Author: Michael D. Griffiths

Michael D. Griffiths is a man who likes to keep busy. He loves camping in the wilds of Arizona and all over the west, playing poker, and debating such topics as mysticism, creativity, anarchy, and punk rock. He was awarded first place in Withersin’s 666 writer’s contest. He has become the Marketing Manager for Sharestorm an online Promotion Company. He is on the staff of The Daily Discord, SFReader, and the Ervice. His Skinjumper Series has been chronicled in M-Brane magazine and has now been released in a new novel. The Living Dead Press has published his series, The Chronicles of Jack Primus and Eternal Aftermath. The first novel in his Warriors of Light series, Dalsala Den, has recently been released by Cyberwizard Publications. Find one of my most popular novels, Skinjumpers, here! https://amzn.to/2Gdu3Be

The Top Seven Things I Have Learned from Bad Relationships

Author’s Note: One of the bench marks of realizing how horrible a relationship was, is knowing how wonderful the right one can be. So, I want to point out my current relationship is better than I ever thought one could be, and it helps clarify how awful and unnecessary many of the other things I experienced were.

Realizing I Don’t Have to Prove I’m Right

When you know you’re right about a subject, your fast draw reaction is to demonstrate why your position is correct. If you could just explain yourself, it would be impossible for others to not embrace your conclusions. But…

I’m sure you’ve seen the state of our Ununited States, or should I just say the States. Thinking you can convince someone of something which, if they were to admit it was true, would make them look foolish, wrong, or damage their Cultural World View, is between impossible and difficult, or could become a yearlong ordeal. If you think it is a simple matter, you haven’t argued with many people and are disregarding the obvious reality.

Instead, I learned I don’t have to prove I’m right. Doing so is an agonizing waste of time. My job isn’t to teach the world. If something is next to impossible, I have better things to do. I know the truth and so do the people I want to spend time with. You may think the irrational person could gloat or you should prove yourself, but if it’s just wasted time and words, the best stance is silence and avoidance. Soon you will be free.

2. How Important is it to Maintain Your Healthy Friendships

I’m sure you’ve heard one of the first things toxic people do it try to separate their mate from their support network. Family and friends will be constantly insulted and put down. No matter what happens, if you don’t respect the person who’s speaking the words, you don’t have to respect what they say.

I’ve had some of my friendships for over 40 years, and I’ve never dated anyone for much over a decade. Unless you have found your real lover, relationships come and go. Friendship and family usually last a lifetime while more often than not, relationships eventually fade. Stay true to your friends, the dysfunctional mate wants them to abandon you, because in a tight spot, good friends always have your back and will help you get back onto your feet.

3. There Are Times You Have to Work Harder

If the house is a mess, you don’t like it that way, but you know the other person is doing far less than their share of cleaning, you must let it go. Just because they are a dysfunctional loser, you aren’t required to join them. If they won’t get off their ass unless you’re done cooking them dinner it doesn’t mean you have to live in squalor.

One of the first things you should do when you find yourself locked within a horrid relationship, is no longer think of yourself as a couple. Change your attitude, your other is now just a shitty roommate you can’t get rid of yet. Just because they are a lazy waste of space, doesn’t mean you must live with dirty dishes and cluttered rooms. Remember, if you were living by yourself, you’d have to do all the work. Just think of your life as you are already living by yourself and required to do everything and just do it. No need for you to live like a loser too.

Many rebel against such notions thinking it’s not fair or if you do everything the partner will just dig in and do less. Don’t look at it like that. Instead know you are being strong, they will have less to try to bitch about, and you are just practicing for when you are finally free.

4. Life is Almost Never Fair

I’d like to say life is never fair, but once in a while it comes up even, like if you and three buddies all pitch in ten bucks for some pizza, but when was the last time that happened? Thinking life should be fair will just slow you down and you’ll make yourself depressed. Someone always does more and usually that someone ends up being you. If it isn’t, you might be the villain in this article.

Once you understand you’ll never even the scales, it gives you the freedom to do whatever you like. Your life is meant to be lived by you and you are the yardstick used to measure your self worth. Don’t worry if you are doing too much, if you’re doing things which make your life better, do more. Soon you’ll drop the slop, and everything you’ve done to improve your life will elevate you and empower your new beginning.

