The Downward Spiral of the Times

Hello world. Here I'd like to write an improvisatory speel about the downward spiral of the times we're currently living in, in 2025. 

    First off, this isn't just hard times, this is weird. The amount of division within our society is so bad its almost like civil war in wherever you go, whatever you do, say, or think. That's a bit excessive but just look upon how the Trump administration has handled Charlie Kirk's death. Instead of simply saying prayers for the guy and saying he was cool for right-wingers, they've decided to make the man a martyr for their cause-the right wing agenda. Them doing so has sowed more division and discord, more than even the shooter simply shooting the guy. In fact, right now most people could care less about the shooter and why he did it and they're more focused on the fallout, including the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel for simply mentioning that the shooter maybe was MAGA. 

    Moving on, you'll find that the division doesn't simply stop at politics or the fallout of Charlie Kirk's death. You'll find that you maybe won't be able to get along with certain family members, friends, coworkers, managers, maybe even some stranger will look at you in public with the evil eye for no apparent reason. Now, I'm not saying that everyone hates your guts, but maybe if you're noticing that you're getting more dislike and hate from others around you, you need to realize that sometimes its not you, it's them, it's a symptom of the times that we're currently living in. 

    Next, maybe you've played the good guy so long that you know that there's no way anyone can really truly hate you, well, in this current climate of discord, you'll find that no matter how good of a person you are, you will receive hate from certain individuals around you and even from strangers. I would say you have to trust no one in this particular society and times. In a way you have to even be critical of yourself in certain moments and situations, not just others. You need to be extra critical of the people closest to you, and especially critical of people that know or knew you in the past, and even more critical of strangers, especially in public.  

    In addition, I'm a person consuming a lot of media. I'm on YouTube, video games, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, NyTimes, LAtimes, washington post, MSNBC, and a lot of the media people are consuming may not be good for you. In fact, a lot of media out there is downright brain rot. I don't want to be too critical of the news here as I think more young people need to watch/read the news, but I've noticed that a lot of the left wing news media has turned more to the right, which is a bit alarming. Especially since the Kirk incident. 

    Lastly, people that disagree with you, call you out and condemn you in super harsh ways for lightly expressing your opinions are probably the most dangerous to you. We all have a right to share our thoughts and express our opinions and if somebody doesn't like what you have to write/say, then there's plenty of other media for them to go to. But in today's age, you'll find that you personally won't really be able to fully express yourself anymore. Part of it is the fact that simply saying what you truly think or believe is dangerous, and the other part of it is that people that don't like it will hurt/harm you for doing so, if they are so inclined. 

    In conclusion, I would go so far as to say that most people out there [including friends/family/people that used to/know you now/meet in the future] will end up screwing you over and backstabbing you if you aren't watching closely and take a step away from them. Trust me, this happened to me with countless friends, family, managers/jobs, my old work union, and even newer current people in my life. I hate to say it but it's going to get worse. Try to find some peace. Peace is the way. 

Watch this space. 

Meet the new Boss, Same as the old Boss

Good evening, how are you? I wanted to do a bit of blogging, some improv, and just see what turns out. It's September 20th, 2025, about a week after the Charlie Kirk incident, which has captivated the media and the internet nonstop ever since. First, I'll start with my thoughts on the matter. 

Charlie Kirk wasn't my cup of tea. I put him in the same vein as Ben Shapiro, Nick Fuentes, and Candace Owens, so I see him as right-wing agitator. However, that doesn't mean that I think he should've been gunned down and although I'm kind of a hard leftist progressive [if you know anything about this blog and my life as a worker], I don't think people should be celebrating his death. In fact, I think the fact that people are celebrating his death is a little bit sickening. This is where we are in 2025 September 20th. 

