What do the rich need?

Assignment. Go to New York Times.  Read Paul Krugman today.  His article "Trump will not bring joy to Moolaville".  The insanity of giving more to those who already have too much.  There will be a test. If you do well on the test no homework.

Off to see the Wizard

The Earth Modul has landed.  We are awake beside the lake.  Last night the Kadizzles sat around the fire with the volunteers who live in our compound.  Three new volunteers are here and we got to know each other.  Our Forest Service boss and his wife sat with us and brouht us up to date since we left in the fall.

The Forest Service does the fire fighting for our country.  Our location is acutally a fire fighting center for Arizona.  Our old boss and our new one both were involved in fire fighting in California. All this got Kadizzle thinking in bed last night.  At this very moment NPR is doing a little thing on how the Trump gang is trying to cut the budget for the National Parks.  The Republican game of stirring up hate for the government has consequences.  The general public has no real conception of what exactly the government does.  Republicans portray the government as a bunch of people who get to work late and burn tax dollars all day to keep warm.

As Republicans destroy the government people will notice the country deteriaorate.  Already you can see the roads and bridges starting to crumble.  A good government is esential if you want airlines to work, if you want diseases to be under control, if you want food to be safe, if you want help when a disaster strikes.  All of this cost something. Republicans believe tax cuts for the rich will solve all problems, so strarving the government to help the rich seems like a no brainer. When the results come in people will understand it just does not work.

Why do the rich need more?  The New York Times asked this question.  The simple truth is for the rich it is just power they want.  They have the jet, the yacht, and the houses.  Why would we want to give everyone with a million dollar income even more?  It makes no sense and the rich who are decent like Warren Buffett admit they don’t need tax breaks, but that is the drug of choice for Republicans.

This comes full circle to our winter jobs.  The Forest Service is trying to do more with less.  So The Forest Service is tasked with putting out fires in their spare time.  In additioin to putting out fires they are supposed to run thousands of camp sites, clean hundreds of thousands of out houses, maintain roads, trails, and rescue stranded idiots.

What do the Republicans want to do?  Spend 21 billion for a useless wall.  What could you do for Americans for 21 billion.  You could make all the National Parks free, you could support so many projects that Americans actually enjoy, but no,  the rich don’t use the National Parks, the rich don’t use the roads, the rich have different needs than the average Americans the rich need special things like larger yachts, and of course tax breaks.

In the end we will be working for free to save the goverment money so the government can give tax breaks to people who do not need them.   A little depressing.

The journey continues

A good leave from Denver has us sitting at Cochite Lake.  A nice sunny drive all the way with no incidents.  In Pueblo we passed the world’s largest wind tower factory.  It has just gone up in the last year or two.  There must be five hundred towers in pieces ready to go somewhere.  The world is changing.  Trump needs to bomb the plant to save coal.

Sitting here is like being parachuted onto a different planet.  Spoke with Kadizziles niece yesterday.  She has never been to the wester U.S.  Everyone should at some point see their own country.  This is more important now than ever since Trump wants to sell public lands and use the money to give the rich tax breaks.

Tomorrow we will be in our old spot by Lake Roosevelt.  It will be a long drive.  Mrs Kadizzle will not be there long she is going on her hike down into the Grand Canyon.  Kadizzle will be left on his own.  Nice to escape Denver on a Sunday when the traffic is civil.  Even on a Sunday there are so many who need to act like NASCAR drivers, Trump voters no doubt.

Looks like the Republican Satan may be in for some problems this week.  Who knows?  

Moving back into the little Earth Module will be an adjustment.  No more yelling at Alexa to change channels or put on NPR.   We just spent a fortune on the house with a new bathroom and refinishing the kitchen floor.  Now with the house updated we leave, brilliant.

Yesterday Kadizzle got a discount back rub from Sylvie. Sylvie has the perfect little space for herself under the stairs leading to the basement. Sylvie has set it up as an office. Painted and carpeted it is a neat hiding place for an eight year old. Kadizzle sprawled on the carpet while Sylvie walked on his back. After Sylvie was convinced not to clog on grandpa we managed to get some of the sore muscles drained of tiredness. So that is all for now Mrs Kadizzle is about to serve the spaghetti made with the wonderful Denver sausage.

Over the mountains before it snows

Mrs Kadizzle said we blast off tomorrow.  Getting over the pass in New Mexico is critical before it snows.  Leaving on Sunday will be a blessing getting out of Denver.  Sylvie went to the library yesterday with granny and is reading books like crazy.  Grandpa is very happy Sylvie is such a good reader.  Sylvie is fascinated with World War Two.  Grandpa and Sylvie went to Youtube and reviewed the great speeches from the era, Winston Churchhill, and FDR.

As Kadizzle writes this Erin is in the other room interviewing a nanny.  When Kadizzle grew up you just hired someone who could put your kid on a leash and take them for a walk.  Listening to the interview it seems becoming an astronaut would be simpler.  Now both my children spend a fortune on child care.  It is a budget buster.  Since the Republicans have brought in the system where both parents have to work to make a living life has changed.  No longer can dad work and mom stay home.  Mom works and gives 20 to 30 grand of her salary to the nanny.  Sylvie has had some wonderful child care.  It has paid off.  Sylvie is in advanced classes in everything.  Perhaps if Kadizzle had had some sophisticated child care he would know how to spell and punctuate.  Reading would also be a nice skill.

It was a long time ago Kadizzle hung up the work habit. Some say he never had it.  It has been 18 years since the daily drudge.  Actually Kadizzle was lucky he had some good jobs that were not that boring.  Kadizzle could not have an office job, it would quickly drive him insane.