5. Letting Lies and Insults Go

Why should you care about what an illogical, ignorant, or lying person says? This goes back a bit to number one on this list but if you don’t respect how a person is living or what they are saying, you certainly don’t have to acknowledge when they are trying to pick a fight or manipulate you.

This can dip into gaslighting and other forms of control. Ignore the bait and don’t validate them with an argument for there is little to gain arguing with someone with mental illness.

They want a reaction out of you. Even a negative one shows you have a passion for the relationship. Don’t give them the satisfaction. Better to just nod your head and walk away. The best reaction is often no reaction. What a toxic person says doesn’t matter and it will matter less as soon as you escape and never have to hear their imaginary nonsense again.

6. Keep Your Possessions Separate

Sure, maybe legally you may each own all your things together, but there are things which you know are yours and with community items like frying pans and end tables you can always buy better versions later. If you are with a selfish toxic mate, you are probably going to lose most of your things but don’t be bitter. You’ll be free and it will be worth it.

Depending on how bad things are getting and how much capital is on hand, I would suggest renting a small storage unit. Each day on your way to run all the errands, while your partner binge watches some trashy series, drop a box or two of your things off at the unit.

Do this because…

The crappy partner can’t break them in a fit.
They can’t try to steal your things later.
You aren’t arguing over what is whose in the middle of a caustic break up
Moving into a new place is so much easier. Half your things are already packed.

7. You Need to Prepare an Escape Plan

This is often difficult. Your name may be on a lease, or if you own your home, ouch. Also, there could be children involved. Still not living in the same place isn’t the same thing as not living up to your obligations. You could still pay your rent and, if allowed, care for your children. Still, in these days where raising your voice counts as domestic violence (Its the law. Look it up.) you need to set up a safe place to escape to. If you are with an irrational person for whom you are providing, they aren’t going to want you to leave and will do everything in their power to make you stay.

Standing around in your house packing while they scream at you or looking up rentals while they hover over you isn’t going to work. Driving around with a car packed full of your things with no plan isn’t much better. Friends can help but they’ll be ten times happier to know your needs in advance. Don’t just show up and ask to crash on their sofa for a month. In most cases I would recommend you have a place to go before you break up and if you are smart enough you might already have a sofa of your own there.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

The Top Ten Easy Ways Everyone Can Help Protect our Environment

1. Only Read Real Books.

Reading a 400 page e-book using roughly 40 times the energy as reading a printed book and printed books can be reread and shared.

2. Grow a Garden

Even vegans use 60% as much energy as the most carnivorous consumer due to transportation and growing costs. Growing a garden is the best method to combat this huge cost of food production.

3 Engage in Silence

Many of us now feel we need a podcast, music cranking from an Alexa, or a YouTube video blasting all the time. Intelligence, personality, and peace grow in silence. Also, any streamed media uses a huge amount of energy.

4. Do Whatever it Takes to Minimize Wasting Food

In the US it is estimated that some families waste up to 1/3 of the food they buy. This hurts their wallet as well as the environment. All the food the US wastes could feed Mexico and the energy used to create it could fuel 100% of the energy needs for three Tanzanias. (Also save roughly a 1000$ per person a year.)

5, Have Driving Free Days

If we all the people in the US pledged to not drive at least one day a week we would save 4 billion dollars a month and roughly 50 billion a year.

(Low ball estimate of 5 dollars a day x 4 = 20$ x 200,000,000 drivers = 4 billion$ or for you about 40$ a month and 500$ a year. No driving = sometimes as much as 3,500 a year. I didn’t drive for 19 of my adult years so 66,500$ or about 4 x what I paid for my last car.)

6. Make a Compost Pit

Any veggies you throw away have their nutrients wasted while it creates more greenhouse gases. Instead, you can make a part of your yard full of bountiful life or, of course, use this nutrient rich soil in your garden.

7. Find a Hobby Which Can Use Recycled Products

We’ve all heard of the three Rs, but what about doing these things ourselves? Preserve veggies with old jars, make art out of items once bound for the landfill, start plants in plastic containers, or my personal favorite, make Dungeons and Dragons scenery out of former trash.

