It's quite cool! Over the years, I've learned the sounds of just a few birds by observing them while I'm working out in our yard. This is fun and makes much quicker work of learning the calls of various birds and what they look like. 

The video below is from last week on a preferred route of mine when there's a west wind. I'm working on trying to add some other-than-normal scenes to my videos (have a look). I'll make a big leap forward in this area once I finally purchase a drone but I feel I'm still at least a year away from a small drone that does what I'll need it to do in the way of following me. 

"Good things in life take a long time" has always been a favorite motto of mine.

Extra credit viewing

That's all I've got.