Which brings me to my next point. The fact that the Trump administration flew his body back via Airforce 1, and the Right-Wingers [although its mostly the far right that are sprouting revenge and violence] have made him a martyr in their crusade against the so called woke liberal left. When you see your right-wing friends saying Kirk was a good man, a great man, and that he was peaceful, you know that they're only saying that because that's what they've been told to believe because the man was quite frankly, an asshole of a right-wing persuasion. On the opposite side on the left, you see the celebratory theme of Kirk's death as a sort of meme of pop culture, which they've been told to believe in. 

That being said, it doesn't take a genius of political ideology to tell you that these two different parties are just followers, believing in whatever the 'leader,' is telling them to believe in. Which makes you wonder, is anyone truly thinking for themselves anymore in 2025? We got people hooked in ChatGPT, taking pictures of them in their outfits and asking GPT if it goes hard? The people who do think for themselves are getting drowned out, belittled, and disgraced by the people who are just followers of whatever ideology they've been told to follow. Which begs the question, can anyone truly be an outsider in 2025? Maybe not. 

Moving on from politics, you find today that the Culture has been transformed into a video culture. Meaning that most people are followers following the trends and can't resist it. I remember working at the market and most of the employees there would always be on their phones watching TikTok on the sales floor and even on their break, phone in one hand, and food in the other. For women and girls it's TikTok and videos nonstop, for men it's endless video games and YouTube. If you say you prefer books, you are seen as an outsider by these groups. 

That being said, I don't think that will ever change. What we're witnessing now is the decline and fall of the American experiment, which lasted roughly 300 years. We consume so much stuff and media, its like a fat guy eating 20 hamburgers, it's become disgusting. Nowadays I sometimes find myself getting lost in the male video gaming meme culture and after a few weeks I catch myself and realize that I have to resign from it for a few months to recuperate. The consumption of mass media in this culture has a strong effect on the human mind. 

Now, I'm not saying you have to read books all the time. But perhaps it wouldn't hurt to read a book every now and then? And if you can't stand books, maybe do some kind of learning via the internet instead of endless TikTok or doomscrolling? This current American culture has become some kind of monster [metallica reference], its got to the point where everything and everyone has become fake and useless [now trending.] 

Sometimes you might watch a TikTok or a YouTube video and it seems real and lifelike, but you find out later on that its AI voice generated video with real images, or that everything the person said or did in the video is all fake, not one tiny bit of it is honest or real in any way. This is where we are in 2025. From a young person's standpoint, it's almost frightening because young people are impressionable and a lot of them are going to believe a lot of what's online despite being told a lot of it is all fake. Now, I think the biggest skill for a young person to have is to be skeptical of everything and everyone around them, especially those closest to them. 

I worked at a grocery store in SoCal for a long time. In that time I probably worked with over 300 employees. And I was cool with almost all of them, cool as in I got along with them and we worked well together. But most of those people were fake and were always trying to do the bare minimum amount of work. This includes management and store directors as well. They were all, for the most part, not very good people, fake people, not hard-working people. They weren't evil people, but for the most part they were fake and useless. Most people don't tell it like how it really was and is, but I'm keeping it real and I might get flagged for this but most of them were bad people. Pretty much everyone at the market including managers, codirectors, and store directors were all not good people, very fake, and didn't do much work. I had one manager for 12 years, a Persian guy, who hardly did any work pretty much the entire 12 years, and hid in the back 4 hours a night. These people might be a good laugh to have a beer with, but they were not very good people. 

In conclusion, what's the solution? Well, I think you have to really learn to be skeptical of everyone and everything. As one of my managers said, "This is California, trust no one." As paranoid as that sounded to me he was right. I think today in 2025 you have to even be skeptical of little old ladies asking you questions on the street. Listen to your elders but don't take what they say to heart, because the future of the world is you, not them. The workforce people are all fake and they're probably going to do you in the first moment you say no to them or don't make the quota. Learn to build your own interior world. The world has become more and more fake. Everyone you knew in your past or from previous jobs probably treated you badly behind your back and you didn't realize it because if you're like me, you're a good spirit, even amongst demons. You tend to overlook that sharp eye of evil within your managers and coworkers. Yeah, it's in the eyes. 