8. Try to Order Things by Delivery as Seldom as Possible

I know this is a hard one for some people, but remember if you really needed something you would already have it. Plan all your future requirements so they are gathered in one trip, preferably on your way to do some other tasks and not some giant truck running 20 trips after the crap has already been shipped across the Pacific.

This goes the same for ordering food delivered. These days it costs almost twice as much as it would have if you picked it up on your way home or about 10 times as much if you made it yourself. It is also wasteful and horrible for the planet. If you shop once a week just think of each Door Dash as doubling your carbon footprint for getting food on the table.

9. Find Hobbies and Pastimes You Can Enjoy Without Wasting Resources

Not everything in life must be streamed. Social media, Netflix, online video games have huge energy costs. Our ancestors didn’t need any of this crap to be happy. Do things for fun which help the planet instead of hurt it or buy things with one and done costs, like printed books, board games, horseshoes, cooking, and bike riding. Watch out or you might even burn a few calories and get some muscle tone back.

10. Don’t Use Artificial Intelligence

AI wastes a huge amount of energy to use. Create yourself, educate yourself, come on you are better than this.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

WildernessPunk: The Mask is Off and Fascism is Here

When I was about 16 I came to the realization our government was not to be trusted and acted accordingly. I also became an anarchist of sorts for I certainly made my own rules on what was appropriate and what wasn’t and strived to live by them. About 8 years later, I had learned more about third world exploitation and read a great deal on what fascism really was/is. In 1992 I wrote an article called Friendly Fascism in issue 7 of the underground zine C.H.A.O.S or Collected Humans Against Outdated Systems.

At the time I believed the United States was a country controlled by Fascists and would be Fascists, but back then they kept the mask on. Democrats wanted you to think of them as the party of humanitarianism and Republicans just wanted to keep government small, almost like anarchists, right?

I also knew, and I know I’ve dived into this more than a few times, that once the environment started to collapse and there were less goods for more people, the governments would turn to Fascism and do everything in its power to make sure the mega-rich could still enjoy their luxurious lifestyles while the world slowly suffered and burned.

What I didn’t expect is how quickly the mask of normalcy would come off, get tossed away, and burned. We went from getting checks to help us survive Covid to masked military invading our cities in less than 4 years.

But do you believe the United States is Fascist? Do you think the Dems will lick em’ in the midterms? Is the USA going to bounce back in a few years and inflation will chill while Generation Z starts a new middle class and begins buying up homes?

Well in case you are on the fence here are the eighteen signs a country has become fascist, all of which the United States has adopted.

Eighteen Signs You Live in a Fascist Country

Using Secret Police
Denying Reality with Constant Lies
Controlling Media
Normalizing Corruption
Rejecting Election Results
Controlling Education
Using the Military on Civilians
Appointing Incompetent Loyalists
Rewriting History
Ignoring Due Process
Labeling Minorities as Enemies
Using Fear to Gain Power
Replacing Science with Ideology
Accusing Others of Your Crimes
Protecting Criminal Loyalists
Normalizing Political Violence
Suppressing the Vote
Erasing and Faking Government Data

Think about it, really think about it. If a government is doing eighteen of the key forms of Fascism, is it Fascist?

I’m going to say yes.

I guess the question is what are we going to do about it now? Lots of people are doing many things to fight against it, but posting memes doesn’t count. Being depressed doesn’t count. Bitching and moaning doesn’t count unless you do something afterwards.

The people in the country and most others must come to some realizations and do it quickly.

Is the environment going to become more plentiful? No.
Is the middle class going to grow? No
Are the ultra greedy going to give what they have taken back? No.
Are huge percentages of the population going to suddenly wake up and turn on the overlords they idolize? No.
Is someone coming to help you? No.
Are we in trouble? Yes.

When the tanks come riding into your town are you going to be able to ride it out? When the neighbor’s children ask you for your food can you say no? When your son is drafted so we can steal the resources from another country, are you going to hide him?

