Ponderings and Musings

When America should have chosen to advance, it instead chose to trample.

Do your best to not get trampled.

And to reiterate: no, we can not still be friends.

With the Trump Regime looming on the horizon, it’s time to get your digital habits locked down as much as practical. We all know how quickly corporations will bow to government requests. Don’t rely on the big corporations to do the right thing when it comes to your digital rights.

Step away from using WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger as your primary means of communication. Zuck and friends will be deep into the pockets of the Trump Regime, and nothing you do on any Meta owned property is private. NOTHING. I encourage folks to get familiar with Signal Messenger.

Microsoft Windows is probably the least secure of your desktop/laptop OS options. MacOS is more secure, and Apple’s marketing machine really focuses on the security of Apple’s products, but there are gaps, and again, you’re handing over control to a large corporation. For those not technically minded, I recommend getting off Windows and onto a Mac if you can. Luckily, you no longer have to sell a complete kidney to get a Mac, the MacBook Air is quite affordable and capable for 92% of what most folks need. Of course, if you want to go full blown geek there’s Linux. When it comes to Chromebooks and the like, that’s up to you, but you’re relying on Google for everything and Google is scanning your data for ad revenue opportunities. So, it’s not really that private.

And lastly (for now), make sure you’re giving location permissions only to applications that actually need it. Solitaire on your phone does not need your location. Mail does not need your location. Your book reader does not need your location. While you might not worry about sharing your location with these apps, if you’re attending a protest or something and it makes the Trump Regime cranky, which it probably will, you don’t need your coupon clipper application tattling on you. And if you’re using the dating apps, be extremely careful; bad actors have and will continue to use those apps for bad purposes, especially since the American people consider cheap gas more important than those that aren’t 100% heterosexual (wink, wink) and trying to perpetuate the “American dream” from the 1950s.

Picket fence optional.

I hear Kamala’s concession speech was remarkable. I couldn’t watch it. I probably will someday.

I have distanced myself from MAGA family and friends and will continue to do so. I will not be part of their warped view. They will realize they have made a mistake in about six months. I give it six months, tops. In the meanwhile, I avoid them, if I work with them I just remain professional, and if I’m in public I give them a glare that was described by a USAir ticket agent as “a menacing gaze”. I will not be intimidated.

I honestly don’t know what the future brings other than it will be bleak. The 21st century has been awful since SCOTUS called the 2000 election for “W” and it’s all gone down hill from there.

Use your smarts, avoid the riff raff, and don’t give up hope. The pendulum always swings the other way.

I drove up and enjoyed Mount Lemmon for a while this evening. After seeing the number of family and friends gleefully saying things like “I voted Red!” and the like on social media, I decided that I needed to get as far away from people as possible. I sure as heck don’t want to be following election coverage. It’s too depressing.

I’m not going to try to be sweet and hopeful if Trump wins this election, saying “it’s only four years”, “we can turn it around”, “yada yada yada”. I learned my lesson 2016 to 2020. 2020 gave me false hope in America moving forward. It never will. America is a racist, selfish country and hopefully I’ll die before we make the planet uninhabitable. I just feel bad for the non-humans on this planet. They just want to live their life in peace, but the American cancer sucking up this world is very powerful. Humans are horrible.

If I didn’t have to work tomorrow I’d probably go up a mountain and stay up there a few days.

Keep Kamala and Carry Onala.

We sometimes make a ruckus.

My heart is aching. Friends I have known all my life, family I share DNA with… too many of them are showing their true colors and complete lack of moral foundation with their declarations of whom they are voting for.

It’s the racist, sexist, rapist, convicted felon they’re choosing, in case you’re not following along.

Now don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of good people and I’m related to plenty of good people as well. And this isn’t just about not voting for Harris. It’s about voting for a man that is the embodiment of everything we’ve been taught is wrong, and thinking some sort of God shot him down here to set the world right.

Pardon my French, but I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with these people.

Kamala Harris is far from perfect. But honestly, she’s better than Joe and I think she would make a very good president. Great? Possibly. Outstanding? No. But the never-ending shitshow of a Trump term of revenge is beyond dangerous. It’s fucking abominable.

I keep thinking this week before the U.S. election is probably going to be the sanest week for a long while. Things are going to go completely off the rails on Election Day. Mark my words. The Nazi rally in New York this past weekend? It was just the appetizer.

And I know too many people that are on board with that racist idiocy.

We need a meteor.

Sometimes a referee has to doo what he’s got to doo.

I just posted my latest hiking video. There’s a story behind this video that I’ll only tell right here in this blog entry.

Last week was a tough week for me. It was tough in the mental fortitude department. The election is really weighing on my mind, even though I’m doing everything I can to avoid the subject. Living in this fine swing state of Arizona, every single commercial on every television in every establishment is blaring out ads for every politician that thinks they know everything.

I just want this election to be over. Obviously, I don’t want the country racing into the oblivion of another Trump term in office. My early ballot has been submitted. I colored in the necessary dots, and I heartily voted “No” to retain every judge that appeared on the ballot. Every governmental office, from the top to the bottom and the left to the right, should have term limits. Every single one of them. The idea that judges can be parked in their role for nearly a century is appalling. The fact that we can rinse and repeat ancient senators and house representatives is reprehensible. This country’s political mess desperately needs a CTRL-ALT-DEL.

I’m going on a tangent.

I’ve been feeling down. I wasn’t sure I was going to do my hike this weekend but I got up out of bed and made my way to the beautiful Santa Catalina Mountains. I decided to focus on the hike instead of the presentation, and brought only my iPhone 16 Pro and selfie stick/tripod combo.

I’m happy with the way my video came out. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did sharing it. Because this creative endeavor significantly boosted my spirits this weekend.

And we can all use a boost.

Be sure to take note of the woodpecker, the gila monster, and the abert’s squirrel that all make an appearance in this week’s episode.