December 14, 2025 · 11:26 pm

Everything old is new again

Often I come across new terms used online that baffle me. Recently, I came across the term “analog doomscrolling” and while listening to a nice young man on YouTube explain it and talk about the benefits, I felt a strong wave of nostalgia. I also chuckled a little bit, because I used to be a master of “analog doomscrolling.”

“Analog doomscrolling,” is replacing time spent doomscrolling online with reading books, working on puzzles, and doing crafts to replace time spent online doomscrolling. This You Tuber demonstrated browsing through various books and reading small bits and he recommended having an assortment of books nearby, including reference books, like dictionaries & encyclopedias, where he can pull out a book and read a few minutes at a time.

My childhood was filled with many hours spent reading our World Book Encyclopedia set and the large dictionary that came with that set. I added many other books to my “analog doomscrolling” habit, like books of quotes, books on poetry, magazines, browsing through cookbooks and hours paging through my oldest sister’s set of interior decorating books. I also borrowed my great-grandmother’s old Workbasket magazines, and loved finding new needlework and craft ideas. At the kitchen table, I read every side of cereal boxes, all the print on any food container, from the pancake syrup bottle to the strawberry jam, and if my father finished reading the newspaper, I was quick to grab that too and start reading. Words have always fascinated me.

The negatives about digital use caught most of us by surprise, but I’m hopeful we’ll learn to find ways to navigate through this. Articles about research into how screen time can wreck our attention span and negatively impact our lives abound, but rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, I think we should find ways to mitigate the negatives, while embracing the positives. Fast and easy access to information offers many benefits. I find it very helpful to look at how-to videos for many household repair tasks, find new recipes, pay bills and handle banking, and of course, shop. I even found the internet very useful for finding information about the negatives of internet use.

I have been working on my bad habit of wasting time doomscrolling with limited success, because another bad habit – online shopping – rears it’s head, whenever, I embark on new hobbies. Many people, myself included, waste money shopping online for things we probably never would have considered purchasing shopping in physical stores and it’s easy to convince yourself that you “need” a lot of extra things to start new hobbies, try new recipes, or just about anything else we do, because we see so many new options online, especially on social media.

In the digital age, almost every new interest comes with a few online purchases. because as soon as I watch a few YouTube videos on a new craft or needlework project, the next thing I know is I am purchasing some new “must have” tools and/or supplies. Before the internet, I would have just used what I had and jumped in. And once I make that first purchase, well, often I end up buying more accessories. Then once I’ve got all this new stuff piled up, of course, I absolutely need some new storage containers to organize it all.

When I started working on adult coloring early this year, I promised myself that this time I wasn’t going to overdo the buying too much crap, but I failed and have 18 adult coloring books (more than I will likely ever use), several sets of colored pencils, markers and assorted supplies. Overall, luckily I live pretty simply and am working to impose more discipline on my online shopping, like trying to stick to a 24-hour rule, where if I see something I want to buy, I wait 24 hours before purchasing. Often that bit of time leads to me deciding not to buy the item.

There’s actually a term for this consumption behavior called the Diderot effect. The term describes a pattern of behavior where one new purchase can lead to dissatisfaction with other possessions and lead to a spiral of new purchases. Diderot, a French philosopher, received a gift of a beautiful scarlet robe, which led to him buying many new purchases to be good enough to go with that fancy robe. From Wikipedia:

“I was absolute master of my old dressing gown”, Diderot writes, “but I have become a slave to my new one … Beware of the contamination of sudden wealth. The poor man may take his ease without thinking of appearances, but the rich man is always under a strain”

Poor Diderot, ended up in serious debt and I don’t want to end up like him. The interesting thing about watching this nice young man on YouTube, was Diderot’s effect kicked in. He had a book shelf next to him where he had placed some books specifically for “analog doomscrolling,” but I started thinking that what I need (want) is a book cart on wheels. I thought a book cart with wheels would be so handy to stack books on and roll around the house to wherever I choose to spend time “analog doomscrolling.” I already have a small, three-tiered metal cart on wheels that is very useful for my crafting supplies, so now I will likely purchase a book cart in the near future too.

Yes, I know this book cart idea is totally ridiculous and frivolous, so I am expanding my 24-hour online shopping rule to thinking about a book cart purchase until, at least, next month.

Small steps…

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Filed under Books, General Interest

November 22, 2025 · 1:18 pm

I slept through the American Revolution…

This past week the much-hyped Ken Burns’, The American Revolution, six-part documentary ran on PBS. So, being clueless on streaming, I googled and figured out how to add the PBS app to my Roku listing. I have older TVs and use a Roku stick, my sister recommended I buy, and one of my sons set it up for me. That was the first small problem solved, but as I watched the first episode a much bigger problem hit me.

I wanted to give rave reviews to this documentary, because every American should be celebrating and happy to learn more about America’s founding.

This documentary was well-researched, had an array of prominent historians explaining events and had a famous cast of actors for the voices of famous historical figures, but I found it very boring to watch still images of historical documents being read by voice actors or renowned historians popping up to give history lectures. If I had watched something like this before the digital age, I probably would have not been as bored, so I admit my criticism is about how I have changed and not solely about Burns’ documentary.

A shorter version of this presented in a couple podcasts would have been much more enjoyable for me, than to sit there looking at the TV screen with little action beyond actors reading famous quotes and letters and historians giving history lectures. I rewatched, the 2000 movie, The Patriot, recently and I sat there for almost three hours and never had my attention wander for a minute. Watching the Burns documentary, I fell asleep during the first episode, tried the second episode the next night and fell asleep again, then I gave up.

I’ve found some good history podcasts that are engaging and I think Burns’ presentation would have worked better shortened as a podcast. And since Burns is very energized about the Trump policy to end federal subsidies for NPR and PBS, well, he got involved in partisan politics when doing interviews about this documentary, which was unfortunate.. I would be willing to bet most of the people ranting about “we must save PBS” could not stay focused through six 2-hour episodes of this documentary. I love early American history, but I struggled to sit there staring at the TV screen with nothing much happening – lectures and still images. I can guarantee if teachers use this 6 part documentary to teach kids about the American Revolution almost every kid will lose interest quickly.

