Day of the Thigh Whip, Electra, 16th of Hagwinter, 524 M.E.

 

We have to do four years of Trump over again? You've got to be kidding me.

Four more years of Agent Orange. His idiot sons and creepy wife. Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Green, Jim Jordan, and Mike Johnson. And new this year, we get to include Elon Musk and RFK, Jr.   

I hated the first term. Some of the most stressful years of my life. Certainly the tensest period of the 21st Century. And now we have to do it all again? I know I'll find the strength somewhere, but right now I can't summon any enthusiasm for making that effort.

I just watched Kamala Harris' concession speech. Wow, talk about grace under pressure. It must have been a hard speech to give and she did it with poise and even a touch of her characteristic joy.

The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, "We cannot control our external circumstances, but we can control how we respond to them." Challenging times can present us with an opportunity to strengthen our resolve. Anyone can stay calm and serene through times that are, well, calm and serene. Try staying calm and serene through a tornado. Through chaos. Through a second Trump term. 

We can all imagine what will happen the next four years to Ukraine, to the West Bank, to the NATO alliance. We can all imagine what will likely happen to our immigrant neighbors, to all marginalized communities, to women. To political opposition. To imagine it all now, before it even starts, can be overwhelming. I'm not saying to ignore it, but I'm going to try to face it and respond as appropriate as it arises. Should I survive, I'll emerge someday as a stronger person.     

Frozen Reeds, Deneb, 17th Day of Hagwinter, 524 M.E.

If you're anything like me, you've been anxiously waiting all day for the polls to close at 7 p.m, and finally learn the answer to the question all of Georgia has been nervously anticipating - how will the Bulldogs fare in the first College Football Playoff rankings of 2024? 

LOL. But seriously, what a strange and inopportune day for the rankings to come out. Actually, come to think of it, this is actually a good day, what with 99.9% of the media's attention all directed elsewhere, to announce something you'd like the world not to notice. Boeing workers have announced an agreement with the embattled aircraft manufacturer and an end to the strike - it was probably management and not labor that wanted to wait until Election Day to make that particular announcement. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced he was firing his Defense Minister, citing "gaps’ in his approach to the genocidal war in Gaza. North Korea just announced the other day that they're ramping up their nuclear weapons program. 

But you'd have to scroll way down on any news site to see any of that, which is probably what they wanted.

As for the U.S. election, I'm using every bit of self-discipline and self-control I have to not obsess over it. I took a 7½ mile walk today to avoid doom scrolling on line or binge watching MSNBC. When I got home, I meditated for 90 minutes to keep calm and centered. As I write this, it's still well over an hour before the first polls close, and probably many more hours or even days before the smoke clears.

But at least I'll have the CFB rankings to think about in the meantime.  

Smith Dynasty, Castor, 16th Day of Hagwinter, 524 M.E.

Did you vote yet? If not, who ya votin' for? If you're undecided, may I suggest Kamala Harris? If you're leaning toward Trump, may I suggest Kamala Harris instead? Whatever the case, I suggest you vote for Harris. 

No one knows what's going to happen tomorrow. No one knows who'll win the popular vote or who'll win the Electoral College. No one knows if every state will go along with the will of the people and certify the vote, or if they'll try to install fake electors if they don't like the results. No one knows just what type of litigation may result from the election, or how the courts will decide. No one knows shit.

I do know this: if Agent Orange, the human Cheeto, the Great Pumpkin himself, does win, we're in for a very long and very sad chapter in American and world history. The rise of national and international authoritarianism, civil unrest, mass deportations, and monetary chaos. Totalitarianism and fascism. A time of wars and rumors of wars. Accelerated climate change and collapse of entire ecosystems. Disease, pandemics, plague and pestilence. 

I'm not being hyperbolic here. I really, honestly do believe this. The only solace I can find is that I'm old and won't be around for the worst of it. But the rest of y'all will have brought this down on yourselves. If you vote for Trump, shame on you. 

Shame.

Day of the Five Writers, Betelgeuse, 15th of Hagwinter, 524 M.E.

The title of this post is sort of the USC equivalent of saying "Panamanian Independence Day, Sunday, 3rd of November, 2024 C.E." This auspicious day is noted for the death of psychoanalyst and philosopher Wilhelm Reich (The Mass Psychology of Fascism, The Function of the Orgasm, etc.) in 1957, and the birth that same exact year and day of Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV). If that's not proof of reincarnation right there, I don't know what will convince you, lol.

BTW, which sounds better to you for the second day of the week, "Betelgeuse" or "Betelday?" I worry that the former will get confused with the movie franchise. Would "Bellatrix" be better?

Meanwhile, we're all waiting with bated breath to learn the results of this Tuesday's poll. Of course, I'm talking about the NCAA's first College Football Playoff rankings, which come out Tuesday night. The results of the Presidential election won't matter because MAGA extremists on state election boards will muddle and contest the results and invite litigation, which will go all the way up to the Supreme Court, which will anoint the Orange One president. But thanks for playing Democracy 2024 with us and the media outlets sure appreciate the $10 billion with a "b" spent on advertising.      

