Occupation of Independence

 There certainly are real news events happening everyday that are worth paying attention to.  But from another point of view, specific events are not strategic.  The over-arching strategy of the Adelson-Trump-Netanyahu regime is to get Americans used to the idea that militarized goons working for Washington DC are entitled to use IDF (Israeli Defense Force) tactics and methods both outside and inside America. Once IDF methods come to be seen as normal law enforcement methods, then the genocide in Gaza will not even be news anymore.  That would be  the Promised Land  for Adelson-Trump-Netanyahu. In the meantime I need to think about something pleasant, like the wettest winter in years, in the Arizona desert: Here is a nice scene in central Utah that has nothing to do with this post:

 When following the news it is natural to become angry or discouraged.  There is nothing wrong in looking for comfort.  Human beings are not infinitely strong.  Once again I ran to the Battle of Midway as a way to keep from spiraling down into despair because of current news.      This is not an endorsement for permanent escapism.  Yes, the Battle of Midway.  You can find books, movies, and documentaries, sometimes for free on You Tube if you use the Brave browser . What would be a good visual representation of what I am saying above?  In Arizona , it would be winter rain and grass carpeting the desert : Or it might be clouds and shadows :

 Should I buy a weedwhacker or lawnmower?  The southwestern desert is filling in with so much green grass-like vegetation!  There is supposed to be a secondary rainy season in the desert southwest, but you don't get it every year. But we are getting it this year.  The wild burros must be fattening up and feeling their animal spirits, if you know what I mean.  The gestation period for a burro is about 12 months, so next winter there should be quite a baby-boom of little burritos. My skin just feels so good with the moister air.  There is a challenge with all this greenery: letting it impress the hell out of you, despite it not being spectacular tourist scenery. It is almost humorous to me to imagine the dissatisfaction that Canadian (and Puget Sound) snowbirds must be feeling right now.  They don't understand what I am ranting about.  They came here to sit in a folding chair, and to wear their shorts and sandals, with the sun hitting their face! (...

 Now that You Tube is flooded with fake (AI) videos, people have to make a decision.  Are they going to waste their lives watching crap produced by a computer algorithm, or will they go back to books, the written word.  Of course the world of books isn't perfect either. I don't know if we can reasonably expect any improvements in the world of books .  But there are possible improvements in how we read.  Do you feel guilty unless you read the lumber from cover to cover?  Do you really benefit from 400 pages of verbiage about a topic, no matter how potentially interesting and important the topic is?  For the most part, reading is an unnatural and tedious way to kill time. But it has advantages. Perhaps reading should imitate what I have recently advertised about walking: that we need to 'unclench the fists' while walking; we need to forget about 'how far? and how fast?'; that we need to frolic like a dog, investigating an arroyo. Thinking along these ...