Giving this negative review on Burns’ documentary isn’t about politics or his expertise as a producer of documentaries, it’s more I think times have changed and I’ve changed. I am working to become a better listener, to improve my attention span listening to audiobooks. I am working to improve my attention span reading written material too, since I know digital media has impaired my attention span with reading. That said I should probably have downloaded the PBS app on my cell phone and tried to listen to this documentary with ear buds, while working on some craft project. I would have stayed awake that way, even if my mind likely would have drifted at times.

And that I’ve spent more time thinking about what would have improved my chances of staying awake through 12 hours of a much-hyped PBS extravaganza probably tells a story in itself about why PBS is not the wave of the future to educate young people.

Oh, one other annoying thing about this PBS app I added to my streaming menu is there was a list of other highly-acclaimed Ken Burns documentaries offered, but most of them require a PBS passport subscription – so you have to pay for them. Something feels wrong about calling it “public broadcasting” & then Americans have to pay for access to some of it, yet then supporters of public funding counter with the argument only a tiny amount of its costs are from government funding. I felt like even “public broadcasting” gets you coming or going – tax dollars and subscription services.

Despite my disappointment with this Burns documentary, I am still enthused about celebrating America’s 250 Anniversary,

I loved reading the John Jakes American Revolution series during the American Bicentennial and I hope to read those again, as part of my personal 250th American Anniversary celebration. I don’t know what on earth happened to my paperback set, but I remember using babysitting money to buy each one. My Hoopla via my local library has the entire series and I already added them to my favorites list,

FYI, I have found some very good history podcasts by Wondery , especially their American History Tellers and Tides of History series.

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Filed under American History, General Interest

November 5, 2025 · 12:12 pm

Hollywood nuclear fearmongering strikes again.

I’ve been neglecting my blog, but I’m still here. Last week I saw mention of a Netflix thriller, A_House_of_Dynamite, so I watched it. As someone who has been pondering nuclear threats since I was 19 years old, I was curious to see how this movie portrayed a potential nuclear missile strike on America and also see what all the online hype was about.

The threats of a nuclear strike and/or nuclear exchange are gravely serious threats, but this movie was all high drama and fearmongering, to no real purpose. Anytime a movie on war of any kind comes out, all sorts of experts dissect every aspect of the plot and will point out all the technical or procedural errors that aren’t realistic, but where this movie failed is at the most basic storytelling level.

This movie thrummed with high emotion and fast-moving dramatic scenes, as a missile is detected on course to impact in mid-America. As scenes flit by, the leaders at the highest levels in our national security apparatus try to intercept that missile, but each attempt fails and the tension escalates. Then, as it’s down to waiting for the missile strike to impact the movie ends.

Being 65 yrs old now and not 19, I wasn’t terrified; I sat there disgusted. A story with no ending is a total failure as a story. Stories can have good endings, bad endings, cliffhangers, unsatisfying endings, but this movie had no ending. I felt shamelessly manipulated.

The online chatter was that leaving you wondering was the point of the movie, but you’re left not knowing if it was a nuclear missile or not. You’re left not knowing who launched that missile. You’re left not knowing what the President did, if anything. You’re left sitting there at the most critical part not knowing anything… then the credits rolled.

Arguments about whether this movie was realistic or an accurate portrayal of a possible nuclear strike are beside the point, Arguments that “not knowing” was the point to make you think, without giving you enough information to form any sort of rational conclusion, What you are left clearly knowing is this movie deliberately played on your emotions and stoked fear to the max about a subject that invokes gut-wrenching fear in most people, then failed to do what every good story does – deliver some sort of ending. Viewers were deliberately led on a fear-inducing rollercoaster ride, then left stranded at the top.

The reality is, yes, nuclear weapons have the potential to destroy millions of people or even all of us, but reacting in fear isn’t going to do anything to lessen the threat of a nuclear attack or nuclear exchange. I think most people lack any understanding of nuclear weapons and what they believe is largely formed by media and Hollywood fearmongering…like this stupid movie.

The larger issue of nuclear strategy and actually with any military strategy is the type of weapons is really a secondary concern, because determining a threat from any other person, group or country is about people and what lies in their hearts. We would do better to focus more on understanding what leaders of adversarial countries think, what are their national interests and intentions and how do they view us rather than cower in fear about certain weapons systems. What happens with any weapon is always a people problem first.

Technology development drives the discussions on military strategy and national security, so while the nuclear threat always makes for a panic-inducing Hollywood plot, now that the Ukraine War led to rapid drone warfare innovation, assuredly, some movies will emerge hyping the alarming threat from drone swarms. So, I’m awaiting Hollywood movies hyping some sort of apocalyptic drone swarm attack soon, reminiscent of the Hitchcock movie, The Birds.

My larger concern about American national security isn’t about any specific weapons system; it’s about the rising level of disunity in America. This growing disunity, stoked by hyper-partisanship, with politicians, media and social media being 24/7 sirens of outrage, concerns me more than the thought of nuclear war. While our strategic experts toss about techno mumbo jumbo, our leaders are actually leading the charge at fomenting more disunity. THAT should leave every American alarmed, because every single American sees signs of this growing disunity every single day

A country, or even a community,, where the people are divided into hostile factions and don’t speak to each other, aren’t going to be able to organize and work together in any crisis. So, regardless of whatever super-duper weapons we have, if we are not united by any common beliefs and values, we are defenseless in a real crisis. I’ll stick to my long-held belief that what evil lies in the hearts of man is the greatest threat over any weapons system.

America can face an existential threat due to factors that have nothing to do with high-tech weaponry, like nuclear missiles. A string of terrible decisions to transform America, that lead to cascading catastrophic outcomes and leaders who won’t work together is already in motion. This happened in Mao’s China, where Mao’s reform policies for the Great Leap Forward, resulted in the starvation and death of tens of millions of people. Our adversaries don’t have to launch nuclear missiles at us, when they are already aggressively working every day to foment more divides, in tandem with trying to cripple our critical infrastructure.

