Morning sky with contrails, shot from the porch of the cottage in Michigan I'm in, the first vacation without L (who's home w cat who needs daily doctoring - her turn) in 39 years, where I've discovered the most vicious animals I've ever encountered are 5'2" Karens angrily driving Ford Explorers bigger than battle tanks, some already festooned with Proud to Be Garbage-American bumperstickers, laugh
I don't know what I expected the vibe to be here in the second most important swing state this election, but there's much less signage than I expected, far fewer bumperstickers, 5'2" Karens proud to be Garbage-Americans in their $80K Ford Tanks notwithstanding, far fewer tshirts and sweatshirts with Fuck You messaging. What Trump signs and Harris signs there are are roughly 50/50 in Washtenaw County (where the cottage I'm in is, county seat Ann Arbor), 70/30 in Jackson County just west of Washtenaw (where my daughter and son-in-law live, both of whom tell me most Harris voters see no good result out of posting signs in their yard). Seen three American flags in which the right half is Trump's Fight Fight Fight image and one Harris effigy hanging from a tree in a front yard (no photographic proof, pulling the car over and taking a photo I deemed unwise) all in Jackson County. If I'm lucky enough to get stuck behind a Ford Tank with a Proud to be Garbage-American bumpersticker driven by a 5'2" Karen at a stop light I *will* take that photo. One local I golfed with yesterday at Ella Sharp said, I just can't wait for it to be over. I said, it won't be over until the Supreme Court gifts the victory to Trump. I know, he said. Yesterday was Bob Pollard's 66th birthday, this is my favorite Guided By Voices song
These are our choices: What did we do to deserve this?
"Obama: if you’re incandescent with righteous anger about Joe and Kamala eagerly sponsoring a live-streamed genocide - which I also would have supported - you should vote for Kamala to continue it because Trump did a bad thing on a separate issue"
☝
"This man bombed seven different Muslim-majority countries"
"No, it won't be "easier" to protest a genocide under Kamala Harris. She and Biden control the WH right now and have called anti-genocide protesters "un-American" and "violent antisemites" as police in Blue cities and Blue states violently and illegally arrest and beat protesters"
"I'm confused why the Harris campaign thinks it's a good ideato send Bill Clinton to Michigan days before the election to lecture Arab and Muslim voters on the ancient Jewish claim to "Judea and Samaria"
"Capitalism (from its inception until now) requires forced labor, which has historically come in two forms: chattel slaves and wage workers. The former were/are literally captured and held in bondage, and the latter are created by restricting the masses from living off the land"
"The gap between the views of imperialism held by the Western left and those of revolutionary movements in the Global South is wider than at any time in the last century"
1/speaking of bill clinton - back in the 20th century - when i was a much younger person, when my experience was even more "limited and underfed", in the poet's phrase - it was my opinion that when it was shown he had lied under oath about his interactions with monica lewinsky, bill should have resigned in disgrace - al gore would have become president, and the subsequent history of the world would have been different - who knows if it would have been more good or more bad?
2/meanwhile, this is the future - we got to live it or live with it, for the rest of our earthly journey - according to my belief system, matter and energy will continue to obey the laws of physics and chemistry, living things will manifest the Universal Will to Become, people will act in accordance with their ideas and their emotions, revealing both divine and demonic tendencies
3/those are nice photos, stated to be from michigan, by the way - whose woods those are i don't think i know
3.2/some societies think the land belongs to individual people, some think the land belongs to groups of people, some societies even think that the people belong to the land
3.3/and speaking of expanses of land with little or no obvious evidence of human activity, since dropping my Verizon FIOS tv channels i have slowly been exploring the options which Samsung TV+ makes available to me without charge - yesterday i found channel 4550 "Fall Vibes - Autumn Escape Leaves"
4/one never knows when something surprising might happen - but i concur with you and the michigander you conversed with - the most probable outcome of this impending election is the supreme court handing it to trump - i remind myself again that the road to serenity runs through desert of "what must be, must be"
Re: Cat cognition vs human speech: Cat in our home does the rounds, getting cuddles from three sources all day (I try to make sure I give a certain kind of cuddle different from Wife's or Daughter's, the former preferring to hold Cat like a babe in bipedal Mom's arms; Daughter prefers the joshing, wrasslin', head-rubbing and belly-rubbing interaction and I give Cat detailed humanoid back-rubs, focusing on the trancey qualities of repetition.
