Morning, Gang!

I you are back at work on this dangling weekday after America’s Birthday, our sympathies. If you are “working from home” or one of those other new behaviors thrust upon us, enjoy the time around periodically looking at the tablet or phone. If you have the extended holiday like us, we do not mean to intrude.

As retirees, we live the paradox of being on a sort of holiday all the time. We still feel obligated to simulate constructive activity to avoid intervention by outsiders- medical or family.

We were thus seated at what passes for a Production Meeting on this pleasant summer day. We ran a nice story from contributor Arrias that outlined some heroics that helped to bring us here to the America of the 21st Century. There was discussion about that, and the stark fact that half the 56 signers of the Declaration penned by Mr. Jefferson were either killed in the fight, lost family or homes, and some died in rags due to the conflict.

It is something to remember on a morning when there was general head nodding about “How the hell did the nation we spent our productive years defending get into such a mess?”

That caused a pause, since there are four or five messes the media is not covering. You know what they are, no need to cover them by individual topic. It would be easier to consider it as one big mess. Some of it is accidental. And some of it is completely intentional. These assorted messes are being run by a government of which we are unsure who is in charge.

We ran a short and non-partisan look at the ceremony in which the ostensible leader of it all managed to get through eight minutes on screen. We were interested in how the near invisible teleprompter screens were positioned only a foot or two away from his line of sight provided the words he spoke. It was interesting in the suggestion that an appropriate level of medication and words were necessary for the leader of what we used to call “The Free World.”

We served in, looking around the circle, four conflicts significant enough to be termed “declared wars,” so there is a fair amount of non-partisan interest in the matter. We swore to protect it with our lives, and then we were sent off to do it, thousands of miles from these placid shores.

We were lucky to get back from those messes, and happy we did.

How did we get in this larger agglomeration of messes? We tried to take the non-partisan approach. We had learned in the old system to keep our mouths shut about politics while we served in uniform. Now, through e entire system seems mobilized through technology to broadcast nothing but messaging supporting something we have not discussed before being revealed as de facto truth.

The ceremony before the holiday was pretty well done, and we appreciated seeing it carried off. There was another speech that had much less coverage. In it, we understand the Chief executive announced his pride in being the first “black woman” president.

We know, we know. Mis-steps in public speaking occur. We have made them ourselves and understand. But if this were an occasional gaffe, it would be understandable. But it is not. It is a regular occurrence that accompanies nearly every public appearance, and guaranteed if the appearance is not brief and tightly controlled. That is not the standard to which we hold the occupant of the most pivotal and important job in our nation. And maybe the world. If he is just a stand-in, mostly between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM, it would be useful to know who is in charge the rest of the time.

With two significant conflicts in progress now, in East Europe and the Middle of another one, we would seem to need someone awake most of the time to be able to respond. And if we do, wouldn’t it be useful to know who they are?

We will talk about the individual messes as we lurch forward toward what is allegedly an election. Our analysis of them will seek to find the area in which there is at least general agreement, like “we prefer good to bad.” But the means to achieve that appears to no longer a topic under discussion.

But more on that by individual topic as we go forward in as unemotional a tone as we cranky old timers can manage. But aside from this morning’s observation that we are not sure who is running the management of the messes, we understand that technology has enabled an examination of what the technology itself has brought to us.

Registered voters are expected, under long-standing law, to provide identification, a signature and an address of residence. There is a new analytic process that can examine the lists of registered voters and their addresses. That is a matter of public record, and certified to be true.

Tens of thousands of voters are reported to be registered as living at places that have no bedrooms. Should there be a provision for registration at the parking place if you are living in a vehicle? Apparently those include the addresses of convenience stores, shopping malls and other commercial or vacant properties.

You would think, if true, it is an extant problem worthy of some examination to ensure the system is reliable and worthy of trust. Instead, we are told such examination would be a means of suppressing the legitimate voting rights of vacant properties and 7-11 stores. Whatever those might be

Anyway, we will take a look at some of the messes as we go forward together. We will at least try to understand how a nation founded on Liberty bestowed by the grace of heaven has become a place where someone else gets to tell us what that liberty is permitted to be.

We think that is where this nation got started, you know?

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com