I still believe the most important things any of us can do to improve our odds of surviving any catastrophe are getting to know our neighbors and being willing to offer a helping hand . Being willing to work together is the most powerful self-defense “weapon” all of us possess. It doesn’t cost billions of dollars or require any government program – all people need to do is make being a good neighbor a top priority. One good deed or overture of goodwill can lead to a groundswell of change.

This is the most important thing we can all do to be prepared for any disaster and it’s definitely more constructive than sitting there cowering in fear worrying about nuclear weapons.

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Filed under General Interest, Military, The Media

September 10, 2025 · 12:27 am

What’s in a name?

This blog post is going to be about “What’s in a name?”

As a frequent critic of the feminization of the US military since the 1980s, a critic of PC permeating the US military in the 1990s & early 2000s, and more recently of the US military going Woke, it might sound bizarre that I vehemently oppose renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

I hate lying.

Trump’s #1 selling point of the “rebrand” of the Department of Defense to the Department of War is predicated on a lie about US military history. The US military did not “go Woke” when the name was changed from the Department of War to the Department of Defense.

In fact, the leaders who led America to victory in WWII are the very architects of our post-WWII military structure and the formation of our Department of Defense. They were NOT Woke, they were serious and brilliant national security and military thinkers, who wanted to make sure that America was never again unprepared for war.

America’s Department of War was not prepared for war when we entered WWI or WWII. This is an historical fact, that every CINC and Secretary of Defense should know and it’s the entire predicate for our Peace Through Strength national security transformation after WWII.

So, I ended up fighting mad, honestly, after I saw some Hegseth Pentagon videos on X and I watched President Trump’s announcement of the Department of War “rebrand.” Their explanations to sell the “rebrand” are based on lies about US military history and I don’t know if it’s because they’re clueless nincompoops or just thought this sounded slick and tough.

What Trump said in this announcement is convoluted and untrue. The truth is that prior to the post-WWII establishment of the Department of Defense, America was NOT prepared for war, even though we had a Department of War. America entered WWI unprepared and undersized. General John J Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Force in WWI had to rapidly mobilize, build and train a US force and arm them. America demobilized after WWI and at the beginning of WWII, our Department of War was again unprepared for war.

WWII produced some of the finest US military leaders in our country’s history and one of them, often referred to as the “Architect of Victory, ” General George C. Marshall, who ran the war, was dedicated to assuring that America was never unprepared for war again. THAT is how the Department of Defense came into being. It was a commitment to America having a military trained and prepared for war, as the best way to secure the peace. This was the beginning of America’s commitment to a Peace Through Strength national security policy.

Along with that comprehensive national security strategy and framework for our military transformation was a strong alliance structure with peaceful nations committed to the same goals. The creation of NATO became an integral piece of our national security framework and is America’s most important military alliance. The US military has over 75 years of leading and training with our NATO allies. Yet, NATO is another constant target of Trump disparagement and MAGA media spin efforts for the US to abandon. That Trump would want to trash NATO or MAGA idiots would drum up for the US to abandon NATO is insane and it would leave our military much weaker and be an America Alone policy, This “leave NATO” MAGA idiocy comes at the very time our adversaries, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are forming a closer economic and military alliance.

We would become weaker abandoning our most important military alliance, while our adversaries are strengthening theirs. How does that make any sense?

Hegseth tried to spin that George Washington, the commander of our Continental Army, who won the American Revolution set up the Department of War and America won every war until we changed to the Department of Defense, peddling this idea that the DOD name change was going Woke. Washington did want an American military prepared for war, and in the report pictured at the top, General Marshall too invokes Washington’s message. THAT is why he proposed America, finally, fulfill Washington’s recommendations, which had never been acted upon.

Yes, America won previous wars, but we incurred an enormous human cost in lives lost, due to not being prepared to field a highly trained and well-armed force. And Marshall believed that having a strong military prepared for war was our best deterrent to future wars – that is the very predicate of Peace Through Strength.

The book above, I have mentioned on my blog before and it’s one of my prized possessions. I found it in my teens and it’s the first thing I ever read about military strategy. I was hooked. General Marshall is one of my military heroes and to have his national security legacy mangled and twisted, by Trump, a draft-evader, hit me all wrong. Yes, Trump is a draft-evader – that is the truth.

MAGA world, which includes millions of vets and servicemembers, will blindly cheer on this sounding tough name change and they’ve bought into all of Trump’s MAGA spin, but the truth matters. Trump evaded the draft, knows nothing about military service or military strategy, and he twists military history, just like he twists facts, to suit his purpose. He is exactly like Bill and Hillary Clinton in this regard.

Trump twisted some General Pershing history to sell committing war crimes back in 2016, when he floated murdering ISIS family members as his plan to scare ISIS fighters into surrendering. General Pershing was another American military leader I admire. Interestingly, Pershing was so impressed by Captain George C. Marshall, in WWI, that he pulled him to work at G-3 and after the war he selected Marshall to serve as an aide-de-camp for 5 years. When WWII came along Marshall then went on to lead America’s military to winning the war. So, Trump has two big strikes in my book – he trashed Pershing’s legacy and now he trashed Marshall’s legacy.

The Trump administration facade of eliminating the Deep State has Hegseth talking about eliminating top generals, but the truth is Hegseth is totally unqualified to be Secretary of Defense or Secretary or War. He is not the Secretary of War; he’s the Secretary of Spin War. He puts together flashy videos and does beefcake poses, but his “warrior ethos” is hollow and all he’s done is create chaos inside the DOD. Cutting experienced generals and replacing them with Trump cronies or more FOX News celebs or Trump loyalists is not any way to build a stronger US military. I posted this on X:

The final YUGE hypocrisy is that Trump has hyped DOGE, DOGE and more DOGE, yet this big Department of War “rebrand” will cost billions of dollars and do absolutely nothing to build a stronger US military – all it does is sound tough. This is like little boys playing at war, not a serious comprehensive national security reform effort.

