READING THE TEA LEAVES 8B

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE READING THE TEA LEAVES 8B It is 1 am, I am fighting the urge to go to bed, sleep, rest, forget about things. I have made it past 72 1/2, most of the people I knew throughout my days are either sick or they are dead. I would love to live on for while, as we all do, I think but I am not too sick nor have I given up on life. So here I am. I am still involved! In 23 some odd days, we will have a new government, hopefully the country will stay at peace, nobody will decide to show their "behind", and we will move on. Hopefully we won't start a 3rd world war by then. Not for the lack of trying it seems. Back a few days ago, I had mentioned ( as I said a few times before) that our elections themselves have become a conspiracy against the nation. Look back over the last forty or so years, each time, we had lousy choices, people with no vision or an agenda to improve the lives and the lot of the working class. Yes we have created multimillionaires and even billionaires but the lot of the working class has not improved. Worse, the people with a couple of million actually believe that they are rich, that they are smart, that they have done great, while the fact is that if you had a mere 100K back in the 70s,, you had more money than a net worth of 1 million today. Housing, cars, healthcare, utilities, rent every thing was 20 times cheaper. And you had company retirement, and healthcare was provided for many workers by the employer. But that neither here nor there. But, I said that bothsides screwed the public, meaning we were gonna be screwed either way. Biden was a fool long before he became the president, some say, well he was better. Spare me, what did Biden actually do for the working class, he too had four years. Where was the push for a higher minimum wage? What about improving the Healthcare system? What about holding the employers responsible for hiring illegal aliens, how about doing something about surveillance of citizens, privacy protections, I could go on. But all the attention was on Ukraine or abusing the protesters that were against his policies, and yes, bad mouthing Trump. Yes, it has been a conspiracy between both parties. I look for a " concept of a plan" for the next four years also, my mind is blank. Really, we are talking about deporting the illegals, flying cars, colonizing Mars, the AI, and drilling. Or taking over Canada and buying Greenland. At 72, I no longer have wet dreams though, not much into masturbation either. How will my social security be protected without cuts, how will I pay for my prescription medication, how high will the food prices rise? And more importantly, what kind of a world my grandchildren and their grandchildren will live in. Let's talk about things that matter to the nation, not about gays getting married or the minorities getting or not getting jobs. Read between the lines, get away from the headlines and use your head. Let's talk about things that really matter. I WILL WRITE MORE SOON LORD WILLING AND IF THE CREEK DON'T RISE! M. N. R. 27 DECEMBER 2024

READING THE TEA LEAVES 8A

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE READING THE TEA LEAVES 8A There comes a point where we don't know what is going on, we don't have all the facts, or maybe not enough knowledge to fully understand the situation, and that makes us feel dumb. But if one has enough money, they may not have to suffer the consequences of their stupidity. Yes, someone once did argue that the rich also pay the consequences, but you and I both know that money can always lessen the suffering. A rich person may have to pay a five hundred dollar fine for excessive speeding but that will not take away his light bill money, or the grocery money, as it may for an average person. In broader terms, a recession will not cause a multimillionaire to lose sleep. If the stock market was to crash by say 80% a billionaire, or a hedge fund, like say Blackrock will not go belly up, a multimillionaire will still be making money. So do not assume that the rich guys will not do anything to crash the economy, they just may. To every action there is a reaction, it is mostly predictable, even if we don't care about what the outcome maybe. If you are anything but a multimillionaire you should care, if you work for the government, own a small business, work for a contractor, have a small farm, are on a pension, old, young, sick, not sick, what is coming will affect you, especially if you are a liberal or a conservative, especially if you are a Republican or Democrat, it will not matter, it will not be good. Not even if you are vaccinated or you are anti vaxx. Gun owner or anti the 2d. I'll explain shortly I WILL WRITE MORE SOON M. N. R. 20 DECEMBER 2024

READING THE TEA LEAVES 7B

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE READING THE TEA LEAVES 7B There is a a reason, but it depends upon what one understands. One cannot reason beyond their understanding, and understanding depends upon either life experiences or education, but then again both of these depend upon "learning", many don't ever learn. Complicated? Yes it is complicated! Life is complicated, this is exactly why, for millenia, philosophers and sages have tried to "explain" things. Tried to make us understand things. And charlatans too, the snake oil salesmen told us how their stuff was "beneficial", a cure all mind you, somethings never change. So here we are, a quarter of the way through the 21st century, looking for a cure all. A cure all, for the problems created by our own greed and selfishness. Our own personal hubris, we are ofcourse above everyone else, we are always right, the snake oil salesman tells us so. Yet, the problems persist, and we are left to wonder why? Every single cure we tried has failed, and they keep failing, we don't understand. I WILL WRITE MORE SOON M. N. R. 19 DECEMBER 2024

T'S ONLY WORDS! 1B

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE IT'S ONLY WORDS, 1B Earlier, yesterday in fact, I promised to write more, if you know me, I get sidetracked easily, I blame it on my ADHD, even though 72 years ago there was no such thing as that, but here I am, it is almost 3 am and I am sitting here on my bed, thinking about what to say. In part one of this article, I talked about how words, in and off themselves are totally meaningless. Sometimes it takes many words, pages, articles to state what a certain word actually means, and still it means only whatever the person hearing it or reading it thinks it means, and then again even that still depends upon that person's "understanding". As Clinton famously once said,  "it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is"? So many many years ago (17), I argued that we have no idea what "murder" is! It turned into a 6-10 page dissertation, with no exact conclusion that we cannot with any certainty define "murder". And still today, that is the case! Today, a New York jury found a person "not guilty" of any crime in the chokehold death of another, while someone else in New York was charged in the death of another. In both cases there are (millions of) people that feel that the person causing the "death" of another is either guilty of murder or not guilty of the "murder", doesn't matter which side you are on. My point here is, only, that if we, as a society, as a nation, cannot agree on the definition of an act as consequential as "murder" than how can we define anything with "certainty" ? So we are, constantly and continously left to bickering amongst ourselves. And the politicians and the pundits use the "words" against us to divide us, while they take our money and our peace. I WILL WRITE MORE SOON M. N. R. 10 NOVEMBER 2024

IT'S ONLY WORD'S! 1A

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE It's Only Word's! 1 Over the last many years, I have written about "words", and communication. What is any word? What does any single word even mean? It depends upon the context, depends upon where a particular word is placed in a sentence, among many other things, not the least of which being what the person seeing or receiving it actually themselves understands it to mean, that again depends upon that individuals understanding of the word and also what they perceive it to mean/ say. It not only depends upon the intentions of the person uttering the word but also on the knowledge, understanding, perceptions and yes their culture and their "prejudices". You and I could argue for days about what a particular word or phrase actually said and we could both also be "perfectly wrong". See what I mean? I will write more soon M. N. R. 05 DECEMBER 2024