Coping: An Expat’s Point: Evidence of Insanity

One of our more prolific commenters – on the discussion side  of UrbanSurvival – is a very nice expat fellow named Bruce down in Ecuador.

Bruce moved their a long time back and operates some very nice apartments that offer amenities that would price them out of the market for many Americans living on fixed incomes if they were in the states.

They are not – hence they are affordable.

Point is:  Bruce is an Expat – an American living outside the country and we have a fairly large crop of similar folks who have given up and taken off for different parts of the world – and thus has a very different take on what passes for “news” here.  Bruce isn’t subversive – he just happens to like the perpetual spring and agreeable people in the highlands of Ecuador.

He’s written on numerous occasions to warn me of several things, not the least of which is that we are likely in a period that can only be framed as “Terminal Madness in End Times.”  He worries I will catch the disease – spread by reading corpmedia slop.

The idea is that as social pressures build, out of control events infringe and start changing how we think and therefore how we live – and let’s not forget the whole national addictions to mood-shifting psychotropic drugs – people will go (impolitely)  NUTS when the SHTF.

A few years ago, I would have mocked his viewpoint, but the spate of gun violence (real or staged matters not) and many of the headlines crossing on the wire have tended to support his case rather than undermine it.

A few examples from current headlines that go to the idea of both widespread social insanity developing illustrate the point:

Here is a story about a woman getting drunk and streaming her “being lost and exasperated” on her cell phone. First drunk driving live vid we’ve heard of.

Somehow the report that “Iggy Azalea wants nothing to do with Rita Ora’s “Lady Marmalade” idea” is worth spinning electrons around.

Playboy Magazine, reports the Washington Post – starting in March 2016 – will be giving up on full nudity and opting for covered – (scantily and very tastefully we assume) – models.

And last – but not least – the democratic contenders for the White House will be spewing on the tube tonight.  And the pandering toward Hillary is already well underway.

The psychiatric points that could be gleaned from such a list are rather straight-forward.  I’m no psychiatrist, but I do have a copy of Jung’s The Red Book (Philemon) ($150) on the desk.

1.  The drunken streamer shows us that people have started to move their consciousness off-planet and into the computational world in something that seems to be Second Life leaking out the wrong way and into this reality.  Narcissism meets broadband.

2.  A pointless fascination with the glitterati has replaced what was once national participation and prioritization of public policy.  Since public input into policy collapsed (having been hijacked by the K-Street mafia’s legions of bribe-slingers) the disenfranchised are being slopped swill as “content” and so as to keep their snouts buried in the digital trough.

3.  Playboy Magazine’s covering up the female body may be setting us up for a whole round of “gotchas”.  Like finding out that hottie from the April 2016 issue is really a tranny but it’s OK because you’re secure in your own sexuality, right?  Nothing to feel threatened about is it?

We keep wandering back to the frontiers of LBGT marketing and wondering who’s pulling that string and toward what end?  A new current theory: the migration from death-ending Life to perpetual software incarnation requires mass desensitization since silicon-dwelling consciousness would be androgynous…so yeah, maybe that’s how America leads us off –planet and into silicon based life forms  in the future?

Or, maybe Playboy’s gambit is as simple as Pappy’s advice “It isn’t what you see, it’s what you think you see” that holds the imagination.

4.  On the debate tonight, the democrats will likely NOT face the kind of set-up Trump did because all (except Bernie) are typical checkbook republic corporate put-ups.  I’ll be listening for Bernie’s remarks because as I’ve said before, he’s the honest socialist in the crowd and he’s right about many things.  I may be the only guy who would find hope in a Sanders/Trump/Carson ticket.  Bernie to stomp out hypocrisy like antiquated drug laws and the corporate prison system, Trump to balance the budget and build the wall, and Carson to resolve social issues like welfare and national health care.  It’s just a thought…

The rest of ‘em are nuts.  Look at their check stubs.

You know that the failures of Obamacare as around the corner that the insurance industry is getting worried about their “for profit” skim being done in, so here comes Jeb with a plan to opt out of Ocare and into a deeper-embedded insurance racket.

These are more of the same pathological liars who make speeches about peace and then go support wars.  Who claim to be “with the people” but then raise three-quarters of a billion to buy the office of President.  Anyone who doesn’t sniff the odor of bullshit from all this needs to see their doctor because the loss of a sense of smell might be connected with a more serious ailment.

Still, somehow it all ties together and maybe the Expats are more sane than people who live in the shell of the country formerly known as America and pretend it’s all going to work out.

It may not.  And we could all be skirting delusional, so let’s put more fluoride in the water, shall we?

My buddy Bruce down in Ecuador has long lists of evidence of insanity and on reading this, I’m sure he will point more evidence.  In the interest of brevity, if we would hold him to a few dozen, that’d be fine.  How far past crazy do we need to go?

Meantime, a colleague of mine reminded me Monday that if any of the repugnicans get in, he’s looking at blowing out to Thailand.

His reasoning was pretty simple:  On his (had to take it early due to job loss) Social Security, he will be able to live very well in non-urban Thailand.  We won’t be able to live nearly as well here and likely would not get by.

This set me thinking about the “coupling for economic necessity” problem which few seem to be talking about.  Yet the numbers support the outlook.

I haven’t investigated seriously, since somewhere in the Ure constellation we know a former U.S. organized crime figure with odd sexual peccadillos who hangs out there and we know the country has quite a rep in some strata for being a kind of Wild West where everything is open season.