I wish I had answers but I’m not sure I do. Trying to buy land with water somewhere sounds reasonable, but not everyone can do that. If they catch you living free and autonomously they will come for you if they can.

In the book, Replace the State by Sasha Davis, he strongly suggests one of the best ways to fight against a corrupt state is to develop local communities, families and individuals who can work together and help each other. Fascists can always triumph over the individual. Joining together, creating reciprocity, and doing your best to survive off the grid is a powerful first step.

A second is unplug and I mean from everything as much as you can. Not just social media, but e-books, video games, GPS, apps, and streaming. Do things with your hands. When AI takes your job and the national guard are patrolling your streets wearing masks and carrying rifles, what’s going to matter more, how many hits someone else’s meme you posted got, or that you made a better awning for your garden?

Step up, stand tall, and shout out.

We can survive this and maybe our grandchildren will be riding horses over the seas of grass.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

The Top Ten Reasons Role Playing Gamers are More Prepared Than You

They are used to facing down fascist totalitarian overlords
Gamers spend whole days dealing with hidden surprises trying to tear out their throats
Sooner than later huge groups of guards are hunting them down
Each day they are living through an apocalypse with limited supplies
Gamers understand life is usually a handful of allies vs an almost unconquerable state
They never use their real names
Disguises and infiltration are smarter than always fighting
RPGers always have snacks
They can have fun for hours without spending a dime
Rolling their 30 year old dice isn’t melting the icecaps

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

The Top Ten Reasons Why Someone Should Work for ICE

Your self hate can be channeled elsewhere
It will distract people away from how small your penis is
Mask conveniently hide ugly faces
Reminds you, you aren’t the biggest loser in town each time you ruin someone’s life
You’ll look more muscular with all that padding
You always wanted to be a Nazi
Someone, besides your AI girlfriend, will finally take you seriously
Your Klan hood is in the laundry
People different than you are scary and make you pee a little
You’ll be able to get a lot of free sandwiches

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective People

I recently wrote a piece called The Seven Habits of Highly Annoying People and I felt I didn’t get enough pushback, so I figured I would take it up a notch, while bringing the topic closer to Steven Cove’s famous book. It could be fun to just reverse what he proposed, but I figured it would be superior to shoot for something more original.

There are many things which could make a person ineffective, but I’m trying to avoid wide concepts like being lazy, wasting time, or not having real goals. Each of these subjects could be a different article or a book. I’m going for a bit more specific and things one could improve without therapy, medications, and a life coach.

Procrastination

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say, I waited to the last minute and everything turned out better.Part of the creative process is coming up with what you need but then thinking about it, reviewing it, and making changes before you present the completed project. None of this happens if you do something last minute. The one thing doing something important at the last minute accomplishes is a high chance you won’t be able to complete it at all.

No one is impressed by seeing you waiting to the final moment and cramming. If you are doing something for them, it just looks like you don’t really care and its almost worse than doing zero. Nothing says love more than wrapping some Circle K chocolate on the way home to your anniversary.

2. Unprepared

Sure, when I was twenty it was alright to be invited to a friend’s place and find a sink full of dirty dishes, no beer in the fridge, and the only thing to eat was a spilled bag of chips in the middle of the table we needed to use. However, we should get back to showing a little class or maybe just showing off. What are you waiting for, to turn eighty and have half as many friends? Put you best boot forward and try to wow people. Don’t wait until people show up and then ask them to help you move chairs like it is a privilege to be at your place, because if you haven’t prepared, it isn’t.

Face it, people don’t want to leave their home these days. Going over to your place might be more of an obligation than a prize, so don’t fuck it up and sweep the damn floors and have some soft fucking cheese for Yig’s sake.

Saying I’m a Martha Stewart fan would be like saying the Ramones liked long songs, but there was one thing she said about hosting events at your house I took to heart. She stated everything should be done before the day of the event. If you are shopping and cleaning right up to when people walk in you feel dirty, tired, and perhaps full of resentment because these people made you work so hard. I do not care if it is a BBQ, birthday party, or hosting a poker night, be an adult and have everything prepared in advance and there better be ice in that damn cooler.

