{{{ Copied & Pasted from Blog of that Title }}

 

“New Year’s Eve 2015 – 2016 -“

 

— A couple good things happened in 2015 – but overall, I will not miss this last year at all. On the positive side: Canadian humiliated their Fascist Conservative Prime Minister and his divisive political agenda. They elected Justin Trudeau, leader of the Canadian Liberal Party, who won a resounding victory and so far appears to be off to a good start. His ‘Sunny Days’ motto kind of catches in my throat – gag, choke – but at least that IS a positive message and the “Canada is back!” message that everything I believed was the real Canada does seem to be on the front burner these days. I’ll give that a two thumbs up.

— Now lets see how long we can hold JT’s feet to the fire and keep positive, progressive momentum going.

— In the spirit of Optimistic New Beginnings – I spent about an hour on each of two days earlier this week sitting in a waiting room at a vehicle inspection garage here. I was inspired by my wish that all levels of government and all businesses had everybody’s best interest at heart and were completely ethical and honest. —> I sat there thinking I should begin a nice, short, high impact novel with a conversation I had with a mechanic in Arnprior a couple years ago. The weathered-looking man had been tortured for years over the message he got from a vice president of General Motors at a meeting he got a free ticket to. This was at a big deal convention that he was privileged to attend as a reward for his excellence in the service department of a GM car dealership. After the VP gave the assembled mechanics a pep talk, he invited them to come look at what was new in the wonderful new vehicles that the company would be introducing in the near future. My friend the mechanic gawked at a plastic part that the engine depended on to keep working safely and efficiently, pointed to it and turned to the V.P. and said, “But this is plastic – That part has always been metal- This part will wear out too quickly.” And the V.P. scowled darkly and sneered, “Do you like your job? I’m paying somebody two million dollars a year to come up with stuff like this so you have a job!”  *** This year I was very happy to see a tweet explaining that the French Parliament had passed a law making it illegal to build anything with deliberately planned obsolescence included in any of its parts. I just hope they can enforce that. Hey! If they can I will jump on any “Buy Stuff Made In France!” bandwagon. 🙂

