After Charlottesville, Ready To Convert From Gaslights

Over the weekend, we in the United States were treated to one heck of a gaslighting show. After a bunch of 20-something, tiki torch bearing white guys lit up the night on Friday in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the next day, a group with a permit protesting the removal of a statue of a Confederate general (or something regarding the Civil War and the South) got attacked by an opposing group, and some nut backed his car into a crowd....

The mainstream media went nuts basically linking American nationalists, white and otherwise, with white supremacists, as they claimed the original protesting party was. The problem with this narrative - and the "obvious conclusion" that supporters of the current president's agenda are racist for supporting a group's right to peacefully assemble even if they are white supremacists and fellow nationalists to boot - is that it just isn't true. It's lying on a broad level, both to malign those who believe in nationalist principles, and to confuse those who have been convinced they shouldn't. This, in effect, is gaslighting, a concept demonstrated in the stage play and then the 1944 film by the same title, "Gaslight". It is essentially the basis for psy-ops and large scale disinformation to effect change.

Overall, the gaslighting effort over the weekend was less than successful. On the forum boards, many citizens of the United States who pay attention recognized a paid for riot rather than an actual spontaneous protest. Evidence of this reality was dug up by citizen journalists, those who are considered to be "not reliable sources" for their lack of credentials. None the less, the wool wasn't so much pulled over eyes, as it was combed and spun into something useful: narrative busting videos and articles by said citizen journalists which were then published on the most equalizing communications medium ever invented (the internet).

Too bad, so sad legacy media.

It's a reality that the forces trying to rip the United States apart are now fighting. The gaslit have switched to incandescent full spectrum. We're seeing much more clearly. How much of the "unrest" is real and how much is defining the narrative before We the People, the Deporables, really get marching is the question of the day.

Another One Bites The Dust

Word came from a friend this week that the group blog for which he wrote has gone under. It happened to be a "conservative" blog which offered competition to the legacy media. These are the pubs that pay authors by the view, so there's not really all that much money in it for the writers. What motivates us is a burning desire to get information to the public that the mainstream media will not report accurately or at all depending on what that info is.

And social media platforms are systematically not allowing the content to be seen by their customers.

It's a real catch-22 for a nation experiencing entirely too much 1984 style big brother. The voices of the opposition are being silenced. Why is a matter of speculation and conjecture, but it's a safe bet that the powers that be either with the social media platforms themselves, or somewhere in the bowels of government where the real power lies have decided to use economics to drum out the people who wish to see change. The people who are, to be blunt and not politically correct about it, getting screwed by the "elite" global money crowd.

It's really quite maddening.

However, in this silencing comes a number of voices too many to ignore anymore. If it was just one blog that was targeted, the temptation would be to not notice. But that's three now that I've written for that have gone by the wayside all for lack of traffic. It was risky building up audience using social media, but that's the way it's done.

And it's the way the voice of the oppressed dies.

It's happened again.

Things That I Am More Concerned About Than Who Will Win At The Oscars

It's Oscars time.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is handing out the golden statuettes in Tinseltown, and this writer couldn't care less.  It's not just because the Daytona 500 is today, or that Lent begins on Wednesday, but there are a lot of other things on my mind.

First is finding another blogging gig.  I love being able to speak my mind here, but it doesn't pay the bills.

Second, is trying to find unadulterated information on just how contaminated the Pacific Ocean is after the Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster.  Fox News touched on the most recent information - that the radiation coming from the melted core of the reactors is at unprecidented levels.  But getting accurate info on how safe the fish from Alaska is to eat is next to impossible. (Lent starts on Wednesday.  We the People need to know this.)

I'm also most concerned with the sheer amount of gaslighting going on from the mainstream media.  While there are a lot of people who can put emotion aside and see through the fog, there are just as many people who can't.  Controlling humans this way, with invisible chains, is just cruel.

An article popped up yesterday claiming that there are plenty of American factory jobs, but that the people coming out of American schools aren't skilled enough in math and English to read the training manuals.  If that's not an indictment of the American education system, I don't know what is.

Then, this morning, a cousin asked her Facebook fam about getting a puppy before her new baby comes, and the sheer number of people saying "it's too much work" was disturbing.  I realize humans can be lazy, but really?  There was a time when women had babies, and not just raised puppies, but assisted in the whelping process and got up to milk the cows, but didn't have automatic wash machines and dishwashers.  THOSE women did a lot of work.  These poor hothouse flowers would never survive the life our fore mothers lived.

Yes, it would be nice to Make America Great Again, but it would be nice if Americans would cooperate in the effort.  It isn't going to happen overnight and it is not going to be easy.  In fact, it's going to be a lot of work.  People in the generations behind mine, Generation X, are in for the shock of their lives.

And that is what has me concerned today.

