I know that many of you look forward to Wednesday morning’s ‘Good People’ post, and I do know how important it is in these troubled times to remind ourselves that there are a lot of good people out there doing their part for humanity. But tonight, a good degree of angst over yet another school shooting with at least one fatality, among other news, has my mind bouncing and keeping me from the task at hand. Fear not, for there are many good people about which to write, and it is not their fault, but only my own. I have tried for four hours and have produced very few words on the page. I am simply not able to provide a ‘good people’ post right now. I hope to have one later this week, however today, I simply cannot, and for that I apologize. Thank you, my friends, for your patience.
Tag Archives: mind-bounce
Stuff From A Bouncing Mind …
Today I have a bouncy mind … too much inundation of both news and holidays, I think. Have to bake birthday cookies, do birthday cards, get a package ready to mail overseas, Trump did a convoluted interview yesterday that I’m struggling to get through without throwing something, and a new federal judge is about to be confirmed who supports extreme voter suppression. No wonder my mind is bouncing! So, I share with you a few of the thoughts that have crept out from the crevices during the bounce …
Yesterday morning when I logged onto Facebook for the first time of the day, planning to check messages and post my latest blog post, I was immediately assailed by a large message from Facebook itself, asking me to donate money to one of several charitable causes, and promising to match my donation. HAH!!! Mind you, though I haven’t much to give, I do give … I give to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, the Humane Society, the local foodbank. I give to a variety of local homeless shelters. So, it isn’t that I’m not willing to help out … it is, simply put, that I do not have any reason to trust Facebook!
Entrust my bank account number to Facebook after their recent data breach that exposed the personal data of millions of users??? And … trust them to actually match my donation? I think not. This is a case of “Let the buyer beware”. I will continue to carefully choose my own causes, thank you very much anyway, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg!
And speaking of letting the buyer beware, I am once again grumbling loudly over one of my old pet peeves. Note to all readers: If the package says “Easy open – pull here” … get your scissors and sharpest knives out, be prepared to spend a minimum of ten minutes fighting to get to the product inside the package, and while you’re at it … be sure your first-aid kit is handy! I’ve been putting it down to my being old, my hands and fingers not being as agile or strong as they once were, but even the youngster in this house has trouble opening things these days. I still get her to do it, though, for she has far more patience than I, and is therefore less likely to throw and break things. Besides, she doesn’t swear, so it is less traumatic for the kitties!
But seriously, is there any reason that opening a new bottle of ibuprofen requires a degree in rocket science? Or a bag of chicken tenders … “pull tab” it says … “tear along perforation” – what perforation??? There is no tab, there is no perforation … there is a dotted line, but it is not perforated! Get the scissors … snip, clip … okay and … nothing! I cut along the dotted line, but it is too far above that part where you can pull it open. Finally, a butcher knife right to the heart of the package does the trick. How much time was just wasted? Luckily this time only a small bandage was required … last time it was a roll of gauze and adhesive tape! And to think … people get paid big bucks to come up with these packaging designs. Sigh.
MSNBC is not one of my ‘go-to’ sources. First, they are owned by Comcast. Second, they are left-biased. Now, granted, my own leanings are toward the left of center, but when I want news, I want news … facts, reported accurately and without significant bias toward either side. As Joe Friday used to say in the old Dragnet show, “just the facts, ma’am”. That said, today I give MSNBC a thumbs-up for refusing, for the second time this month, to carry a White House press event.
The first time was on November 1st when the network refused to transmit live a fearmongering presidential address about immigration and the caravan in Mexico. The second time was yesterday afternoon when, for the first time in about a month, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deigned to hold a ‘daily’ press briefing. The briefing was a joke, naught but propaganda such as Larry Kudlow, Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council, saying, “We’ll see what happens. … Our economy’s in very good shape right now”. Sounds rather like a replay of something Trump has said many times, doesn’t it? Toe the party line. The entire briefing, from what I can gather, was more of the same. National Security Advisor John Bolton saying that he hasn’t listened to the audio recording of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and sees no reason to do so. 
Sanders herself rang in with, “I don’t think the president has any concerns about the [Mueller] report because he knows that there was no wrongdoing by him and that there was no collusion.” It was a waste of the press’ time and a waste of anybody’s time who bothered to watch it. Press briefings have become repetitious and uninformative. You may disagree, but I think MSNBC made the right decision in this case, and I’d like to see more of the media outlets be a bit more discriminating about just what they choose to waste our time with.
And so, you now know how a bouncy mind works, and I shall return you to your regularly scheduled life! Thanks for bouncing along with me today!