For 18 years we have been making the transition from summer to winter.  Stopping by for a few days with Erin, Sylvie, and Fran has been routine.  When Turkey Day rolls around Megan and her new Evie , along with husband Sam will join us in Sedona.

Cannot leave you without a mention of Satan.  Trump and his greedy gang want to destroy the National Parks and sell the land to the rich.  When we get to Arizona we will resume our volunteer jobs clearing trails for the Forest Service.  Working for the government even on a volunteer basis you learn a lot. Republicans have been trying to starve the parts of the government people enjoy for years, be it the arts, the forest, or a museum.  Under the Republicans there is now a proposal to raise the entry fee to National Parks to $70.  This will effectively keep poor people out of the parks.  What a wonderful idea.  Now it turns out all the parks would have all the money they need and you could enter free, if the idiot we have for president would give up on his 21 billion dollar wall.  Too bad, being afraid of Mexicans is so much fun.  Strangely the real drug dealers are the pharmaceutical companies.  The Sackler family made 14 billion dollars pushing opioids.  Since drug companies pay nice wages to congressmen this is perfectly legal.

Ticklebelly

Little Joey has always been a problem.  Visiting Denver Little Joey really has problems.  First son in law Fran is an excellent cook. Fran loves to barbecue.  Now add to that the worst of all fates, or best of all from Little Joey's perspective.  Katie, Sylvie's aunt works for a company that makes desserts. What does this mean for Little Joey?  Well Katie will often send over a large supply of some goody her company makes.  Erin came home and pulled out of a box six large pieces of delicious carrot cake.  Naturally Little Joey dug in with delight and added 800 calories to his dinner last night.

This morning Little Joey was begging for carrot cake.  Mrs Kadizzle told Erin to take the unharmed nicely boxed pieces to work and give them away.  Little Joey cried and begged and one piece of the wonderful cake got to stay.  Little Joey just convinced Kadizzle to let him have one little bite.  Kadizzle went along with the scheme.  Then Little Joey suggested to Kadizzle that he turn the cake so the missing bite would not be in front where Mrs. Kadizzle would be sure to see it. That blasted Little Joey can sniff out a goody at a light year away. 

As Little Joey was dragged away from the carrot cake Kadizzle noticed the label.  The company is called Ticklebelly.  Perfect name for a company that leads bellies into sin and exposes them to gravity on the scale.

It doesn't hurt to ask.

Perhaps Kadizzle has written about this before, but it is a lecture he often gives young people.  So much in life can be achieved simply by asking. Yesterday Kadizzle went to the REI store in Denver with Mrs. Kadizzle and Sylvie. At the store he purchased a little phone charger that would provide battery power when the phone went dead.  Supposedly the thing was already charged and Kadizzle immediately put it to use. It did not charge the phone all the way as advertised. Kadizzle did a little research and found out other people had the same problem.  People reported the battery charged the phone up to about sixty percent.  Kadizzle called the company and explained to them for the product to work as advertised he would need two.  The company nicely agreed to send Kadizzle one more free. 

The other recent victory was with the Chromebook in front of Kadizzle.  The old one which Kadizzle like very much started smoking in the hotel room. Kadizzle called the company and explained that a failure is expected at some point, but going up in flames was not an option.  After a bit of a battle ASUS agreed to send Kadizzle a new computer.

Kadizzle believes companies should be held accountable.  When a company can pay a CEO 350 times what a working man earns then the company should do the right thing when it comes to living up to their advertising.

Companies that have been good to Kadizzle have earned his business and his respect.  We had a problem with our room at Red Roof Inn.  They simply gave us another free night, which was fine.  Another hotel in Canada was not so good.  The toilet would not flush.  After complaining and asking them to make good on their satisfaction guarantee, they said they would fix it. We were leaving so it did us little good.  No more of that chain.

Life in Denver

Oldest daughter Erin lives in Denver.  She lives in the Stapleton area.  Once it was the old Stapleton airport, but not it is an absolutely huge housing development.  Houses go up here at an astonishing rate. Such is the case with all of Denver. 43 people per day move to Denver.  Downtown buildings are sprouting like weeds.  In all this chaos the is some very nice planning. In my daughters area they have magnificent green spaces that have been well planned and are a pleasure to use.  Yesterday we biked over to Sylvie's school for the bake sale. We stopped at the brand new super market.  There are so many places to eat around here you would never get done if you tried a different one every week. By the time you got half way through that many more would have opened up. 

The area we are in shows what you can do with some good planning and high density occupation.  A favorite as written before is the mass transit.  This morning with Sylvie we buzzed to REI and did some shopping.  Along the river the city has invested massive sums in river scaping.  Walkways, bikeways, and even nice places to kayak have grown all along the river.

The temptation to move to Denver is great, but big city life just does not seem right for the Kadizzles.  The ability to get around in Denver is a real plus.  The rail system is good and even going to get better. For older people good mobility means a lot.

Now for a little politics.  Mrs Kadizzle insisted on showing Mr. Kadizzle a short video on Trumps corrupt dealing with the Puerto Rico disaster.  Somehow the Trump gang managed to give a 300 million dollar contract to an electric company in Montana with two employees.  Instantly it was obvious how the dots connected. Large campaign contribution to Trump greased the skids for the small inexperienced company to land a wonderful contract that was not put out on bids.  Who cares about these minor robberies?  The Republicans gift to the rich which is taking place will be the mother off all robberies.  The rich will get 80% of the tax breaks once the Republicans bamboozle the Hoopleheads.