3, Don’t Listen to Experts

If you think you already know everything, I’m surprised you’ve read this far. Why would you need to read this article, watch a YouTube video, or get a book on the subject.

In this world of micro specialization, unless you are sitting on the back of a yacht, I find it almost impossible to imagine there isn’t thousands or perhaps millions of people who knows more about a subject than you. Perhaps you know 90% more than a person, but they could still open your eyes to their take on that last 10%.

No one can do it better than you? Why? Do you have some magic powers you haven’t shared? Being someone who wants to start something from zero because they know better, is like people who want to write a book but don’t read.

4. Base Your Ethics on Magick and Superstition

Religions, I’m calling you out. You aren’t some sort of de facto concept the unbrainwashed need to consider.Face it, religions are all just larger cults. They engage in Magickal thinking. People were created with Magick. Magick controls our lives. There are Magickal Gods which take our Magickal souls to a Magickal place.

Can I sell you folks some Magic Beans?

If you are basing your ethics on religions which said slavery was acceptable, like the big three Abrahamic religions, then you’ve ground to a halt before you started. Quit being a cave man. The Earth is round and rotates around the sun and your sky daddy is about as real as a hydra, unless it is to All-Father snake Yig who, by the way, said your God is fake and he is the real creator of the universe.

Prove me wrong.

5. Distance yourself from the Natural

Remember what Froggy said in Repo Man? “The more you drive the stupider you get.” I think this goes for most technology, or at least unhealthier. Each machine or device we possess removes us further from the natural and probably does its best to keep your extra pounds on.

Once you could have quietly found a meditative state raking your leaves while getting some fresh air and maintaining upper body tone, Pah, where is the fun of doing anything which doesn’t create more pollution? Let’s get a loud ass leaf blower. It burns fossil fuels, wisps away the natural environment plants need to thrive, while making all my neighbors miserable. What a win, but I saved forty minutes. Now I can scroll Instagram for two hours!

If there is such a thing as Magick in this world, it is held in the bosom of nature. The further we remove ourselves from this interaction the more psychosis will develop. Healthy minds and bodies need to embrace the outdoors.

6. Base Your Beliefs on Emotions Instead of Facts

The world isn’t a wish factory. Just because you want something to be doesn’t mean you get it. Are you a billionaire? No, and if you somehow are, fuck off. Does wishing something was true make it so with anything else? Money, health issues, family relationships, employment, does it change just because you wish it so? Why would the rest of the world do so?

You don’t like GBLTQA+ so that makes it wrong.
You think immigrants in the US commit more crimes than MAGA supporters so it makes it so.
We can give the ultra-rich our Medicare money but your life will still get better soon.
We’ll lick them next time guys. Countries aren’t spiraling toward danger. Politics will solve these problems soon. Everything is just the same ol, same ol.
Animals and the environment are not in danger so let’s put in a pool, fly all over the globe, and shut down the EPA.

How can anyone expect things to work out when they turn a blind eye to what is real. You may not think its true but reality can give you a slap down no matter what you believe.

7. Spend your time watching other people make money

Every time you watch a movie, binge a television show, scroll through Facebook, or indulge in YouTube you are just watching someone making money, or at least trying to, while you erase a few hours of life and fail to burn off a few calories.

Video games are pretty much the same. Sure, they are fun but you are paying for their new car with the hours of your life, and when you are finally done, they are a bit richer and you are closer to death, a little poorer, and a tad more out of shape.

Some people try to create for themselves or maybe think of a new project which could make some positive change in their lives, while others just burn electricity watching other people live their lives instead of improving your own. Other’s experiences and imaginations aren’t yours. Shut of the glowing rectangle and make create your own scenes, situations, and adventures.

Thanks for listening and may all the magic snakes bless you.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective People

Procrastination

2. Unprepared

3, Don’t Listen to Experts

If you think you already know everything, I’m surprised you’ve read this far. Why would you need to read this article, watch a YouTube video, or get a book on the subject.

4. Base Your Ethics on Magick and Superstition

Can I sell you folks some Magic Beans?

Prove me wrong.

