A confusing sign

 I, unfortunately, live in a rather red part of Pennsylvania.  There’s a road that – depending on the circumstances – I either drive a couple times a week, or I go a couple of months not driving it.  But leading up to the 2024 Election, it became very depressing as I drove that road.  Months before the election, there were only a few Trump signs, but then in the last month, it seemed every other house had them.

One house, had a normal Trump flag, and they also had a large banner for, I think, Women for Trump.  I’m not completely sure what it was, because whenever I drove by it I either grimaced or flipped them off. 

Anyway, after the election I tried to ignore all these signs.  But, towards the end of the summer, I noticed something about this flag and banner: they were starting to fray.  Now I don’t know if it is because most people put a political yard sign up a month before the election, and then after the election they throw them away, so they’re not that tough to begin with.  I mean, who would have a political yard sign up for over a year?  Or, being Trump branded stuff, they’re probably made as cheaply as possible.  Either way, after eight or nine months, they were starting to show their age.  But the last time I went by – some fourteen months after the election – I only saw the corners of the banner still tied to some posts.  Two Pennsylvania winters had completely shredded it. 

Now normally, you’d expect the homeowner would take the signs down long before they got to this point.  If they were a normal person, they’d throw them away just to keep their yard nice.  Or if they wised up to the Trump shitshow they’d get rid of them too.  But you’d think if they were still drinking the Trump Kool-Aid, they’d replace them with whatever new crap he’s selling.  But none of that has happened.  There are still vehicles at this place, so I’d assume people still live there.  But they apparently don’t care to have some ragged sign in their front yard. 

Or maybe they’re just lazy.

What I believe

I’ve been thinking about making this post for some time.  With all the hate and evil in the world, and all the assholes in power, I thought I should make a quick list of where I stand on the important issues of the day. 

These are in no particular order, but I’ll start by saying I think people are people.  I don’t care if they’re white, black, male, female, trans, gay, ace, Muslim, Jew, atheist, born in America, born elsewhere, disabled, English speaker, non-English speaker, whatever.  I don’t care what people are, but what they do.  The only people I hate are the assholes.  I define assholes as people who hate people because they are black, or trans, or don’t speak English, or for whatever assholish reason they have. 

I believe the Palestinian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Israeli people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Ukrainian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Iranian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

Basically, I believe all peoples deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

Climate change is real, and caused by humans.  I believe we could slow down, halt, and eventually even reverse the warming of our world, but that would require a bunch of billionaires to either make less money or just find less destructive ways to make money. 

Speaking of money, my economic philosophy is basically a rising tide lifts all boats.  Helping those at the bottom, helps everyone. 

The people who should decide if a woman has an abortion are the woman, her doctor, the father (except in rape cases), her legal guardian if she is underage, and whatever family/friends she wishes to discuss the matter with.  If there isn’t a politician in that group, then it’s none of their goddamned business.

There are places where AI could be used ethically for good.  Unfortunately, about 99% of AI is used to make worthless slop.

No one – kings, popes, presidents – is above the law. 

I do not have an issue with the death penalty for terrorists or mafia hitmen.  My feeling is that once you’ve killed X number of people, you’ve clearly forfeited your right to life.  What X is, I can’t say, which is why I called it a feeling.  I also have the feeling that if you are the leader of some country that invades another resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, I’d say that could also be grounds for the death penalty. 

I’ll end this with something I realized years ago.  Humanity has but two choices: evolution, or extinction.  If we don’t grow and become better beings, we’ll likely destroy ourselves.