Bounce … Bounce … Bouncey Bounce Bounce …
I am stricken tonight with a very severe case of mind bounce. You have all seen how worthless my writing is when my mind is bouncing, so I think you’ll understand when I say that the serious piece I just spent 6 hours trying to focus on turned out to be … File #13 material. Sigh. So, I decided to try something different and rather than try to corral my bouncing mind, let it flow freely wherever (within reason) it wants to go. Hopefully, that will clear the cobwebs, tame the wild brain, and allow me to work on something meaningful later today! So … bear with me, if you will, and if you do, I promise a cartoon at the end!
I think the word ‘probably’ should be stricken from the English language. The word has about as much meaning as a soggy piece of dough that absorbs whatever odours are near it. “Will you be coming to dinner tomorrow night?” “Probably.” No show. Strike it, Merriam-Webster!!!
I love flowers, but you know what my favourites are? Dandelions and clover. Yes, they are weeds, but I like them best because they are unstructured … they grow wherever they please, they are colourful and beautiful, and they follow no rules … just go where they want to go. I currently have a back yard filled with dandelions and when I need to feel happy, all I have to do is look out my kitchen window. 
I stumbled across this quote today and it struck a chord:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover, acquire new friends and gain knowledge of yourself and the world.” — Mark Twain
This is so true. The older we get, the more we realize how very short our time here on earth is and … there is always so much left to do. I was explaining this concept to a friend via email earlier today, and it rather explains why, as we get older, we actually seem to need less sleep. I think I see sleep as a waste of time, for there are books to read, things to write … closets to clean??? I don’t have grand dreams of travel and adventure, but there ARE things I would like to accomplish before I die.
Other people don’t make us unhappy … we make ourselves unhappy by allowing ourselves to place too much value on how others treat us, by setting our expectations too high. When somebody lets us down, it is not fair to blame that person, but rather we need to look inward and remind ourselves that we cannot control others, but we can control our own reactions. It took me more than six decades to figure this one out, and here I am giving it to you … for free!
I am a pretty tolerant person … I wasn’t always, but in my dotage, I find the philosophy of ‘live and let live’ to be a good one to live by. However, the lady across the street goes to the grocery in her pajamas, and for some reason it drives me bonkers!
The never-ending winter finally killed my crocuses. Sigh.
I was digging in my disaster of a walk-in closet one night recently and came across some very old photo albums. Funny, I had forgotten the picture of my dad in a skirt and a bra, and the one of him in a bullfighter’s suit. Miss Goose had some jaw-dropping moments over those, and I was at a loss to try to explain the former!
Why do cats like empty boxes so much? Even our autistic moggie, Izzy (short for Isabella), will come out from under the sofa if there is an empty box in the living room floor that she can curl up in. It is almost as if she feels safe and protected there. We received an order from Amazon today (a set of plumber’s snakes) and I tossed the box on the floor to take to the dumpster later. But Izzy has been in it all day long. I guess the box can stay around for a while! Typically, we don’t see her more than once or twice a day, but she has been out of hiding all day today! She even let Miss Goose pet her for a while!
There is too bloomin’ much Easter candy in this house! I indulged just a bit tonight, which is okay, but means an extra bit of insulin tonight. Sigh. Chocolate is nice.
My old friend Linda was the first person to ever call me ‘Jilly-bean’, but several have done so since then. I rather like it. Sadly, Linda left my circle of friends in 2016, pre-election, as she tired of hearing me rant against Trump. She is the one, though, who is responsible for my Jolly Monday posts, for she asked me to consider writing something completely non-political at least on Monday mornings. So, I shall always remember Linda.
Well, folks, now you have an idea of what my mind bounce is like, and no doubt you are rolling your eyes and thinking, “Filosofa … PLEASE go to bed!!!” Ah, so … I am going in just a few minutes. Even though there is a load of laundry hanging out in the dryer getting wrinkled, but it does not matter, for it is only my clothes this time.
Thank you all for allowing my mind to bounce and bonk. Hopefully I can get it back into the saddle by mid-day and come out with some relatively intelligent post. Love to you all!
A Bit of This and A Bit of … I Forget …
You’ve heard me complain of my condition that I term ‘mind bounce’ … it is when I simply cannot stay focused on any one topic for more than a few minutes at a time. Today, it is so bad that I started to put my socks on, put the right sock on and then moved onto the next task of gathering towels … and I still don’t remember where the left sock is. So, long story short, I could not write my usual afternoon post that typically runs between 800-1,200 words, for my mind bounced to another topic after only 57 words. So, today I present you with a few snippets that may later lead to full-length posts … or not. Hopefully this bout of mind bounce won’t last more than a day.
