Occupation of Independence

So what happens now? Will there be an investigation of collusion between the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign with FBI employees and members of the Obama administration? I predict there won't be a forceful investigation; in part, because of fatigue, and in part because of the mild milquetoast-ness of many Republicans. But there may be a more sinister reason: perhaps they are afraid to investigate the FBI. The FBI's dirty tricks over the years would be brought to light, and besmirch the authority of the Central Government. And perhaps the FBI simply has too much dirt on politicians in both parties. It would be easy for it to get revenge against Congress. The FBI has the same position relative to the American Empire that the Praetorian Guard had to the Roman Empire, or the Janissaries had to the decaying Ottoman Empire. Although I feel no real rage towards the Gullibles (the competitors of the Deplorables) who believed the mainstream media feedi

The title of this post seems facetious, considering I am located in a small town that appears to have too many artists. But what kind of art? It is 'pretty' stuff that is bought by well-heeled matrons from the big city, to cover white spaces on the walls of their new McMansion. Cyootsie-wootsie and useless. And then, by chance, I ran across another type of art that really affected me. Recall Tolstoy's essay, "What is Art?", wherein he defines art as sounds, words, and pictures that transfer emotions from the artist to the viewer/audience. The cartoon was lifted out of LivingStingy.blogspot.com. I am not sure where he lifted it from, but at least the cartoon is signed. What an under-rated artist a cartoonist can be! Expect to see this cartoon show up again on Fourth of July and Veteran's Day posts.

It seems as though there are twice as many Arizona Trail walkers as there were last year. It has been cool and rainy, so none of them have had the silver umbrellas strapped to their backpacks that they've had in the past. I loved those para-sols. Taken as an individual thing, a parasol almost makes me sympathetic to what I call 'los peregrinos,' since that is the only way I can visualize somebody being motivated to pursue such a slow, plodding sport through so many miles of ghastly heat. Yes, peregrinos of the Church of the Holy Green. At least they fit in with the town. There is some mine exploration or cleanup of old mining areas in the vicinity. Most of the town dislikes the mining industry, and tried to stop it from reviving in the local mountains. I am the misfit in town, because I was pro-miner. Still, I can't say I enjoy sharing the narrow dirt roads with their big trucks. On the way back from today's ride, I could see a giant red dump truck approaching

This part of Arizona is crawling (literally) with caterpillars and poppies. Some moisture in the winter certainly has done this place some good. There seems to be a caterpillar monoculture right now. They are not particularly fun to look at; except for one thing. They crawl surprisingly fast across the roads and driveways. It's a good thing they do: it's a dangerous way to make a living!  Perhaps because of their high speed, dogs notice these caterpillars, and come up to investigate. The dogs do not harm the caterpillars; they just come up slowly and sniff at them. It's odd the way the caterpillar slams on the brakes and becomes completely motionless. In the past I've noticed rabbits playing the same trick on dogs. After 10 minutes or so, the caterpillar shifted into 'Drive' again. It was a close call for this little critter. Humble though they be, there is a drama to the situation. It seems that there must be some sort of drama, or at least motion

The other day Microsoft sent me a love letter notifying me of the end of their "support" of Windows 7 in January of 2020. Does that mean I should stop using my Windows 7 computer at that time?  Running to the Google empire is not such an attractive alternative. Google's original scheme with its Chromebooks was to get the user paying them annual rent for cloud storage, but more importantly, running algorithms on your data to find out how to target advertisments at every aspect of your life. Presumably, all of your data would be turned over to Washington DC spy and police agencies. Why would anyone need cloud storage? Have you seen how cheap storage is? You can carry it around in your pocket in the form of a thumbdrive or SD card. (Of course there are people who hoard terabytes of photos and videos. Presumably, they don't read this blog.) And you would need an unlimited data wireless (cellphone) plan if you were doing everything in the cloud. So I'm not sure