Sunday, 23 June 2024

Fate: The Great Equalizer

What is YOUR view of Fate? 

Do you know what will unfold in your life a second from now - a day, week, or year? A world of con artists will tell you what yours is - for a suitable fee. Don't fall for it. In my humble opinion fate is NOT predictable.  

 

This makes it an equalizer among all individuals or species. It is this aspect of fate that gave rise to faith and religion in the first place. People need something to explain the unknown. Religion has been taking advantage of this from the beginning of time (whatever that means). 

 

What triggered this column? Yesterday I was talking to my neighbour and playing with a young and beautiful dog in my unfenced back yard. He had been pet-sitting and came across from his own yard to talk. The dog darted around in freedom - a large dog in a large yard. She is usually in a condo.   

 

Today while I was drinking a coffee inside and observing my front yard the same neighbour suddenly appeared chasing the frisky unleashed dog. She usually darts away a few yards and waits for him to catch her. We live on a busy highway - 5 lanes of traffic. Suddenly I witnessed fate several times.  

 

1. The dog while dragging its leash decided to take off across the highway at full speed. There was a lot of traffic. Thankfully a couple of cars managed to avoid her by inches.  

 

2. Then my neighbour had to run - with some caution - across the same lanes to retrieve her from a ditch opposite our houses. He managed to slow down cars enough to avoid being hit himself. 

 

3. I expected the dog to run through the traffic, returning to our side as his keeper approached. To her this is a game. 

 

4. He emerged from the ditch with the fortunate dog on leash at his side. Luckily he had managed to secure her. 

 

5. They both managed to cross back safely to our side. 

  

Both of their fates could have unfolded in a far more tragic way. Why was he lucky?  

 

In California several families wake up one day and everything they own - businesses, homes, and personal belongings have turned to ash in an instant by a wildfireMost survive with their lives. Some do not. 

 

A friend repeats an activity performed hundreds of times and verifies a lottery ticket. He is suddenly rich beyond his wildest dreams. Fate can be good. Meanwhile a close relative is told by her doctor that she has ALS. 

 

Entire countries and populations are being demolished by greedy dictators. The fate of a nation depends on an election. One child is born with a brain like Einstein's. Beside it in a hospital bed is another with a mental handicap. One elephant, moose, or whale is slaughtered while others survive. 

 

As humans we can attempt to minimize the effects of some horrible and some beautiful events, but few other animals can. 

 

Destiny we can control and we alone can mitigate the destiny of every living thing on this planet. We are failing. Will fate punish the worst perpetrators?  

 

Are you one of them? 


#thebrewsterblock








Saturday, 27 April 2024

The Deep State

English itself is DEEP

Anyone who had to learn English as a second language must have experienced great difficulties. Just look up words like "go"; "run", or "up" and find how many shades of meaning they possess or contexts in which they can be used. I don't envy foreign students. 

If you study another language's grammar you might think it very confusing to have 2 or 3 genders for nouns and their articles, regular and irregular verbs, declensions, conjugations etc. but aside from gender, English has all of them and then some. As far as expressions are concerned, you need to take a separate course just to become proficient.

"Deep" is another word that must confuse non-natives. Some immediate dictionary meanings are profound, bottomless, fathomless, and plunging. There are also various uses in sports, theatre, facial expressions. 

But here I am thinking about politics. DEEP STATES have been associated with many governments and countries - including the good old USA. Recently The Donald - Deep Donald - has made a mantra out of the term and vowed to eliminate it from America.

Does anyone else see the irony here?


Look at the fist pump itself. You just know that it is a signal to his zombie followers - his own Deep State. He comes from a family that was a mini deep state unto itself with Fred as its chief dictator. He passed the Trump deep state on to his obedient son and many people think Fred used it to keep Daffy Donald out of any active military duty. 

The only bullets Donald dodges are the ones he shoots at his own feet - when they are not in his mouth.

Listen to how he rattles on about Biden's Deep State but vows - if he is every back in power - to punish all who did not bow down to him. He also intends to dismantle and fire huge swaths of the civil service - those who make the government run from one administration to the next. 

He thinks that he - DONALD - himself can act on all of their behalf. We saw that vividly when he decided that he alone should be running the Covid 19 task force. He also addressed the nation daily about the pandemic - which he helped to create through his denials. It should have been Fauci, Pence, or anyone else who actually knew something about the topic. Donald certainly didn't.

Last night on CNN I heard a renowned photographer who took portraits of Trump state that he thinks the Donald in a very intelligent man!  This guy has met political, sports, and entertainment greats all over the world. I was as shocked as many of you probably were (those of you who can actually think for themselves.) 

But every day we see the media going deep - reporting on him like he was Jesus or any other renowned spiritual leader. He has created a media deep state through them. Was this through cleverness or blatant narcissism? 

Take deep note of what he says he will do if he reclaims the White House. It will become the Dark House - the Deep State personified. Many gutless members of the U.S. Congress have already drowned in the depths of his depravity and will do anything to get back on board the Trump Titanic.

#thebrewsterblock

Tuesday, 27 February 2024

Biden, Trump, Haley, or other?

Two futures are at stake in 2024: America's and The World's  


With all of the events taking place around the world and in America you can just smell major trouble in the air. It is like an approaching destructive weather system: smelling rain, hearing thunder, seeing lightening, hearing the locomotive sound described when a tornado hits. The international leaves in many nations are going limp and turning upwards. The animals are getting restless.

LIke many of the post WW2 generations, many of us thought we were fortunate not to have lived through another major international madness. Now I am not so sure. Whether you favor the Jackass party or the other Dumbo one, America has become a human depiction of two rams, moose, bears, lions - pick your species - battling it out for dominance. Only winning matters - compromise has all but disappeared.

Over the pond you have even more choice - the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, China to name a few - all allowing base human instincts of greed and power to boil over into death and destruction already or very soon.

Recently I saw an Email with attached "posters" showing the worst of Donald J. As a Canadian they seemed to depict so clearly to me and I suspect the rest of the world just why he must not be in the White House again. They also make us wonder how so many of the MAGA crowd can be totally befuddled by him and his cronies.

There is for sure a LOT wrong in the Biden camp as well - most notably the old style of Washington politics which badly needs new and fresher thinking minds making decisions that are begging to be made. Note those words - making decisions!

The worst poster was that of the Donald mocking and mimicing a reporter with a physical handicap. Who does that? We have also seen him in a cemetary of America's fallen warriors asking somebody what was in it for these military heroes?  He actually called them suckers and losers.

MAGA or not, how can you vote for such a man? Seriously - HOW? Some of you must have handicapped friends or family members and for sure have lost family members who made the supreme sacrifice.

The only bullets this person has ever had to dodge are now rightfully showing up in courts across the nation. He is not as adept an artful dodger as he thought.

It's a good thing he seems to like orange.

#thebrewsterblock.