Better A Bad Life Than A Good Death

— Euripides

Just over nineteen years ago terrorists destroyed American icons, the New York City twin towers, and damaged the Pentagon.  This occurred with over one thousand dead and many injured.  Those injuries are resulting in deaths to this day.  The attacks enraged a nation which had been stable for many years.

The aftermath continues in countries around the world in ways unknown or unseen to Americans for many reasons.  A large one is the willful lack of information from Afghanistan, Iraq and several African countries.  Not for national security, other nations are reporting the actions.  But, to continue a course of keeping Americans ignorant of military actions.  All we know is the Department of Defense receives more money than all other nations combined.

Has the trump monstrosity destroyed the importance of 9/11?  Has the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 overwhelmed our national focus on Middle East terrorism?  Has the interminable war in Western Asia finally been complete? Trump is withdrawing American troops, often without to regard of the consequences for the local people.

Callery pear known as the “Survivor Tree” after enduring the September 11, 2001 terror attacks at the World Trade Center.

I think all of those questions are being answered with a solid “yes”.  Twenty years of anguish cannot continue.  The Trade Towers went down and anger rose.  There is no way to sustain that anger after our fight became our children’s fight and in some way our grandchildren’s fight.  The Pentagon hiding what is happening in other countries does not matter anymore.  The deaths are rare and are little covered in the media.  A thousand dying of COVID-19 every day no longer makes headlines.

Just as the last of those who experienced the Japanese air attack in Honolulu and Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 has passed and the date is just another shopping day, so is September 11, 2001.  There are important moments and remembrances, in the Capitol and New York City as well as in Pennsylvania, but these are no longer a must see on television.

The country is no longer joined and focused on one enemy.  We are split into major factions, and not focused on the one enemy which is killing hundreds of thousands.  Maybe sixty percent see the enemy and forty percent are looking at an alternative universe.  I hope not but that is what it looks like on this nineteenth anniversary of a terrible attack against America.

Twenty years is considered a generation.  We will be one generation removed from the attacks next September.  It is hard to pass on such horror and anger.  It will be interesting to see if the horror and anger of hundreds of thousands of Americans will create a generational remembering of why so many have died.

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Author: Blue Bronc

Born in Detroit when Truman was president, survived the rest of them. Early on I learned that FDR was the greatest president, which has withstood all attempts to change that image. Democratic Party, flaming liberal, Progressive, equality for all and a believer in we are all human and deserve respect and understanding. College educated, a couple of degrees, a lot of world experience and tons of fun. US Air Force (pre-MRE days). Oil and gas fields, computer rooms and stuff beyond anything I can talk about. It has been quite a life so far. The future is making my retirement boat my home. Dogs, cats and other critters fill my life with happiness. Work pays the bills.

72 thoughts on “Better A Bad Life Than A Good Death”

  2. the hill:

    Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) took aim at President Trump‘s decision to hold an indoor rally in his state Sunday evening, accusing the president of taking “reckless and selfish actions” that he said put lives in danger.
    Sisolak wrote on Twitter as Trump took the stage in Henderson, Nev., that Trump’s rally at which many attendees appeared to be maskless and violating both local social distancing orders and White House recommendations, that the president “appears to have forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global pandemic.”
    “This is an insult to every Nevadan who has followed the directives, made sacrifices, and put their neighbors before themselves. It’s also a direct threat to all of the recent progress we’ve made, and could potentially set us back,” Sisolak continued in the lengthy thread.
    Trump during the rally went after Sisolak, saying to the Nevada crowd, “Tell your governor: Open up your state!”
    The crowd roared with applause in response.
    The city of Henderson earlier warned event organizers that the event would likely violate the city’s rules against indoor gatherings of more than 50 people and could result in a fine of $500 or a suspension of the business license.
    [continues]

     

    the hill:

    Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University and medical analyst for CNN, said on Sunday that President Trump‘s indoor rally in Nevada is “negligent homicide.”
    “What else could you call an act that because of its negligence results in the death of others?” he said. “If you have a mass gathering now in the United States in a place like Nevada or just about any other place with hundreds of thousands of people, people will get infected and some of those people will die.”
    “There has been a lot of talk about over whether the president played down the risks of this virus to his followers and the country as a whole. And you have to just look at what is going on now to understand that,” he continued. “If you took this virus seriously, you would never hold an indoor rally or almost any rally now and particularly one that doesn’t enforce very strict rules on masks. People will die as a consequence of this. I think that Nevada has a law right now limiting gatherings to more than 50 people. So, the president is defying that. Makes no sense.”
    [continues]

  3. biden campaign in age of covid according to politico:

    […]
    The rationale behind the painstaking attention to safety is both personal and political. For months, aides have privately acknowledged being concerned about his health. At 77, Biden is more susceptible to the virus that causes Covid-19 and his advanced age alone puts him at higher risk of serious complications from the illness.
    Yet the campaign is also committed to modeling responsible behavior — to avoid undermining their blunt Covid-19 messaging and sharpen the contrast with Donald Trump, who, at the big, non-socially distanced events the president has resumed holding around the country, delights in deriding Biden for frequently wearing a mask.
    Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said the campaign’s reasoning for being so cautious is simple: “We don’t want any more Americans to contract the virus.”
    […]
    Biden’s campaign is also closely adhering to occupancy guidelines in each state. To get a picture of the lengths they are taking, in addition to drawing on first-hand observations from the road, POLITICO interviewed close to 20 campaign aides and advisers, Democratic officials and event participants.
    Biden’s crowds are generally kept in the low dozens. Members of the media are segregated in individual white circles sketched on the ground. Staffers arrive early to venues to measure distances and place sticky notes marking locations where masked guests are instructed to hold their position to ensure at least six feet of separation.
    An event with union auto workers last week in Warren. Mich. — where outdoor gatherings are capped at 100 people — revealed the full measure of the efforts. Attendees were asked to stay home if they were feeling Covid-19 symptoms. United Auto Workers President Rory Gamble planned to greet Biden but went into precautionary quarantine late Tuesday after a family member had symptoms and was tested.
    Before the event began, Biden’s trip director asked the audience to stay still so she could complete an accurate headcount — one that included Secret Service, staff, media and a production crew. An announcement implored the crowd to “please remain in your circles and keep your mask on for the duration of the event.”
    […]
    “Have you ever seen the gyms with the circles? That’s his crowd,” Trump said gleefully in Winston-Salem, N.C., contrasting Biden’s low-key events with his own high-energy jamborees. In Latrobe, Pa., Trump asked his crowd: “Did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him?”
    “It gives him a feeling of security,” Trump said of Biden. “If I were a psychiatrist — right? I’d say, this guy’s got some big issues.” Aides have joined in the jeering, teasing Biden for Labor Day pictures of him solemnly masked with a handful of union workers perched in picnic chairs.
    On Sunday night, Trump defied state regulations in Nevada — and his own federal health guidelines — by hosting his first indoor campaign event before a packed crowd since June.
    […]
    On Thursday, Biden seemed to return the taunts, releasing an Instagram Reel of him standing silently and sliding a large black mask over his face.
    [continues]

  4. Cleverness is not wisdom.

    When one with honeyed words but evil mind
    Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.
    —Euripides 

  5. Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm; great good fortune comes to failure in the end. All is change; all yields its place and goes; to persevere, trusting in what hopes he has, is courage in a man. The coward despairs.

    —Euripides

  6. There’s an evil mind a-working on the southern end of town.
    The deputies are cowering—afraid to make a sound.
    The gentle town folk are all peeping through the cracks
    In windows tightly boarded.
    “The Marshall will return soon” they all whisper to the kids.

    But the Marshall he lies bleeding in the mud outside of town
    The hired guns got in behind him and they blithely gunned him down.

  7. BB, thanks for the update yesterday. They actually did a rerun of the stage last night at 8 o’clock and I caught the last hour of it. Your assessment is dead on. If team Jumbo-Visma keeps this up in the Alps and Roglic doesn’t explode in the time trial he’ll be atop the podium in Paris. 

  9. So a friend of mine last night was shot while trying to stop a carjacking at his home. The guy who was wanted by federal marshals in South Carolina* tried to carjack the car of a relative of his with two people inside. He tried to stop it, came outside with a gun and the guy shot him.  As of midnight last night he was in stable but critical condition after surgery.The guy was caught 5 miles from his house, the hostages have been released and now he’s cooling his jets in the regional jail. It’s just insane. 
     
    And I really wish I couldn’t believe the irresponsibility of the Trump campaign and his idiot followers, but hey it’s just another day.

    *Correction – Delaware.

  10. As with the assassination of JFK (everyone remembering where they were),  there is the next generation who will be too young to remember or who were not yet born.   I don’t remember JFK, but my grandmother kept the newspaper from the next day.  And, of course, there is the military industrial complex that benefits from anger and horror. 

    It is, however, different for those who lost someone on that day or who, like our own 9/11, were lost as a result of their efforts to help on/near the pile.   I can not watch footage of those planes.   I do think of Jim.

    COVID and tRUMP, which will be forever entangled, have displaced the last generation’s horror.   Some day, masks and stories of an orange monster will just be a spooky story told by grandparents…I hope. 

