Duncan's Blog

And here I was thinking that it was about the demand deposit account and how much money you could withdraw!

Checks and balances refer to a system in which the powers of government are divided among separate branches—typically the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. This system is designed to prevent any one branch from exercising too much power and to promote accountability and transparency in governance. Each branch has specific powers and responsibilities, and mechanisms are in place to allow them to check each other's actions.

Obviously, this one is trying to be light-hearted at a time in history (i.e., the present) where the nation is run by a fascist dictator. Why is there no one or nor force that sees this? Why is this allowed? Why are there so many a**holes/a**wipes who support this form of so-called leadership.

The supreme court is bought and paid for. That woman judge Cannon in Florida is another example of the black robe that's bought and paid for on a different level. Where are the checks? Where is the balance?

My own party has in-fighting from those who decent. How are we going to fight united(ly) with all of this bickering. I know! I know! When the GOPers join together and vote in lockstep, we call them nazis or puppets. There are times when I think of getting citizenship elsewhere just so that I don't have to pull out the blue passport. This one is probably the least used passport I have ever owned.

Maybe it's time for a name change, too...

What have I gotten myself into ? I've signed up for a five day retreat in the desert. I have never been away for such a long period of time on a retreat. My usual limit is a 3-day long weekend.



The brochure indicates that the venue is located in the dark-sky territory, a desert oasis that is known for spectacular views of stars, planets, and the Milky Way. During this weekend stay, there will be a meteor shower on display streaking across the night sky! "We will be enlightened by a knowledgeable Stargazer Guide, who will join us for some memorable star watching!"

I've never watched stars (shooting or otherwise). This from a person who used to like to do laundry as a child because the basement machines were all front loaders and I'd get to see the soap suds in the door window. If it got too soapy, I'd add fabric softener and the suds would diminish. LIKE MAGIC.

Just the other day I went to an all-male dinner at a local Thai restaurant. The man to my left was man- splaying and was banging his knee next to mine. I reacted by pulling away in the opposite direction towards a man who had brought his own leftover plastic containers from grocery purchases. He was asking the fellow diners if he could take home their leftovers. To his right, there was an elderly Latin gentleman with lots of bling who got a little too handsy and grabby for my comfort level.

I couldn't hear what anyone was saying because the table was too loud.

Need to work on those social skills.

Evicted.
Contacted public storage.
Refused to give my name or credit information.
Just give me the key.

I was a union representative 100% of the time at a federal agency. I was still on the payroll for my vocation. I worked with a contract that was called 'The Master Agreement". I negotiated on behalf of the local and the bargaining unit employees and edited MOUs (memoranda of understanding) between management and labor.

Cheeto stopped payroll deductions from the employees for union dues. He also rescinded our contract. He also evicted us from the building and removed any mention of our existence. He also had all employees' status changed from bargaining unit employee to the alternative.

The work that we have done in grievances, demands to bargain, MOUs, and federal filings such as ULPs (unfair labor practices), EEO violations, and other individual concerns have been boxed and shipped to a storage unit that is near light rail station near my home.

The temperatures are now triple digit (Fahrenheit, of course) and the last thing I feel like doing is putting crap into a box, schlepping a box to the car trunk, driving boxes to the unit, unloading the trunk and storing crap in a dark space. The compensation for my labor came to about $350. It comes in handy, but it's more annoying than not. Who knows if/when we will return.

I am very angry and very upset.

I should be happy that the unit is near my home. Initially the local president thought that it was too high and she wanted me to get quotes elsewhere. I told her I was back at work, too busy, and that she could have her administrative assistant do the leg work. The AA did, and it turned out the price was reasonable.

Doesn't make me any less angry, though.

You've heard of horse sh*t.
You've heard of bullsh*t.
Curiously, the excrement of the female bovine is called cow pie. Well, it's not a scientific term or one that might be used in polite company.

I live in what I call Cheeto-time. i think if I had really wanted to clarify this horror-/sh*t-show more distinctly, I would refer to it as Cheeto-time II (to distinguish it from the first time 'round).

Horse sh*t is sometimes referred to as road apples. It's more of a rural (country), slang terminology. There was even a time when it was dried, painted, and made into jewelry (necklaces). Try to find it on the Internet. I sure couldn't.

Bullsh*t is the expletive you hear when someone is called a liar. I live with it on a regular basis. I work in a profession that is supposed to be transparent and honest. I see lots of behaviors that aren't always in keeping with that professional behavior.

Cowpies in the heat. Please don't think that I spend my waking hours of comparative contemplation of feces. They are all different based on the animal (both individual and species) as well as the season, as well as what the creature has eaten, as well as the amount of fluid it has ingested... yadi, yadi, ya. Cowpies take on a less formed shape. They are generally looser. And when it's hot outside, the aroma wafts through the air with a generalized sense to the sniffer that he/she/they/it is in the country. I once heard it referred to by an Austrian as 'Landluft' (country air).

In the wintertime you can see the steam eminating from it. It's still got the memories of body heat as part of its existence.

When I hear the Cheeto speak (or hear others who quote or paraphrase him) I think of those West Virginia cowpies in the heat. They are a mess. They need to be collected and tossed. Sometimes (if they are from a sick bovine) they can do more damage than they are worth. No one in the big city wants them (unless such a person is running an organic garden in Yuppieville). So, they should just stay in WV and be part of landscape sample of a population that is tolerant of crap that I do not want around or near me.

I'm sure I've digressed, but hey, this is my blog. I'll do as I please.

legacy
noun
plural legacies

1 a gift by will especially of money or other personal property : bequest

2 something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past

3 a candidate for membership in an organization (such as a school or fraternal order) who is given special status because of a familial relationship to a member

Some of us leave no such things like this. I don't have that perfect car to donate to National Public Radio (you know, the 1957 Bel-Air convertible with the stick on the floor). I haven't won a significant lottery so I won't be sending money to my beloved organization that plants trees in Israel.

I have no direct progeny of my own. There is one nephew who is married with three chilcren. There was another nephew who has passed away and left behind a widow and a child with special needs. (I read somewhere that millennials generally don't like to receive artifacts. I take that to mean that they like portfolios, precious stones and metals, or liquid cash in hard currency).

I went to city colleges and universities. The only private education that I had ever received was something generically termed 'religious instruction'. And even that, at one point, was more cultural than religious. For many years, I kept journals. There are numerous entries where those in my life were not mentioned with full names. Some were not mentioned by any name at all. A nameless person without a picture is kind of like a vague memory that is distorted without corroborating evidence.
I have memories of places where I met men for annonymous sex. Book stores, movie houses, condemned piers, inside produce trucks, bushes, rock formations in quaries, a toilet at a cemetery, a cardboard box, a bathtub.

These memories or activities won't grant any familial relations membership into any organization that would elevate their status to a desired level among the social ranks.

Legacy is not something that an introvert really thinks of or considers too much. In the literature, I think I'd prefer to be mentioned in a footnote (Turabian style, please) rather than splashed among paragraphs as someone whose point of view was worth reading, viewing, or pointing to.

I think I'll end this here.