All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
I just got home and checked the internet and it says Trump won his race. Well, I hope it’s true. I’m a little surprised that the networks have called it. Well, specifically FOX called it. But I see that Kamala hasn’t conceded yet so maybe they still have some cards to play.
Well, we’ll see. I have to get back to work early so I won’t have much time to post until later tomorrow. I think I’ll let this sink in. Another Trump term. That might be interesting.
More glorious to merit a sceptre than to possess one.
Napoleon Bonaparte
I was watching this video and it seems that even Democrat pundits are becoming alarmed by the early voting numbers.
So, this is nothing to bet the farm on but it will be hilarious if it pans out. I was thinking, What the hell would Kamala do if she lost? I mean who would ever employ a pathetic loser like her?
Maybe Hillary and Kamala could form some kind of consulting company. Their specialty could be losing to Donald Trump and laughing maniacally to deflect embarrassing questions.
And if they added Joe Biden to the firm they’d really have something to amazing.
Seriously, I’ve been ridiculously busy for the last couple of weeks so I don’t have a good feel for how the race is actually going. But regardless of whether Trump could actually produce the changes he says he wants to create, if he wins this election the screeching that will go on in cat lady land will be epic. It will eclipse the crap-fest that erupted in 2016.
I remember fondly the best-of videos with the likes of Rachel Maddow and Miley Cyrus howling and barking at the moon. It would certainly make for a marvelous early Christmas present if we could have a repeat in November.
It’s understood that Trump winning the election will not in any way guarantee our escape from Deep State. They’ve already demonstrated their ability to undermine even a wildly popular president. Chances are they’ll resort to something much more deadly than COVID. Probably some kind of combination of small pox and Ebola.
But even if we can’t win we can still enjoy the spectacle of the “ladies” on The View and the whole cast of MSNBC including Morning Schmoe and Lycra Spandexy inveighing against the Orange Man and vowing to resist with all the fervor of their black hearts.
So just to remind us, this could be a taste of things to come.
Had it not been for that fatal suspension of arms, in 1813, to which I was induced to consent by Austria, I should have succeeded. The victories of Lutzen and Wurtzen (Bautzen) had restored confidence in the French forces. The King of Saxony was triumphantly brought back to his capital; one of the corps of the French army was at the gates of Berlin, and the enemy had been driven from Hamburg. The Russian and Prussian armies were preparing to pass the Vistula, when the cabinet of Austria, acting with its characteristic perfidy, advised the suspension of hostilities, at a time when it had already entered into engagements with Russia and Prussia; the armistice was only a delusion to gain the time necessary to make preparations, it being intended to declare against France in May. The unexpected successes obliged it to act with more circumspection. It was necessary to gain more time, and negotiations went on at the congress of Prague. Metternich insisted that Austria should have the half of Italy, and made other exorbitant conditions, which were only demanded in order to be refused. As soon as she had got her army ready, Austria declared against France. After the victory of Dresden, I was superior, and had formed the project to deceive the enemy, by marching towards Magdeburgh, then to rcross the Elbe at Wittenberg, and march upon Berlin. Several divisions of the army were occupied in these manoeuvres, when a letter was brough to me from the King of Wirtemberg, announcing that the Bavarian army had joined the Austrians, and to the amount of eighty thousand men, were marching towards the Rhine, under the command of Wrede; that he, being compelled by the presence of that army, was obliged to join his contingent to it, and that Mentz would soon be invested by a hundred thousand men.
Napoleon Bonaparte
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” That Dickens had a way with words. He could turn a phrase that people are still using a century and a half later. And the characters he created; Ebenezer Scrooge, Fagin, Mr. Micawber, The Ghost of Christmas Present, Uriah Heep, Wackford Squeers, Jacob Marley and all the rest. Some fully fleshed out and some mere pencil sketches but all highly evocative of the world that Dickens created from his London and the world view he imagined within it.
I could really use his gifts right now. I have about three days of awfulness ahead of me and really nothing to write about. Or rather my brains are too scrambled to produce a coherent essay from the experiences I’m immersed in. And there are all kinds of characters. Some would make fine character sketches, with their stereotypical behavior and odd tics.