5. Distance yourself from the Natural

6. Base Your Beliefs on Emotions Instead of Facts

You don’t like GBLTQA+ so that makes it wrong.
You think immigrants in the US commit more crimes than MAGA supporters so it makes it so.
We can give the ultra-rich our Medicare money but your life will still get better soon.
We’ll lick them next time guys. Countries aren’t spiraling toward danger. Politics will solve these problems soon. Everything is just the same ol, same ol.
Animals and the environment are not in danger so let’s put in a pool, fly all over the globe, and shut down the EPA.

How can anyone expect things to work out when they turn a blind eye to what is real. You may not think its true but reality can give you a slap down no matter what you believe.

7. Spend your time watching other people make money

Thanks for listening and may all the magic snakes bless you.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

The Seven Habits of Highly Annoying People

Some people seek to avoid being annoying at all costs while others actively seek it out. Whether they mean to or not they turn social encounters into dumpster fires most people seek only to escape from. Their bravado is perceived by them getting their way, being assertive, and coming off as a real ‘go getter,’ while others slowly do all in their power to avoid any situation which brings them into the annoying person’s orbit.

So, if you want to be an annoying person whose abrasive habits win them a few small victories, but in the end costs them the love, friendship, and respect of the people who encounter you, read on and embrace these seven habits.

Make sure you are always right about everything…

And everybody must know it. Look at you, why would you ever be wrong about anything? There are 8,000,000,000 humans on Earth but how lucky it is for the people you meet to have the pleasure of basking within the glory of the 1 person who is always right.

Scholars, are probably hiding the truth if they disagree with you, or that didn’t see the same ten minute YouTube video you did. Experts, why would they know more than a person who learned a little about a subject five years ago while watching a biased network? People who read up on the subject, forget about it, they can’t pull together the loose strings of knowledge like you. Go get em’ tiger, knock them dead, and remember everyone loves dating someone who is always right.

2. Never be on time for events, meetings, or get togethers

Come on, they know your time is more important than theirs. No reason for you to slow down and attend something when it begins, let the party get started before you roll in, then all their eyes are on you. Sometimes things are slow to get going and you don’t have the time for it. Maybe they can’t start until you’re there, but there are probably a few tasks which need to be done early which you shouldn’t be bothered with.

3. Only think about yourself

You are obviously who the world revolves around and it’s mostly just here for you anyway. Empathy and caring about others is for wimps. What do you get out of it? Sure, living in a world of selfish people might make the planet a horrible place, but you only feel the pinch if you aren‘t number one. Nothing is off limits as long as it makes your life better and who deserves to have a better life than you?

So go ahead and be the guy talking loudly in public on your blue tooth, leave your door open so everyone must hear your podcast at the office, hit on your co-worker’s spouse. If someone complains, tell them they just needed to communicate with you and if they haven’t yet, its their fault. If that guy didn’t want me to speed and hit him on his bike, he should have told me first, his fault for not communicating.

4. Make sure you talk more than anyone else.

No one has more to say about a subject than you. Your take will amaze them and you haven’t even started talking about the errands you ran. Wait, I need to tell you about my third dream.

If someone else tries to talk usually the best thing is to talk right over them. Cut people off and do it quick or you might not get to talk as much. Also, always remember, once you have someone’s attention you should never stop talking. Hours may go by, but you haven’t even started talking about that show you watched four days ago. If you get someone on the phone, forget about it, the only reason to stop would be if one of your batteries die.

5. Make sure you always take more than you give.

Let’s face it other people are just to be used. They are just a tally of resources only people like you are clever enough to tap. Friend, family, lover, the important thing is what can they give me? Show you a new person and you’ll show me, no matter who they are, you can squeeze something out of them. Giving back isn’t really your style and its such a burden. Something you can fake if you must, but if it becomes a habit, it’ll be time to move on and find new host to leech from.

6. Lie whenever you feel like it.

Did you promise to do something for a friend or pay that person back? Who cares. You only said that because they were talking with you and it would have been weird to not go along, but they couldn’t really expect you to throw down for someone else could they? You have your own things to get done and besides, you need that money more than them anyway.