Mass Exodus
Rats deserting a sinking ship
Today, Republican House member Darrell Issa from California announced that he will not seek re-election in November. This brings the total number of members of Congress leaving office on or before January 2019 to 48, or nearly 9% of the total legislative branch. And with more than ten months to go until the November 6th election day, I am convinced this number might double before then. Of the 48 leaving, 32 are Republicans, 16 are Democrats.
I wish I could say that they are beginning to see the light, find their consciences, and simply cannot work with Donald Trump any longer, but sadly, I don’t think that is the case for most. Some are leaving in shame, having been accused of sexual misconduct, and others are leaving to run for a different office, such as governor of their state, or senator.
An article in CNN this morning refers to this as ‘strategic retirement’, which somehow gave me the feeling that this is a huge chess game, with We The People as the pawns.
I also wish I could say that the retiring members of Congress will use this opportunity, these next ten months while they are lame ducks and have nothing to lose, to stand firm against Trump and his plutocratic agenda. But we have already seen with the votes by Bob Corker and Jeff Flake that this is not the case … they are still pandering and boot-licking. The good news is there will be at least 48 vacant seats with no incumbent in November, and typically the party of the sitting president does not fare well in mid-term elections. A bit of a bright spot, anyway.
Nuke ‘Em Donnie
When you alienate all your friends, and start hanging out with those bullies who would love to catch you in a dark alley, beat you up and steal your lunch money … then you better watch your back. Kids do this sometimes, because they think life is a popularity contest and their circle of true friends are to ‘wimpy’ or ‘nerdy’, so they swat away their friends and start hanging with the ‘cool’ guys, the badasses. But let the buyer beware …
Little Donnie Darkness seems to believe he needs a ‘tough’ image, though for the life of me I cannot see anything ‘tough’ about the image of a fat old man with a terrible complexion, an oddly shaped mouth, and fake, straw-coloured hair. Still, Donnie thinks he, and by extension the nation, need a tougher image, so he has been pushing away our friends and allies ever since before taking office. He has insulted, threatened and bullied our allies and brought shame to our nation by pulling out of the Paris Accords. He has insulted one of our two nearest neighbors and allies by referring to its citizens as murderers and rapists and threatening to build a border wall and force them to pay for it. And then … he cozied up to our antagonists (I try to stop short of using the word ‘enemy’, but interpret as you will), such as Vladimir Putin of Russia. He has praised leaders who have made a mockery of democracy and are violators of human rights, such as Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. And now, he seems to feel the need to ‘watch his back’.
And how, you ask, does he plan to do that? Well he plans to ‘loosen’ the existing constraints on the use of nuclear weapons! Every person I have spoken to over the past year says they are at least “very concerned” about the fool in the Oval Office having access to the nuclear codes. And now, folks … now he is planning to make it even easier to use those nukes! Has anyone mentioned to him the terms “arms control” and “nonproliferation”? Has anybody ever explained SALT to him? Has it been explained that we are trying to reduce the number of nuclear weapons around the world to ensure a safer world?
Score One For Da Judge
Trump seems to be trying very hard to get rid of people … first there was the Muslim ban, then he wanted to deport the ‘Dreamers’, and now he is threatening to deport all immigrants from El Salvador. But he got his little hand slapped yesterday, when Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court in San Francisco wrote that the administration must “maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis”. Needless to say, this will be challenged and ultimately end up on the docket of the Supreme Court, just as happened with Trump’s Muslim ban, but still … it is a win for the young people who have lived most of their lives in this country and know no other home.
Trump, needless to say, wasn’t happy, calling the court system “broken and unfair”. Doesn’t that just remind you of a toddler who doesn’t get his way, saying “No fair!!!”. It is rather a shame, and speaks volumes, that my first real laugh of the day was reading that Trump is unhappy! I call this ‘inverse happiness corelation’. Oh, and one more note on this … Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the judge’s ruling “outrageous”. Sigh. Another boot-licker.
And that wraps up my bits ‘n pieces for the day. I shall spend the rest of this day trying to control the bounding balls in my mind and settle in to provide you with my typical snarky babbling tomorrow! I’m fairly certain that my problem, the reason for the mind bounce, is just too much news all at once. By the time I awaken in the morning, I usually have no less than 4-5 ‘breaking news’ updates awaiting on my phone. It’s too much … it’s boggling my mind!
A Peek Inside Of Filosofa’s Mind-Bounce
Well, I cannot seem to settle into a topic tonight. There is too much to write about, too many ‘goings-on’, and my mind seems to be on overload. So, forgive me if I indulge in a bit of mind-bounce, but that may be my only hope for regaining a degree of focus.