All a working class Republican wants are plenty of guns, and a good dose of Republican Jeeesus. Trump knows working class Republican don't understand math any better than he does.  Republicans know how to work the scam like a carnival game.  Give the poor dolts a little candy and give the rich contributors a meal.  The poor guys will be watching football and eating Fritos bought by Trump, while the rich guys laugh in the expensive box seats up above.  Isn't that the way it is supposed to work?  If you can fool the dolts shouldn't you?  Republican morality, and the swamp draining is going great.  The new alligators with make American Great Again stamped on them are thriving.

Wheatland

Chicken Marabella smell is filling the Earth Module. Her Majesty sits at the table enjoying. Kadizzle opted out for the leftover egg salad.  A big mistake that cheeekin smells so good.  A nice drive down past the Black Hills and we will settle in by the railroad track on the other side of the road.

Amazing how empty North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming are, yet the world is so crowded.  As scenic drives go the Black Hills are up there with the best.

Listened to a lot of NPR today.   Two big things stuck out.  Another Republican got courage and denounced the mental case we have for president. Makes one wonder why our North Dakota lickspittles cannot come clean.  NPR ran a good story on the family that created the Oxycontin crises and pocketed billions in the process.  All perfectly legal with a little help from congress.  The whole family should be in jail.  They made the mafia look amateurish.

Tomorrow we head on down to see the Ticklepinch in Denver.   If we can get past the wind corridor without tipping over things will be fine.  Leaving early is the game plan to beat the wind. Kadizzle kinda enjoys being here right beside the railroad.  It will be fun to have the Earth Module shake and roll when the train goes by.

Blast Off Day

After a day of loading, today is the day.  The Earth Module is fired up and sitting outside patiently awaiting blast off.  Wind, the wind, if the wind is bad we are up the creek.  Hopefully a northwest wind will let us go south.  It is almost like sailing.  Somewhere between Wheatland Wyoming, and Cheyeene there is a spot that is so windy trucks get blown over.  Of course the same wind can blow over a fifth wheel camper. 

Tonight if all goes well we will be camping in Wheatland.  The trains will roar by one hundred yards away.  The railroad is scheduling all the trains to go by in the middle of the night just to awaken us.  On then to Denver where the little Ticklepinch is up to her activities.  She is participating in a musical.  After a few days in Denver on down to Arizona.

Pity the poor people who have to stay behind.  The blast of air in the last few days would be deadly at thirty below.  Once Trump makes America great again the weather will be great again.

Make money by killing people

By now just about everyone recognizes that the tobacco industry thrives by killing people, and selling cancerous products.  It is perfectly legal.  This morning Kadizzle got his bowels in an uproar reading about the power grid failure in Puerto Rico.  The same storm that hit Puerto Rico hit Cuba.  Cuba will recover it's power grid in about two weeks. Puerto Rico will take six months.  Why? Aren't socialist and communist countries supposed to be backward.  Cuba did what was good for everyone, not just a few.

Now back to North Dakota.  A simple minded women in Beulah who represents our district and has the affliction of being a Republican has some brilliant ideas.  This woman who actually works for a coal mine wants to tax the production of wind so her company can be more profitable.  Conflict of interest?  Back to Puerto Rico.  Some people in the hurricane struck area had solar panels and were able to operate independent of the grid.  Now to Kadizzle's amazement he read in the NYT that in Florida the power company is trying to make it illegal for people to produce their own solar power. Arizona Republicans are up to the same crap.  Our country has developed a wonderful system to make money, simply outlaw the competition or tax them to death. There is not end to this nonsense. Tesla the car company wants to sell cars directly to customers.  Sounds efficient and simple, but no. Car dealers don't want to be left out. So what do they do?  Car dealers pay the Republicans to pass laws that mandate only car dealers can sell cars.

Capitalism is supposed to be efficient.  It has become so efficient that no longer do you need to improve he product, you need to simply increase your budget for lobbyist. The coal industry with the help of the chief idiot The Donald now wants to have power companies paid to stockpile coal. The claim is in an emergency they will not run out of coal.  Kadizzle worked his entire life in the coal and power industry and the insanity of this idea is so clear.  Coal is, has been, and always will be stockpiled by power plants.  It is done for several reasons.  One reason it is stockpiled has nothing to do with emergencies.  The coal is blended for quality.  Has a power plant ever run out of coal? In my entire career I have never heard of it.  What really causes power outages is the grid.  The failure of the grid is the problem.  There are many ways to improve energy distribution.  One simple way is to use less of it. That is what Cuba did. Cuba of all places went to energy efficient lighting.  This took the burden off their grid.  Have you heard any American companies promoting efficiency.  Hell no, they sell power.

Our system now is supported by the wholesale abundance of ignorance.  People do not read, research or thing.  The people who do think rob the ones who are caught up watching "the game".   Nothing has changed.  The Romans realized that you could divert the dolts with circuses.  Now we have Fox, the idiot for president and little handheld devices that make sure our brains never engage in prolonged thought. Throw religion and Republicanism into the mix and you can sell the dolts on anything. Perhaps dotards should have been the word.  North Korea has figured out we have a dotard running the country, why can't we?

Kadizzle's funeral please come.

Blast off

Tuesday the copilot says the Earth Module will blast off.  Packing for the mission involves making sure hundreds of little items are on board and so many task have been completed.  The Kadizzles cannot leave the planet Hazen if one leaf is in the yard so Mrs Kadizzle will go anal nuts and insist we run the mower one more time to pick up the last leaf.  Coming to life like a slug Kadizzle is sitting here trying to get a spark of life started in this tired old body.  On the other hand the hyperactive Mrs Kadizzle jumped out of bed like her undies were on fire.  Running to the kitchen she skidded to a halt and is now making cornbread.  If you watched us get out of bed you would swear we were two entirely different species.  Kadizzle starts like a steam engine.  A small fire is lit, slowly it grows. After perhaps an hour there is enough heat to produce steam pressure.  Mrs Kadizzle is like a rocket launch.