    I suppose this goes for good things, too, like the moon landing.   On to the next success, but still remarkable.   
    “All is change.”

    ‘twas ever thus

  11. Sturgeone

    Fine with the meter, but I kept wanting to alter a lines to

    There’s an evil mind a-working on the southern end of town.
    The deputies are cowering—afraid to make a sound.
    All the gentle town folk are peeping through the cracks
    In windows tightly boarded.
    “The Marshall will soon be back” they whisper to the kids.

  18. Sorry i’m not discussing politics, so much, it’s just that trump and his henchpeople are so thoroughly corrupt, they generate too many scandals to address.  Data manipulation, negligent homicide, race-baiting, Rudy’s a spy, Caputo’s an asset, Wolf’s an anti-American stooge, embezzlement, self-dealing, market-manipulation…
     
    i can’t keep up.

  20. Bink…  I feel the same way.  So many scandals… Michael Cohen’s tale is already old news.  So much outrage on both sides.  How many times and ways can one say trump stinks…  I’m getting bored.   There has to be something in between…   trump is the greatest ever and America sucks.
     
    I haven’t worked all summer….   getting ready to go back to weaving.  It’ll be good to lose myself in creating again. 

  22. it’s not that i’m bored- i’m frustrated that being overwhelmed makes me unable to distill all of these issues into a succinct argument to present to under/misinformed personal acquaintances, with whom i have more influence than with internet strangers.  Said influence is likely minimal if not completely illusory, however.
     
    Pick up my slack, if ye be able!

  23. Yeah, something like that happened to me when i was young, Mr. P- still unpacking the trauma.  Best wishes to all of them.
     
    Ok, have a good day if you don’t have Covid, or if your house wasn’t burned down, or blown away, or your friend wasn’t shot- otherwise, hang in there✌️❤️🇺🇸

  24. Just as an update, LP spoke with my friend’s kid and the word is friend should be OK.  Shot with a .22, hit in the chest, may have nicked an internal organ and he may need a second surgery, but expected to fully recover.  The guy was meth’ed out and had tried to break into a car just before at the nearby Hardee’s.  What the news didn’t say was that the guy held a gun to Friend’s wife’s head, made her drive through a suburb of East Bumfuck before forcing her from the car and driving off. Weird stuff hitting awfully close to home.

  26. Thanks Poobah – the guy was wanted by federal Marshals in Delaware as I understand it – prior reference to SC was in error. So here’s the odd thing – news accounts say the guy is going to be charged here with malicious wounding and larceny, and maybe other charges… like perhaps KIDNAPPING?  OK, I don’t do criminal work, but I’m thinking kidnapping is a no brainer when the guy holds a gun to driver’ head and makes her drive away with him in the car.

  27. OMG, Pogo….   that’s awful…   here’s hoping the best for your friend and his wife.  She’ll probably need emotional help.  I had a friend that was a bank teller that had a gun pointed at her head during the bank being robbed many moons ago.  She had a hell of a time for years afterwards.

  30. Narcissistic Personality Disorder Disorder in action. It’s only about me. 

    Trump said in his interview with the Review-Journal that he is not afraid of getting the coronavirus from speaking at the indoor rally.

    “I’m on a stage and it’s very far away,” Trump said. “And so I’m not at all concerned.” https://t.co/CNNIhzSi05

  31. …it’s very far away… from the suckers and losers who are busy yelling and cheering and breathing and coughing on each other.  But not far away enough from the fans behind me to let them act as stupidly as the idiots on the floor. Them we make wear masks.  So I’m not at all concerned. “
    There, I filled in the blanks. 

  35. Just checked the vote by mail application for WV and it has some odd wording for the first choice:
     

    A. I am applying for a paper ballot by mail because I am not able to vote in person during Early Voting or on Election Day due to:
    ☐ Illness, injury or other medical reason which keeps me confined (includes concerns of COVID-19). 

     
    An option right?  but what if my fear of COVID-19 doesn’t keep me confined, but rather just keeps me from wanting to stop by the Rec Center on my way to work and stand in a line with a bunch of potential COVID carriers on election day?    Here’s the oath:
     

    I do hereby certify the information given above is true to the best of my knowledge, that I reside at the address given, and that I am qualified and registered to vote in this county. I understand that I must vote in person if I can. I understand that making a false statement on this application is a crime punishable by a fine up to $1000 and up to one-year imprisonment. If I require assistance with my ballot, the reason for the assistance is stated below and the person who will assist me has signed the oath on number 7 of this form.  

    Not that anyone would ever try to confirm the “confined” status, although I am confined to my office –  seldom with anyone other than me, our paralegal and Mrs. P. in it.