7. Remember only your hobbies and projects are important

Sure, almost everyone has a passion and is using some sort of medium to be creative, but what you are doing is the only important one. I’m not going to read your article, check out your YouTube channel, or go to her art show, my band is the only important thing happening and obviously it is the only worthy thing going on and anyone who doesn’t show up is a loser.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

WildernessPunk: Mule Creek

Been a rough week.

Years from now this will just be a crazy week we vaguely remember, except for the families of the people our president illegally murdered to help bury the largest protest the US had ever seen. For us now, we are living it. Should we be angry and fight against the polished shoes of fascism, or should we be clinging to our personal norm?

Still, what can we do daily? Does reminding our closest peeps what a shitshow our country is on Facebook each day matter? Is it preaching to a choir or just beating people on the head? “Guess what, the administration is evil.”

“Yeh bro, I think we know.”

No one hasn’t made up their mind by now. If you find someone, I’ll by them a beer and then Title-36 them.

Instead of planning to topple my regional headquarters of ICE, I’m prepping to take my boys up into the mountains surrounding Mule Creek New Mexico, so I guess I’m sticking to norms, unless going to Mule Creek isn’t normal. I suppose I’ll figure it out.

***

Yeah Mule Creek wasn’t too normal. Funny thing about the internet and maybe AI. I Youtube searched for Mule Creek New Mexico. First hit was the top 10 restaurants in Mule Creek. I stopped watched halfway through because A) I have already seen enough to satisfy any normal appetite and B) I knew it had to be non-sense and it was. You can’t even get a warm glass of water there. There were also videos about Obsidian Ridge. I saw no evidence of such or anything approaching a road or sign. So much for the innerwebs I guess. With AI it’s just a well of BS now.

Better news was finding a forest of tall ponderosa trees just begging to be camped under which I can get to from my doorstep in the scorching desert to a tent spot in less than 3 hours. So better than Flagstaff and with, even better, no Phoenix to drive through. After that we ran into forest fires and problems, but if I wanted to bum people I out would just get you to think about where our country is headed…oops.

Let’s circle back to what a normal person is expected to do when your government is evil. In my eyes it’s always been pretty fucking evil, the curtain is just pulled back now. Some people say tRump has riled up hatred, really? We never had hatred before. Have you heard of the KKK, indigenous genocide, how about slavery? Please, we must face the facts, about one in three people are, well sorta, fukin evil. Either that or so easily misled and brainwashed, it has made them follow an evil paradigm.

How do we fix this? Can We? Education and travel usually work well, but I’m sure you noticed the Make America Evil Again gang is doing everything they can to condemn education.

Still, is converting the misled what we should be doing? It might seem fun, but it is a lot of work and mostly doesn’t work. When you are sitting in your home it’s hard to engage with what you could do to combat the growing fascism in the USA. Should I turn down the thermostat, paint a sign, or write my congressman? Screw it, I’m making a sandwich.

But again, is this what we should be doing? Am I still allowed to post a pic of my cat when our county is behaving in an evil manner and destroying lives right in front of us? I bet you think the Germans living under Hitler should have been doing more than talking about the weather. Should I fight back or is my mental health and my family’s where I should focus my efforts?

Am I asking too many questions while providing no answers?

I guess it comes down to making sure we remember what the decent parts of life are. The world could be looked at as a swirling cauldron of hate and misery, but it is also full of hope, love, and beauty. There would be no reason to fight if there was only the shitstorm.

Sometimes living well is the best revenge. Show people your choices led to a fulfilled life and assisted you in raising healthy children. Lead by example and remember Talk – Action = Zero.

Things we can do to help save the World, our County, and our Sanity:

Research how much energy/waste your habits and hobbies cost and act accordingly
Buy less and boycott billionaire brands
Compost and grow a garden
Dumpster dive and reuse instead of buying new
Support local
Do your best to waste as little food as possible
Tackle political issues in a one on one manner in person
Pretend your cell can’t get online
Wake up at 6am each day
Avoid the internet and social media
Determine your sleep needs and then stick to it
Point out evil when you see it
Live like a Warrior fighting for their future
Don’t embrace hate
See beyond the binary talking heads of politics to the real issue
Do everything and anything you can which isn’t plugged in
Fuck AI

Just a few ideas. What do you think? Did I miss something important to you?