The first awakening task is getting up to date.  What did president insane do today? Who did he insult, what pot has he stirred, who did he steal from to make the rich richer?  To find all this out you have to get up to date.  If you want you can pursue The Bismarck Tribune online. The fish industry has nominated the Tribune for best fish wrap several times.  Like most of the media in North Dakota they run their investigations with interns from the group home. 

For some meat you can read the New York Times.  Today there is a rundown of letters teenagers were asked to write to the paper. Every one of them wrote better essays than anything you would find in the Bismarck Tribune.

So the day is cranking up and there is still so much to be done before blast off.  When the ship finally touches down in the Republican planet of Arizona we don't want to be saying " Damn we forgot the fly swatter".

Arizona has a lot of people living on marginal incomes, and these are the people who voted for Trump to cut back their healthcare, their social security, and build a wall.  Simple minded thrives n the desert.  As long as you get to keep your gun things are fine.  You can always shoot the cancer you got because you could not afford a checkup.  You can always rob a grocery store if you are hungry.  A gun can solve so many problems.   A lot of people use their gun to solve big problems.  Bad marriage, shoot your wife. Bad boss shoot him.  Depressed shoot yourself.  The gun is the multi tool of our age.

Halfway through a cup of coffee it is time to leave the engine room and go to the galley.  It could be dangerous.  Surely the real boss will give a quick rundown of the days orders. Maybe better stay here in the engine room a little longer where safety is assured.  Have a good day and enjoy the Republican circus.

Colonel Klink and his land grab

Many people certainly think all of Kadizzle's bolts are not tight.  In the little town of Hazen their are several people who need their bolts tightened.  Among the most egregious outliers is Colonel Klink .  The Colonel has cooked up many goofy ideas and was most famous for flying over the town representing Hazen's air force with his motorized glider.

Many of the bizarre ideas that have come into Klinks mind have resulted in bizarre structures.  Tweeza's elephant palace is a prime example of a mind lost in the wilderness. Klink got the brainstorm to go to Africa and shoot some poor old elephant.  Now the problem became to let the locals know what a brave elephant hunter old Klink was.  So Klink built the elephant palace.  Unfortunately this is true.  Klink in his vast back yard put up a steel building to house his elephant trophy.  In the palace you can see a video of the elephant hunt.

Throngs of people never appeared to see the great elephant palace.  Peoples reaction was totally a surprise to Klink. Most people thought and many said to Kling " Why in the hell did you shoot that poor old elephant?".    Klink is one of those strange people who like to kill things.  So Klink has moved an old school house into his back yard.  The school house has been well restored to it's original condition with one major exception.  Klink used to sit in school daydreaming of killing things.  So in his restoration Klink lined the walls and floors with parts of the animals he has killed.

Klink's wife according to local legend came into a nice income from oil properties.  The vast Klink fortune has allowed Klink to carry out his daydreams.  One of Klinks fantasies is that he is a land baron of sorts.  To the best of his ability Klink has bought as much property as possible adjoining his home property. Additionally Klink has purchased other odd pieces of property.  Klink has more money than common sense.  With an active mind Klink constantly has strange ideas popping into his head. The problem is he has the money to carry out his ideas.  One of his ideas was to build a stage in his garage.  Why anyone would need a stage in their garage is a question left to the gods to answer, but Klink went to a lot of trouble to build a stage in his garage.  One of Klink's problem is the hoarder gene in his DNA.  Klink collects old rafters,  parts from bridges, buildings, and so on.  Next he has to dream up some bizarre use for the stuff.  Out at the "Ranchett" his treasure of junk has accumulated. Old windows, old bricks, a couple old mobile homes and so on.

Now to the jest of the problem. To the dismay of everyone in our neighborhood The Colonel bought a piece of land next to many in the area.  The property has a wonderful oxbow in the creek that has become a nice wildlife area where our neighbors have raised wood ducks for years. The local kids fish there.  Klink as owner of the land could dream up any bizzre scheme immaginable.  He has told some people he is going to sell grain bins from there.  Klink has told Kadizzle he intends to either raise hogs or build a tower of Babel.

Klink like to get attention.  Starting a range war over his land would be great entertainment for Klink. To initiate the range war Klink has asked all the adjoining neighbors to his property to attend a meeting in his garage.  At the meeting refreshments will be served and people will be invited to buy back what they thought was their own backyard.

Needless to say the crazy man Kadizzle is not thrilled with Klinks plans.  At this point it appears there is a good possibility two crazy men will enter into battle of either the preservation of a nice wildlife area or the destruction of it.  Here we go.

A Very Skilled Liar

Old Kadizzle came out of the haze which is sleep. In usual fashion the radio was brought on and NPR came to life. As is the custom Kadizzle reached for the laptop beside the bed.  Now the time to check the world was upon him.  Almost without exception Kadizzle reads the Bismarck Tribune on line, and The New York Times.  The Bismarck Tribune is one of the worst newspapers in existence.  Like so many the paper refuses to pay what it would take to get decent writers or reporters. So we get stories about Martha's new quilt or a big piece of hail that fell on Willy's sunflower.

The other extreme is The New York Times.  The New York paper is excellent and has many writers that often win the Nobel Prize.  The New York Time is factual unlike Fox News and so many others.

Today in the editorial column there is a great story about how Trump lies so effectively.  Read it there will be a quiz.

After writing the first part of this Kadizzle went back to the New York Times.  Another editorial shined. Read about McCain the Hedge Hog, and Bannon the Honey Badger.  Every Republican should be forced to read it.