— Optimistic in Canada –,

~~~~~ Jim

 

“New Year’s Day, 2016 -“

— I can’t remember the day or date. I was sitting in the waiting room of the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep & Ram dealership in our Canadian town, just beyond the Capital Region’s official border. Our town was mostly suburban in character with a few ‘high rises’, none of which reached 10 stories high, several of them subsidized for the aged and partially handicapped, and most of them just off the main roads through town. There were a lot of farms just outside the town’s limits.

— The weathered man came into the waiting room while I was trying to adjust my posture to lean back against the wall just right to relieve the strain on my arthritis pained back and neck. I guessed he was a farmer – dressed in working clothes and boots, weathered face and gnarled hands – he carried himself with the toughness of somebody who had worked hard all his life and the tenderness of a man who loved to watch crops and animals grow. I thought the worry in his expression was due to the idea that he thought he should be tending crops or livestock instead of sitting around, waiting for his car or truck to undergo scheduled maintainance of have something replaced that had worn out.

— He smiled at me like he was someone who was relieved to have company- “That your Jeep I saw out there?”

— I nodded, “We got a good deal, leased it – I guess they were having trouble making their sales quota that summer because they included a lot of free maintainance with almost everything covered-”

— He smiled to himself and nodded, “I kept my old Jeep together with so many parts from cheap parts cars that the inspectors didn’t know what to call it- I bought in new one year, replaced fenders, headlights and just about everything else with parts from jeeps as much as ten years different- They always went with the original year when I showed them the ownership papers from way back.” He smiled like somebody who was fondly remembering a favorite hunting dog or companion he sorely missed.

— I winced and tried to move my back just right to relieve the pain that was beginning to sting between two of my arthritic spinal vertebrae

— He looked through me, nodded like he recognized the symptoms of living with the usual processes of aging and not exactly living a sedentary life. He looked away and wrinkled his forehead and looked back at me. He looked like he wanted to say something and hoped I was the kind of person who might appreciate what he had to say.

— I have no idea how people with similar philosophies recognize each other, or how people with controversial views take the chance that someone they’ve never seen before might share those views, but he made the leap, nodded, “Yup- I worked as a head mechanic for a GM dealership for many years – and one year my shop won a prize for best customer satisfaction in our district, so they sent me to Detroit, all expenses paid, to this high powered convention where a lot of mechanics were there and one of their big vice presidents came out and stood in front of several concept vehicles and new models that were about to go on display at a kind of yearly tour of shiny new advances in the automotive industry – This Vice President fellow sure did know how to talk, to tell us about how lucky we were to work for General Motors and how their big corporate plans had all been made with people like us in mind – and when he finished, he invited us all to come up and get a look under the hoods of all these shiny new cars and see what we would probably be working on in the near future.

— “Well, I got up there and I was looking into the engine of this brand spankin new family vehicle when I noticed something, and realized that this one part that was critical to engine performance and safety was made out of plastic – The Vice President was right there beside me and he smiled and asked me, ‘What do you think?’ I pointed to that part and said, “These have always been made of metal, this here is plastic, it’s gonna wear out too soon -” and the man looked angry – he sneered at me and said, ‘Do you like your job? Do you want to keep working for us? I’m paying somebody two million dollars a year to come up with ideas like that so you have a job!’-” The man I’d thought was a farmer looked deeply troubled, like he’d borne that weight on his conscience for way too long and still did not know how he felt about working for a corporation whose ethics and business practices were nothing like ‘honest’ or ‘above reproach’.

— I nodded, having worked for companies that rewarded unethical supervisors with yearly bonuses and pats on the back, myself. I walked away from that. But I never had a family depending on me and he was wearing a worn wedding ring on his gnarled left hand.

— Even now, several years later, I wish I could have thought of something, said something to him that could ease his conscience, convince him that he did not share in the responsibility for needlessly manipulating millions of car buyers into constant debt for way too long so corporate big wigs could suck on contraband cigars and laugh all the way to their banks – He was just as much a victim as anyone who bought one of those over hyped over priced, sabotaged vehicles – whose planned obsolescence might not just cost anybody who bought one more money than they needed to spend, but could also put their lives and health in jeopardy.

— I still feel his pain.

= = = = =

— The blogger checks himself in the mirror before he gives his web recording video camera its last check and then positions himself against the green background where his intricately well-timed images will change behind his ‘talking head’ face while he reads his carefully planned and timed words. The first image projected is that of machine gun carrying, armored and face masked US soldiers standing around in Times Square with their fingers very near their triggers, ready – as New Years Eve crowds allow themselves to be patted down before they step into highly controllable groups confined to highly controllable areas : The blogger pushes his record button counts to himself, and,

 “- About Last Night –

— “Do Not take my word for anything, but : –

— “Last night on Coast to Coast a.m. – George “Hollywood” Noory – continued a tradition by having ‘everyday’ people call in from all around the world and give their predictions for what they expect to happen in this coming new year.

— “I was in and out of sleep but what I heard leads me to believe that a lot of people believe that between now and the spring, the evil, militaristic, manipulating muther fupping Fascists will make their move to try to convince everybody on this planet that they need to surrender all freedom and submit to the ‘security’ agenda of the ‘anti-terrorist’ [ read that ‘Anti-Christ’ ] elitists who have been working behind the scenes since at least the end of World War II – when ‘good amerikan’ megala-maniacal control freaks imported Nazi war criminals to help them target, train, and then activate ‘Manchurian Candidate’ type victims to hypnotically act out their orders and commit mass murder and other terrorist crimes against innocent people inside the USA as well as inside most other countries in this world.

— “The nasties have already convinced a lot of mass hypnosis victims that Unions are the evil tools of the enemy of civilization – and everything else worth living for in the ‘free’ world – which is anything but free these days. -”

— He pushes the ‘stop recording’ button, takes a breath and wonders if he is doing the right thing or voluntarily sticking his head inside a noose.

= = = = =

{{{ – I’m not sure where this story came from : }}}

There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

So it is with our lives… Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all…

= = = = =

 

“Earthquakes In The News -“

— On Thursday Morning, December 31st, CBC News reported that an Earthquake measured at 4.3 by Canadian Standards & 4.8 or 4.9 by US Geological Survey people, had shaken several people awake in Victoria, British Columbia. The quake was centred just off the coast of Vancouver Island, between islands in that area. They also reported that the quake happened at about 42 kilometers deep underground where plates were moving under one another. The Canadian earthquake measuring people later adjusted their estimate and reported they believed the quake weighed in around 4.7. The US Geological Survey also reported that they believed the epicentre had occurred at more like 52.5 km deep.

— Oklahoma had a cluster of at least 7 smallish quakes that have been blamed on Hydraulic Fracking.

— Looks like 2016 is off to a start that could be summed up in early Rock And Roll lyrics as “Shake, Rattle and Roll”.