See you behind the dumpster while I’m loading discarded pallets.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

WildernessPunk: Punk Rock Prep

There are a lot of depressed, worried, and surprised people these days and they come from both sides of the aisle. The left obviously sees the dark storm clouds of fascist doom encroaching and the right lives from one triggered explosion of worry to the next. Electing their president hasn’t calmed their worries. Let’s face the faces, they wouldn’t have elected him in the first place if they didn’t believe the country was heading toward destruction. tRump’s presence and power proves their manic clinging toward the cementing of their belief that fear mongering should be the guiding force within their lives.

But I have not brought my laptop out of my tattered backpack here, on the edge of the Verde River, in central Arizona, to discuss politics (well perhaps a little) what I want to delve into is Punk Rock.

Punk Rock is certainly one of those things which is difficult to paint one color. Are punks straight edge or drunks, loyal or promiscuous, politically active or miscreates? They are all these things and often none of them. I think Punk originally evolved in a rebellion against established norms which forced creativity to run through accepted channels in which only the smallest of trickles of people were allowed by large corporations to succeed and produce. Punks instead choose to do as they liked themselves and even if your cassette tape was only heard by fifty people in your scene it was enough because it still fucking rocked hard and everyone treasured it more than some top forty crap with a stylized cover.

Good, now that’s out of the way I can get to my point. As people around me panic and dwell in a dark place ruminating over the news and distressed because they feel the government is bad and turned against them, I personally remain unchanged because I’ve usually hated and had little, if no, trust in the government since I was thirteen.

Yes, sure, the government has programs to help the needy (Too many hungry mouths start rebellions) and roads are nicer when they are pothole free. Although I consider myself an anarchist at heart, I understand how constructing a framework of monitoring and control often helps more than it harms. Until you are on the other side of our guns and boy howdy do we have a lot of guns.

Still at a government’s core there are powerful people seeking more power and rich people seeking more riches. Yes, not everyone is a scoundrel, but most of them are. They want to tell you how to live the life they think you should be living. They want you to produce in the appropriate manner. Most politicians come from a background in Law. Laws to make sure you stay within the lines. Try to color outside the lines and you could enter the largest prison system to have ever existed on Earth.

But let me steer this back to my point. Instead of gasping as we plunge toward fascism, I sort of look up from my book and nod, “Hmm, it was always there, just a little more noticeable now than in the last few years.”

The government of the USA has never shied away from being evil. To get my undies in a bunch over something which has always been this way is like getting mad shit stinks.

Could you tell me a time our country wasn’t committing acts of evil?

Here’s a quick overview:

1776-1880 The United Staes committed genocide against the indigenous populations
1776-1851 Slavery was legal in the USA
1898 The United States steals land from Mexico
1945-Present The United States helped Underdevelope countries in order to steal their resources and have the poor provide cheap labor ruining indigenous farming and plunging nations into poverty.

I could go on but to list every war we’ve used to dominate other cultures would take pages.

Again, my point, and perhaps this is just me personally, but I feel listening to Punk Rock and my own research into the history of governmental fascism and control has left me underwhelmed when I see it happening now. What do people expect? We have more people and less resources. We have an environment which is crumbling and each year will be harder to produce as much as the one proceeding it. Add to this the largest wealth gap in history. Elmo Musk had the purchasing power of 30,000,000 families. How many restaurants will he support, how many shoes will he buy? Are you surprised the economy is tanking and businesses are closing when one man hordes the buying capital of 100,000,000 people?

Listen I get it. We always think the years we are alive must be more important and we are experiencing things no one ever has before, but that’s just narcissistic bullshit. Go buy an orange for 40 cents which even the king of England might get to try once in his life five hundred years ago. Face it you still have it better than 99.999999% of all humanity had unless you are one of those people your tax dollars paid to send to El Salvador.

Me…I’m not saying I like what I see happening, that I won’t fight against it, or I won’t try to help my family and friends survive through it. Let’s just say my shock meter is staying at a comfortable zero. I would never have to say I saw this coming because I knew it was already here.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.