As I was sitting at my desktop last night, wondering what I'd write about, I slipped into a daydream of memories. Memories of my youth.

I was swept back to my early childhood in the mid to late fifties, and I soon noticed I was viewing my memories in black and white. That seemed odd, but not really, having grown up in the era of black and white TV. What an idyllic world that was. Time was slow. There was less chaos, well, less chaos in my young mischievous mind anyway. Things were so much simpler. I'm sure many here can relate.

I probably spent a good five minutes in memory land.

It's strange the way a person can drift back in time, like a lucid dream, like a movie.

Certainly we all have heard of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse prediction from The Book of Revelations contained in the Bible. First, The White Horseman, thought to be Jesus himself or possibly the anti-Christ, depending on interpretations. Second, the Red Horseman, thought to represent war. Third, the Black Horseman, thought to represent famine. And fourth, the pale Horseman, thought to represent death.

Notice the similarities that runs through the Book of Revelations' narrative of fear? It's the same leitmotif that runs through the course of The Bible, and most religions, if not all of them. Like the other four Horses, the Fifth Horse of the Apocalypse isn't a physical entity, in my humble opinion, it's a psychological construct.

Just as the underlying teachings of the Bible use the elemental emotion of fear as it's prime mover (pun intended), the same motivation is driving the current societal control mechanisms. For the same reasons.

Corruption is out of control in this country, and hand in hand with that corruption is our government, which is also out of control. It's no longer hidden, in fact, it's flaunted in our faces. The executive branch of our government has wrested too much power. The president, by diktat in the form of executive privilege and executive orders, simply waves his signing hand and so it is done. Is there a better example than the recent presidential pardoning of his son and the rumored preemptive pardoning of his partners in crime? Biden might as well pardon the whole government as corrupt as it currently is.

How do the government and the politicians get away with it? In times past the public would be in the streets with torches and pitchforks, seeking retribution for their grievances. The least that could be expected was a good tar and feathering followed by a good running out on a rail. Today, it's shrugged off as business as usual. The body politic has become accustomed to the corruption and unwilling to make any waves. But, why?

Fear.

The results of years of fear are evident. Lock downs, genocide, wars, lawfare, WWIII, cancellations, de-platforming, crime, IRS audit, threats of martial law, talk of civil war, talk of nuclear war, surveillance, troops in the street, climate change, policrisis, pandemics, poison food, murders on the street openly shown on the internet, and I'm sure I'm missing many more. Step out of line and you'll pay the price. It's been non stop for years and it's taking it's toll. We, the body politic have been socially engineered to acquiesce, to not make waves, out of fear of retribution and lives destroyed.

Fear is the Trojan Horse used to enter one's mind as an insidious manipulation of one's core emotion. Make an individual fearful enough and they will bend to the will of the manipulator. It works the same for a society as well. There's plenty of examples from the past to support this supposition. Today, we've been witnessing the largest and most potent psychological operation in all of history, on steroids, and in real time.

If fear is the Trojan Horse and the Fifth Horse of the Apocalypse, then who may be the rider? And to what end?

It's Thanksgiving Day as I write this from a cabin in the Texas Hill Country. It's beautiful here, rolling and rocky hills full of cattle, wildlife, friendly people and great music. The Texas Hill Country (Central Texas), and especially Austin, have long been known as a hub for an eclectic blend of country, rock and folk music, best known as Cosmic Cowboy music, or more in modern terms, Americana Music. The Austin Music Scene, as it's also known, became a thing in the early 70s shaped by music greats, Jerry Jeff Walker, Gary P. Nunn, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Michael Martin Murphey and many more. Although the Austin Music Scene isn't as vibrant as it once was many of the progenitors are still with us and playing great music.

Last night we went to Luckenbach, just a few miles away from the cabin, and enjoyed a show by Dale Watson, another of the icons of the Austin Music Scene, at the Luckenbach Dance Hall for the annual Thanksgiving Day Ball. We had an absolute great night of dancing (if you can call what I do dancing), libations and fine company. This was the third time we've seen Dale Watson, and the second time we've been here for the Thanksgiving Day Ball featuring Mr. Watson and His Lone Stars. He and the band were on fire, we consider this the best show of the three that we've seen. We left at 11:00 PM full of memories, tee shirts, autographs and photos.