~~~~~ Jim

 

“First Monday in 2016 — Earthquakes & Market Manipulations -“

— I sat down to watch the news after Cathi went to work, her first day back after her Christmas Holidays. I drifted in and out and began seriously waking myself up while CBC News casters were talking about a ‘domino effect’ from a 7% drop in China’s stock market. The Chinese closed their market down to halt the downward slide. I thought the news casters might have been saying that the downward slide in China caused a domino effect and was causing a bit of a world-wide panic / market sell-off. Then I wondered if somebody was trying to say that the fact that the Chinese closed down their market caused the problem.

— I was in and out of sleep / ‘wakefulness’ and ‘heard’:

“The market manipulators are making their move – Smug in their belief that their tactics have worked so well in the past – But something has changed – – Their efforts will fail And their failure will be ‘Ultimate’ -“

— I’m not entirely sure exactly what that means, or whether it popped up through my imagination all by itself, or might have been the thoughts of someone in China or somewhere else on this planet, or what. (?) The phrasing didn’t come out in any patterns I usually think in – and when I tried to edit my thoughts to make the last phrase : “Their efforts will ultimately fail.” I felt like some kind of authority figure disapproved of that wording. While I felt that I thought I was ‘seeing’ an image of a stern Chinese teacher who was looking down at me with almost no emotion visible, but his posture conveyed a strong feeling that I did not want to incur his anger by getting that wrong.

— Um, there it is –,

~~~~~ Jim

 

“Wednesday – 06 January, 2016 -“

— I was updating my prayer lists and feeling bad because I couldn’t remember the names of some friends I haven’t seen in a while. I can see their faces and hear their voices and feel their senses of humor, but their names are just beyond my reach at the moment. (sigh, maybe I’m trying too hard.)

— It’s chilly out there in the real world and I didn’t believe I had a lot to say that was worth broadcasting/sharing with anybody – I had a wicked headache yesterday and took some aspirin to deal with that.

— So I checked facebook and one of my friends posted something about not wanting to read any negative rants about the world coming to an end – I took that to mean that she didn’t want to read anything expounding on the terrorist-boogie men who replaced the communist boogie men that too many of us used to believe were hiding under our beds.

— And I tried to remember the lyrics to a song from what? the 50’s? “Forget about the killin and the dyin and the lyin and the cryin and the fella with the switch blade knife – Just think about livin, and think about life.” and it worried me that I wasn’t a thousand percent sure that I had the lyrics right.

— shrug –,

{{{ —> Don”t click on anything that looks like a link below – it’s copied and pasted without making those links active <— }}}

 

 

“Thursday – Looking Forward to Heroes Reborn – & The Blacklist??? -“

— Mercury is retrograde and has been since the 5th. During the last couple of Merc-Retch stretches I felt moved to do more work on novels and other stories that had become bogged down in semi problematic philosophical swamps. These last couple days have been more like pins and needles in my cranium, with me wondering if anything I’m trying to create might generate more heat than light. My ‘inner editor’ is constantly working overtime, playing with plot twists and encountering didactics and messing around with inner dialogs and realistic slings and arrows of outrageous social pressures and stuff like that there.

— Thousands of channels and nothing worth watching, so I tuned in to ‘On Demand’ and watched Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ for I think the second time in my life and sat there wondering what the overall message of that film actually was. Was it designed to fire up our will to resist the evils of ‘modern society’? Or did it leave us all shell-shocked and resigned to giving up and submitting to a near-future dystopia? & How prophetic might it have been? Cops and jack-booted black uniformed fascists beating up on unarmed citizens? disenfranchised unarmed kids and members of the general public with nothing to lose resorting to rioting and smashing institutionalized symbols of mind-numbing lowest common denominator schooling and then they symbols of ‘consumerism’? Does anybody out there remember when Spiro T Agnew spouted that the youth in the 1960’s were protesting their own lack of creativity? That was before he got caught stealing from the taxation nation’s cookie jar and had to resign in disgrace.

— Yet I still believe we will come through all this and slowly create a better world than the mess we inherited.

— Sigh, but then again WordPress is doing another round of automatic updates today.

— So I guess that maybe if our own governments (who have killed more of their own citizens than all the wars in the last century did-) don’t butcher us – then maybe they’re hoping we’ll be frustrated to the point where we don’t have the strength so resist their insane attempts to turn us into good little zombies who march happily down the conveyor belt and dive into the meat grinders and turn ourselves into hamburger?

— Shudder –,

— Gee, I wish I had a more positive vision to elucidate today.

— I did appreciate the company of my hundred and twenty-five pound – four-legged Labrador buddy while the second viewing of ‘The Wall’ was more disappointing than the first.

— Give me something positively inspiring to fill my mind and life, never mind North Koreans with supposed H-bombs and Manchurian Candidate ‘Terrorists’ around ever corner.

— God, You did give me that vision of the world splitting into two separate dimensions, with the positive people waking up in a healthier, happier place — and the not-so-positive types waking up in a continuation of this nightmare, thinking they won – for a reason, right?

— Don’t let them wear us down to utter despair – Help us find the optimism to go on and keep trying–,

