Monthly Archives: June 2017

A couple of pics from the Angeles Crest Highway with totally unconnected thoughts

Americana, Politics, Psychological Musings

Rules-00751I am not a big rule follower. One of the things that really bugs me is being told to do something only because it is the rule rather than being given a reason. But there are rules, conformities really, that just make life smoother; walking on the right side of a path for example or answering a question when you are the one who brought it up. Trump is one of those people that say – by their actions – “It’s my path, I’ll walk on any side I want” or “There might be tapes of my conversation with Comey.” and then, FORTY-ONE days later, says “I was only kidding.”. Everybody thinks that Trump must have had a good – as in real – reason for saying it in the first place, but I’m not sure, I think it is more likely that he is just a dick with no social graces. He is doing it just because he can. If there is a reason, it is just of seeing how long he can keep people looking at him. He is the kind of guy that never gets invited back after a “get to know you invite”. He is sad…and a dick.

Rules LA-00738

Baldy-00753Democrats Seethe After Georgia Loss: ‘Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump’ headline in the New York Times

What most pisses me off about the Democratic Establishment is their complete cluelessness about the Nation they say they should be ruling. Until Trump won, they – they being everybody from the New York Times to Hillary Clinton who was already picking out her cabinet – didn’t have any idea that Trump was actually going to win. Sure, the Polls were off, but only the Liberal Polls, some of the Conservative Polls said Trump was going to win but they were dismissed as Fake News. What was really Fake News, it turns out, were the news sources we want to trust. That is also sad.

Thinking about The Fall of Rome while Watching the Warriors win

Uncategorized

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I should say “Watching the Warriors win a second time”, no, not watching them win their second Final – although It was also the second Final we saw them win –  but watching the Fifth Game a second time. I think, at this point, I have seen LeBron James in twenty-two games and I am willing to concede that he is the best player in the world. He can bring a passion and intensity to a game that is singular but that is still not enough to beat the Warriors.

The Warriors are a better team and at the end of the day, that is what counted.

I feel like I am just discovering Basketball after only following it peripherally and a couple of things that I most like are the intimacy, the player on player matchups that change as players are rotated, and the fact that Basketball keeps track of the assists a player makes. In Basketball, playing as a team with individuals making sacrifices for the greater good  – passing the ball to somebody who has a slightly better chance to make a basket rather than playing heroball – is rewarded and considered a virtue.

As I sat through the game a second time, I kept thinking about the Fall of Rome. It seems that as a country, we are doing the same things that I was taught had lead to the fall of Rome in the first place and we are distracted by, among other things, sports just like the corrupt Romans used the Games in the Colosseums all around their Empire. As I watched the game, all thoughts of Trump and the Congress destroying our country disappeared, I only had enough bandwidth to watch Curry and Durant do their magic.