Sometimes ignorance is a choice, sometimes it is a genetic defect.  Too many people can read, but don't. They chose to have some lying organization just tell them what they want.  Fox News has brought the country to it's knees with cheap propaganda.  Reading is like eating.  You can read good nourishing things, or you can read junk.  The junk taste good, but does you little good.

Meeting Day

Nice day in the Dakotas.  Maybe the lord will inspire Kadizzle to rake some leaves and finish up the yard.  The Crazy Club will meet.  May be a sparse group.  Over at Rita's Crazy Club they have all the Halloween stuff out and like a couple of kids are thrilled with the scary stuff.  The most scary stuff is in the White House.  Kadizzle read a lengthy article on Rex Tillerson.  You remember, Trump's secretary of state that called him a moron.  Tillerson had some pretty friendly connections to Russia.

Mrs Kadizzle may go to Bismarck today so there will be no adult supervision, great.  The moment of departure is sneaking up.  A big decision is if we take the solar panel or not.  The panel is sixty pounds we could avoid.  We have not used it for a couple of years and Mrs Kadizzle cannot be convinced to abandon the Forest Service and strike out.

In all our traveling across the southwest we have covered a lot of ground.  Spinning through the channels Kadizzle has come across some of the goofy shows that fill the cable network.  The other day they had a Dual Survivor show on that was staged near where we spend the winters.  Supposedly these two guys are lost in the wilderness.  Actually you can tell by the scenery they were right across Lake Roosevelt from where we camp. No way in hell were they lost. No matter which way they went they would have come to a road.  Kadizzle sometimes get's caught up in the Gold Rush show.  Since Kadizzle was a miner most of his life it is king of interesting.  The show portrays these people as profitably finding gold.  Somehow they never make much money and are always on the edge.  Strange thing is they have equipment worth millions.  They end the year with terrible results and show up next year with fifty million dollars worth of mining equipment. How does that work?  The real money is in mining idiots like Kadizzle who watch the fake reality.  You can make big money today with fake.  We have a fake president and he is making good on his act.

Update in America

The time is rapidly approaching for the Kadizzles to head south.  Today our oldest daughter is 40.  Seems impossible that we have a daughter 40 but the clock keeps spinning.  Now it comes to me. Last night Kadizzle was thinking about a subject for today's briefing.

Mr and Mrs Kadizzle have been watching the series "Mind Hunters" on Netflix.  As usual it is well done and in no time we are binge watching. Yesterday we watched three episodes.  The story evolves around how the FBI got into profiling criminal minds.  Two FBI agents go to prisons to interview serial killers.  The show is well done and is very much based on actual killings, and killers.

Perhaps Kadizzle has written on this blog before about this, but Kadizzle grew up and went to school with a psychopath.  It was not until college and a psychology course that Kadizzle realized his old schoolmate Charlie was a psychopath.  At Marshall University in West Virginia Kadizzle sat in his room and read a description of a psychopath.  All of a sudden it hit him, Charlie is a psychopath.  Charlie was also at Marshall attempting to get a degree.  Charlie's college came to an abrupt end when one of his psychopathic tendencies got him thrown out of school.  That is a whole different story, but also an interesting one.

Psychopaths are very charming people, and very good actors.  Of course there are degrees of the problem.  Psychopaths have no empathy for other people.  They can seem like your best friend, but it would not bother them a bit to steal from you or kill you if it suited their need.  A good argument can be made that some of our presidents are psychopaths.  Our current president, and Richard Nixon certainly had the tenancies.  Psychopaths are excellent at playing people.  Trump does this every day.  Trump knows exactly how to play the redneck mind, and he knows he does it.  When you see Trump in action you see he really doesn't care about anyone.  Poor people are just pawns to him.  Trump could care less about children having health care, or hurricane victims getting help, but he knows what people want to hear.

The law and rules mean absolutely nothing to a psychopath, they are just problem you surmount when getting to your goal.  Psychopaths have absolutely no conscience.

This gets me back to Charlie.  At one time Charlie lived on the second floor of a house with his mother and brother.  The people living below had some chickens in the yard.  Charlie did not like the chickens and thought they were annoying.  Charlie would take a pen knife and put it under the shoe laces of his tennis shoe.  The blade of the knife stuck out in front of the shoe. Charlie then would put some corn on his shoe.  When the chicken came to get the corn Charlie would kick the chicken. The chicken would fly up in the air and come down dead. Charlie thought the whole thing was fun, expedient, and it did not bother him at all.

Trump and the Republicans lie on a daily bases.  It is expedient, and it serves their purpose. The upcoming tax cuts are a prime example.  The tax cuts will be a windfall for the rich, and do little if anything to help the working class.  All the data and research indicates it is a massive fraud. However, it will serve the purpose of getting campaign donations for the Republicans so lying is no problem.

Running from the fire

Thankya Jesus it is not happening to Kadizzle.  We are not about to burn up like so many people in California, but we do have a minor part of their problem.  The clock is ticking and soon the Earth Module will be packed and headed toward the southwest.  Now like a house on fire we have to decide what to take or what not to take. We always take too many clothes.  That is a minor problem, but the gizmos are the real problem.  You need ten different kinds of charges to keep all the crap charged.  Then what if you have to repair something?  What tools should we take?  The worst thing is to get to the middle of nowhere and wish you had something.  The big item on the question list is the solar panel.  It has not been used in the last couple of years, but if you get stuck in the middle of nowhere it could be a great bonus.  The damn thing weighs about sixty pounds.  Weight is everything in this game.  The less you carry in the Earth Module the better.  When you put the brakes on to stop the caravan the brakes have to stop all the junk behind you.  The brakes if overburdened may not do the job.