~~~~~ Jim

 

“Tuesday – Brrrr -“

— There are weather warnings out there this morning. Wind Chills below -20˚C — which would translate to -4˚F — But – The latest possible Nor’Easter that is worrying meteorologists in New England and Nova Scotia will probably remain far enough south so Most of New Brunswick might get a repeat of Last Sunday’s storm here. — Nova Scotia got 40 centimeters / 16 inches of snow while we only got maybe two inches / 5 cm?

— One candidate has declared himself in the running for Fredericton’s Mayoral position. Apparently the sitting mayor has not clearly announced whether he wants to be the Mayor for another term or run for a seat on the City Council. One thing the mayor said about labour negotiations between the bus company and its drivers might either bite him or win him points with voters (or both – earn him some votes from some voters and earn his oppositions candidates voters from pro union voters. When bus drivers said they wanted their pay to be equal with what drivers in Moncton get, the current mayor said, “If they want to get paid what Moncton drivers are paid – they should move to Moncton.”

— Local / municipal, county and Provincial governments all around Canada ( and the rest of the ‘Western world’ for that matter ) have been crying poverty and claiming they have to cut back on programs and cut down on the number of people they employ because they just don’t have the money. I have been asking reporters and other newsy types to investigate the claims of CAFR1.com for a couple of years now – since I heard Walter Burien, an investment counselor, explain that virtually every level of government in the USA and almost all of the USA’s allies follow a model developed by the Rockefellers, in which all levels of government have several income streams but only let the public know about what they get from taxes. Mr Burien claims that all levels of government in the west here could stop collecting taxes and provide more and better services than they do now. And the message seems to be, “If these governments are not following this model, well then shame on them.” If this is true, and I do not have the resources or expertise to properly investigate this, myself, then all levels of governments here in the ‘free world’ are engaged in a monumental fraud. And, if this is true, it lends a lot of credibility to the claims of many Conspiracy Researchers that Elitists, who are trying their darndest to manipulate and control everybody and everything, are using “Need to Know” information with-holding as one of their ‘tools’ to deceive the rest of us, the 99% of us that the 1%-ers want to control. Their other tactics include using Intelligence Gathering Operations like the C.I.A. and MI-6 to recruit, train and secretly control ‘Terrorists’ like Al-Qaeda and ISIS – in order to maintain an atmosphere of fear and anxiety because fearful and anxious populations can be convinced to surrender their rights and freedoms in favor of promises of safety and security. The fact that governments use Anti-Terrorist legislation to turn their guns on their own citizens does not become immediately apparent. Police disguised as rioters have been ‘outed’ in areas where G-20 meetings supposedly drew a lot of civil unrest and lots of peaceful demonstrators were arrested and later had charges against them dropped. This happened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada a couple years ago. And it’s happened in too many other cities around the world.

— “Governments have killed more of their own civilian populations than all the Wars in the Last Century.” —

— In other, possibly more hopeful news, Anti-Terrorist Laws in the UK have been found to violate fundamental rights by failing to protect the rights of journalists and labeling journalists who criticize their governments as terrorists. I haven’t seen anything in the mainstream media about this here in Atlantic Canada, but the “Tweet-Us-Sphere” has been buzzing.

— Another thing I’d like to research today is a job opportunity here :

— Okay, I’ve probably done more than enough damage here today – Think Positive – We are evolving, The bad guys will kill each other off in their insane power struggles and leave the rest of us free to discover what the “New Heaven – New Earth” might be like.

~~~~~ Jim

 

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