As random and improvisatory as this long blog was, everything in it is connected. Brought to you via the government and workforce. Godspeed. Watch this space.  

"I couldn't say where she's comin' from, but I just met a woman named Dinah Mo Hum." 

Summer’s Last Caress: A Final Embrace of the Season

Happy August, everybody! It's nearly the end of summer, although summer is the hottest month in California, but the good news is here, temperatures are cooling down a bit, here and there, more or less. 

Here, I wanted to jot down some notes on the current state of affairs going on in my life, work life, recreational life, and the political affairs of the worldhood of the world. 

First, the democratic convention has been off to a great start. Trump failed to capitalize on his convention after he got shot at by an attempted assassin. I actually think Trump could have got much more leverage out of the shooting than he did. He could have appeared as a savior figure coming to face the United States of America but instead he played his same old playbook, yelling, complaining, and name calling any and whoever of his political enemies like a whiny brat. 

On the other side of the divide, the republican convention was a bore because it lacked star power other than Trump and Vance themselves. Here, with the democrats they really went all out. Even Oprah's speech was good. Bill Clinton. Obama. Michelle. Biden. And tonight at the end Tim Walz himself, the VP pick, who is now everybody's coach. I was trying to not really listen to every speech and everybody because I get tired of politics especially right now before the election but I have to say, some of these people and some of these speeches demand to be heard. I don't think you can say the same for the people who spoke at the republican convention. It's not an equal performance, the democrats looked, played it, and spoke much better with more depth, warmth, eloquence, and intelligence. Anyone who doesn't see that I reckon just isn't that bright. 

Moving forward, I'm not really the biggest Harris fan. I think she's what the democrats needed in the moment in order to keep up the momentum against Donald Trump and the MAGA wing of the republican party. However, I do think she represents the next step in the democratic party, she's the natural evolution, she's not an outsider, she's been in this politics business a long time, and she already has the skills to be a great president having served as Biden's VP. We know she's smart enough, we know she has the leadership skills, she speaks well, she appears in public, people like her, and she's a big hit with every crowd. 

In addition, Harris is definitely the choice. And if you're undecided just look back at what Trump did during his term. He barely built small sections of a wall, he did the Muslim ban, he called immigrants rapists and criminals, he did this stupid tariffs, he blamed covid on the Chinese and was very racist about it, he tried to persecute his political enemies even though he's the one who did all these crimes, and last but not least let's forget the Carroll case where he turned out to be a rapist, or slept with Stormy Daniels and paid her hush money, or said about John McCain being a soldier, "I like people who don't get captured, he's not patriotic," or the guy who said that soldiers who died were, "suckers and losers," the guy who helped cause the January 6 insurrection, and the guy who has 34 felony count indictments. This might be the worst guy ever to run for office ever. You don't have to be genius IQ level person to know that Trump doesn't care about working people and their families, rather, he cares about staying in office in order to hang onto control of his fate, because otherwise, he's probably going to be spending his final years in a prison cell with secret service watching him outside the door. 

Lastly on politics, I think republicans know that the Trump wave is over. They come out at the grocery store and when people steal they yell, "this is Biden's America," "only in Biden's America," they're quick to blame any of American's societal woes on the President when in reality that's not why people are going out and stealing groceries, they're stealing because they're struggling. Donald Trump isn't going to make things easier for the hard working families, rather, he's going to cut taxes for the wealthy, slap on tariffs, and increase your taxes. Donald Trump has promised to be a dictator on day one. We're here to make sure that doesn't happen. 

In other news, I've been working and reading a lot. I took a vacation a few weeks ago that was pretty satisfying. I read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and now I'm reading A Tale of Two Cities, so I've been catching that early 19th century British novel feeling. I think Dickens is sort of a genius inspiration. All his characters are relatable, mostly working class, although there's always a few rich people here and there, but for the most part he writes about everyday people of that era, and he sort of brings them life through the page in a very inspiring way. It's definitely not modern writing but the writing is so good that I'm surprised I haven't quite checked it out all before. I had always heard of Dickens but never checked him out until now. I know that his work is mostly assigned at the high school level for English courses. I might go through his catalogue, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are on my list.   