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Filed under American Character, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military

July 23, 2025 · 10:54 am

Mid-summer scorched earth spin war ramps up

Just so we’re clear about what’s going on in American politics right now – the spin information war has escalated and entered a new phase. Trump’s daily spin show from the White House has maneuvered away from Trump’s BIG Peace Deals show and is now pivoting to a full-scale, scorched earth spin effort to divert attention away from the promised release of the Jeffrey Epstein files back to retribution against the Trump/Russian Collusion political dirty trick architects.

Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump was throwing under the bus and dismissing the intel she provided on Iran’s nukes in March, has now morphed into the Russian Collusion truth-teller, exposing all the 2016 Democrat conspirators… MAGA world loves this stuff and right-wing media has gone all-in on ranting about the dreaded “Deep State”… again. Tulsi is back from being distrusted by Trump on intel to Trump giving her a starring role in this latest White House spin war offensive.

Trump wants the Epstein files circular filed – permanently.

FOX News, most of right-wing media, and especially the Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, have joined Trump and his White House’s full-court press spin war effort. Speaker Johnson started the House summer recess early to avoid voting on Democrat-backed bills pertaining to the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Democrats and liberal media went from trying to figure out where they went wrong with covering up Biden’s cognitive decline and Kamala Harris’s ill-fated campaign to smelling blood in the water with Trump’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein (yes, they were friends and there’s a pile of video of Trump & Epstein together and Trump talking about that friendship).

Recently, Trump faced backlash from a segment of his base, when his DOJ did not release the Epstein files and the much talked about Epstein list. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, claimed there’s actually no Epstein list even though she had publicly stating the list was on her desk for review. Trump is trying to con his base, by diverting them to a sideshow promising “accountability” for the Russian Collusion hoax architects, even promising prosecutions, and let it be said, Trump knows his base’s love of chasing after Deep State evil-doers…

I don’t care one iota about the Epstein files, nor do I believe Tulsi Gabbard is acting in good faith with the release of all these new Russian Collusion documents and the criminal referrals of some prominent former FBI and intelligence officials. I believe this is all a political sideshow to divert attention away from the Epstein files and try to unite the MAGA base around destroying the “Deep State” – again.

America’s spin war is in high-gear again and we, the American people are just being manipulated by partisans on both sides.

The truth is powerful Democrats, like former President Bill Clinton, were close friends with Jeffrey Epstein and with Donald J. Trump. Trump is not a conservative, not honest, and despite right-wing media waxing on with endless “lists” of Trump’s amazing successes in the first six months of this term, things for America aren’t all going great. In fairness, things aren’t all going terrible either and most of us will just go about our everyday lives, regardless what’s going on in Washington.

Trump’s big tariff plan did not produce all these great deals for America by the beginning of July, as Trump promised, but never fear, Trump announced new tariffs, which will be followed by more conditions and amounts adjusted all based on Trump’s whims.

Trump is still appeasing Putin by giving Putin 50 more days to wage his summer offensive against Ukraine rather than impose harsher sanctions. Trump is also appeasing the thugs in Tehran by insisting he’s going to cut some nuclear deal with them and then the Iran problem is solved. This is delusional thinking, despite the success of the US bombing raid of nuclear sites in Iran. Iran will try to rebuild their nuclear weapons program and they are still aiding and abetting terrorists in the region. Here’s a story from a week ago: Yemen intercepts record number of Iranian weapons bound for Houthis, U.S. CENTCOM says.

The hold-up to peace in the Ukraine War is not Zelensky, it’s Putin, who invaded Ukraine and started this war. Putin still wants to seize control of Ukraine. Trump and many Americans have bought into lies about the Ukraine War sold by some prominent right-wing pundits, like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon. A basic fact, like Russia invaded Ukraine, should not be controversial. The world watched Russian troops mass on Ukraine’s border and invade, yet many in MAGA world believe Ukraine started the war.

Trump was pressured by Republicans in Congress and our NATO allies to approve more military aid for Ukraine. Trump’s finally admitting Russia invaded Ukraine and he approved more military aid, but he’s still hedging and giving Putin 50 more days. This is a duplicitous and incoherent American foreign policy.

Trump’s trip to the Mid-East in May was touted as a stunning foreign policy success, with him making huge deals. As part of those deals, to appease some of those ME leaders, Trump met with Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa: Trump meets with Syria’s interim president, a first between the nations’ leaders in 25 years. Trump recognizing Sharaa and lifting sanctions on Syria was hailed by both liberal and right-wing media and many political talking heads. On X, I disagreed with the US rushing to recognize this former terrorist and rushing to normalize relations with this new government in Syria. Trump’s approach to Sharaa is as delusional and misguided as Biden’s approach to the Taliban in Afghanistan. No matter how American politicians try to spin terrorist-led regimes, these leaders are not Thomas Jefferson in the making – they are still terrorists. Now jihadists in Syria are committing massacres of civilians and the Sharaa government is either too weak to control the jihadists or not inclined to deal with the jihadists.

My prediction is the “new” Syria will become a safe haven for radical jihadists, just like Taliban-led Afghanistan. Iran will rebuild and rearm. Putin will continue his aggression. And China is preparing to take action too.

Despite the right-wing media Trump cheerleading spin war effort or the liberal media Trump derangement spin war effort, I’m inclined to believe Trump’s BIG Peace efforts notwithstanding, unfortunately the world is headed toward larger conflicts

And America is still mired in a crazy spin information war being played out across the American media spectrum.

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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Information War, Politics

May 30, 2025 · 1:48 pm

Having more doesn’t equal happiness

Minimalism has become a trendy lifestyle in recent years, but as with most things in America, the people promoting it, also have books or promote other products to get you started on your decluttering journey. I am slowly working to declutter, in several areas of my life, not only the material stuff.

After making good progress on decluttering in my house, I slipped up last week when I watched some adult coloring videos on YouTube. Being drawn to the pretty florals, I recently purchased the adult coloring book with Bible verses and a “sticker-by-number” book (photo above) at Ollie’s.

The sticker-by-number seemed simple enough, but alas it takes precision and I ended up needing to use a curved tweezers to get all these small stickers in the correct spots. Luckily, I bought a precision tweezers set for my diamond painting craft projects a year or so ago.

