Stop! Don't Go To College!

Interesting article in the Washington Post, “Is college still worth it? Read this study,” by Michelle Singletary. In it, Singletary presents data which strongly suggests that higher ed is not worth your time these days, at least not as an investment. There’s simply too much debt involved, and the supposed income bump you get from having a degree is increasingly mythical.

I must confess, I don’t buy it entirely. But, she’s got a point on the debt problem, and let’s face it, college isn’t for everyone--even if it were a guaranteed money-maker. Frankly, there is a lot be said for alternatives to the traditional four-year degree, like community college, two-year programs, and, increasingly, trade schools.

That said, I still believe everyone would benefit from having at least a touch of the liberal arts. People gain something from reading novels and poetry, and knowing a bit of history and politics, however little that something may be valued by corporate American.

So, maybe, we could look at a middle path. Yes, encourage young people to explore trade schools and other alternatives to college, but, also, do away with the crippling debt involved with higher ed. Make college, in other words, affordable once more.

Maybe then students can have the best of worlds--a marketable skill, and a hint of Milton’s angels and the Greeks and Romans of Mary Beard.

Peakpx

***

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Wondering Why The Sudden Flurry?

Might you be wondering why I've suddenly been posting to Excargo ago? And so much political stuff? Well, there's a couple of reasons for that. One is that I've just gotten interested in writing about politics again.

But, the second reason is that my usual outlet for such musings has been recently Liberal Resistance, an online publication of which I was sort of the volunteer editor for a while. But, it's been offline for some major revamping after it merged with a larger organizaiton, USAUnify.org.

It will be back soon, and when it does I'll be posting there.

Oh, and it will have following URL:

https://liberalresistance.usaunify.org/

Trump and Hippopotami

Amusing piece by Dana Milbank in The Washington Post, “Trump wags the hippopotamus.” In it, Milbank says Trump has gone way beyond the fiction president in the movie Wag The Dog, who starts a fake war to distract the population from a scandal. Trump has actually done that, but now has gone beyond that to actually killing people.

The scary thing? He may get away with it.

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Coyote Conquest

As a former New Mexican, I’m a great fan of coyotes. Oh, no, I wouldn’t want to get close to them. Bit too many teeth and claws for that. But I admire their intelligence and strength.

But the problem is that over the last few decades, they’ve moved in all directions. Right now, you can find them as easily in New York as New Mexico. I, personally, remember the very first time I saw them running wild in a park in Winchester, Massachusetts. They regarded me with absolute indifference, and hurried on their way.

Now, it seems they are poised to move into South America as well. In a piece in the Washington Post, Coyotes are poised to invade South America. Humans are to blame, Robert Gebelhoff notes that in the 1950s, the beasts moved into Mexico. In 2014, they crossed the Panama Canal.

The problem with this? Coyotes are out-competing a great many things along the way. It is entirely possible that biodiversity will drop dramatically as the result of the coyote conquest. That would decidedly not be good for life in the Western Hemisphere.

So, Gebelhoff says that if we wish to keep that diversity, we had better take a stand. He writes, “Hold the line against invading coyotes. Fortify the region’s rainforest defenses. Do everything possible to keep these animals from arriving in a new continent. If we can stave off this offense, perhaps we can win the bigger war to save biodiversity.”

Let’s hope we manage that. Let’s hope we hang together to stop the coyotes. I am hopeful that we can.

Or, at least, that we will do better than some on the left did at standing together to stop Trump from entering the White House in 2016.

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Fire This Time

There was a terrifying piece on the Washington Post a few days back, “Too late to leave: Australia’s advice for surviving a bush fire when surrounded” by Diana Leonard. It seems that the bushfires in Australia are now moving so fast that frequently people aren’t able to get out of their way. Increasingly, people are getting trapped by the fires, and so have to take shelter where they can and hope to fight the flames.

A particularly ominous line in the piece is “‘Climate change is producing more frequently these unprecedented conditions,’ said Crystal Kolden, a professor and fire scientist at the University of Idaho. ‘Fires are moving faster than people have ever seen.’”

Meanwhile, of course, Australia’s Prime Minister and his government continue to act as if there weren’t a problem, and to deny any link between the fires and global warming.

This is a fairly awful situation, and not just for Australia. When our leaders seem so willfully ignorant of what’s going on...willfully stupid, in fact...that then one wonders just what they’re getting us into.

