The older I get, the more I realize I have no idea what I am talking about. Waiiiiiit, what?

Saturday, January 28, 2017

The Current State

It has been 3 years since my last post. I realize people are hungering for these posts the same way they are for, say, The Winds of Winter (6th Game of Thrones book). So here I am. And what can I say, that everyone else is not already arguing about on facebook? Yes, we are one week into President Trump's "presidency", and it feels batshit crazy. Some will argue that is because of the media coverage being biased, some will argue it is because of Trump himself, and the insane or inflammatory or baseless things he tweets out every day, followed up by interviews where he talks about himself as "the best" and giving "the best speeches" and having "the biggest crowds". It's as if we are watching a version of "Eastbound and Down" where Kenny Powers gives up his dreams of playing in the majors to instead run for president... and accidentally wins.  Now, I'm not looking to start a comment thread fight with anyone. I am pretty certain I know what everyone close to me thinks about Trump, and I'm pretty certain they know what I think about him. I am literally sitting here hoping and waiting for him to do something that makes me think differently of him, but instead, for example, he goes and institutes a ban on refugees on Holocaust Remembrance Day. I'm listening very closely to everything he says in interviews and everything he himself writes on his Twitter account. I'm hearing/reading nothing from him that backs up the claim of people who supported him in the election that most of the inflammatory stuff he said and suggested he would do was just "for show". I'm trying to find a way to step away from everything that is happening periodically, so that I can maintain perspective and not become so exhausted by all of this that I have to shut it out completely. I won't do that, it is so important that EVERYONE pay close attention to what is happening. But this is all very divisive, and I think it is by design. There is no way that the refugee ban being enacted on Holocaust Remembrance Day was a coincidence, this announcement was strategic. It has succeeded in angering people, and dividing them further, for about the 20th time this week. I think this is the strategy. Soon, we will be so distracted by how much we disagree with each other, and the act of disagreeing with each other, on Facebook etc, that we won't realize what is really happening. That scares me. I want everyone to stop arguing about Trump, and just listen to HIS OWN WORDS and pay attention to the changes that are happening and let's judge him that way. And let's protect each others rights if/when we see them being infringed. And lastly, let's just stop being outraged by each others opinions. Easier said than done maybe, but I am going to try.

I'm thinking this will be my first and only blog post about politics. I'm going to attempt to move on to music after this one. The last couple of years, I've dedicated my car time to reading more books (audio books, obviously. I mean, my Prius is awesome, but it doesn't drive itself...yet!). I managed to read 30 books in 2015 and 42 books in 2016. That meant that my drive time to and from work was almost exclusively audio books, with some podcasts mixed in. This year, I'm trying to get back to listening to albums in their entirety. Specifically, new ones, so I am going to write about them here. This will give me something to do in all of the spare time I have, lololololololol! I am going to try to write about music once per week as a needed distraction from everything else that is happening. We'll see how it goes...