For the adult coloring book I pulled out some colored pencils and markers from years ago when I purchased an adult coloring book for my late husband. I had hoped coloring might help him keep his mind active and help his manual dexterity with his advancing dementia. That effort was a total fail, because he had no interest in it. I even bought a coloring book with cuss words, thinking since he was a grunt, who cussed a lot, he’d find it funny.

The point of this tale is I already had supplies on hand to color in my new coloring book, but enter YouTube where I watched some “colorists” is what some of them refer to themselves. They turn coloring book pages into amazing artistic creations. Along with explaining the shading, blending and other technical advice to transform these coloring books into works of art, comes all the special supplies they recommend. And I felt myself getting sucked down another hobby shopping trap. I try to avoid all videos that have “haul” in the title, because invariably something will catch my eye and next thing you know I’m adding it to my Amazon wish list, but how-to videos usually have supply lists too.

Fortunately, I stopped after buying some more coloring books, a better quality colored pencil set (not the best, that’s for sure), a set of moderately-priced alcohol markers (not Copic) and a few other small supplies, like a new pencil sharpener and a precision tip eraser.

YouTube can be a consumerism hellscape, with almost everyone selling you stuff with their sponsors and the products they talk about. Luckily, a video about how social media is ruining every hobby showed up in my YouTube feed last night. This young lady made some very good points about how many of us fall into buying too many products based on social media or other online advertising, especially when it comes to hobbies. She explained that many people fall into overconsumption, some even buy stuff only to use for their own video content to share online, wanting to be part of online communities.

I spent years working in a Walmart Supercenter, so I’ve seen it all with people’s buying habits and I’m also well aware of my own temptations to buy too many craft and sewing supplies. The astronomical amount of consumer debt Americans keep racking up, shows that overconsumption is a serious behavioral problem in a culture awash in mountains of consumer goods everywhere we look. Being a reluctant online shopper in the early years of the internet, it’s amazing how quickly I, along with most people, adapted to online shopping.

More stuff does not lead to happiness.

I thought my issues with modern life made me a freak, but realize I’m not alone. Too much online scrolling is detrimental to my attention span and I feel a twinge of anxiety with too many choices with these streaming services, often choosing to turn off the TV, after several minutes of scrolling options and not being able to decide.

A psychologist, Barry Schwartz, wrote a book, The Paradox of Choice, explaining the research into what we believe about choice and what the reality is. Most people believe having more choices equals freedom and that freedom leads to happiness. However, the research indicates that there’s a certain level of choice that people are comfortable with, but too many choices lead to what economist, Fred Hirsh, termed the “tyranny of small decisions.” Too many choices require more and more of our time and energy. And people with many choices express less satisfaction with their choice. when compared to people who were offered fewer choices.

It’s easy to start believing “if only” we have all these new gadgets and gizmos our own projects will turn out as amazing as what we see online. The same goes for clothes, make-up, home decor, etc. and in turn we believe we’ll be happier. Long before the internet, I realized more craft and needlework supplies didn’t lead to more projects getting completed or happiness. It led to more time being wasted sifting through too many supplies, too much time wasted deciding on what project to work on and worst of all starting too many projects and ending up with a growing pile of “WIPs” (works in progress).

Online crafting & needlework communities abound with content of people waxing on about all their WIPs and showing all the ways they work to manage their mountains of WIPs. Working on fewer projects and focusing on completing those, before starting more, is a much more efficient and less stressful way to actually get more projects completed. This applies to almost any tasks you embark on. If you start too many tasks at the same time, you’ll likely end up with very few completed tasks and feel more stress.

Hopefully, I caught myself before going too crazy buying “adult coloring supplies.” This morning I was just thinking about this, because as kids, my siblings and I, just shared our container of crayons. New crayons got tossed in that container over the years and none got thrown away. We happily colored without a mountain of special supplies. So, while I await the arrival of my $32 Ohuhu, 80 color, adult beginner alcohol marker set from Amazon, I pulled out the Crayola markers, some Sharpie markers my son left here and various colored pencils and pens in my scrapbook/journaling supplies and just started coloring.

It’s doubtful I’ll ever become an amazing “colorist” or artist, but I enjoy dabbling and find it relaxing. I’m also trying to learn how to draw and watching an artist, Danny Gregory, on his Sketchbook Skool YouTube channel. My first adult coloring page:

Sure, I want to learn some better shading and blending techniques, but most of all I just want to relax and enjoy coloring as much as I did when I was a kid… when we made do with what we had.

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May 15, 2025 · 2:54 pm

Who’s winning the American spin war?

Do you have two different sets of rules for Democrats and Republicans? That’s on vivid display in American news media presently. It’s on display among our elected leaders, in both parties too. Are moral clarity and consistency just old-fashioned notions?

First up, let’s look at CNN and Jake Tapper:

Now that Biden shuffled off the political stage, it’s safe for big name liberal journalists to write “shocking” details about how serious Biden’s cognitive decline was. This requires us to play along and pretend selective amnesia. These liberal journalist frauds aggressively ran Dem spin narratives to help cover-up Biden’s cognitive decline. They worked to discredit right-wing media reporting on Biden’s cognitive decline while Biden was in office.

Now that it’s politically safe, some of them are trying to cash in penning books on what they actively covered up. Their liberal media friends are yapping up this old news, as if this is some bombshell reporting. This reporting mattered when Biden was in office and liberal media ran Dem spin ops – like calling right-wing reporting “cheap fakes”… Guess we can all see who the real “cheap fakes” are now.

One can only wonder if, at this late date, Tapper cracked the mystery into this CNN story from July 2024, Parkinson’s specialist met with Biden’s physician at the White House earlier this year, records show. :

“Dr. Kevin Cannard, a neurologist at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, met with White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor at the White House in mid-January, according to White House visitor logs.”

“Cannard has visited the White House three times this year, according to the visitor logs: A January 17 meeting with O’Connor, and with another staffer on January 26 and March 28. Cannard has visited the White House at least eight times over the past year, according to the logs, beginning late July 2023 and ending with the March 28 meeting. Only the January 17 meeting lists O’Connor as the person who was visited.”

