WATER MAIN ADVENTURE AUGUST 2023

 

Camping In Georgia Mountains

Turtle camping in the north Georgia mountains. Went to pumpkin farms and Gibbs gardens. Shopping and munching in both Ellijay and Dahlonega

 

AMICALOLA STATE PARK ELLIJAY

Ellijay tourists

Pumpkin fest

AMICALOLA STATE PARK, ELLIJAY GA

ITS MAY 2023

My deck and concrete guy came in to do some refurbishing on the deck that I simply did not have the paygrade to do. I had replaced a lot of the boards and sister  of the man and even built one of the rail sections. But I needed someone who was fast and knowledgeable, and he did a great job.

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Ellen, Cathy and I are organizing and transcribing Dads journals from the 30’s. I sent a primo journal to Ellen to preview.

Bill’s dog Sansa, who fancies herself, the alpha dog, with regard to ownership of Bill’s attention, attacked and killed little Fiona. She was one of two apple heads, which is what we nicknamed these two little abused Chihuahuas that Bill had adopted. Like any death of a pet it’s a disaster. But it’s a super disaster when one of your pets kills another of your pets and you love them both, Bill is devastated. The whole family, actually.

April 14, 1936 Shoveling Manure Huntley NE

Got through at noon (can't read word maybe it says "finally"?) the last of the manure

 

GOOD JOB PUTIN. YOU NOW HAVE ANOTHER NATO COUNTRY HUGGING 1000 MILES OF YOUR BORDER

 FINLAND; MOTHER RUSSIA’S OWN JIMMINY CRICKET. JIMMINY WITH A CATTLE PROD

Finland will become a member of NATO on Tuesday. Putin  has stupidly driven Finland, a well-armed, capable, antagonistic, democratic neighbor into the NATO fold. It was Putin’s greatest fear and it’s happened.

Putin has blundered into the creation of another 1000 mile hostile border w Finland—-and now Finland is in NATO!!   Finland now sits on Russias right shoulder, with a knife on her jugular. And…with 31 allies standing by to help.

THE LOST LIGHT

And from that day forward, in the early 80’s, I never made another real friend, I never placed my trust in anyone, nor truly relied on anyone, I became suspicious, embittered, cynical, defensive and wary. Intentionally, I shielded myself from people, became alone, stayed alone. 

For reasons that seem obvious, but are rather confusing, I remained OK with friends I had before they did this to me, and I still trusted in them, even though---in harsh reality—it was they who abandoned me, who failed to stand up for me, who slunk away from me and left me alone with these beasts and dangerous monsters. They abandoned me, completely—but I still felt some kinship and trust for them. I suppose.

But everyone and everything that occurred after 1981? No. 

I lost my belief in systems, in ethics, in organizational ethics, --- I lost my innocence as to the job I had in law enforcement, I lost my pride and fierce desire to help and set things right, in the triumph of good over evil, of truth over lie. I lost my illusion that right prevails. Because it simply doesn’t. There is nothing on the side of right, nor of wrong. The moments unfold into each other. The flow is random. There is random good and random violence and no control of the current or where it takes you. It is an illusion. 

 

Look what these inferior, horrible, cowards and monsters did to me, with impunity. I had no way to fight or defend, except balls to the wall howling, standing up to them, challenging them, spitting at them, protesting, challenging and not allowing them to see my fear. 

 

But they gutted me, and they did it for all time. And there is nothing I could do about it. Because really, I was powerless. 

It is interesting that all they did to me was done out of recklessness and free-floating lack of giving a shit about what they did and who they did it to and how it left them. 

 

About how they looked. Complete disregard for destruction of lives. They never even thought about it. There was eventually animosity, and I am sure there were actual, real criminals involved… but largely, it was just hateful recklessness and shooting in a barrel that I was in, hapless and defenseless, and unable to protect myself. As such, the bullets found the mark. There was nothing to stop them.

A PROFANE, CORRUPT NYC JOKE BECAME PRESIDENT; NEVER AGAIN

…THE PROUD G.O.P. HAS BECOME A FRINGE RIGHT CABAL COWED DOWN BY TRUMP.…” 

Before the MAGA hijack of Fox News, Trump was really just a crude, corrupt clown. ……. 

“…Known all over NY and the commercial world as a cheat, & as an unintelligent, bungling, profane celebrity who laughably ran for US president.…”

It wasn’t funny. Trump almost ruined our country.

Fox News, and the other far right loon outlets, showcase the sad chasm between traditional, respected GOP normative behavior and the fringe-right cabal now headed by Donald J. Trump. 

Examples abound. e.g. As bombs began raining down on Ukrainian cities, Donald Trump called into Fox News to blame – you guessed it – Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.

[or this]…As Russian tanks began pouring over the Ukrainian border, Fox News host Laura Ingraham had the gall to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “pathetic.”

[and Coward Carlson]…if you tune into Tucker Carlson these days, you’ll see a show that might as well have been written and produced by Russian state media. 

A SNOWFLAKE MELTS

I am a social liberal snowflake and a fiscal moderate. 

But I’m also a lawyer. And I suggest that Alito‘s recent opinion was, unfortunately, probably legally correct. 

I disagree in social principle of course, but social principle will not get us there. 

The ORIGINAL opinion was poorly reasoned. It rested perilously upon weak or faulty constitutional  analysis.

IRONICALLY….Roe is what the nation’s overwhelming majority wanted then - and wants now. 

We need to get there by CODIFYING these privacy rights in federal law— in FEDERAL  law—the US Code. At least in the interim. 

If we don’t, they will shut down, one-by-one, all the privacy rights gained in the past 50 years. 

The problem is it was too easy for them. Roe was in perceived contravention of a lot of constitutional interpretation principles impacting federalism and states rights. 

It was probably inevitable that, one day, it would be overturned anyway. It wasn’t that hard for them to do. It didn’t require that they really go that far outside of the lines. They didn’t even have to say they were against abortion.! All they had to do was criticize and overturn a decision that was not well done, on narrow constitutional  grounds. 

Make these privacy rights— abortion, race/marriage, birth control, sexual privacy and constitutional status of any marriage…. Make them all part of the US Code. 

Then, the court can go putz around for a decade with the aftermath of this mess. In the meantime, we’d be good.