A few years back we had the great crash that turned the previous Earth Module upside down and demolished both the living quarters and the pickup pulling it.  So Kadizzle has become much more conscious about the physics of stopping.  Stopping has everything to do with weight. Ask any ship captain or engineer on the railroad.

So what do we take, what do we leave?  The little items are as big a problem as the big ones.  Too many times some little item will solve the problem. If you had the right screwdriver you could fix the blasted thing.  One thing always on the back of the mind is getting stuck. If you are up some god awful forest road and you are stuck, what do you do?  A few simple tools might solve the problem. A saw, a shovel, some rope, a small winch.  Now what if you don't get stuck?  You carried all that crap for nothing.

Perhaps there is a solution.  One thing the Kadizzles have invested in is satellite communications.  Now the Kadizzles have a small hand held device that can reach a satellite from anywhere in the world. The device can send an emergency notification with our location or our problem.  Perhaps we should just carry the " Help I am down and can't get up" button and just call for help.

Retirement

Down at the Crazy Club a nice discussion was held yesterday on the subject of retirement. What is it? Do you work? How do people approach it?  Stroupini is back from the coast, The owner of the meeting hall was present, and Shiny and here dog.  To Kadizzle retirement is being unfettered by bills, task, or commitments. Divorcing oneself from structure is very hard for some people. Kadizzle woke up this morning clueless of what he will do today.  Many people cannot stand the idea of uncertainty and have to plan every moment, every meal, every task.  Kadizzle just likes to like what he likes. If it feels good keep doing it. If it is no fun stop.  This does not work for a lot of people.  They always focus on an upcoming problem. Death is an upcoming problem. How much enjoyment you get between now and when the coffin lid closes should be the focus, not the bad spot on the grass, the laundry, or the hole in the street.  Life is about what you focus on.

At the Club House opinions swirled about how to retire an what to do. A lot was said about civic duty, and volunteering.  You can volunteer and enjoy it.  A vast pool of wealth exist in the retired community.  People with a lot of knowledge are in the retirement stage of life.  This concept swung the conversation to the role of old people and wisdom.  Do we respect our elders and their wisdom? How did the Indians relate to the elders of the tribe?  What kind of Tribe do we now have?

Over at Rita's Crazy Club they are sewing away and getting ready for Halloween. Rita rents costumes.  Like a couple of little kids Rita and Bingo went out and bought scary Halloween stuff.  When Kadizzle popped into their meeting hall they were running a remote control spider across the floor.  On the other side of the room an electronic hand was walking by itself. 

The wonderful Gesundheit Gazette will be out today.  Ichabod is the editor of the Hazen Star.  Kadizzle occasionally sits down with Ichabod to discuss politics.  Ichabod is astute on the subject, but caught up in religion and politics. Ichabod is so  skinny he looks like he escaped from a spaghetti package.  Although Icabod is a good writer most of his paper is drivel about the nothing that goes on around here.  Mildred made a quilt.  Elmer's dog hunts mosquitoes, and so on.

Mrs Kadizzle read an article about how ignorant theTrumpster is on economics.  The Trumpster claims because the stock market is up he is wiping out the national debt.  The man is clueless as well as dangerous.

Getting Old is scary

Old Kadizzle just read a lengthy article in The NewYorker about a guardianship scam run in Las Vegas.  The frightening thing is that it happens.  The scheme is set up to allow guardians to loot the estate of older people. The particular case the story centers on involves the daughter of an older couple. The daughter tries to protect her parents that have been captured by the guardians and put in a nursing home. The guardians bilk the older people and make a fortune doing it.  The courts go along with it and the whole thing ends up like a kidnapping.

These type of abuses are reported publicly and the legislatures in states like Nevada fail to act.  The lesson is be nice to your children, they are your only hope to avoid being captured.  If you don't have children god help you.  You can be captured and your assets stolen.

Alexa is a little dumb, but is getting smarter

Kadizzle has an affection for gadgets.  Over the summer Kadizzle purchased the Amazon Echo, and an Eco dot.  If you don't know what these are, maybe an explanation is due.  Both are little gizmos that can understand your commands and play music, radio, or give answers.  Now the Kadizzles are regularly yelling at Alexa.  You don't really have to yell, but Mrs Kadizzle is so used to yelling at Mr Kadizzle that she figures it is best to yell at Alexa.  The morning routine now is to awake and yell Alexa play KCND radio Fargo.  Alexa in her polite stewardess voice obeys.  Alexa doesn't say " Do it yourself".

Now the Alexa programmers have figured out how to get Alexa to control the Sonos system.  This is super duper. The Sonos speakers which were great in and of themselves are really nice working with Alexa.  You can yell at Alexa and tell her to play relaxing music on Sonos in the kitchen or in the bedroom.  Of course Alexa will do math, call people for you,  give you reminders and so on.  There is a way Kadizzle could get Alexa to turn on the coffee, but that has not been set up yet.

Now the home base is semi automated it is hard to leave for the winter.  The Earth module does not have voice command. Wait yes it does.  Mike get the coffee, Mike turn on the radio, Mike open the door, Mike pick up your clothes.  So once you leave in the Earth Module Alexa becomes Mike.

Thinking about Thinking

Honest Omar got Kadizzle reading a book about how the mind operates.  This morning The New York Times ran an article about the same subject. How many people ever stop to think about how they think. Are we rational?  Of course not.  Billions of people believe in strange entities in the sky.  You have superstition, and on it goes.  The question is how do you get people to believe things contrary to what is real?

Kadizzle has two daughters and he like to think both of them are well endowed intellectually.  Can you raise intelligent children or more precisely can you teach children to think?  You can surely give them some very bad thinking habits.  Take them to church and give them a good dose of indoctrination. Religion has a debilitating effect on thinking and sadly it is one of the worst things you can do to young people.  How does religion teach children to think?  Religion legitimizes believing in things that are not provable or factual.  Religion teaches children not to question, but to simply obey.  Religion teaches children so many bad thinking habits the list is endless.