This same discredited liberal news media crowd now want to breathlessly report on Trump’s questionable behavior and potential corruption. And yes, there is Trump questionable behavior and potential corruption, but the liberal news media has zero credibility left.

Trump’s on a splashy Middle East tour with mega-wealthy US business leaders and grabbing headlines, as the Saudis and Qataris strike huge deals with some big American companies. Along with the deals, Trump’s being feted like he’s the King of the World, because the Saudis and Qataris know how to cater to Trump’s ego – lot of flash, lots of gold and the Qatari government wants to gift Trump with a $400 million plane that Trump wants to use as Air Force One. Aside from the massive security concerns with the POTUS flying around in a plane coming from a country, that is a major sponsor of terrorism, there’s no getting around that this is a bribe from the Qatari government. Trump wanting to accept this gift tells the entire world what his asking price is. Trump can try to spin this into it’s a gift to the American people or to the Air Force, but it’s a gift specifically picked to appeal to Trump’s ego – nothing else and it’s totally inappropriate for him to accept this plane. Qatar has allowed Hamas leaders to live in their country and has aided and abetted Islamist terrorism.

When it comes to double standards, Hillary Clinton chimed in on X to express her outrage about the Qatari plane offer, only to have her hypocrisy pointed out:

So, next let’s look at right-wing news media and it’s easy to find criticism about the liberal media years late reporting on Biden’s cognitive decline, but you won’t find much in the way of honest discussion about Trump’s actions. FOX News is a 24/7 Trump cheerleading channel. Most of the right-wing media and pundit class go quiet rather than criticize Trump, as do Republicans in Congress. If any of them dare counter Trump’s policy on anything, the MAGA pundit crowd quickly charges forth with their pitchforks, amid rallying cries that that Congressman or Senator needs to be banished from the GOP in their next primary. The MAGA GOP doesn’t want an inclusive party that allows differing views. They want everyone to blindly go along with whatever Trump decrees right now and when Trump changes his mind two hours from now, they’re supposed to pretend he never made the previous decree and just go with the new Trump decree.

There are some independent news media organizations, but none of them have a huge reach that they can effectively counter the still raging spin information war in America. Liberal (formerly called mainstream or legacy) media lost credibility running the Dem spin information war since the 1990s and Trump defeated them by winning the election in 2024, It was their own dishonesty and hypocrisy that destroyed their credibility.

Right-wing media and pundits currently dominate the spin information war in America-and it’s as thoroughly corrupt and dishonest as the decades of Dem-run spin information war. In the meantime, American media is ripe for hostile foreign information operations to exploit our serious information void caused by unchecked political and media corruption.

We’re watching one major political party in America and their media allies trying to rebuild from the ashes, when their epic corruption fueled by their spin information war burned their credibility to the ground. The MAGA GOP is on a Trump high and right-wing-media and pundits climbed aboard the turbo-charged MAGA spin information war. The MAGA crash will come too, I suspect, and then they’ll sound just like the Dems and liberal media sound now – like total hypocrites and frauds.

That’s our political and media information ecosystem on both sides – corrupt and shameless partisan hacks, who lie to the American people 24/7.

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Filed under General Interest, Information War, Politics

May 6, 2025 · 11:46 am

Early warning signs are flashing

Among the China experts there has been broad consensus that China intends to seize control of Taiwan and to displace US as the world trade leader. For years we’ve been hearing about China’s Belt and Road initiative to develop trade relations in more than 150 countries since 2013. China has been investing heavily in Central and South America (our own hemisphere).

Following on my previous post – the what ifs. China has been working hard to advance its economic influence globally for more than a decade and now is trying to advance its military influence too. Who is going to look like the strong horse, with the Trump administration offering nothing except Trump whining about America being ripped off and making extreme tariff threats, that will decimate the economies of , not only our adversaries, but also our allies?

It’s one thing to try extreme hostile takeovers with companies, but countries don’t react exactly like businesses, because countries have vital national interests like their people’s prosperity and their vital security interests. Most countries will gravitate toward bolstering relations with stronger countries who offer reliability and stability and avoid chaos or unreliable countries.

America’s #1 selling point post-WWII has been we offer stability and reliability, especially with world trade. We secure international shipping and NATO has been vital to that effort, but Trump has attacked NATO repeatedly and there’s a loud MAGA crowd who keep pushing for the US to abandon NATO, our most vital military alliance. Trump constantly threatening NATO weakens America’s position as a reliable security partner, because if our POTUS can turn on the partners of our own most vital military alliance, who won’t he turn on?

America alone isn’t a smart national security path.

On April 2nd Trump launched his “Liberation Day” salvo of unilaterally hitting over 100 countries (many our closest allies) with 10% tariffs, all while whining about American victimhood. MAGA world wallows in American victimhood and yet believes this is being strong… Trump’s tariffs amounts aren’t based on any sort of logical trade imbalance formula – they are based on his whims. MAGA world may believe Trump is invincible or America’s savior, but other countries have their own leaders and their own interests. They will find ways to circumvent and neutralize Trump’s one-man wrecking ball trade war and all Americans will feel that blowback, I expect.

Beijing will look like a more rational actor than Trump’s daily Truth Social crap posts and daily tariff threats. He’s now threatening 100% tariffs on foreign movies and while he fixates only on how things play in his domestic spin war against the liberal media and Dems, other world leaders are watching his behavior and assessing their own national interests and deciding which world leaders are more reliable.

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May 3, 2025 · 2:43 pm

Storm clouds ahead or smooth sailing for Trump’s trade war?

Media noise, of every political persuasion, abounds with Trump’s second administration. Many Americans choose to listen to only news that aligns with their partisan views, which is living with narrow blinders on. It may feel safe and comfortable to only hear things that bolster your preconceived beliefs and views, but this also requires a lot of lying to yourself when it comes to politicians, because the truth is they all skirt the truth and most outright lie – a lot. If you believe your preferred political leader is the greatest and the other side’s is the worst, well, sorry you are living in a dream world.