  38. Biden: “If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is underwater?” https://t.co/pUFhJ4AmgE

  39. Trump at CA briefing, responds to a plea he acknowledge climate change: “It’ll start getting cooler, you watch.” The briefer says, “I wish science agreed with you.” Trump: “We’ll, uh, I don’t think science knows actually.” 

  40. …stuck in traffic because they are letting SCHOOL BUSES OUT.
     
    Looks like a distribution hub for coronavirus.
     
    ”Ship it out, boys, get ready for the next load, tomorrow!”

  41. A professor who has spent his career questioning the basics of climate science and whose research has been supported by fossil fuel companies has been hired for a top position at the NOAA, the federal agency that oversees weather and climate forecasting. https://t.co/piq0osRTg0

  42. A longtime climate change skeptic has been appointed by the Trump administration to help run the federal agency charged with producing “much of the climate research funded” by the government, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

    David Legates, who was a professor at the University of Delaware before being tapped by the administration, will serve as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for environmental observation and prediction, according to the Post, which said the climate change skeptic will report directly to acting NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs.

    From CNN

  46. “climate arsonist” Yep, good.  And when you have to wait in line to go into a store or somewhere, it’s a “Trump line”.

  47. Now that a few of the media are pushing back and asking a question or two of SFB and his cult members it may be time for some person of intelligence just blurts out something good.  “You are a blathering idiot, you don’t have enough brains to take a dump without pictures to show you how”   I like that one.

  51. Such a dizzying spike lately of stories showing Trump mob’s corruption, malfeasance, incompetence, even treason, ya gotta wonder (and worry) it’s too much for the public to absorb. So much it’s easier to just ignore.

  52. Craig, exactly as trumpity like it and makes it so.  As Mary Trump said, he likes to keep 147 plates spinning all the time!
     

    Such a dizzying spike lately of stories showing Trump mob’s corruption, malfeasance, incompetence, even treason, ya gotta wonder (and worry) it’s too much for the public to absorb. So much it’s easier to just ignore.

  54. Craig…. for me it’s not that I’m ignoring stuff…  it’s that as I’ve said…  I’m voting for Biden on Nov. 3rd even if I have to crawl over the gym floor on broken glass to get to the voting booth.  At this point it all sounds the same.  I wonder if anyone already hasn’t made up their mind if they are voting and for whom.  How many minds could possibly still be on the fence…

    that doesn’t mean I think the media shouldn’t keep reporting the shitstorm… I think they should.

  55. RR, me too!  
    I’m voting for Biden on Nov. 3rd even if I have to crawl over the gym floor on broken glass to get to the voting booth

    LOL, Bink on flow charts.

  57. NPR had a clip from a young Latinx saying there was no pressing reason anyone was giving to vote for them.   Honey, if you ever want the chance to vote, again, you and your friends need to vote against tRUMP.  It’s called a protest vote.  Surely, you can get behind that. 

  59. So when D’ump criticizes Newsome for poor forest management I hope Nuwsme pushes back and informs him that over a million of those burning acres are managed by his administration in national forests. Idiot

  60. I complained to ATT about sending reps door-to-door/taking off their masks and the person working their help desk just referred to me as a “Karen.”   

  61.  
    Well she clearly doesn’t know who or what Karen means…now if you had said you were going to shoot them if they took off their masks…

  62. SFB is a moron — trust me everyone here sweeps their forest at least too 100 feet around your house 
    We live in the woods.  We know that.  We keep a go bag and have figured out some fire proof storage for Mr. Cracker’s painting. 
    But Mr. Cracker has lived here 50 years and during the first 45   one big fire and no evacuations.  We’ve evacuated three times in the last 2 years.   It’s Climate Change not forest management. 
     

  65. Did anyone else get a ginormous postcard from USPS that reads, “If you plan to vote by mail, plan ahead”? Start today-Rules & dates vary by state-Request mail-in ballot at least 15 days in advance- Add postage to return envelope if needed-Mail back at least 7 days before Election Day
    Is this propaganda from tRUMP/DuhJoy so they can say they were all in for mail-in ballots?  Why spend the money?  Weird.
    pogo – Since the option was worded “concern about COVID,” I think you’re good; being confined isn’t a requirement.  

  67. The reason i’m being so careful about COVID is so i can stay alive long enough to strut into my polling place and pull that lever in person.  
     
    i don’t need no stinking mail-in ballot.

  68. …every election, me and the Republican dick that stands outside the polling place have words.
     
    So ready.

  70. Yea, BiD, I got the USPS postcard. It’s cover for DeJoy when USPS rigs the mail in voting for D’ump. Nothing more, nothing less. 
    We disagree about the WV mail voting requirements. No problem, I spend my life disagreeing with what words mean. 

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