Also, work has been on the usual side. Nothing exciting, but hey, no news is good news. Management still tries to get in your face and tell you off here and there, but you just can't let it get to you. There's a lot of internal politics there because lower management is union and upper management is not union, so there's always that us versus them element within this work environment. You have to lay low and sort of stay lowkey in order to protect yourself and try to keep rising in the company. It's a slow grind, a long burn. I've probably worked with over 100 employees going back to 2013, I've worked with over 6 upper management store directors and assistant store managers, so in a way that's a great sign, if I can't beat them in the game, I can surely outlast them, inshallah. But the work gig isn't really as important as the other things I'm doing, mostly reading. I've even been getting better at Spanish too, which has become very helpful at work with a lot of the Hispanic people that come through at self-checkout. I sort of see that with languages knowing the basics is easy, but most people talk about things using the basics, so I sort of see that other languages can be pretty easy sometimes, but not all times. 

Lastly, I think the hardest thing to do right now is to be successful. Most people are not successful. Nearly every guy I know or have known through work [mostly all retail people] or via mutual people and friends of mine are not successful and are not at their best at this point in their lives. I've been lucky enough to have found a little success in this cruel world and the truth of the matter is that once you get a little success in this world, most people are going to sort of bad mouth you or try to undercut you or devalue in some way, they want to bring you down, they don't want to see you rise higher and higher, especially because you're rising above them. 

I see men my age sitting inside in high AC just playing video games all day without a care in the world, they waste their creativity on being couch slugs, slurping down soda, energy drinks, booze, and smoking marijuana, and wondering why their wife or girlfriend is mad about them playing video games all the time. 

If you're anything of an intelligent man who's successful, even in a small way, these other types of not-successful guys [also women] will sort of hate on you via different ways; they'll bother you at work about your job performance or try to get you into some sort of trouble there, they'll belittle or give you back-handed compliments, they'll try to add you on social media and never post or comment on anything but try to watch your every move because although they don't like you, they want to keep tabs on you. 

I suppose what I'm saying is that once you find success in whatever way, shape, or form, you'll find that its very lonely because oftentimes, people don't want to see you, particularly you, in a better position than they are in. This goes back to the green-eyed monster. This goes back to the Trump thing too. The America that the media and more importantly, the right wingers are portraying is the us versus them America, yeah that theory works if you're not that smart, but the reality is that the worldhood of the world is much more nuanced, complex, and grey than what is normally seen in media, especially in right wing media. So yeah, if you're successful, you'll find that people around you won't be, because it's you. But more often than not, other successful people will find you and lend a helping hand here and there, because they're successful enough to do it. 

Fin

2020 in our sights

Greetings, readers of the interwebz. 

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I'm glad 2019 is almost over and that 2020 is about to begin. A lot of the chaos stems from political turmoil in America. Mainly, that the President is using the highest office of the land for his own personal political gain. It's infuriating and it's despicable. We have one party in government that is completing undermining American democracy just because the President is 'their' guy. Simply put, it goes without saying that if Obama got caught doing the quid quo pro, he would've been impeached by now. Democrats would've defended him but they wouldn't have defended him to the death like the Republicans are clinging to Trump? Why? Because they have values still whereas the Republicans today lack that. 

The division and spread of hate via politics have become mainstream. People are identified by what 'tribe' they are in. Trump's base versus Americans who think he's undermining American democracy. There is no in-between. We'll have to wait until Congress comes back from their holiday recess to see what will inevitably end up happening regarding the Trump impeachment. Merry impeachment, happy new year, new year, new President? Something along those lines would be nice. 