I try very hard to avoid commenting on ignorant political opinions and ridiculous memes on social media. I try, I tell you … I really do. And usually I am successful, for I have too much to do to waste my time on it. However, as I mentioned, tonight my mind is all askew, and I was just cruising around on Facebook, hoping a bit of a break might stop the mind-bounce. And I came across an extremely bigoted rant against the religion of Islam and its followers. The writer claimed that Islam is “pure evil” and that we needed to get rid of Sharia Law in the U.S. Well, as you can imagine, that set me off (mind bounce is often accompanied by enhanced irascibility) and I, against my better judgment, took off my shoes and jumped into the fray.
You would have been proud of me … I responded with intellect and quiet dignity, even when asked what planet I had come from and if I had been asleep all my life. I stayed only a short time, enough for two or three well-placed comments, and then I left the conversation and turned off notifications so that I would not be tempted again. But it made me start thinking about the bigotry and hate we are seeing, most of which is based on sheer ignorance. A few of the comments that stood out, that spoke volumes about the mentality we are dealing with here:
“Outlaw all Muslim activities and people from our country,they have millions of acres of land in their own part of the world ,send them back ,declare this a Christian country”
“it’s not right ,it’s a mental illness that should be treated as such, all these types of people will eventually implode ,they will poison the minds of innocent children and most likely at some point molest someone ,and/or kill themselves or others”
“Harry too many liberals that don’t understand something when they read it ,or what it was supposed to convey ,they just steer away from it to their liberalism”
All comments reproduced “as is” without corrections.
To be sure, there were others who, like myself, tried to educate, to enlighten, to make the haters at least stop and think, but a handful insisted that they were right, everybody else was wrong, and just as I exited, it was becoming a vulgar free-for-all. There is no value in such an exchange, and this is not a conversation or even a dialogue … it is simply sport. Blood-sport, at that.
Which led me to thinking about red hair. (I told you … mind-bounce) Well, I was wondering if perhaps there is something in the lack of skin pigmentation, or in something in the water they drank, that gave them this tendency toward bigotry. Are there certain physical traits that indicate mental traits? And that brings us to the red hair connection. It is said that people with red hair have shorter tempers. Is it true? Well, I didn’t find any definitive answer, but I did discover that redheads get cold quicker and feel pain more acutely. Okay … a snack is needed … something without sugar …
AHA ….
Coffee-nut m&ms … no sugar here, right?
Do you know what Kellyanne Conway, America’s #1 Bimbo, makes per year in salary alone? $179,700. Nearly a quarter of a million dollars per year. For … being a mouthpiece, and a bad one at that. For making up lies to cover Trump’s exposed posterior. For being obnoxious and mostly wrong. $179,700!!!!!!! More than three times what I made in my highest earnings year!
So, Senator Ron Johnson, a republican (of course) from Wisconsin intimated on a radio show on Wednesday that Senator John McCain’s “nay” vote on the proposed healthcare bill before the Senate last month, may have been a result of his brain tumour. The radio show host was notably taken aback and asked Johnson if, in fact, he really believed what he was saying. His reply: “I-I-I don’t know exactly what — we really thought — and again I don’t want speak for any senator. I really thought he was going to vote yes to send that to conference at 10:30 at night. By about 1, 1:30 (a.m.), he voted no.” Stuttering … genuine embarrassment? I was looking a bit into Johnson’s background to see if there are enough of these moments to qualify him as Idiot of the Week. Maybe …
And here is another …
Lindsey Graham … from time to time I have actually had reason to respect Senator Graham, but not today. Last Tuesday (August 1st) Lindsey appeared on NBC’s Today show with Matt Lauer. Here is what he said that set my teeth on edge:
“If there’s going to be a war to stop [Kim Jong-un], it will be over there. If thousands die, they’re going to die over there. They’re not going to die here. And [Trump] told me that to my face. That may be provocative, but not really. When you’re president of the United States, where does your allegiance lie? To the people of the United States.”
Somebody PLEASE tell me he didn’t really say that! Lindsey Graham is now, in my book, a bloomin’ DOLT. People. They are people. We are people. Trump and Graham are thinking it’s okay if hundreds of thousands of innocent people die, just so long as it isn’t on U.S. soil? Think about that one for a few minutes, friends.
Earlier today, dear Roger told me to seek my ‘soft and quiet corner’ and rest there. I told him my soft and quiet corner was filled with nails and shards of glass. I now understand where those nails and glass shards are coming from. And now, dear friends, I believe I shall go give my corner a good cleaning and spend a few hours there, away from the madness and mayhem. And in my next life, I am going to be a wolf, for I do not much care for the human race any more.
Filosofa's Word 