Day of the Timekeeper

 

Some thoughts and suggestions on using the Universal Solar Calendar:

• Like the Discordian Calendar, the USC divides the year into five seasons. Angus MacLise coined the seasons Childwinter, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Hagwinter, but I prefer the names Vernal and Autumn to accord with the equinoxes.


• Each season has 73 days, except for Summer, which has 74. Childwinter had 72 days in MacLise's original version of the calendar, but an additional day, Fifth Twelve, can be added as the 60th day of the year, which would be February 29 in leap years in the Julian calendar, bringing the total number of days in Childwinter to 73.


• The Julian calendar counts weeks as seven-day increments, Sunday through Saturday. Since neither 365 days per year nor 366 days per leap year are evenly divisible by seven, years can begin and end on any day of the week. To make things simpler, I propose 6-day weeks so that each leap year has exactly 61 even weeks and each leap year begins and ends on the same day of the week. In non-leap years, the last day of Childwinter, the 73rd, can be skipped, and one goes directly from the 72nd day, the last day of the 12th week, to the first day of Vernal, which is the second day of the 13th week and the 74th day of the year. That way, every year, leap year or not, begins on the first day of the week and ends on the last day of the week. 


• The names of the days of the week in the Julian calendar derives from astronomy (Sun Day, Moon Day, Saturn Day), from mythology (Thor's Day), and from who-knows-what (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday). I propose that names for the six days of the week in the USC all be named for stars. Since it's a solar calendar, obviously one day should be named after our sun, Helios, and honorifically, it should be the last day, the grand finale of the week. As a mnemonic, I proposed the preceding days be named for stars in alphabetical order, specifically, Atlas, Betelgeuse, Castor, Deneb, and Electra, followed by Helios. You don't have to say "-day" after the names, just like you don't have to say "-month" at the end of "January." 


• For the working men and women out there, the six-day weeks can be considered to consist of four days of "labor" (Atlas through Deneb) and two days of "leisure" (Electra and Helios). You won't have three-day weekends (sorry), but you won't have five-day work weeks, either, and the skipped day on non-leap year Hagwinters is a labor day. Look at it this way: in six weeks of the current, Julian calendar, there are 30 Monday through Friday work days and 12 days off, but over those same 42 days in the USC, there are only 28 work days and 14 days off. You're welcome.  


• Each individual day of the year has a specific and unique name in the USC as originally coined by Angus MacLise. But since nobody has the time to memorize all 365 names, you can simply refer to the numerical day of the season, and the stellar name of the week. For example today, Saturday, the 2nd of November in the Julian calendar, is Atlas, the 14th of Hagwinter, Day of the Timekeeper.    


• So what year is it? This year is usually considered 2024 of the Common Era, sometimes called "Anno Domini" ("Year of the Lord"), although that system has a Christian bias. I don't deny the profound effect Christianity has had on world history over the past two millennia, but I don't think it's a good basis for chronology. In the late medieval period, many Christians thought the world was going to end in the year 1500 C.E., based on an interpretation of a passage in the Biblical book of Revelation that said the apocalypse was going to occur "half-time after the time." As the year 1500 approximates the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the modern period, I propose that 1500 be considered Year Zero for the USC. That would make it easy to convert historical dates from the C.E./A.D. system merely by subtracting 500, making this year, 2024, the year 524 USC. 


• The years before Year Zero back to the so-called Axial Age (circa 500 B.C.) can be considered the Judeo-Christian Common Era, and also have relevance to Hindus (the Upanishads were written around 500 B.C.) and to Buddhists (Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, lived and taught around 500 B.C.).


• As long as we're rewriting history here, the years prior to 500 B.C. can be considered the Vedic Era back to 1500 B.C., and before 1500 B.C., the pre-Vedic Era.

Sound complicated? It isn't. To help, here's a calendar for Hagwinter, 524:

So, enjoy your Atlas, the 14th of Hagwinter, Day of the Timekeeper, 524!   

                      

       

Day of the Last Across

You probably know today as November 1, but here in the Universal Solar Calendar it is Day of the Last Across, the 13th day of Hagwinter. 

"The Last Across" reminds me on the Zen mantra, "Gone, gone, gone to the other shore, to beyond the other shore, having never left" (gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate). A bodhisattva is one who foregoes the journey to the other shore themselves in order to assist others in making the crossing.

But November 1 means the Julian month of October is now behind us, and we've managed to go a complete month without any rain. It hasn't rained here in Atlanta since Hurricane Helene passed by in late September. This is the first time since readings began in the late 19th Century that Atlanta has gone any calendar month without any recorded rainfall. Climate change.

Meditation on the Flaw

 

Happy Halloween! 

It was a quiet day here in this pile of bricks on a hill.  I took my bi-daily walk in the afternoon (does bi-daily mean twice a day, or every other day? I mean the latter). I walked the local, Beltline route today instead of driving to the Chattahoochee trails, as I didn't want to be too far from home for some reason. 