One feels a bit that the whole human race is surrounded by fire...and Washington, and so many other capitols...tell us there isn’t really problem, and really it’s all in our heads.

Even as we blacken and burn.

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Beware False Prophets

Definitely check out the the Rev. William J Barber’s piece in The Guardian, “Evangelicals using religion for political gain is nothing new. It is a US tradition.” Barber is, of course, the charismatic leader of the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, and one of the more great lights of American Progressive Christianity.

In this piece, he argues that we should be saddened but not surprised that (mostly white) Evangelicals are supporting Trump. He traces their behavior and attitudes back through the various self-identified Christians who have supported segregation, lynching, slavery, and genocide. The sad reality is all too often people are willing to use God as excuse to do very evil things.

One particularly powerful paragraph reads, “Religious hypocrisy is not new. But Jesus and the prophets of the Bible make clear that God hates this abuse of the holy. ‘Do you expect me to overlook obscene wealth you’ve piled up by cheating and fraud?’ God asks through the prophet Micah. ‘Do you think I’ll tolerate shady deals and shifty scheming? I’m tired of the violent rich bullying their way with bluffs and lies.’ These are the biblical values we have heard too little about in our public life.”

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Arrogance and Ignorance, a deadly mix

Interesting article by Joe Scarborough in The Washington Post, “Trump’s ignorance has created an international crisis.” In it, Scarborough argues that Trump is, in one way, like the late General Douglas MacArthur. Both the General and the president are famed for their boundless self-confidence, not so say arrogance.

The difference, though, is that MacArthur was a skilled tactician who knew his military history. Trump, by contrast, is just arrogant.

The combination of ignorance and egotism has been deadly in the past, and it may well be so again.

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Iran And The Day After

So President Trump has just addressed the nation. He informs us that when Iran bombarded our bases a while back, we lost no men or women. The betting is that the Mullahs have decided avenging Qasem Soleimani isn’t worth the costs of a full-scale military confrontation with a Superpower. He notes that Iran appears to be “standing down.”

But there is something odd about all this. First, we don’t know, yet, that Iran is really “standing down,” and we won’t know for quite some time. Second, that Iran may back away from the situation now doesn’t mean it won’t hold a grudge. It is possible that at some unspecified point in the future, perhaps when we least expect it, the nation will strike at us with the cry “Remember Soleimani!”

Third, there is a curious sense of relief in Trump’s announcement. It feels like a school yard bully who has just pushed the toughest kid in class from behind, and then …with a shudder!…realizes what he has done. When the other boy simply sneers and turns away, the bully exhales and, after a few moments of shaking in terror, announces that he’s won.

But, fourth, and finally, we have (I think) suffered a significant defeat in the eyes of the world. For here’s the thing. No matter what happens now, humanity will look at us and note that it was Iran, not the United States, who handled this affair with restraint.
 

 ~mjt




Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Age Of Fire

Powerful, terrifying piece about the coming age of fire...the Pyrocene...in the Guardian. We have entered a period in our planet's history when the wildfires in Australia and California are the norm, not the exception.

See: The Australian fires are a harbinger of things to come. Don't ignore their warning by Steve Pyne

***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.) Tucker’s most recent book is Padre: To The Island, a meditation on life and death based on the passing of his own parents.

        

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This is so sad...

From The Washington Post: Russian trolls are targeting American veterans, and Trump’s government isn’t helping, group says

This is just so sad.

And why isn't the government responding? Where are our defenses? Where, for that matter, are our defenders? 

Not, perhaps, in the White House at the moment.

 ***


Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.) Tucker’s most recent book is Padre: To The Island, a meditation on life and death based on the passing of his own parents.

        

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Pelosi No Fool

In the Washington Post, we learn that “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Democrats in a closed-door meeting ... that she will not act until she learns more about how the Senate would conduct the trial, according to three people present for her remarks.”

This is undoubtedly wise on her part given that Mitch McConnell has indicated “Republicans have enough votes to proceed with President Trump’s impeachment trial with no agreement with Democrats on witnesses.” In other words, to run the impeachment in such a way as to make the conviction of the President pretty much impossible.

This is not a promising beginning for anything like so abstract and rare as justice.