President Trump, When You're Done With The Wall And ObamaCare, Can We Talk About The Price Of Produce

This is going to be one of those funky rants that only people who haunt the perimeter of grocery stores will truly feel empathy for.  It's about food.  Fresh food.  The sort of food that is actually grown, harvested, gathered and slaughtered.  Well, and butter, yogurt, cheese and sour cream as well. But the reader gets the point.  It's the food found on the perimeter of the grocery store as that is where all the power is for refrigerated cases.

And that food is EXPENSIVE, even with a DIY take on preparation.  Like, $3.99 for a head of cauliflower expensive.

$4.49 a pound for non-grass fed stew meat.  ON SALE.

A dozen cage free eggs from a local provider, $3.29.

$4.99 for a pound of house brand cheddar cheese.

Good deli meat is $9.99 a pound.

(Haven't checked on bread lately.  I eat gluten free, and that's not on the menu.  Non wheat flours like tapioca and arrowroot aren't cheap either.)

The reader gets the point, though.  Fresh food, that which is healthiest for us to eat, is expensive. Which begs the question, how are we supposed to follow all those government guidelines on nutrition if food costs more than a lot of people can afford?

Not only that, how are we supposed to deal with metabolic disease in addition to just about every other disease AND fight obesity when what will most effectively help us is approaching drug prices?

It's the same concept as that of American producers sending work offshore due to all the regulations that have been imposed on them.  They have to have a place to work for a profit.  They are going to have plants where the dollar stretches the farthest.  We the People have to have food in our stomachs.  Sometimes the decision on what's for dinner boils down to "what is the cheapest."

Not everyone is at the same level skill wise when it comes to cooking - I know that - but one of the lost arts in the modern era is meal preparation, and using a freezer to store future meals, not just ice cream and pizza. (One of the local chains here has meat sales on a regular basis.  "Stock up" has become a regular part of life.)  It would be nice if we didn't have to do this, but higher prices thanks to the avian flu, a drought in Southern California that was made worse by environmental decisions, and higher energy prices is forcing it.  (And avoiding gluten.  A lot of cheap food is loaded with it.)

So, this writer requests that President Trump consider the dilemma of the American people who want to help him Make America Great Again.  To do that, we need to be well nourished, and healthy.  Please, help out the food producers as well as the heavy industries.  It would be most appreciated.

Gotta go.  Have to chop the veggies for the stew.

It's Official. Narcissism IS An American Snowflake Psychosis

Okay, I might be using the word "psychosis" a little loosely considering people who are truly psychotic really do need honest psychiatric care, but jeez.  The special snowflake class of the American population is giving them a run for their money.

See, ever since The Donald was elected president, and their world view of safety and security from all things traditional and proven was shattered, the little darlings have been hanging out on their therapists' couches kvetching about the current administration.  According to the Los Angeles Times, this is putting a strain on the people doing the listening since they are supposed to remain neutral by oath.

“This is so monumental because we are not in normal anymore,” said Randi Gottlieb, a therapist who heads the L.A. chapter of the California Assn. of Marriage and Family Therapists. “It’s putting into flux and questioning how do we practice, what is the best way to support the people we care for. We’re beginning those conversations — we don’t really have good answers.” 

Therapists say the last time so many people came to therapy wanting to talk about the same thing was after the Sept. 11 attacks. Trump has been a topic of discussion for months, even for people who see therapists for issues as seemingly unrelated as relationship troubles or eating disorders. 

“I had a 10-year-old in my office who was talking about it,” said Paul Puri, a psychiatrist in Brentwood....Wagner has encouraged others to turn their anger or frustration into action by attending rallies or contacting their congressional representatives. One of his clients wrote thank-you letters to President Obama with her children. 

“It makes them feel like it’s not something they’re watching, like a train wreck, and that there’s some level of control,” he said. “Maybe it doesn’t change the larger narrative, but it makes them feel as though they’re being authentic with themselves.”  

In many ways, the election has been more challenging for his conservative clients, who feel as though they can’t tell their spouses, family members or friends that they voted for Trump, Wagner said. They fear being automatically labeled bigots or accused of electing a new Hitler, he said. They rely on secret Facebook groups to express their feelings. 

“It’s almost become irrational in terms of the anger people feel toward each other and the boxes they put each other in,” he said. “I feel for the people on both sides.”

So, essentially, this puts Trump's election on an emotionally disturbing scale along the lines of the shattering of safety and security to the American psyche that 9-11 did.  The article states outright that since people cannot talk about the election in public, they are headed to online forums and the therapist just to have a place to vent.

Oh, my. (No apologies to George Takei.)