Biden was obviously not altogether there, as even his supporters and liberal media now admit and his administration made many terrible decisions, but be prepared, because Trump and his loyal media sphere lie a lot too and Trump’s tariff plan explanations keep changing constantly.

Kitchen table issues quickly cut through to reality and this post isn’t a for or against Trump blog post, it’s about the reality of waging war – any kind of war and strategy.

I hate lying and Trump is like almost all other politicians – he lies a lot. Liberal media made it a point to parse and twist many things Trump said to portray it as lies as a daily part of their reporting during Trump’s first term and their exaggerations led to backlash and helped Trump’s 2024 campaign.

So, where does the rubber meet the road on Trump’s tariff plan. Trump insists that any trade deficit means that country is ripping us off and this is his belief. He initially launched his tariff plan as a trade war on April 2, 2025 with a Rose Garden ceremony touting American Liberation Day and a 10% tariff on all US imports – affecting trade with over 100 countries.

He has bobbed and weaved when the global stock market plunge occurred and many unanticipated negative reactions began to hit – so he paused his worldwide tariff attack.. He believed in a shock and awe type of overwhelming attack without anticipating that other countries do have and will play their own cards. He believes that America can unilaterally hold world trade hostage to his demands and that this is going to Make America Great Again. It’s a poorly planned strategy, that you don’t even need to understand all the intricacies of world trade to understand is flawed. It’s most obvious flaw is he has no contingency plans for negative responses or for how other countries might not just acquiesce to his hostage-taking gambit. He assumes that his bold threats will force all these other countries to grovel and accept his terms. His own top trade advisors tell varying stories about the tariff plan almost every day.

World trade is a complex system with so many variables that impact it and Trump hasn’t considered any of those complexities. He believes that he can strongarm the entire world trade system to operating on only America’s terms, without considering that by upending the entire world trade system, many countries may choose to start looking toward China and their BRICS alliance as a more stable and predictable trading partner than Trump’s ever-evolving tariff edicts.

Acting like America is a victim all the time is a very weak position, but Trump has sold his supporters on believing that America is a victim and can only be great with his big plans. It’s absurd, but most of his loyal supporters buy into this America victimhood story Trump peddles.

The realities of his one-man show trade war, which he started on April 2nd are starting to penetrate. On April 30th Trump made this cavalier comment about kids might have to make so with 2 dolls, instead of 30 and they might cost a few dollars more. CEOs of major companies have rushed to try to talk Trump down from this tariff cliff he’s put America on, where sky-high prices and shortages are looming and his April 30th comment seems to reflect his growing awareness, but he chose to believe in an overly simplistic, grandiose tariff strategy that was more like a hostile US takeover of the world trade system that overwhelmingly favors us already and we set-up. Instead of focusing on the unfair trade practices of China, he chose to target over 100 countries on April 2nd with his blanket 10% tariff idea. He wasted enormous political capital attacking our nearest trading partners, Mexico and Canada.

Are Americans ready to pay a couple dollars more on, not only dolls, but on necessities too? Are they prepared for widespread shortages? It’s unlikely this trade war will end before some of the unanticipated negative reactions hit US consumers. Just like during the pandemic small businesses will feel the pinch faster and be less likely to weather the storm. Poorer Americans have less of a budget cushion to weather economic hard times.

Rest assured though, the Trump family is as much about profiting off of Trump’s presidency as the Bidens, Obamas, and Clintons. Don Jr. announced the opening of an exclusive club, Executive Branch, in DC. He’s a co-founder and the membership fee is $500,000. The Trump family company also announced a luxury golf resort deal in Qatar. This is the truth.

Both sides of partisans look to paint the other side in the most negative manner and I am admittedly not a Trump fan, but I voted for Trump in 2024, hoping for Trump to close the border and to have better economic policy. I didn’t expect Trump to sell Putin talking points on Ukraine and repeatedly lie, blaming, Ukraine for starting the war. Russia invaded Ukraine, a sovereign country, that the US had signed an agreement to protect from Russian aggression. Trump has now pivoted back to sounding tougher on Putin, but his first instinct was to suck up to Putin. This matters, because he also talks about Xi as his friend, but China has a long-term strategy to take control of Taiwan and to replace America as the world economic leader.

Trump’s trade war might have just unintentionally handed China their strongest hand to convince other countries that doing business with them is more predictable and stable than dealing with Trump’s ever-changing tariffs based on his whims. Rest assured if Trump’s tariff plan backfires he will lie about it and blame other countries or some of his advisors. He only claims credit when he looks like a winner, otherwise he will throw other people or other countries under the bus.

If Trump scores some stunning win and America comes out of his trade war stronger and the big winner, I will admit my gloomy concerns were completely wrong. Good thing I don’t need to buy a lot of dolls for Christmas and I have been pretty much sticking to my pandemic preparedness habit… although I have been looking through my food and supplies and deciding what things I should stock up a bit more on.

Trump started this trade war and that is a fact that Trump and MAGA world will try to spin away quickly, if prices quickly rise and shortages abound, as a direct response to Trump’s 145% tariff attack on China. Trump has no contingency plans for how the US is supposed to deal with dramatic price increases or shortages – NONE.

His comment about make do with 2 dolls, instead of 30, and pay more is exactly how leftists, like Bernie Sanders, talk and it’s very close to the mindset of the neo-feudalist elites, who propose we will own nothing and be happy.

The bottom-line for most Americans is we will just have to muddle through whatever the fall-out from Trump’s trade war is. My prediction is his ill-conceived trade war will quickly begin to overshadow all the good policies he actually ran on. There won’t be any quick course correction that can mitigate many of the negative economic impacts already in motion.

I expect many loyal MAGA supporters to start repeating whatever diverting blame spin, which the White House and Trump pundit circle will churn out quickly. The truth is Trump started this trade war with a unilateral tariff attack on the rest of the world. It wasn’t targeted to only America’s adversaries – it was against our allies too. It was a one-man show effort to topple the world trade system and replace it with some new system and it’s based on simplistic slogans and Trump bragging – that’s it. He might collapse the world trade system, but he has no real strategy for a new world trade system or even a plan for how America is supposed to weather the present fall-out, which he should have anticipated. He thinks in grandiose big ideas based on mindless slogans, without any comprehension of the complexities.

