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Saturday, July 18, 2020

Monsoons and some more politics...

by Rain Trueax



The monsoon season started in early June but then disappeared until this week when it returned with the thunder, lightning, and sporadic rains. We got a good rain from one of the storms, but the one with the most lightning only gave us a little. Both had come at night. One brought strong winds but worse other places than here as in knocked out power for 600+ homes. That's a concern when the temps are over 105ºF and why we have a small generator and a room a/c unit. Knowing such things happen when you live on a farm tends  to make you be prepared.  The room a/c wouldn't do much for the whole house but would let us sleep at night :).


What I love about these storms is their energy. It's nice when they come with heavy rains but then desert dwellers know they have to be wary of the roads that dip into washes. Regularly people drown in such storms. I used one in my contemporary romance, Desert Inferno, as a threat to the hero and heroine as they were on foot in the desert wilderness. 

Here's what you can run into with these 'dry' washes in the monsoon season. Cañada del Oro Wash. It is worse this year after the horrific fire.

Ahead some political (maybe that's what it is or is it cultural???); so fair warning  




I read a lot of newspaper and magazine articles. Right now, I only read free ones as I can't decide which newspaper would have unbiased stories. Sure not going to read the far right like WND or BritBart (if that's spelled right) but depending on the NYTimes to be unbiased is also a bridge too far for me. I used to read it before 2016 which was when I saw how it was treating Bernie Sanders when he wanted to be the nominee. The title would say one thing and the article something different but it might take 6 pages in to get the statement that the title was what they 'thought' was true with no proof.  How many read that far into stories?

So, I use sources like Politico or The Hill as well as Intercept or Vox. I generally read some of the UKMail and The Guardian. I trust little of what I read unless I can find the info other places. Our world today is full of information... just not all of it is true and a lot is opinion presented as fact.


Some of it amuses me. Like the tell-all by the President's niece, who clearly hates him even though there is a photo of her with a big smile sitting behind the resolute desk in 2017. Maybe her hate grew from his policies. I figured the ones buying it would be those already living with disdain for him, and so far I am proven right. They buy these books assuming they must be true. Must they? Either way, they turned her book into a number one bestseller, which was no surprise.

Actually, I don't read family tearing apart memoirs like that, not about celebs or political figures. There are two reasons. One, I don't want hate in my life. Two, how do I know it's true. If someone hates a family member, they might remember things in a way that suits that hate. In the case of this memoir, there are those who have already denied parts of it. That will not be something the gossip buying public will care about. This one is there to feed their own emotions. I also won't read reviews of the book except by pros as I don't need the negativity. I also don't give ratings to those kinds of documentaries. I have read a couple of reviews of this book but were they unbiased? I have no idea.

I will read biographies of past leaders if enough time has passed :). In a time such as ours though, I won't be alive when enough time has passed.

This is kind of political too, I guess, that a writer for the liberal NYTimes quit because she felt she was being bullied for not being left enough. Andrew Sullivan is leaving his New York magazines because he said that they didn't want him to write about things like the demonstrations that have often evolved into riots. I saw a later article where he said other writers at that magazine said his writing what he did harmed them... I can only name this Snowflakes get rid of alternative view. It's not what the paper titled it. lol

A city important in my life, Portland, Oregon, is having ongoing demonstrations that can turn violent where demonstrators have come from other states to stir this up and so far the mayor doesn't seem to want total control. Will he allow an autonomous zone in downtown Portland? I think those coming to join locals saw Portland as an easy mark since Antifa has had other violent protests there without consequences. And by violent, I mean throwing things, destroying monuments, blocking roads to anybody but themselves, and shouting insults, basically taking over an area. It's supposed to be about black lives matter, except did you watch the videos. Almost all are white.

One night, I had a dream where a group had come to the farm where I lived (didn't look like our farm) and told me basically they could take what they wanted. They asked where our guns were. I picked up mine to try to get them to stop and woke up before I saw if it worked.

Without police, who do you call when things turn violent? I know some say that defund the police doesn't mean take away all their funds. That's not what one so-called democratic socialist said in an interview when she wanted all the money gone. She's going to be a major advisor to one Presidential candidate, or so he claims, if he wins. Since she had some pretty extreme ideas on like vehicles, airplanes, etc., who knows how much he'll adapt.

Think about taking away all fracking. Where do you buy gasoline or do they want you to buy it? How about heating your home? The left has gone farther left as it appears to be what they believe the public wants and that includes taking people's guns or making them harder to buy. One proposal would make those who already own guns to get a federal license. It doesn't sound like it'd take long to go to confiscation from the law abiding. Those not law abiding, of course, won't be registering.

I hear some lefties say-- they'll never do it. Well, Trump did what he said he'd do. Why don't we assume the dems will also-- especially if they get both Houses and the Presidency. I hope that Americans pay attention to what is said they want to do-- as it just might be they will. Vote on that and not personalities as it could change everything as we know it.

Finally, the violence around the country is not humorous to me. It's all supposedly began because of George Floyd's death as well as police abuses-- except when the deaths are black children at black hands, what do you hear from BLM? Who goes out protesting? What do you hear from self-named Progressives? I am not sure what it is, but it is upsetting to me what has happened in Portland, Oregon, an important city in my growing up years.

I remember as a child playing hide and seek at night with my male cousins and brother in Peninsula Park where our mothers were the security and our fathers were back in my aunt and uncle's home nearby-- playing cribbage. Think about it-- running around in the dark in a rose garden and no fear of violence.