Most knowledge is gained by questioning and observation.  Kadizzle taught his children to question. Question authority.  Because someone is the Pope, or the Mayor, or the Teacher, that gives them no special access to reality.  Things are not always what they appear is an important concept to give children.  The Earth appears to be flat and it makes sense, but dig deeper.

Don't be afraid to say " I don't know".   When your children ask you a difficult question like " Is there a god?".  Be an adult, simply say " I don't know".  You don't know.  When my kids and I got into this kind of discussion Kadizzle would say " I don't know, but some people believe...."   Giving children a sense of certainty is great, but if you destroy their mind in the process it is a sin.

One of the greatest modern tragedies are the people that home school their children.  They keep them home and indoctrinate them.  Those parents rob their children of reality.  Fortunately it often fails and the minds imprisoned by idiocy break out and come alive.

Currently Republicans are bent on destroying public education.  A good crop of stupid people serves the Republican party well.  Get the religious to help and you pave the way for more Trumps.

The Theater

Went to the theater the other night.  Decided to shoot someone in the dark did not like.  Got up shot the guy.  Another person with a gun got up to shoot me, but before he turned to shoot me someone else got up to shoot me.  The first gun defender guy shot the second one.  A third got up and shot the second. Quickly went out to the lobby.  Put gun on person selling popcorn.  Ordered popcorn.  Ate popcorn while gunfire in theater continued.  Read in paper many innocent people died when gun crazy people shot each other in the dark no one knows who shooter was.  Gun logic in action.

Now imagine the insanity in Las Vegas when people say more armed people would be the answer.  What if hundreds of people were shooting back at the hotel?  How many people sleeping innocently in the hotel would be shot or injured?  Do we really want simple minded people defending us? Look at the military.  Highly trained people with weapons.  How many times do soldiers kill other soldiers on the good guy side?  Now imagine some of the stupidest people you know trying to sort out the bad guys.

Communist Birds

Kadizzle is generally against killing things. Of course there are exceptions. Kadizzle leaves the deer alone, and every other specie of living creature in North America accept one.  Today we went after the pheasants. Pheasants are not native to our country. Trump would not like them. Pheasants are from China. The wall in China does not keep them out.  So this morning Kadizzle and the boss went out to give the pheasants their due.  Out of practice the old gun tablemeat missed the first few shots, but finally on a remarkable shot Tablemeat came alive and the bird came down.  Later Mrs. Kadizzle plugged one. She hit one earlier but it got away.

Birds are one thing that one might shoot for food, but Kadizzle thinks there should be open season on stump preachers. Stump preachers like Pat Robertson, and Billy Grahm that prey on old ladies should be in season at least part of the year.  There should be a special tag to hunt Rush Limbaugh.  Should Trump be hunted? No he is so clearly mentally ill that only tranquilizer darts should be used on him.

How does the mind work?

Honest Omar gave old Kadizzle a book .  Generally speaking giving Kadizzle a book is about like giving a dog a book. Kadizzle has a small attention span, but the subject off the book did get the reading going.  THE BELIEVING BRAIN is the book. How exactly do we think? How do million, in fact billions of people believe total nonsense. The book tries to answer the question. If you never asked yourself " How did I come to that conclusion" you should try it.  How many people believe in mystical magic beings that we cannot see?  Yup billions of people. It would seem if you owned a brain, and it is questionable if a lot of people do, that at some point you would wonder how it works.

The brain pulls a lot of tricks on us. It sees patterns that are there, and it sees patterns that are not there.  Too many times the brain wants to believe.  Everyone would like to believe Donald Trump can and will make America great again. However, a lot of brains realize this is unlikely to happen.  Why does one brain fall for the scam, and another brain doesn't?  Wouldn't it be nice to know.

So almost to the end of the book Kadizzle has some new insights.  A major controversy with the brain is the idea of a soul.  Is there part of the brain that goes on after death?  No one knows, of course the religious will chose to believe.  The word is chose.  No one knows.  Why do people chose to believe?  That is a mystery worth looking into.  That is what this book is about.

Right now the country is in the midst of a gun insanity problem.  A lot of people chose to believe all sorts of things about guns that cannot be backed up with data, facts, or common sense.  It makes no difference if someone is out to get you or not.  It is what you believe.  If you believe someone is going to do you harm you think you better have a gun.  The strange thing is you are 68 years old, no one ever came after you in a situation where a gun was needed. Doesn't make any difference.  It could happen.  You could be hit by a small asteroid. You have never seen one or even come close, but it could happen. People have had small space rocks come through their roof.  Now do you get a better roof, do you move into a cave, what do you do? Nothing.  Somehow your brain treats the idea of a robber coming to your house entirely differently.  How does your brain get you to the state of mind that you purchase a gun. 

On it goes.  You go to church they tell you things that are clearly impossible.  You believe these things.  Why? How?   Pick up this book, pick up some book and open the window into your own mind.

There is no gravity in the United States

Amazement, is all one can think when a whole nation pretends there is nothing we can do about the gun insanity in this country.  No other modern country in the world has the carnage we do.  There are endless things that can be done.  However, the Republicans, Fox News, and the NRA have captured the minds of our most paranoid, and uneducated citizens.  The notion that someone is coming to get my gun is such insane nonsense, but it works.

One simple way you could control guns is treat them like cars.  You have to license them, register them, take a test to drive them, and have liability insurance on them. Pretty simple right.  We don't want people killing us with cars.  If you get drunk and drive a car you don't get to drive anymore.  You can get drunk and shoot a gun, no problem.