See: Impeachment live updates: McConnell says he is ready to proceed with Trump impeachment trial with no agreement on witnesses, according to two officials by By Felicia Sonmez, Colby Itkowitz,  John Wagner and  Seung Min Kim

***



Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.) Tucker’s most recent book is Padre: To The Island, a meditation on life and death based on the passing of his own parents.

A Killing Web?

In cyberpunk science fiction there is often a scene in which the hero is attacked physically as well as mentally by a hacker. That is, in the story, our protagonist is cruising the web, or maybe trying to hack into a dangerous site, and the site’s defenders send him some sort of signal that is actually deadly to the protagonist. I have never exactly figured out how such attacks could possibly work, but apparently something like them is already happening.

Specifically, in “A tweet gave a journalist a seizure. His case brings new meaning to the idea of ‘online assault.’ by Reis Thebault, in the Washington Post, we learn that Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald was actually assaulted by a moving image. Eichenwald is a frequent critic of Donald Trump. He also has epilepsy. So, when he opened up an email one day, and was confronted with a rapidly flashing image, he had a serious seizure...something genuinely life-endangering.

The image had been crafted, allegedly, by John Rayne Rivello, a Right-Wing supporter of Trump, who knew of Eichwenwald’s epilepsy, and who sent him the image in a deliberate attempt to hurt him...or, even, cause his death. That’s pretty disturbing, but there’s worse. The attack on Eichenwald has been copied by others, also sending such images to those with epilepsy, sometimes for political reasons, sometimes just for simple sadism. 

 
I find all this terrifying, and for many, many reasons. First, I am sure that certain sad and unhealthy people will continue to do things like this, and maybe even find new and more deadly ways of doing so. Perhaps they’ll discover a means of sending Taser-like shocks over Wifi. Something.

But, second, I am troubled because I’ve always been a great fan of Free Speech, and I have always been an advocate of the Web as a means of ensuring that free speech. What was the line? “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” (John Gilmore.)

Now, though, we have a situation in which discourse on the Net has become dominated by political fanatics, religious zealots, anti-vaxxers and flat-earthers, endless corporate shrills, bots of all description, and, now, the genuinely violent.

How do I respond to that?

How, indeed, do I respond to the fact that I vaguely, and uneasily suspect that maybe, just maybe, there needs to be something like an Internet police?

Such a thought chills me...

Particularly because it says worse things about people than about the ‘Net that was supposed to set them free...






by Michael Jay Tucker
copyright©2020


***

Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and editor based in the American Southwest. His most recent book is Padre, a meditation on life and death based on the passing of his parents. You may see the book on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1792646909/

 

Soleimani is dead

What will the death of Qassem Soleimani mean? Personally, I have no idea, and I went to bed last night quite frightened. This morning, I was reassured to see a fascinating article in Politico, "Why the Death of an Iranian Commander Won’t Mean World War III" by Ray Takeyh. 

In the extremely well-reasoned piece, Takeyh argued that while the Iranian regime will certainly strike back somehow, it will be measured in that response. He says that the Mullahs are, indeed, highly aggressive, and do dream of an Iranian sphere of influence that would include much of the Middle East. (Let's be blunt, they are aiming for Great Power status.)

But, he concludes, they are surprisingly pragmatic. They are not in a position, yet, to strike back in a major way. They will, instead, commit some random act of terrorism, or maybe a hack attack, and then fall back to plan for another day.

Is he right? I don't know. I certainly hope he is. It would be nice to know that Iran wasn't going to launch nuclear weapons or anything in the future. And Takeyh is an expert on the subject. He is, among many other things, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. So, I guess I'll put my faith in his prediction and, for most part, relax.

But not entirely relax. I still think the killing was badly managed. And as for the Iranian response...

I try never to believe that an enemy (or a friend) will act in the way that I hope he will act...and the way I think he should act...

Because, all too often, he does neither.

Okay, a couple more posts after all...

So I am going to post a couple of things here after all. I am still planning to shut this blog down, unless there is a tremendous desire for it somewhere. And I still think that I will transfer my musings to the Michael Jay Tucker blog.

But I want to try an experiment. The Liberal Resistance site is down for a while. I want to see if I can use Xcargo to write about political topics, at least for a little while. If I get readers, I may transfer to vocal.media.

Talk to you soon.

cheers
mjt

Happy New Year, and check out my new blog

Happy New Year, Everyone!