Umm....  Maybe this writer has been consuming too many reality shows on the Home and Garden network where women want soaker tubs and pot fillers at the cooktop (would LOVE this, but it's out of reach for now), but it seems like looking out for number one, and considering that nothing is more important than the individual and his or her feelings has stunted a lot of mental growth.  There's some sort of emotional block there that does not allow the victim to view world events from anything other than street level.  To truly cope with all that happens around us, and the gaslighting from the mainstream media that tells us what we are to think about it, it is necessary to get the emotion out of the equation, and look at it from ten miles high.  That simply isn't happening.

This too, for whichever side of the culture wars any one person is on, will pass eventually.  Yes, it may be painful getting there, but not everyone always gets what they want.  And, no, therapy doesn't change that.

For those who need an escape, reading is actually an age old way to do that inexpensively. For those who have e-readers and electronic devices with apps, it's very easy to carry quite a library. This writer actually is producing Romance novels that might interest some of the ladies. Visit my author page on FaceBook for more information.

White House Locks Out Big Name Fake News Orgs: LMAO

CNN reports New York Times, Los Angles Times, and Politico also were told they were not on the White House list, for today’s off-camera briefing. 

Breitbart, Fox News, Washington Times, and One America News Network were among those given entry, CNN reported.

Ha ha ha.  It looks like the Trump Administration has finally had it with the revered "news" organs who refuse to report stories straight.  Today, some of the big boys were denied entry to a private briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer.  Of course, they are calling foul.  The thing is, this time it probably won't work.

Back when the Obama Administration wanted to exclude Fox News for a group of interviews, that network was singled out.  The other nets came to their defense because of it.  In this case, the Trump Administration essentially told several news orgs, either do your job right, or you will not be invited to the party.  Admission to the White House press pool is a privilege, not a right.

"This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don't like. We'll keep reporting regardless," CNN said in a statement. 

New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet wrote, "Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest."

The Associated Press and Time magazine boycotted the briefing because of how it was handled. 

The White House Correspondents Association also protested the move.

 Yes, the Trump Administration retaliates, and what the nincompoops in the mainstream media do not realize is that the American people are cheering them on.  The people of the fruited plain have had it with the gatekeepers of information lying to us, and leaving out important details that can change the meaning of a story.

Feminist Hags Give Being Plain A Bad Name

Uh, somehow I don't think that's going to be a problem

...and those lips WILL sink ships.  

The deckhands will jump overboard.

I was trying to figure out how to present a few characters in the new novel that's pinging around in my head when this picture popped up in the comments of a Conservative Treehouse thread.  A picture is worth a thousand words, and this one...well, I'm betting I can whip up a description for a high maintenance character worth at least two hundred words with this visual.  You see, the one thing that the aging hippies headed to the women's marches all have in common is that they try to pass themselves off as plain, when what they really are is lazy - at least in the helping themselves look like ladies department - and they wear that like a badge of honor.

In the simplest terms: they are not coiffed, and don't really respect the coiffing process.

Please, be assured that I do not level this indictment against the members of my own species lightly, but it's true.  The feminists that march with make believe genitalia on their heads and over their clothes are, well, not low maintenance, they just have no interest in being the least bit girly, or dressing for their body type. Hence why none of them would be caught dead at a Mani Pedi spa, and why their styles completely lack imagination.  (Some do hide the hairs without pigment under dye, but nine times out of ten it's done at home, not by a professional.)

Case in point is an old acquaintance who, for the 30+ years I have known her, has never owned an iron or an ironing board.  Seriously.  Her family grew up with clothes that didn't have to be ironed.  Her husband's shirts are not cotton pin-point - and he is at the top of his profession where wearing ties is expected.  This woman rarely wears make-up, has a short hair style that doesn't do much for her, refuses to wear contacts, has only stud earrings, but will spend money on distinctive sweaters to wear with her corduroy pants.  She tries to pass herself off as plain, but given the way her spouse is pussy-whipped, that dog won't hunt. She's just motivated by a limited number of things.  After all, she got up off her tush to go to the women's march when she won't even stand through a choir rehearsal.

Knowing women who are plain - really plain - they may dress simply and do their hair simply, but at their cores they are ladies with absolutely no artifice and nothing but kindness in their souls.  Most of them wouldn't venture to a women's march.  These people are honest, not lazy, and certainly not malicious toward men whose only sin is having been born with the wrong set of chromosomes.

This writer objects to feminists trying to impersonate such sweet souls with all the ugliness a spiteful lack of coiffing brings.

Note to the guys out there: please do not confuse girly girls with high maintenance women.  There are a lot of us who do like to have our nails done, and wear jewelry and make-up, and who dress nicely who avoid high maintenance people like the plague.  Why would we want to be like those women who inspire misery and loathing in men?

BTW, the novel pinging around in my head is the eighth in my series of Romance stories.  It will be committed to computer files in the next month.  In the meantime, novels 1-5 are available in electronic form at Barnes and Noble and iBooks.  Visit my author page on Facebook for details.