Then growing up I had times in downtown Portland until finally when I was college age, I went to school there taking a public bus. It's where I met my husband. Yes, there was danger potentially, but it was random violence, nothing like what is happening now with a city that I'd be leery of driving into because who knows what streets are blocked or where you might run into protestors who would beat your vehicle with a club. And it's all about racial unfairness or is it?

Here's a link about some of what is happening as a group wants to establish an autonomous zone, like what Seattle tried to do. Is this really the America we want? Portland riots. If we don't, what can we do about it? Our daughter told us today that they didn't want to drive I-5 near Roseburg as someone is shooting at trucks and cars. Seriously, what is going on with this rising rage???

Update: So for a while, the mainstream media had nothing on the Portland fires and looting as part of the protests. Now it's making the news and guess why-- because some federal troops pulled people off the street like supposedly Venezuela and that's a sign that that whole administration wants to go that way. Well, one man has been telling his story. He had left the demonstrations and a plain-marked car had unidentified men in camo gear grab him and take him back to the Federal Courthouse to question him before they let him go. He didn't have any idea why but said he was wearing all black like Antifa famously does. He claimed he'd been peacefully demonstrating and was just walking home at like 2 am. All might be true, but why wear all black to such  demonstration unless you want to be linked to Antifa on the one hand and not on the other. There are other colors to wear. But to make Americans fearful that innocent people are disappearing off the streets, it suddenly has interested the mainstream media. IF we were like China, he'd still be in a cell or sent to a gulag if in Russia. The mayor of Portland claims that federal troops are the cause of why it's turning violent. Guess he forgot the burning and looting of black businesses some weeks back... conveniently forgot. And sadly, how many Americans only hear one side of anything. The other side is that the officers said when people are throwing things at them-- bricks, bottles filled with urine or feces, etc. it's often impossible to go into the already stirred up crowd; so they try to get them later. If that happened, the one they got sure won't be admitting it. The story is too good his way.






8 comments:

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

The photographs are spectacular. Thanks for sharing.
I would like to respond to your politics, but must continue to focus on the best way to compose a cover letter to insurance to cover a $900 breathing assisting machine even though they already covered another one that was swapped for another.

ElizabethAnn said...

Everything seems to have become very polarized in the USA. We have BLM protests in Canada but not like what you describe. Also, the Canadian BLM movement includes Indigenous and all people of colour. Statues have been a bone of contention here long before BLM, this recent round of protests has just stepped it up. When racism and injustice go on for so long in spite of peaceful protests and legal changes, I don't know what else people are supposed to do.

Nice sunset photos. I don't get an unobstructed western view and even if I did I am always disappointed that my photos are not nearly as spectacular as the thing itself.

Rain Trueax said...

Not all of our protests turn violent as has been going on in Portland. Someone posted something about how not all of Portland is impacted and that's true as was also in Seattle. The thing is you never know where it'll be when it does turn into something else. And frankly, a lot of the violence is not coming from blacks but rather whites in the demonstrations. I have no idea what is going on but breaking into businesses and stealing stuff won't do anything to prove the group could govern fairly and wisely if they got the power such as happened in Seattle with CHOP.

Rain Trueax said...

One place I read that BLM is taking training in Black Panther methods. So they do plan they'd govern if the police were put out... and they'd do it with guns just as the police do. Would it turn violent? If the police are pushed out of some neighborhoods, they might find out. Sorry for those who live there :(

Darrell Michaels said...

First of all, your pictures are truly beautiful. Having grown up in the rural areas outside of Portland, I have never particularly cared for the desert as much, but it definitely does have its own type of beauty.

As for your take on politics, I find myself in complete agreement with your take on it. What was unfathomable to think only a few short years ago is seemingly coming to fruition with the fascist Antifa and BLM organization's violence so that a worthy and just cause is drowned out by the violence purportedly committed in its name.

Rain Trueax said...

Thank you on the photos.

I really worry what will happen when the self-named Progressives take over with the cities as an example of how that has worked. To read that the St. Louis AG is charging the couple for using the holding of guns to protect their property pretty well tells us what is in store when the left takes over Congress and the Presidency as it seems they very well might. They apparently will end the filibuster and bring in DC and maybe Puerto Rico to guarantee a permanent voting bloc to stay in power. The ones who like this idea have no real idea what socialism is as they think it's just programs that people like. It's a lot more than that and what AOC wants is what Biden may well do. People need to learn more about what that will be as it's very totalitarian and will take away a lot of liberties people are used to having and use the fear again to do it-- this time of a global climate change that history shows us has come time and again or maybe make that prehistory. Their goals are like with the BLM movement, never what they admit. It's very depressing.

Rain Trueax said...

I don't know if you've heard of the Lincoln Project, but it's run by those who have run many Republican campaigns proving they never were conservatives. The elites have liked it just fine as it has been and more Americans need to look at what that was and more places than mainstream media, who are like the Lincoln Project. Scary to someone like me.

Rain Trueax said...

I want to add one more thing here. I have been dinged for using the term leftie or rightie as being unfair. It could be my understanding of the terms is not correct because what I've taken them to mean is the extremes in the left or the right. It doesn't mean everybody who leans left is a leftie. To me, a rightie is the white supremacist level, those who go to the extreme and always see everything through those lenses and that's the same with the other side of the partisan divide. Not every liberal or conservative is a leftie or rightie as i've understood the terms. They represent something that is important to define as they are running a lot of things for those who are more to the middle and do not always hold extreme views.