That’s my doom and gloom take. People who love Trump will say all the reporting is hyped to cause Trump to fail and cause hysteria. People who hate Trump will say he’s Hitler. My take is he’s an extreme narcissist with the maturity level of a 12 year-old and he easily gets swayed by people who sell BIG dreams to him. I hoped he would be surrounded by adults this time around, but when a crackpot like Laura Loomer was granted a half-hour Oval Office meeting to hand him dirt to sink the NSA advisor, well, that was the wake-up call for me – the old Trump is the same as the new Trump. The more disciplined Trump is a mirage.

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April 25, 2025 · 2:46 pm

Three months in and my alarm bell is already ringing

My last politics blog post was at the end of February and it was about President Trump’s Ukraine peace deal. Here we are at the end of April and President Trump’s peace deal keeps shifting, but he’s not any closer to sealing a peace deal in Ukraine than he was when he started. This post isn’t intended to attack Trump, it’s about the reality of the situation in Ukraine, which Trump keeps either misunderstanding or lying about.

Russia started this war and there is absolutely nothing Putin or the Kremlin has said to indicate they have changed their goals when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 22, 2022. Putin is still busily cutting deals with friendly countries for more military materiel and even troops to continue the war he started.

Trump and a sizable part of the right-wing media sphere continually lie about the war in Ukraine, shifting blame to Zelensky and Ukraine for starting this war, which is a total lie. Putin intended the three-pronged invasion of Ukraine to allow Russia to decapitate the Ukrainian government in Kiev. Why Trump and right-wing media have deliberately amplified this Russian lie about how the war started, by shifting blame to Ukraine, I can’t answer, but it is a total lie. Even influential right-wing media figures like, Tucker Carlson, became loud voices selling the Kremlin talking points.

Putin failed to decapitate the Ukrainian government and this war has dragged on for over three years and, of course, Trump is right about the carnage, but wars don’t stop just because there’s a lot of killing. If Putin cared about all the killing, he wouldn’t have started this war and he certainly wouldn’t be striking deals with North Korean to surge in thousands of North Korean troops into the Ukraine war to fight for Russia. This Russian move broadened the war bringing troops from an Asian country into a European war, but Trump and right-wing media once again sold the Kremlin line blaming Ukraine and NATO for broadening the war.

The Trump takes on Ukraine consistently peddle lies and just a couple days ago Trump was once again trying to blame Zelensky for starting the war and being the impediment to peace. Then Putin ramped up attacks in Ukraine and Trump desperately posted a pathetic message on Truth Social:

Trump sounds weak and like he’s pleading with a stronger leader. He does not sound like the leader of the free world or like he’s up to dealing with all the challenges Putin, Xi and the despots in Iran are planning to take down America and The West.

The best US course for America remaining a world leader, who can really wield influence, would be to stop attacking Ukraine, stop attacking our NATO allies and stop threatening the economic security of OUR ALLIES, but I don’t expect any of this from Trump. I expect more reactionary moves based on which idiot around him catches his attention and convinces him their idea is brilliant.

We are in for a rocky time with this level of dysfunction in the WH following on 4 years of the epic Biden administration dysfunction. Our adversaries have an uninterrupted free field to operate in, because America is still AWOL.

When Trump selected his Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, it was reported that she took the position on the condition she would be allowed to keep the crazies out of the Oval Office. On April 5th conspiracy nutcase, Laura Loomer, had a 30 minute meeting in the Oval Office with Trump, Vance and NSC Mike Waltz. CNN reported, White House advisers have kept Laura Loomer at bay for months. Then, Trump invited her in:

“President Donald Trump arranged for far-right activist Laura Loomer to join him in the Oval Office this week for an extraordinary meeting that preceded a shake-up of his national security leadership, two sources familiar with their meeting told CNN.”

“Their sit-down came after Loomer reached Trump by phone, the sources told CNN. As a result of their call, Trump instructed staff to invite her to the White House, the sources added.”

“Within 24 hours of their meeting, the administration had fired the director and deputy director of the National Security Agency, the United States’ powerful cyber intelligence bureau, as well as staff members on the National Security Council. Loomer had advocated for their dismissal during her conversation with Trump, CNN previously reported.”

Any mention of Russian disinformation will fall on deaf ears among the MAGA right, because of the corrupt Dem and liberal media efforts to peddle Russian collusion bs. in Trump’s first administration, but the reality is the Kremlin really is working to spread disinformation in America, like they’ve done since the 1920s and they target all political factions in America. They’ve found solid footing in the MAGA right though and Trump swallows all of it pertaining to Ukraine unfortunately.

This latest chaos inside the NSA helps our adversaries, since the NSA is in charge of US cybersecurity. That some kook like Laura Loomer has this much sway over the POTUS should alarm any American with a functioning brain, but in MAGA world, the reaction is usually to embrace the kooks and people with no actual credentials or expertise on national security and attack the people who have real credentials and expertise. In fact, not having any real experience is a top selling point in MAGA world – sure let’s put people with no knowledge and no experience in charge of running US government agencies that are vital for national security…

Only crazy people would start hobbling US cybersecurity efforts or create chaos in those vital agencies, when the Russians and Chinese are ramping up their cyber attacks against us, but that is what is happening in the Trump administration.

I’ll stop here. America is no safer with Trump in office than it was with the cabal running the Biden administration – that is where I stand three months into this new administration. And my alarm bell is ringing loudly already that our adversaries smell blood in the water and will act sooner rather than later. In fact, I believe this MAGA “influencer” effort against US cybersecurity officials and programs is likely connected to our adversaries setting the stage now.

I might write about this RAND opinion piece soon – Could China’s U.S. Spies Conduct Physical Sabotage in a Conflict?– once my nerves calm down from thinking that Trump takes Laura Loomer’s advice seriously – really, just think about that…

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