I got a lot of reading time this year. According to my Goodreads account data, I read 26 books over 11,000 pages. I've spent more and more time each day reading rather than playing computer games or hanging out with friends. Also, I can finally play through Sequenza for guitar by Luciano Berio [though not that well or fast]. That took me about a year to do that. Also, I've finally adjusted to a diet where I eat less food at night and eat less overall, while not starving myself or doing complete fasting. Rather its an overnight fast, fasting when I'm sleeping. I've been playing in a straight-ahead jazz duo for a year straight and I've learned a lot about jamming, jazz, and improvisational music through all those performances and recordings. I've accumulated all my best sound recordings on my Soundcloud and put it out there for the world to hear. I've been working nonstop at the same place for seven years straight. These are great accomplishments. 

When I think of what I was missing out on there are a few things I can think of. In 2020 I want to play more guitar, learn more songs, hang out with more new people and friends, who are more into art/music/literature, as well as write a lot more. I mainly want to write more short stories and develop a short story collection as a novel. I'd also like to finish up on my novella, my memoir, which I started a year ago and sort of finished but didn't edit very well. I want to learn more about technology and science to use that knowledge in my own science fiction stories. Things like that. 

When I think of the world/country/city/general life in general as opposed to my own personal well being/job/friends/family/hobbies/life I would say 2019 had more downs than ups. But I'm an optimistic guy. "It's getting better all the time. Me used to angry young man..." As the Beatles sang life does indeed get better. I get really down on my luck regarding the job and the rising inequality of the middle/lower classes in America but I'm still very hopeful of a better America. Maybe not in 2020, maybe not in five or ten years, but in a future where I'll be older, smarter, and hopefully working an office job. 

I think progressive politics scares a lot of people still because it's associated with the 'dirty' word socialist. However, the way things have gone down in America it only makes sense to start using more socialist policies. In a way, I feel that capitalism has run its course. Of course, it could never be completely abolished. Rather, there would be a future where there are fewer capitalistic systems and more socialist ones. In five-ten years down the line, I could see a guy who has similar policies as say, Andrew Yang, get elected. The old school Republican versus Democrat has just got to go. 

So 2020 is in our sights. Let's all make these last few days of 2019 good. Remember how tough it was this year. For the world in general. And look forward to things getting better.

Politics in 2019

"If Trump turns progressives into intolerant agents of incivility, then we have lost our souls."

That line got me thinking a lot about politics in America circa 2019. The op-ed was written by a NYTimes columnist and can be viewed here.

There is definitely a giant gaping divide between the Democrats these days. Of course I identify as a Democrat and in the past [and now] I've supported socialist policies [and still do], things like social security [it should be increased every so years imo], abortion rights for women, same-sex rights for LGBTQ community, anti-war stance, anti-trade war, anti-tariff, cheaper college, cheaper housing, and better opportunities for poor/working class communities. But I am most definitely not a flaming liberal or progressive. 

Progressives of my father's era [he came to America from China during the Eisenhower administration] are more old school progressives. Fairly accepting and respectful of other people who don't happen to agree with them. The NYTimes op-ed that inspired me to write this blog mentions that the old school progressives follow Voltaire's quote for the most part.

Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” 

However, the millennial progressives of today are different. For young progressives, the priority is to stand up against racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, and bigotry. It can be a real in-your-face-affair but they get their point across. The main conflict here is how to live life with liberal values in an illiberal age. 

It is almost impossible to balance because it requires intellectual humility. Something most people lack severely. Especially with the liberals and conservatives that I run into daily at work and online. One of the problems is that liberals are quick to embrace anyone that doesn't look like them but only if they think like them too. We progressives should have the intellectual curiosity to read, review, and better understand conservative policy and values. Do you, as a progressive and/or democrat really understand how Trump won the 2016 election? Do you understand real conservatives? Real Republicans?  Do you read conservative news outlets to better understand their views? 

