Shades of Grey…

RJ Walters

2018-08-27_10-48-28.pngUnlike so many of my conservative friends, I deem almost everything in life as being shades of grey. Some agree with #CO3 that the press is the enemy of the people. There is an iota of truth in that but their contributions to our democracy FAR outweigh those times when they are doing something totally for their own sake.  As far as Fox News is concerned, I don’t put them in the press category.  They are instead just a propaganda tool for a small slice of our society.

Getting back to the topic at hand, the Poll watch shown here is more than a little deceiving. It would have you believe that 48% of Americans agree with #CO3 and even want to give him the power to shut down those news organizations he doesn’t like.  First of all, if that were to happen we would be on a path very similar to what Hitler did in Germany in the 1930s.  It was the first step in the total evil of his regime.  But that is a story for another post.

Let’s be a FactChecker for the duration of this post. Statistics show that the Republican party is made up of about 25% of the American population. So, that 48% who want to give him dictator-type powers will really about one in nine of us. I call that a pretty small but still scary minority.

Why was the clipping stated as it was? I kinda think it was to stir up discord among us. Too often it seems that media publishers want to dramatize things.  For instance, everything on CNN is not “Breaking News”. 🙂

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#CO3 = Current Oval Office Occupant

Being Alone…

RJ Walters

2018-08-27_08-16-02Even after 32 years of marriage being alone is something I still relish. It seems I must have my alone time. That seems to be especially true now that I am in my senior years.  But, I have always been pretty much a loner. I just never have seemed to know what to do in a group.

I suspect a big part of this is probably due to my self-proclaimed Asperberger’s Syndrome. Interactions with others have always been difficult for me.  It takes a special person to accept my nuances and call me a friend. I have had a few in my life.

Being alone is self-empowering to me. It is when I have my most creative thoughts. My daily routine includes several “alone” times.

After my daily shower, I am alone to digest the latest news via my Internet feeds. I admit that that particular alone time is shrinking by self-choice as I just can’t seem to stomach what is going on in America today.

Another serious alone time is my man-cave otherwise known as the barn. I am fortunate enough to have a 24 x48 ft pole barn where I do all my physical type things.  It is where I spend quite a bit of time working on uRV ( my micro RV). This weeks project is to rubberize the roof to keep out all those pesky leaks during downpours.

Another alone time is “going up to the mountain”. That is the highest point on my property where I have a six-foot glider.  I spend many warm weather hours up there swinging and reading and just plain looking at the sky and thinking.

Being alone is something I can very much handle…

Heading to the Rendezvous

RJ Walters

IMG_6426IMG_6426IMG_6424IMG_6424Here I am sitting in my uRV. It is only 6am but my body says it is 8 and time to get up. It took me three days to get here but I am finally in the Rocky Mountains and will be heading to the Ft. Bridger Wyoming Rendezvous later this morning.  I think I will hold off on the trip here report until I get home again, but I did want to give you a status report.

I am in my RV park here in Green River WY for a couple of days and managed to snap a few pictures as the sun came up this morning. The park it BIG. There are a variety of RVs here from the 40 foot long million dollar mammoths down to my little custom-made shell on the back of a 100,000+ mile pickup.  I managed to snap a couple of shots as the sun was coming up but since I have not really conquered photographing sunrises it didn’t show up very well.

I got my camera battery charged and an empty SD card and ready to go.  Speaking of which its time for me to put up my laptop and have some breakfast before I leave. More on the day tomorrow (I think?).

One of My Dreams…

RJ Walters

2018-08-28_08-03-02.pngOne of my dreams, you could say one of the few things on my bucket list, is to go to the Ft. Bridger WY Mountain Man Rendezvous and that is just what I am doing starting today. I have packed up my uRV and will soon be on the road for the 1400 mile trek. The rendezvous is this coming weekend. I will be there on Saturday and maybe stay through Sunday.

 

uRV.jpg

This will be the farthest I have gone with my 120,000-mile custom made camper in quite a while. On the trip back and forth I will be dry-docking at Walmarts along the way but will have a full facility RV camp during the rendezvous days. I also plan on visiting the Stuhr Museum of the American Prarie in Nebraska.

2018-08-28_08-03-55.pngI have been to quite a few rendezvous-type encampments but this is the grandaddy and biggest of them all. I have imagined that in a previous life I was a mountain man.  My all-time favorite movie is Jerimiah Johnson. I don’t know if that is cause or effect but it doesn’t matter. I love the Rocky Mountains for whatever reason.

I will likely resurrect my on-the-road reports at least for a few entries for this one. So, look for them in the coming week.

America’s Form Of Capitalism…

RJ Walters

2018-08-24_09-44-00.pngThis post is about the question “Is America’s form of capitalism being pushed aside?” Is the world moving beyond the American definition?  Some might say the Capitalism as it exists in America is “The rich get richer,  and nothing else matters…

“What happens when a society reinvests the gains from industrialization into things like healthcare, education, and so forth? Well, it’s economy changes — radically. You see, the American economy is still 75% consumption — McMansions, SUVs, designer jeans, and so forth. The problem is that 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. They can’t afford those things anymore. But if America had invested in public goods, then the economy would be made less of consumption, and more of investment.

Source: How to Think About the World After Capitalism – Eudaimonia and Co

I like to blame all of our problems on #CO3 but I recognize that our “consumption” problems are ingrained in our capitalist system. The “rich get richer” and “survival of the fittest” is a dominant part of our version.

Our version of capitalism will likely change in the coming years. One path will be divorcing ourselves from the rest of the world. Going it alone. Another path is that our capitalist system may morph into the version practiced by  Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Canada as cited in the source article.

So, what is the basic difference? These countries practice what some may call social democracy.  They give all their citizens what they see as inalienable rights.  They include healthcare, education, transportation, and retirement. Because these rights are endemic in their version of capitalism they divorce themselves from the “survival of the fittest mentality”. I think we have some things to learn from them in that and many other regards.

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#CO3 = Current Oval Office occupant