TL;DR: Even a broken VCR clock is right once a day and for sixty seconds. Well, I guess it should be thirty seconds. Ya know, because it’s blinking? So it’s right when it’s showing 12:00a every other second and a blank clock implies there’s no time and even though time is relative, it’s never not there, which means that when it’s dark, it’s still wrong.

Bet you’re wondering what the long version is, aren’t you?

WARNING: this is a non-partisan post and it is welcomed for fact checking. As this will likely alienate most of the public – as fact checking is now somehow offensive? – I expect most of you to wander off now, to find another red or blue likeminded place to visit, because it’s far safer to do that than trying to have an open mind these days.

I’m all for beating a dead horse six feet into the ground, but the righteous indignation of both parties is way, way past the point of sustainable human nature, much less civility.

At this point, I’m having a hard time reading the NYT and the WP. Why? Because if feels like I’m watching Fox News during the eight years of Obama’s terms. I’m not a Trump fan.
At all. I’m an independent that is conservative in economics while liberal in personal lifestyles; I want a strong separation of church and state, don’t care who marries who, and thinks governments are most effective when focused on the good of their republic. What I see hourly from both papers are relentlessly skewed. Does it sell papers? Sure. Is it in reaction to the endless attack from the White House? Yes, but it doesn’t make it right. The only hope I have is that I still see a retraction when they get something wrong, which is something the WH is incapable of doing. Regardless, when something becomes so completely one sided, do you continue to revel in it because its comfortable or do you start to say “wait a minute… why is everything so one side all the time?” When this happens, I have to start asking that question. I usually flip to the BBC to find a more balanced picture.

At this point, are we so quick to put another dent in the dead horse’s head that we stop believing reality and reviewing history? Example: Danger Yam did not invent the idea of sending the army in to help state governments prevent looting and violent protests. It’s happened 12 times in our nation’s history, most recently in 1992 [via Chicago Tribune]. He has not ordered the cities occupied. I know this because I read the transcript. Unless ABC News is borked, he has not said it which means people are speculating it and repeating someone’s speculation. Will he fuck up the situation and make it worse? Based off past actions, I’d guess yes. Not giving him the benefit of the doubt? Nope, because past actions dictate future actions. Will it lead to martial law? Almost certainly not. Would it be epic if the army actually joined a protest if they found it peaceful? It would be remarkable but extremely unlikely.

At this point, I’m starting to wonder if people think pointing out their outrage on Facebook is the best way forward. On a given day, I see people preparing for a victory lap for when Trump is re-elected or when Biden is elected. I see people “terrified” for the economy if Biden wins and people “terrified” if the last three years are repeated for the next four if Trump wins. I say “terrified” because I do wonder if people understand what real terror is. Like looking down the barrel of gun or being cuffed in the back of a cop car and seeing your future collapsing onto itself in a single point of light before everything goes dark, not knowing if recovery in the future is ever possible.

At this point, I’m starting to wonder if people shouldn’t be getting off their asses and doing something about things they are passionate about, right or left, red or blue, meat or vegan, instead of basking in the “digital political activism” that has the same reach that putting a bumper sticker on your car did. Want a change in your government? Sure, post about it. Watch “I’m Just a Bill” again for the refresher of how our government works. Then get going on itit. Petition your congressperson. Vote. Volunteer for your candidate. Start a social campaign of support, with a direction and goal to accomplish. Rally. Get on cable access TV to share your ideas. But for the love of all the gods, stop spitting on the fire and congratulating yourself for thinking you’re got something done.

At this point, I’ve realized that I’ve rarely been outraged by the same thing twice. Through my blog, I have been yelling at any public official doing a crappy job in the camera’s eye since 2001. I spit the outrage out and move on, usually to the next thing that’s out there. Were I outraged about the same thing over and over and over again, I would have started to work on fixing the problem because yelling at the wind does nothing but waste our collective oxygen.

For those of you that are active, this rant is not directed to you. In fact, I salute you and your real world efforts to make things different, if not better.

At this point, I wonder when King County will be able to redirect its energies on getting us out of COVID lockdown because I think there’s a shot of Phase 2, if we can apply before the numbers are impacted by having people packed in butts to nuts and without masks at all of the protest locations – that is a ticking timebomb waiting to spike all of the numbers.