Therefore Cat knows what each human offers and can seek out the preferred experience. The touchy-feely thing, meanwhile, seems to support language learning and Cat definitely understands "Name + no-no-no" (on a calmly rising melody) and will actually NOT chew cables (retract head, close maw) when he hears this message. And he will (30% of the time) come when called.
My big project is to teach him the meaning of the sound cluster "I am washing the dishes" (I try to enunciate this identically every time) because he otherwise thinks that a Human bellying up to the sink ALWAYS means he's either about to get food that is intentionally given or about to enjoy the opportunity to scavenge stuff that hits the floor (or C: the combo). Lately I THINK I've noticed that when I say "I am washing the dishes," Cat redirects down the hall at a casual trot... but it may be coincidence.
Cat is very funny and sometimes I have to lock him out of my office, if ALL the machines are on (if he steps on ONE power bar switch it could really hurt some data), so he will hide around the corner and wait 30 or 40 minutes until I open the door to go pee, at which moment he charges the door doing an elongated kind of "meow" that sounds (emotionally) like BANZAI!!!!
1/speaking of bill clinton - back in the 20th century - when i was a much younger person, when my experience was even more "limited and underfed", in the poet's phrase - it was my opinion that when it was shown he had lied under oath about his interactions with monica lewinsky, bill should have resigned in disgrace - al gore would have become president, and the subsequent history of the world would have been different - who knows if it would have been more good or more bad?
ReplyDelete2/meanwhile, this is the future - we got to live it or live with it, for the rest of our earthly journey - according to my belief system, matter and energy will continue to obey the laws of physics and chemistry, living things will manifest the Universal Will to Become, people will act in accordance with their ideas and their emotions, revealing both divine and demonic tendencies
3/those are nice photos, stated to be from michigan, by the way - whose woods those are i don't think i know
3.2/some societies think the land belongs to individual people, some think the land belongs to groups of people, some societies even think that the people belong to the land
3.3/and speaking of expanses of land with little or no obvious evidence of human activity, since dropping my Verizon FIOS tv channels i have slowly been exploring the options which Samsung TV+ makes available to me without charge - yesterday i found channel 4550 "Fall Vibes - Autumn Escape Leaves"
4/one never knows when something surprising might happen - but i concur with you and the michigander you conversed with - the most probable outcome of this impending election is the supreme court handing it to trump - i remind myself again that the road to serenity runs through desert of "what must be, must be"
Re: Cat cognition vs human speech: Cat in our home does the rounds, getting cuddles from three sources all day (I try to make sure I give a certain kind of cuddle different from Wife's or Daughter's, the former preferring to hold Cat like a babe in bipedal Mom's arms; Daughter prefers the joshing, wrasslin', head-rubbing and belly-rubbing interaction and I give Cat detailed humanoid back-rubs, focusing on the trancey qualities of repetition.
ReplyDeleteTherefore Cat knows what each human offers and can seek out the preferred experience. The touchy-feely thing, meanwhile, seems to support language learning and Cat definitely understands "Name + no-no-no" (on a calmly rising melody) and will actually NOT chew cables (retract head, close maw) when he hears this message. And he will (30% of the time) come when called.
My big project is to teach him the meaning of the sound cluster "I am washing the dishes" (I try to enunciate this identically every time) because he otherwise thinks that a Human bellying up to the sink ALWAYS means he's either about to get food that is intentionally given or about to enjoy the opportunity to scavenge stuff that hits the floor (or C: the combo). Lately I THINK I've noticed that when I say "I am washing the dishes," Cat redirects down the hall at a casual trot... but it may be coincidence.
Cat is very funny and sometimes I have to lock him out of my office, if ALL the machines are on (if he steps on ONE power bar switch it could really hurt some data), so he will hide around the corner and wait 30 or 40 minutes until I open the door to go pee, at which moment he charges the door doing an elongated kind of "meow" that sounds (emotionally) like BANZAI!!!!