This is an age of technology, and it is an age where stores have RFD devices in clothing. If you try to steal a nice coat from a store an alarm will go off when you walk out the door.  How does this work? Attached to the coat is a small chip with called and RFD. RFD stands for radio frequency device.  When the device is exposed to microwave energy it becomes energized and gives off a radio signal. No battery is needed. The signal identifies the device and sets off an alarm.  Some police departments, and the military already have these devices implanted in their guns.  This means the police can go into their gun safe and instantly identify and inventory all the guns in there.  If every gun was required to have an RFD the gun would set off an alarm at a school, a bank, a church or a rock concert.  But we are  a nation of dolts, simple minded people easily manipulated and scared.

So no one is going to do anything or even give a shit until their son, daughter, wife, or dog gets shot by a gun nut.   No other country is so driven by ignorance supplied free by the Republicans, Fox News, and the NRA.   Our neighbors daughter was at the most recent shooting.  She was badly shaken up.  What if she had been shot?  Would the people in Hazen think any differently about  the gun nuts.   Every gun nut wants to say the gun is not the problem.  How in the face of numbers can they be that stupid.  People don't get mowed down in Canada, England, and dozens of other countries that control guns.  When those children were shot at Sandyhook so many people thought now we will get the fog of ignorance lifted. It did not happen.

Today's invention

Let's pretend math doesn't work

Some of us went to college, some didn't.  Some of us took classes in statistics some didn't. What does statistics have to do with anything.  Well gee, golly, you can predict things with statistics.  You can predict who will win the election long before the votes are counted.  You can predict how many pheasants are in a section of land by counting crowing.  So what? Try this you can make correlations. Is it just coincidence that countries with universal health care have healthier babies, longer lives, and better health care in general?  Is it just coincidence that the casino always wins?  Is it just coincidence that we have the highest gun violence of any country and the most lax gun laws?

The simple answer can be had with math and statistics and the answer is clear, but a whole lot of people are clueless how statistics work. A whole lot of people never took a statistics class.  A whole lot of those people chose to believe things that are simply not true and can be proven untrue with statistics.  Insurance companies understand statistics, casinos understand statistics, and the people who rip you off with rebates understand statistics.  Taking money from fools with statistics is the oldest game in town next to prostitution. 

We live in a country where people simply do not understand math.  One percent of the population owns damn near everything.  People have no idea of what one percent is.  If you say ten to the average idiot they can comprehend that number, but once you go over one million things get foggy.  When you talk to a country full of math illiterates and you try to explain how the military budget is eating their lunch, they are dumbfounded.  You just cannot explain big numbers to dolts.  The dolts are convinced the poor are eating our lunch.  The numbers clearly show it is the rich who took the cheese, but emotion is what come into play when dolts look at numbers.

Tax cuts for the rich work to make the poor prosperous. Bull shit, no number shows that, no statistic shows that, but that lie has been sold to the dolts. Remember dolts do not understand numbers. Dolts understand stories at the coffee shop. Dolts feel things, they don't know things. Dolts see bums, and street people, and dolts feel they are the problem. Dolts don't see Donald's kids inheriting millions tax free.  Every dolt buys a lottery ticket for the simple reason every dolt thinks he can win. The dolt saw a guy on TV who won, so that means he can win.  The dolt is broke and has no money for a tattoo because he bought too many lottery tickets. The dolt is sure he will win, it just takes time.  The dolt is sure he can win at black jack, it is just a matter of time. Dolts can manipulate reality.  Dolts have reality manipulated for them.  Republicans cultivate dolts like carrots. Feed the dolts good quality fertilizer and watch their belief grow.

Dolts think terrorist are going to kill them, nope it is far more likely a car or cancer will get you, but who wants to spend money on cancer research or wear a seat belt, or quit the cell phone while you drive? Certainly not the dolts.   Drive down the interstate.  Every truck drive is distracted on his cell phone driving 80,000 lbs of crap.  The truck driver voted for Trump and is sure the terrorist are after him, and he has a gun in the cab to protect him from the bad guys.  Back to statistics.  The cell phone has the greatest chance of getting him killed because he did not notice the railroad crossing ahead, but the dolt doesn't understand statistics.  So next election the dolts will fill their brains with knowledge from the coffee shop and the truck stop. The dolts will listen for hours to KFYR radio in Bismarck spew right wing insanity.  There is no math, and there are plenty of dolts. One is in the White House, and we love him, because he pokes those pointed headed college people in the eye.

I made this thing last night

Preaching to the deaf

In the little burg where Kadizzle lives he has become friends over the years with two of the prominent ministers in the town.  The ministers speak candidly with Kadizzle because they know he is not part of any congregation.  Both have clearly revealed they in no way would ever support a man like Donald Trump.  Now for the irony.  These men of God have preached for probably a combined total of sixty years to the people of our burg.  Did the message sink in at all. Hell no, the little town overwhelmingly voted for Trump, and the very people who are his lickspittles.

So what is the point. Every Sunday the good children of God sit and listen, but they do not hear. How does this happen? They hear what they want to hear.  The same people who listen to their preacher in the morning go home and tune into Fox News.  They hear no contradiction between the lies of Fox News and what they heard sitting in the church pews.  An old saying is " There are none so blind as those who will not see".  Apparently the same holds true for hearing " There are no do deaf as those who will not hear".   Now Kadizzle is far from any kind of bible thumper, but he does know there is a strong contradiction between what Jesus said and what Trump says.  So up the street from Kadizzle is the church.  Around ten people will shuffle in there to learn about God.  They will walk out believing God anoited Donald Trump to help the poor by giving Tax breaks to the rich.  As the Bible say " The lord works in strange ways".