The bottom line is that we have to stop the hate. Sometimes conservatives are right on certain issues [secure borders, defense budget] and sometimes Democrats are more right on certain issues [all the things I mentioned above]. As I come to understand conservative ideology through alternate news outlets I can understand why some people voted Trump in 2016 and will vote for him again in 2020. The turning point for me when I realized, "I disagree with these conservatives but I don't have to dislike or hate them." And I realized that when I saw how there were 20 Democrats running for President I got super excited. Anyone of them could realistically demolish Trump in 2020 easily. But I also listen to them talk about their alternative paths to fix/change what Trump has done and it's very half-assed. They say all the right things to the right people but realistically they've run out of steam. Their ideas just don't have that much meat or potatoes to it. Progressives say college should be free for everyone. With what money? They want to fix immigration and get kids out of cages. How are they going to do that? Are they going to hire more staff to work at these facilities? Create more facilities? They don't have it figured out. They want to be more anti-war and save money on the defense budget. But how are we going to tackle the ongoing threat of nation-wide terrorism and nuclearization if we spend less on our military budget? I don't want hippies running the government. 

If you can't understand the opposing party then you have no business trying to belittle your political enemy because you don't know what you're talking about. On the other side, nobody should feel they have to defend themselves to the death just because they disagree with somebody politically. 

At the end of the day, we are all Americans. The extremists aren't the only problem. It's also the collective hivemind itself, picking off anyone that doesn't fit into their mold. The only way we're going to make it through this era alive [politically] is if we realize that winning debates won't bring Americans together. Stop the hate. Understand your enemies. You might realize that you have a lot more in common than you think. The American dream is at stake right now.  And it's not just Republicans that are holding it ransom. I'm looking at you too, Democrats.

Love and peace! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjFIR5AZL8

Trump Defeats Hillary

Today was unprecedented. Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. The polls all got it wrong. The news stations all got it wrong. It was a regular work day for me but a lot of momentum built up to this election day and I was excited throughout the entire day, even checking the news on the break room TV all day for any updates. I was prepared for a victory of the first ever female American President.

But that's not what happened. Trump ended up winning. During all the time up to today I thought he was a joke and that Hillary was going to win in a landslide. Needless to say, I'm quite shocked. Still am as I'm of this post. I'm not necessarily angry but I am not happy either. Either way life will go on for me and I'll need to do all the necessary things I need to do to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

But then again there's something odd about all of this. How could so many people vote for a fear mongering, racist, misogynistic, asshole? The answer is clear. People are afraid and uncertain about their future. They don't want another Clinton in the White House because Clinton's represent the old way and she comes with a shit ton of baggage. Many of my young associates didn't vote this election because they said both candidates were shit.

Well, if you chose not to vote then in my opinion you don't get to complain about the country's future. I believe as an American it's your duty to vote. While I do think Hillary and Trump aren't the best Presidential candidates (I had my eyes on Bernie) I do think Hillary was the lesser of two evils. Even if she's a baddie too at least she's a baddie with Presidential experience and a hard working political record. Trump, on the other hand is just an asshole with a loud mouth. The stuff he's said during his campaign is all mostly evil shit.

It's possible that he will lead us all to ruin. It's possible we've already reached the peak of human evolution and potential and voting for Trump will bring us backwards. But the stupid part of me thinks Trump could be a great President. He could somehow get the right people in Congress to work together and get a lot of work done. I wish him good luck on that.

Even though I thought of Trump as a joke I gotta hand it to him that he's come very far with no political experience and being a straight up hater. It will take a village to show him how to lead and organize people and the country. I don't think he knows what he's doing but I think with the right political aides and advisers as well as senators backing him up I think he can learn the job as he goes. It will be political improvising with the fate of the country. But I do think that it's possible for him to do it. At least that's what I want to believe.

He could just bring the country to its knees and cause more division, hate, fear mongering, all that jazz. He's been great at doing that so far. Let's hope he quits the bullshit he's been spewing during the campaign and actually starts learning how to be a leader.

If not, then God help us all.