It is 5:31 AM and very dark outside. I’ve put the dishes away, made tea, meditated and now have just under an hour to write a post.
My body is sore from the gym and karate. In the past I’ve always given short shrift to leg day but have started to pay more attention since they are extremely important in karate. My body has a type of soreness that I’ll blame on soon turning 40 but if I think back my body was just as sore during wrestling in high school. My left index finger was also jammed during a sparring match and still hurts!
It is very interesting the direction in which life’s currents take you. It had never occurred to me that I might participate on a mat in a fight. I remember an old “Friends” episode where Rachel dates a guy who being successful in business now wants to be a successful cage fighter at middle age. I always thought this ridiculous but here I am faced with the 2017 Fighters Cup in which I must participate. It is not that I have a real desire to fight in a tournament but rather this is what our Shihan would like to see and there is a level of respect that comes with participating. It is after all the dojo’s own tournament and so it wouldn’t feel right afterwards if I didn’t participate. We’ll see how it goes but at this point I’m not scared.
The past few days I’ve been watching a lot of UFO, ghost and unexplained mysteries on YouTube. I’ve come to believe there is a lot going on to which the general population is not privy. There is also the reaction that anyone who sees or believes in these things are crazy. Yet, after much consideration, research and listening it is the other way around. It is those that reject all of these things who are keeping their head in the sand. The only believe what they see and often times, if the event is so out of the ordinary and incomprehensible then they do not even believe what they have seen. I have seen a UFO, two actually but one that was really bizarre which I’ll create a separate post about.
These videos and stories combined with current political events have created some anxiety. President Trump is changing the status quo very rapidly and at a worse case scenario this could lead to all out war with China. His election is very unfortunate and spells a very dark period for the United States. These are the types of things that happen in lesser countries with a less educated population, not the USA! So I find it very sad that many people I know and call friends have joined a good amount of the population in being hoodwinked. They are lead so easily like a bunch of sheep by a conman. They fall for the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ trap that their one or two single news sources tell them exists. Apparently the Liberals are now called ‘snowflakes’ and I know people who are actually calling their other friends this on social media. And, unfortunately these same people are the less sophisticated ones whereas the international ones, the polyglots, those with the highest education always fall more on the liberal side.
I guess this should not be too surprising: mass culture of the United States has been going downhill for a while now with the mainstream actually becoming dumber than they were before. It seems ironic that it should be this way given the advances in technology. But when I listen to presidential speeches, or read anything from the past, even the 1800s I see that their use of language is more sophisticated, that there is more ‘thinking’ going on. Compare that with anything Trump or his supporters say and my point is easily made. American culture has become one of reality TV, consumerism, self-absorbed and frankly, a bit crazy.
Ask any American any question on any foreign or economic policy and the majority of answers will not impress. Indeed the answer would be lucky to reach the level of a normal fifth grader. So is it really so surprising that a large portion of Americans voted for Trump? America has finally taken a look at itself in the mirror and sees its true self; a self that has avoided this truth for a long time by calling itself ‘exceptional.’ Is it exceptional to ship off people’s jobs overseas, to engage in endless foreign wars, to have top rated TV shows be about drugs, sex and general stupidity? Is it ‘exceptional’ when half of your population can be so easily fooled?
And the Democrats are certainly at fault. One thing that has been absent from the media is any story about how Hillary was so disliked that she actually lost to Trump! This gives the right some good credibility when they speak of a ‘liberal-media.’ Instead I see stories about how Hillary should be Mayor of New York!
And so, I resigned from the Democratic Party. I did so many weeks ago but still have not received my official confirmation; a confirmation that I’m not sure will ever come here in liberal California.
But restoring my faith in the Democrats – at least a little – is Jerry Brown’s promise to fight the Trump administration. A while back there was talk of a Calexit – California seceding from the USA. The seed was planted and perhaps if America continues down this stupid path that perhaps California could break away in this century? After all, California is 40% Latino and used to be part of Mexico. The economy of California is sixth in the world, forward thinking and could be self sufficient. Should the interests of California continue to separate from that of the rest of the nation I do not see why this couldn’t be a possibility. After all, can you give me an example of a country that has held together over thousands, let alone hundreds of years? Nope.
Anyway, I really didn’t want to get into this subject here; instead I wanted to save it for my other blog. But, everyday opening the newspaper ones heart flutters to see if we might actually be at war, or if some new policy will create a lot of social unrest.
In spite of everything I’ve said above, I do not want Trump to fail in many things. A citizen should never want his own president to fail – leave that to the stupid part of the population to say such things. Economic liberalization has left a lot of people behind and has not worked out as neatly as was explained to the citizenry from the mid 80s until just now. It has been drilled into our heads that the only way forward is to lower trade barriers, to open up economies and so on. That left a lot of towns dead here in the USA and given unfair advantage to developing countries. The wealth that this created didn’t not “trickle down” as was promised; instead it was concentrated at the top!
Anway, hard stop, this really needs to go into the other blog. It is now 6:22 AM and the day will soon start. I just hope we’re not facing all out war here this year or in the near future which is a very big possibility the Trump supporters don’t and cannot quite grasp.