And remember, this will probably be the last time I'll post here. Go instead to my new blog at:

https://michaeljaytucker.blogspot.com/

Take care, and see you soon at the new address.

Video: Soaring

And the last video I will do for Liberal Resistance...

In fact, it may be the last video I do for Liberal Resistance. Simply put, people don't seem to watch videos on political blogs. On video hosting services, yes. On personal v-logs, sometimes. But political blogs, no.

Ah well. We live and we learn.









Oh, and after you've watched this, check out my new blog, here:

https://michaeljaytucker.blogspot.com/

Video: Rover Revisited

More stuff I did for Liberal Resistance...but this time with a robot. And Mars. Great combination.

And remember, I will soon stop posting to this blog and moving to a new one, the official Michael Jay Tucker blog (ta-dah!)

But here's the video!

Video: To The Lighthouse

Another bit of liberal propaganda I did for Liberal Resistance :-)

And remember, I will soon be shutting down this blog. So check out my new blog, Michael Jay Tucker 

In the meanwhile, here's the video.

Fairwell, Xcargo

Well, I have finally decided to say goodby to explosive-cargo the blog. I will, instead, do my posting at my brand new blog, the official (ta-dah!) Michael Jay Tucker blog,which you can also find here:

https://michaeljaytucker.blogspot.com/

Why a new blog? Well, that is kind of hard to say. I've done Xcargo for a long time as a blog, and for an even longer time as an ezine. (Remember ezines?) And when I started the publication, I felt I wanted to be mischievous, and confrontational, and very, very political...though with a smile. I wanted to be a gadfly and a rabble-rouser.

And, well, I'm not sure I feel that way any longer. I would still like to be funny, now and then, if I can be. And I guess I will always write about politics. Though, frankly, right now, I'm not sure the world needs any more rabble-rousers. We've got way too many rabbles and way too many rousers as it is.

Besides, somehow, the name "explosive" doesn't seem to fit any more. (And, he said with a sad smile, in this age of alerts and alarms, it is not always safe to use in public discourse.)

So, I'm starting the new blog. It'll have my writings, but also more of my experiments with art and graphics, and with video. It will be, I hope, more in tune with who I feel I am now.

I'll be letting this blog run until the end of the year. There will be videos each Friday up until December 27. Then, after that, it will go silent.

But please do go to the new blog, and stay with me. I wouldn't want to lose your friendship after all this time.

cheers
mjt

Video: When it is all over

Another video I did for Liberal Resistance. As always, feel free to skip if you're pro-Trump.

Video: Red Sun Rising

Another Liberal Resistance video I did.

Again, if you're pro-Trump, feel free to skip. More apolitical stuff is coming.

If you're anti-Trump, well, then, watch away!

Video With Dinosaur

Another liberal resistance vid. But I do like the dinosaur...

Old Woody

And this is yet another GIF...

This is "Old Woody," a tree not far from here. They've decorated with paper lanterns for Christmas. I added the light, and the small blue Christmas/Fairy lights that come on afterwards.

My newest certificate

Got this today for a Udemy class I finished. Trying to move forward on the video stuff. I've gotten a couple of feelers from folks who want me to edit and/or narrate little promo videos they've done or want done.

Be interesting if I ended up doing that sort of thing, even if just as a hobby.

In Unity And Trust

So another anti-Trump video I did for LiberalResistance.net. Again, if you're a conservative, feel free to skip. I'll be lots of less political stuff in future.

Tiananmen, Or, The Gate Of Heavenly Peace

Without comment...

copyright©2019 Michael Jay Tucker

Sunset, Night Sky, Shooting Star

This is yet another GIF. I started with a false-watercolor (many filters on photoshop) of a photo I took, then added the changing light, the stars, and finally the shooting star.

I think it turned out rather well, don't you?

cheers
mjt

Copyright©2019 Michael Jay Tucker

A Bit Of Lampost...GIF

I'm rolling with the GIFs these days. Here's my most recent. This is a lamppost along a path near where I live. I tried to give it a growing dusk sort of feeling.

Copyright©2019 Michael Jay Tucker

A cozy bath...

Yet another GIF, this one based on a stock photo of a extra cozy bath lit by candles. I thought it would be fun to put in changing lights and then have the trees outside the windows become illuminated. I am pretending that they are Christmas trees.

Martha put it best when she said this looked like a bath...in a very cold place.

Anyway, see what you think of the motion and the light effects.