No trick-or-treaters this year. There was a gathering of neighbors down by the corner - beer, burgers, pizza, and lots of kids in clever costumes. I distributed my candy there to the young ones bouncing around their parents and to the teens who swooped in to gather sweets and then disappear off into the Georgia night. Made small talk with the grownups, all of whom assiduously tried to avoid discussing politics.

Another presidential campaign, my sixth in this house, and no neighbors have put up political yards signs in their lawns. I don't think it's apathy, but just a desire not to offend neighbors who may think differently. FWIW, the precinct is overwhelmingly Democratic, but there are a few folks whom I suspect of being mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers.

Day of Hummingbird Night

In a taped statement from the White House concerning the "island of garbage" remark during a recent Trump rally, President Joe Biden stammered something to the effect of “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters."

Once again, I find myself in agreement with Joe Biden. 

Acts of the Counter World

 

Agent Orange boasts that he’d deploy the U.S. military on domestic soil to suppress protests he deems riots, patrol Democratic-run cities he deems to be crime infested, and to hunt for undocumented immigrants. He also says he would use the F.B.I. to investigate and prosecute his political foes. He tried to do this and more in his first term but was thwarted by advisors and the courts. However, recent Supreme Court decisions have made it easier for him to succeed if he gets a second chance.

He wants to mobilize the military and law enforcement for what he calls the largest deportation operation in American history: He’d round up millions of undocumented people and hold them in camps to await expulsion. Obviously, some documented immigrants and even native-born Americans would inadvertently get caught up in such a sweeping deportation operation (collateral damage).

He talks about eliminating federal income tax and instead imposing broad tariffs on all imports to fund the government. This would essentially be a new tax system, one that places a greater burden on low-income Americans. A greater burden on the already impoverished would lead to both more crime and more protests, as well as civil and political unrest, which would lead to still more military presence in American cities and further prosecution of adversaries. 

I do not want to live in that America. I want to be free.

Eleventh Ocean

 

Are the bigoted "jokes" by the so-called "comedian" at Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden last night, such as calling Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean" - as well as the other vile garbage spewed from the stage - the October Surprise that finally and irrevocably tips the election in Harris' favor? 

If that line wasn't bad enough for you, at the same rally Tucker Carlson called Harris a "Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor."

And Stephen Miller channeled an old KKK slogan by declaring, "America is for Americans and Americans only.”

Some businessman on stage, referring to Harris, said, “Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.”

A conservative radio host called Hilary Clinton a "sick bastard," and went on, “What a sick son of a bitch. The whole fucking party, a bunch of degenerates, low-lives, Jew-haters and low-lives. Every one of them. Every one of them.”

If you're still on board with those speakers after all that, well, I don't know what to say to you. If they have such obvious and dep contempt for this country and its citizens, why would one think they'd govern it fairly?

If after all this, you still vote for Trump, you're condoning this rhetoric, and I don't think we can be friends.

The Long Sleep

More evidence that Harris is going to win the popular vote: on my walk today - 7.6 miles through an affluent part of Atlanta's Buckhead community - I saw several "Harris/Walz" yard signs and not one single Trump sign. Not one. Zero. 

Of course, it's also my belief that even though a plurality of  Americans will cast their vote for the Harris/Walz ticket, we'll never know the election totals. Conservatives and Republicans and MAGAs will contest each states' elections and litigate the matter until it's finally elevated to the Supreme Court. And then our unelected overlords will tell us who our next president is (hint: they'll pick Trump) and that will be the end of America as we knew it. Nice little 248-year run we had there, but that will be the end. 

Day of Arcane Light

 

Late post, but I was without power for part of this evening. A tree limb fell, apropos to nothing - no storm, no rain, no winds - about a block away and took out an overhead power line. We made it through Hurricane Helene without a power loss, but then this branch randomly falls on a placid autumn evening. Go figure. 

Despite what the polls say, I believe Harris is going to win the election and win by a lot. That's a gut reaction - I have no secret data or access to arcane information. I'm just a patriotic American - I love my country - and can't believe that a majority of Americans would willingly vote for a person so clearly in mental and spiritual decline and with such obviously ill intent for the country. And then I see the size and enthusiasm of the crowds at Harris' rallies. I know we all live in bubbles, myself included, and that many of the Cheetos' supporters say the same thing about their candidate for much the same reasons, but that's still my gut feeling. 

Plus, I still struggle to accept how catastrophically harmful another Trump term would be for the country, for the world. I can't accept that he might win for sort of the same reason that I don't think an asteroid is going to collide with the Earth any time soon, or that the Yellowstone caldera might erupt or the Cascadia subduction zone will swallow up the Pacific Northwest - seismic calamities are so rare that one can safely assume the chances are so remote that the probability of occurrence in our lifetime is close to zero. Again, the other side says much the same thing, but their ignorance doesn't affect my gut feeling.