We're staying here through Thanksgiving Day and we'll head back to Southeast Texas tomorrow, Friday. We're forgoing the traditional turkey dinner for barbecued baby back ribs. Yesterday we saw a large rafter of turkeys pass close by the cabin, probably about 100 feet away. I joked with otc that she should have grabbed one for Thanksgiving dinner, but instead we opted for the delicious ribs, being the rebels that we are.

Photos from Outside the Cabin

The plot: Blondie (Clint Eastwood) defeats Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) in a three-way Mexican showdown and then sets his gaze upon Tuco, the last two men standing. After defeating Tuco, and after a faked hanging, and in magnanimous fashion, Blondie splits the stolen money with Tuco (Eli Wallach) and lets him go, in essence he pardons him, as he rides of into the distance. Art imitating life.

Donald Trump's cabinet picks are rolling in like an assembly line. There are shouts of glee and cries of despair echoing across the land as the future settles into the minds of the body politic. Some pundits point fingers, some pound their chests. The nation remains divided, perhaps even more so after the election. There's an eerie calm across the land, for now.

As I see it, there are some Good potentialities among his picks. There is much fat to be rendered from the bloated governmental carcass. That rendering will cause some hurt but really should be done, the behemoth is stuffed like an 86 pound turkey.

The US of A will be none the worse with healthier food and better product regulation. Regulating poisons would also be a huge plus. Health has been neglected for too long in this country for the sake of corporate profit.

I foresee possible Bad consequences looming in the future as well, namely censorship. Consequences that may affect c99 and the internet in toto. In the past Trump had originally voiced opposition to Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1996, which will directly affect c99 and myself, which provides immunity to online platforms from civil liability based on third-party content. The former President has gone quiet since his previous opposition to Section 230 after he launched his social media platform, Truth Social.

We shall see, since the Republicans have also shown a desire to censor social media, albeit from a different angle from that of the Democrats.

There are Ugly storm clouds of war building on the horizon as well, as Trump loads his cabinet with hardliners. The European theater may quell, but the specter of the ongoing and troublesome war in the Mideast continues. Let's hope that the recent bluster emanating from certain voices in the incoming cabinet are meant to bring the antagonists to the bargaining table and not a portent of the future.

In this moment in time, I feel like the dog in this video. Let us hope to be unburdened by what may be, as the US, Israel and Iran face off in a Mexican showdown of three.

Well, it's over. For now.

What we witnessed in this 2024 election was a master class in voter manipulation. I often wonder how they do it. How they can produce an almost cult like following for two of the most flawed politicians in recent memory. How is it that so many voters can be lead by their noses to the voting booth in a fevered pitch of anxiety?

In my opinion it is done by instilling fear in the minds of the voters. Fear of the other, fear of what the opposition party may have in store if elected, fear of civil war, riots, detention camps. Fear, fear, fear. It was a constant barrage of fear, to make one yearn for a savior that will lead one to the electoral promised land.

Fear is the arrow, and the media is the bow. Those that benefit from our fear are the archers and our minds are the target.

If so, then why does fear work so well on so many people?

"I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell".

~ Bruce Dickinson aka Christopher Walken

Four more days. Four more days of the overtly loud and incessant drone of cowbell in our ears.

Imagine, if you will:

An overweight American media, gut hanging out over a strained belt line, with disregard for the consequences of their ululations and stomach jiggling gyrations, calls out in multi point harmony for a more divergent version of a well known sound track. A track about "The Reaper", replete with fear of "the other", and with overtones of cataclysmic repercussions of a miscast vote in the most important election of all time, immemorial.