The Madness of King Donald

Another video I did for Liberal Resistance. Feel free to skip if that offends you.

More non-political stuff will come soon.

From Video To GIF

So as part of my experiments with GIFs, I am trying to learn how to turn a video into a GIF. This is my first attempt...somewhat dizzying and probably shouldn't be watched for long periods :-)

Anyway, this is a time lapse video I took of a trail near where I live. I've made it into an endlessly looping GIF. As I say, don't watch it too long :-)

Another GIF

Here's another experiment with a GIF. This is meant to be a building in winter as a day turns to night.

Another GIF

Another GIF, and another building blinking in the night 😀

This one is a bit bigger, though. And the blues are fun, IMHO.

Tap on it (about the center) to get the full screen. Better view.

cheers

Playing With GIFs

Running some experiments with GIFs. Here's one I did recently. See what you think.

Halloween Politics - A Scary Video

Hey, All,

Yet more flaming liberal politics in this video. Give it a glance, if you're not offended by anti-Trump stuff. (If you are, er, ah, wait until the next posting, which will be much nicer.)

Here it is on liberalresistance.net:

https://www.liberalresistance.net/video-happy-halloween-or-not/

And here it is in person:

Video: The Triumph of Death...er, tRump

Another little video that I had on LRnet. it's a bit less complicated than the others in that it is mostly just moving pictures and music...no Voice Over.

However, I did "perform" the version of Dies irae on garageband. So, i guess that's something :-)

More seriously, this piece is a response to Trump's decision to pull out of Syria and leave the Kurds to die. Not, I fear, one of our finer moments as a nation.

Suddenlink

I woke up this morning to discover that I had no Internet service. At first, I thought it was simply a local outage, but then I phoned my provider -- Suddenlink -- and learned that I had been terminated for not paying my bill.

The kicker? To the best of my recollection, I never received a recent bill. I had signed up to go paperless and, before, had been getting it regularly via email. But, not this time. Maybe it went into my spam folder or something, but I haven’t seen it there as yet. 

Also, I had not received any notice from Suddenlink that my service was going to be shut down--even though the company has my phone number and text info on file.  If they had texted me a “friendly reminder” I’d have paid up quickly enough. But...they didn’t.

I then paid my bill via the phone and set up automatic payments so that this won’t happen in future. But I had to pay a late fee along with my regular bill, and I really felt that was a bit unfair. How could I be charged a late fee on a bill I never actually got?

So, I called up Suddenlink’s help line...and got put into a lengthy queue. I put my name and number for a call back, and then attempted to use the company’s chat function on its webpage. That, too, required a wait, but I hung in there until I got a company rep on the line, someone named “Michael.” I had just started explaining my problem to Michael when the chat function froze. It didn’t work then, and it is still not working as of the moment (10:45 am).

I then got a phone call back from the customer service help desk. I explained my problem as best I could and said I would like to remove the late fees. A rather hostile individual informed me that I had had plenty of time to check my bill before the due date and so it was all my fault, and there was no way the fees were coming off.

At this point, I was genuinely angry. The late fee had been annoying, but to be basically dismissed by customer service in this fashion was quite a bit worse. Indeed, it is inexcusable.

I suppose I will never see my late fee again, but I do think I’m owed an apology. I wonder if I will ever get it. If I ever do, I will let you know. But, it is rather unlikely, I suppose. Which is sad, because up to then I had been quite satisfied with my Suddenlink service. Now, I discover that it wasn’t nearly the company I thought it was.

Ah, the joys of life in the post-industrial economy. 

A book of mysterious things...

Another video experiment. I did this partly to see if I could format a video for Instagram's new video feature.

View this post on Instagram

Another video experiment. This is the first time I have ever done a 9x16 (i.e., cellphone specific) video. The music, once again, is by the fabulously talented Kevin MacLeod. Here is the Creative Commons notice: Music from https://filmmusic.io "Stay The Course" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Please check out my Amazon page, https://www.amazon.com/author/mtucker57

A post shared by Michael Tucker (@michael.j.tucker1) on Aug 15, 2019 at 10:25am PDT

No Shingles, Thank You

Spent much of yesterday sick as the proverbial canine. The reason? Because on Tuesday I went and got not one but two vaccinations -- for the flu, and more importantly, for Shingles. I had been meaning to get the latter for some time. I’m a prime candidate for that ghastly disease because I had chickenpox as an adult. Apparently, that means there is a strong, strong likelihood that I would get shingles sometime after middle age.