The drug use and abuse, exploitation of children, and human trafficking in Thailand.

I didn’t challenge my colleague’s idea, but I will keep you posted on his adventures which will roll out over coming years if he makes the move.  Perhaps he will discover the local Thai drug Ya Ba along the way.  Or, his due diligence will chill the idea.  Where is Thailand on the Global Caliphate take-over list?

The main thought this morning is that the Expats may have it right: Maybe we is (sic) crazy.

Bruce wanted to live in a place where the government was more comprehensible than here in the U.S. and he ends many of his emails with:

“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it…

“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

“Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted –and you create a nation of law-breakers– and then you cash in on guilt.

“Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

Excerpted from ‘Atlas Shrugged’ 1957, By Ayn Rand”

Beyond governance, what kind of society he’s wondering, would we be so anxious to defend when it is spawning websites like FML (f’’k me live) which I have to admit is very much worth a look over here in an off-planet, alternative reality kind of way.

My colleague who is looking at Thailand makes a good point:  If any of the right wingers win the election – he’s gone.  Bad enough to have corporate sellouts, but when they start mixing religion and governance, that’s a dangerous soup that seldom ends well.  Take most of the M.E. as examples.

On the other hand, for bad men to triumph, all the good guys have to do is sit on their thumbs and do nothing.  The battle for America’s future will not be fought in Ecuador, Thailand, or anywhere else.

The battle is on K-Street and the corruption of buying the people who are ostensibly in D.C. to serve the people.

For now, we’ll in ‘Merica for the duration, but like anything else in life, that’s subject to change. A real Justice department would clean and disbar perhaps a third or half of K-Street.  And honest politicians would support a total ban on out of district fundraising.

That might save America, but don’t count on it.

Fall Rains in the Outback

Something most people don’t appreciate is how much the weather impacts RRL (*real rural life) if they live in a city.

Here  in the Outback, though, rains are a kind of clock that ticks on various projects around the ranch.  Currently the rebuild of the front deck is what comes to mind.  Last thing we need now is rain.

We know the rains will be here a week from tomorrow and they should dump an inch to three in the period that follows.

While city-slickers will experience this as no more inconvenience that a slower commute (and turning on the windshield wipers if they’re not automatic [you poor, abused, overworked drive, you…]), out here rain means more. 

We actually get wet while working in the rain – and it’s some of the better weather to be putting up this year’s batch of “No Hunting” signs. 

Ah, hunting season is around the corner with the rain:  The big joke in Texas is that the early hunting season is for “kids” who are learning the skill of hunting from an older adult.

Thing is:  The number of 8-point and better bucks –prized for size and flavor – diminishes rapidly when the regular season rolls around.  So a lot of hunters will grab  (and we suspect rent) whatever “kids” they can (starting about age 5) and drag them along claiming to be teaching them how to hold a 30-06 which (my, what a coincidence!) seems to be pointed downrange at a 12-point buck.

We don’t engage in deer hunting.  No point to it since the price per pound is not competitive with Wal-Mart’s Choice meats, or the cuts from Brookshire’s.  I’ve long explained that when they run out, I will be the first one out harvesting local wildlife.  But, not until.

The rains are welcome because they will spread the herds around.  We have 15, or so I counted last night, living on the lower 16 acres – because the creek runs through it and I dug out a watering hole when things were dry.  They seem to congregate there.

The one other thing that will happen next week when rains arrive: The county-wide burn ban that’s been in place since about the first of July comes off:  We will be able to light off our burn barrel.

People in the big city don’t have to deal with cardboard boxes coming out their ears and yes, some of them can be thrown  in with compost.  But more than anything, excess cardboard mostly Amazon boxes (*even with the weekly garbage truck service) piles up and needs to go bye-bye.

Arrival of the fall rainy season is a much bigger deal for economic reasons, too.  Some farmers may be able to get another cutting of hay this year…or not.

Something to remember next time it rains where you are, though.  If you live in a coop and your idea of “in touch with nature” is watching the automatic wipers come on, remember there’s a heartier (or more retarded) group of humans around who see rain as a chance to hunt, refill the fishing hole, and get farm equipment stuck in the mud.

We’ll be getting the deck reassembly underway today and hopefully several coats of deck paint on before the skies open up next week.

High Energy Breakfasts

Something that will help energize the day (besides loads of high octane coffee) is a breakfast full of carbies.

The decision this morning comes down to George’s French Toast or Cottage Cheese Pancakes.

George’s French Toast has been on vacation over the summer, but it’s simple enough to make.

You simply make regular French Toast batter (*2 eggs, half a cup of heavy cream, blend) but leave out half the cream and make up the difference with a couple of shots of Bailey’s Irish Cream.

Then, before frying, dust both sides with ground nutmeg.  It’s like eating pastry for breakfast.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes are different:  Make regular pancake batter a bit thicker than normal and then mix in about 1/3’rd to 1/2 whatever the batter portion is with cottage cheese.

The result will be sort of like a Cheese Blintz, but with no work and enough protein that we can kid ourselves about how healthy our eating habits have become.

You may not thank me now, but once of these days you’ll try this – with genuine maple syrup, not some corn-porn high fructose body buster – and you’ll thank me.

Time to go look for the feedbag… write when you break-even.  Remember too:  A mile of road will get you nowhere…a mile of runway will get you anywhere.

George   george@ure.net