A "fevered" uniparty studio producer driven by an expedient need to subvert the arrangement of a score laid down long ago, from a different time and a different place, proclaims with a wink and a nod to the duopoly: "Don't be burdened by what has been, let us make cowbell great again" as his lips flutter and twist while talking from both sides of his mouth. His job, besides his bank account's bottom line, is choreographing your thoughts into a leitmotif of fascist and nazi symbolism. Like a conductor he points his baton to the left and then to the right which results in a discordant cacophony of noise that rises above the signal as it crescendos into a chorus of hatred towards one another.

The American polity, divided by a classic standard gone awry, are split into camps that want to leave the song as they remember it and those that want to embellish its rhythmic aspects, in an oppositional dichotomy of status quo versus change. The cowbell represents a new normal, an instrument of change. It's a producer's tool. Its purpose is not so much to change the song as it is to bend the will of the listener. And to keep the listeners divided, like a two channel stereo output, ultimately, combined into a singular monophonic output source.

And the cowbell drones on.

Tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink.

Wow! Can you believe the fear that's being ginned up in this election? Sure, fear is a big factor in every election but this one is over the top. Who, that are old enough to have lived through it, can forget the nuclear blast ad from the 1964 election. That visual may not be aired this election cycle, but it sure is implied.

Fear is the tool of the powerful, and those that covet power.

It resides in the amygdala, also known as the lizard brain. As a primal emotion its function is fight or flight, or to put it another way, a preservation device.

Fear has been used by the powerful probably since the advent of social cohesion, the main advantage of humans living in groups is safety, the prime motivation after food and water.

The fear today is palpable. From all political sides of the power spectrum. Civil war, nuclear war, violent riots, financial ruin, martial law, cancel culture, prison for misinformation, on and on. We are inundated with that which tickles the lizard brain. Have you noticed that folks are being lead around by their noses?

Attribution: Triune Brain, Wikimedia Commons

Ever have those strange moments when surrealism temporarily supplants reality? Like a certain moment in time isn't real and you question it really happening? You feel outside of yourself like you're in another dimension? Here's an example.

That's happened to me several times in the past, but I've been feeling that way many times during the last four or five years, like all this really isn't happening. How can it be that life has changed so quickly? It seems like the change hasn't been organic, that some surreal hand has directed it all. Like it hasn't happened naturally, like it's all been orchestrated.

I wonder, have all great societal changes happen this way?

Things are weird and keep getting weirder. Like an infinite regression of weirdness. Like turtles stacked one upon another, holding up a flat earth.

Attribution: Wikimedia Commons

Are the proxy wars in Ukraine and the Mideast about propping up the failing US dollar and world hegemony?

Yes, probably, but with a caveat.

In a world that is experiencing resource depletion and most probable peak oil, what will be the most valuable resource in the near future?

World War III will be about oil and gas. It's all about energy, the lifeblood of world economies, and those who would be king of the world.

Attribution: Pixabay

As you read this my wife and I will be on our way to the gorgeous white sand and blue waters of Gulf Shores, Alabama.

We really lucked out on this one. Gulf Shores is just a hop, skip and a jump from Hurricane Helene's landfall in the panhandle of Florida. I hope those folks over there in the Big Bend area will be OK. Helene was a Cat. 4 when it hit the shore, it's a big one.

The area east of the hurricane is getting hammered as well. There's massive rain and wind over Florida, and it will move up into Georgia and the Appalachians. To the west of the hurricane, where Gulf Shores is, will be pretty calm and quiet. Like I said, we really got lucky on this one, a little wobble to the west and our vacation will have been much different, as in nonexistent.

It was a nail biter all week tracking the hurricane and it's a relief that we get to go, but at the same time we feel guilty in our pleasure knowing what those folks are going through just a short distance away. A hurricane, Beryl, went right over the top of us in Southeast Texas a few months ago. It made landfall south of Houston as a Cat. 1 hurricane and by the time it went over us it was just a tropical storm, but that was bad enough. There was flooding, trees down everywhere and we were without electricity for 6 days. That, I'm sure, is nothing compared to what folks are going through beneath Helene.

Hopefully everyone got to high ground.