Chronicles in Ordinary Time

I had planned on starting this chapter differently; and then I read this:

“The 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” he wrote. He continued, “Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,”

This person wants to become President of the United States of America. Is this the kind of person you want to have in the White House [again]? Both major candidates have been in the White House before.

The paragraph above isn’t a policy message. No promises regarding the health and welfare of the country’s citizens, and those who want to become citizens. Nothing about murders at schools, parades, retail establishments. Nothing about gun control, nothing about the health and welfare of women… the list can go on and on—not to minimalize any of the issues that exist in this country.

And I do not need to say the name of this person…

There once was a President who famously stated, ‘I am not a crook!’
Only, he was a crook. His Vice President was a bigger crook, in that he awarded government contracts to various contractors who paid him a fee…

The FBI had a problem. They could not address the President’s crimes because then the Vice President would become President, and that was a bigger problem. A meeting was held with the Vice President, and evidence against him was  brought to light. They agreed that the Vice President would not need to go jail; he would have to give up his license to practice law. The VP moved on, and Speaker of the House, Gerald Ford became VP. Once he was in place, a delegation from the Senate went to the President with the evidence from the case against him. He was allowed to retire and Gerald R. Ford became President of the United States.

Ford pardoned his predecessor, ‘for the good of the country.’ What crimes he had pardoned was never disclosed. For many years, he carried a piece of paper with him. Ford had granted the Pardon. Nixon accepted the Pardon. In the strangeness of legal language, accepting a pardon was the same as being accused.

The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.
Neil deGrasse Tyson

I am one of those people who can hold two contradicting ideas in my mind without being forced to make a choice. I’ve been creating images for so long that I find myself looking at an image from two or three different angles, and then create an image from a different perspective.

My world of Science Fiction was when the world was in black and white. Back When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. Black and White went far beyond Television. To be accurate, it should be Black and Pink. I’m an illustrator. I can tell the difference between pink and white. An Election will occur in November. An old, pink [orange] guy and a not-yet-sixty ‘woman of color’. I’m voting for her, and her Vice President.

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” aired in 1951 and raised the issue of human beings creating a threat to the rest of the Galaxy.

Klaatu: “I am leaving soon, and you will forgive me if I speak bluntly. The universe grows smaller every day, and the threat of aggression by any group, anywhere, can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all or no one is secure. Now, this does not mean giving up any freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly. Your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves and hired policemen to enforce them. Now, we of the other planets have long accepted this principle. We have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets and for the complete elimination of aggression. The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it. For our policemen, we created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one and preserve the peace. In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk. The result is, we live in peace, without arms or armies, secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression and war, free to pursue more… profitable enterprises. Now, we do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system, and it works. I came here to give you these facts. It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer.

The decision rests with you.”

Sort of like the United Federation of Planets

Science Fiction?

The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Quoted in Star Trek Discovery