And I wasn’t planning on getting shingles...not if I could help it, anyway. It’s incredibly painful, can be a bit disfiguring (at least in the short term), and there is no known cure. And that’s just if you get garden variety. A friend of mine, a writer I’ve worked with, got it in her eyes. Feel free to shudder at that thought. I certainly did.

So, I got the vaccine. The problem is that I’ve got a strong immune system (apparently) and whenever I get a vaccine the old body swings into overdrive. It interprets the serum (as it should) as an attack and responds accordingly--i.e., it generates the antibodies which will give you immunity later on. The trouble being that may make you may feel sick in the short run. You may feel fever, aches, queasy stomach, and all the other things that are designed to make life impossible for viruses...and, sort of by accident, miserable for you.

Ergo, I spent pretty much all day yesterday flat on my back and feeling, to quote the immortal P.G. Wodehouse, like something rejected by the pure food committee. 

It wasn’t fun to say the least...but I knew the alternative was to court something a whole lot worse. Better to suffer a little today than much more more next week.

In other words, I was doing something mature.

Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

Video Note To Conservatives: Dump Trump Now!

Another video I did for LiberalResistance.net. This one ran on Friday.

Actually, I really believe this. Conservatives had made real progress in America, and, at least in places like American Conservative Magazine, had explored some interesting new spaces in the ideology.

But, Trump could take them down...hard.

If the Right wants to weather what's coming, it needs to find a way to disassociate itself from him, and do so gracefully but firmly.

Anyway, take a look and see what you think.

More Bill Rabbit

Hello, Everyone,

You’ll recall that I’ve been posting about a small collection of art that I inherited from my late parents, and which Judith Estrada Garcia was kind to place in her gallery in Taylor, Texas: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

I promised I would post images of the works as they became available. Here’s the second piece by the late Bill Rabbit, who was rather a big name in Southwestern art. You can see his Wikipedia entry here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Rabbit

This piece is When Shadows Fall and will be shown at Judith’s gallery in the near future. Before then, though, she’ll be displaying it online.

Oh, and please check out Bill Rabbit’s daughter’s work as well. Traci Rabbit has a webpage here:  https://billandtracirabbit.com/

Bill Rabbit's Art

So you’ll recall that I posted recently about art that I had inherited from my parents (when they retired, they ran a gallery in Albuquerque, NM). We were originally keeping it all in storage, but then Judith Estrada Garcia was so kind as to place the pieces in her gallery in Taylor, Texas: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

But, anyway, I thought I’d start posting examples of the art my parents collected. As you'd expect, they were very much into Southwestern themes and subjects.

Here, for example, is the late Bill Rabbit’s “Cave Of The White Shaman.” You can see more about Mr. Rabbit on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Rabbit

His equally talented daughter, Traci Rabbit, maintains a family web page here: https://billandtracirabbit.com/

This piece, Cave, will be shown at Judith’s gallery in the near future. Before then, though, she’ll be displaying it online.

Video: Death Is A Democrat

And here's some vicious Liberal propaganda ☺

This is from today's LiberalResistance.net.

What If He Resigns

Another video that was posted on the LiberalResistance.net page

Again, very liberal. This one is a little different though. I actually videoed myself for it rather than using stock footage.

A Tribute To Oreo

Just before we left Albuquerque, our little dog Oreo passed on...which was very sad, and I'm still sort of getting over it.

But, here is the video I did as a tribute.

Thank you Oreo, for all your years with us...






Oreo from MJT1957 on Vimeo.

The Monster To Come - A Video

I'm still doing short videos for LiberalResistance.net. They're very political, and (as you would expect) very anti-Trump, so if you're very pro-Trump then probably not a good idea to watch.

But, still, if you're curious, here's what I'm doing with my voice-overs and a little stock footage. This one ran today, and I'll post others once every Friday or so for a while.

cheers
mjt

A new blog?

I am toying with the idea of closing this blog down and starting a new one, or, at least, renaming this one. 

Why? Well, when I started the explosive-cargo ezine, all these years ago, the name fit. I was writing a column that was more or less funny, and which sought to slip a few “explosive” ideas in between the lines. There’s nothing particularly new or unusual in that. It’s sort of what people have always done when they’ve written about politics or society, particularly when they are trying to be comic about it.