Today I briefly met people of all stripes. Young and old; rich and poor; Left and Right; apparently normal and obviously insane. Like a kaleidoscope, they flashed by with just enough time to reveal some small facet of their personalities. And consistently, the most interesting people are in the middle. They’re not the weirdest or the best dressed. But they’re always the easiest to talk to. They’re the most American. And they’re the easiest to deal with. The elites are always disconcerted when they have to deal with other people one on one. It’s all such a bore. They just want to pay someone else, “to take care of all that.” And the opposite pole; the broken people are all over the field. They’re angry or crazy or just too confused to be understood. You can pity them and wish they could be helped but at this point we can barely help our own.
Probably the most pleasant moment was when a young woman with two children came in. A boy and a girl, respectively six and five years old. The kids were engaged in a low-level battle that you could tell must have been their continuous state. The mom just grabbed each of them with one of her arms and carried them along like two bundles of firewood as they still tried to reach each other to battle. I said to her, “Those are both good ages.” And she laughed but nodded her head and said, “Yeah they make my day fun.”
A little while later a very well-dressed man came in pushing some kind of very expensive looking wagon that contained two little boys. They were somewhere in the age range of four to six years old. The two boys spent every minute throwing things out of the wagon onto the ground. And the father dutifully retrieved this jetsam almost continuously. Finally in utter exasperation he started yelling and threatening to withhold their toys. But they ignored his threats and continued to toss these items overboard. And completely defeated he handed back the ejected items with an expression of utter resignation.
And then there was the freak show. Blue hair, large metal rings drooping down from the nose and various other facial piercings. There was a lot of weird squawking and involuntary noises along with strangely discordant singing. There were parents with grown children who seemed to just accept whatever weirdness escaped from their progeny. And then there were even cases of multi-generational weirdness.
When you look at a cross-section of our society it’s easy to see that things have changed for the worse. But it’s also clear who will survive and who isn’t going to make it. What Dickens could have done with this crew.
The true conquests, the only ones that cause no regret, are those made over ignorance.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will be a marathon for your truly so I might as well say a few words about whatever I think of to talk about now. This balmy weather has been amazing. And whenever I get a few minutes outside it puts a smile on my face. Today I walked past the garden with the red raspberries and what do you think? There were a ton of them ripened on the plants. I tried to carry them in my hands but they kept dropping so I filled up my hat. I got a pint or so and I’m sure Camera Girl will wash them and serve them as dessert tonight.
I decided to try a couple of focus bracketing shots with the A7 IV’s new firmware upgrade. I’ll be processing the results later on today. I put together a phony indoor version of the autumn ground cover, complete with pine needles and cones, acorns and a bunch of leaves and dead flowers. Very evocative. Then I took a dead Luna moth from last summer and threw it on top. I hoping it produces a nice effect. But more importantly I want to see how the stacking program handles the files I made.
If I use a small number of files (30 – 50) the program can crunch through the image processing in a short time. But I think one of them was 150 files. I know it will take a long time but I’m not sure it won’t have the AI equivalent of a nervous breakdown. I’m looking forward to the results.
Speaking of technology issues, a couple of weeks ago my generic MP3 player gave up the ghost. Since then, I ‘ve only been able to listen to the music from my collection in the car. I bought a new and improved device a week or two ago but being a broken-down engineer from the 20th century every time I have to interface with equipment it has mutated again into an unrecognizable form. I’m sure this new device will not work with my earphones or carrying device of something else. It’s funny how quickly I became a Luddite.
I was talking to an old friend today and he asked me about my plans for the election. He’s going to be on a zoom call during the results period. I told him I’ll be incommunicado until probably 12:30 am. He gave me his condolences for this situation but I told him I’m glad I won’t be covering the vigil. On reflection, he agreed saying it will probably be a week-long marathon involving lawyers and rioting and other absurdities. Best not to get too caught up in the ballyhoo. After all, if Trump wins, they’ll do everything the can to stop his agenda. And if he loses, I’ll have bigger fish to fry.
Well, here’s my post for Sunday. If I can get three more in the can I can try and cover the interregnum and spare Orion’s Cold Fire from the ignominy of dead air. But in the words of Bob Wiley and Dr Leo Marvin, “Baby steps, baby steps.”