But, now, that’s not the case. I’m not being funny any more, or not often. And, frankly, we no longer need explosives in our discourse. The bomb has long ago exploded. What we’re doing now is trying to pick up the pieces. 

So, maybe something new…

What is the antithesis of a firecracker? 

Judith Estrada Garcia's gallery (and my parents' collection)

My parents ran a little gallery after they retired. When they passed on, some of art came to me. I briefly thought about trying to sell them myself, but then, happily enough,  Judith Estrada Garcia kindly stepped in and offered to host the pieces at her gallery in Taylor, Texas. (Thanks so much Judith!)

Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures of the pieces on and off as they became available. Here’s one from William McGee. Judith did some research on him, and this is what she told me, “William McGee was a student at Black Mountain College in North Carolina (BMC)during the summer session of 1952. He studied painting with Jack Tworkov and Franz Kline, and was friendly with Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly who were also students at the college. Other people he mentions in his personal account titled "Some Memorable Personalities," which is included in the book Black Mountain College Sprouted Seeds edited by Mervin Lane, are the poet Charles Olson and the composer Stefan Wolpe.”

So do give Judith’s gallery a visit if you’re out Taylor-way. And, of course, you can see it on line here: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

Critter Ridder and Tabasco

I spent part of Saturday morning in the attic and on the roof with $40 worth of squirrel repellent—specifically, a bottle of a something called “Critter Ridder,” and a container of a powder that does the same thing.

Turns out they’re mostly hot peppers. It seems that squirrels and lots of other wee beasties hate the smell and taste of the stuff. (Basically, I spent the day dosing the house with Tabasco sauce.)

‘Course, given my luck, I’ll have the one squirrel in creation that’s a spicy foods freak. He’s probably up in the ceiling right now, munching on a ghost pepper and mixing up some margaritas to go along with a Chimichanga or two.

Bejing Scenes

An image from our trip to China in 2017...

copyright©2019 Michael Jay Tucker

Squirrels!

Phooey. Darn. And Pshaw.

We seem to have squirrels living in the attic. I’m not 100% sure but judging from the volley of scratches I heard early this morning, I’m guessing that we do, indeed, have guests. I’ll know more when I get up there later today.

One thing I hadn’t expected when I moved to Texas was the sheer aggressiveness of the wildlife. First it was the flies and mosquitoes. Then we jumped up to vertebrates, specifically deer. Even though this is a pretty settled suburb, the place is lousy with deer. Deprived of natural predators, and blessed with a high birthrate, they are everywhere now. And sometimes they can be a bit combative. The other day I saw one chasing a man down the street. No kidding. (I’ll tell the story later.)

Now it’s gawd dang homesteading squirrels.

At this rate I firmly expect that before the month is through, I’ll get mugged by a muskrat.

Sorry for the delay

Hey, All,

I know I promised that I'd be posting more here. And, frankly, I didn't. Sorry about that.

Things have just been really complicated here. Mostly good, but complicated.

I've already written about this, but I'll recap just to set the stage. Two months ago we moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the Austin-area. (Not Austin itself. Can't afford those kind of prices. But a town just a few miles away.)

The reason for our move? The usual one for people my age. Our son and daughter-in-law, and their brand new baby girl, live in Austin. They are basically the only family we have, except for some cousins who are miles away. And, now that my parents are gone, there wasn't much to keep us in New Mexico.

So, toward Texas we headed...

We rather like the area. Lots to do. Lots to see.

There are few small drawbacks. The traffic from our house to Austin itself is horrific. And the drivers here can be a little...um...confrontational. And then there's the awful heat, and the bugs.

And, finally, there is the little fact that Austin is a very young city. Lot of folks in their 20s and 30s are moving here to take advantage of the booming economy.

In fact, truth be told, I can walk into any cafe in the city and...all by myself...raise the average age of the crowd.

Ouch.

About Me

Hey, All,

So I've discovered that I need a place to identify myself and my various webpages. That being the case...here we go:

I am Michael Jay Tucker.

My Amazon Author's Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KI3I6E

My Vimeo (video) Page: https://vimeo.com/mjt1957

My Blog: http://explosive-cargo.blogspot.com/

My Behance Page: https://www.behance.net/mtucker57564d

And more is to come :-)