AVERAGE DAY

 Sometimes it starts before I actually get up.  I pick up the remote and start a Belle Of The Ranch video (prior to her I watched her husband Beau Of The 5th Column).  

Once I get going good, and according to the day, I might catch up with the opening monologues of the late night talk shows.  There is a surprising amount of actual information that is disseminated as the butt of a joke.  Also, Colbert, Kimmel, Myers, Fallon and whoever is hosting The Daily Show, have shown a consistent willingness to incorporate stories that are negative - in general or about them - into their monologue.  I trust them but if I am unfamiliar with whatever story or event they reference, I use that as a jumping off point to do a touch of research on my own.

Then there is the broad panoply of Meidas Touch network contributors.  TN Brando, Brian Tyler Cohen, Farron Balanced, Ben Meiselas, generally get a daily look.  Other Meidas Touch contributors are watched frequently if sporadically.  Jesse Dollemore usually gets the time I used to spend on The Young Turks.

Next up might be Democracy Now.  Generally the headline news but sometimes a more indepth story.  Other news videos might come after that.  BBC, Al Jazeera and occasionally the major networks. I also take the time to read a morning news summary from NYT and a couple or three other “print only” reporters and commenters.

Anna from Ukraine and Artur Rehi are daily or near daily providers of news and analysis of the situation in Ukraine.  I also watch Professor Gerdes Explains and Wes O’Donnell primarily for Ukraine news but they do sometimes stray into larger subject areas. They are all very good about not sugarcoating it.  If the Russians are doing damage, that is what they report.  If Ukraine is gaining, they report that.  I have not found either of them to be casually or intentionally wrong.

For global political analysis, Black Man Spy Malcom Nance does not post daily but his insights are certainly worth considering.  Keith Olberman chimes in with his mix of sarcasm and analysis with this crew. The Bitchuation Room might be better placed with the daily podcasts but I don’t get to her every day.  Paul Warburg is a goto here.  His insights are worth paying for if you have the spare change. (not that the others aren’t)

Randy Rainbow’s and The Marsh Family’s musical treatment of current events is always worth a listen.  Trae Crowder’s Southern comedy influenced analysis is entertaining and informative.

Stratfor and Jane’s Defence are civilian intelligence platforms.  Some summaries and reports can be accessed without cost.  They have a real fiscal impetus to being right and it appears to keep them on their toes.

While I use all those listed and more to keep up with the things that are changing on the global political scene, things are changing simultaneously in a lot of other areas.  As such, I tend to read/watch a lot of science and technology reports.  Astrophysics, AI, battery development, robotics, materials science, chemistry, quantum computing and super computing are all subjects I see multiple reports on each week.

Keep in mind that I am also interested in other subjects.  Sometimes it is stuff that stands no chance of having any significant impact on the world. Dogs, cars, air guns, motorcycles, gadgets, bicycling, etc etc etc.  Of course, even those things that I think are not impactful sometimes alter how I think about things that are impactful.  The world is a complex place.

I probably don’t need to point out that I am retired.  With no job I must go to, with no spouse to find ways to keep me busy, with no children to rescue or guide, I have the time to read/watch all of that stuff I listed.  Honesty requires me to admit that I also use it as positive procrastination.  I tell myself I should be learning guitar or learning to code Python but instead I procrastinate.  Since I am learning things and gaining fodder for my political analysis, I cut myself some slack.

Why do I mention all of this?  Roughly a billion gazillion times I have been told some version of “Well, that is your opinion.  My opinion is just as good and I disagree.”  If you were to ask the people who say that sort of thing whether they prefer to take their car to a trained mechanic or just some rando that thinks he can figure it out because it is a simple machine and they are fairly smart, not many of them are gonna choose the rando.  They understand intrinsically that knowing more about a subject is better when it is their money on the line.  Still, they are willing to dismiss my history in the USN.  They assign no consequence to my daily study of things political.  They admit to not being interested right before they offer an opinion based primarily on that lack of interest and a commensurate lack of knowledge.  They may or may not accuse me of looking at them as though they are idiots.  (I don’t generally hide it well but, you know, blind squirrel, acorn etc etc)

It is generally agreed that the Founders assumed an educated and involved electorate.  Life though, has some stuff to say about that.  There are days when this spouseless, childless, retired person does not have sufficient time to get it all done.  When it is time to choose what gets left undone, things with no immediate impact are easiest to walk away from.  

To summarize, I spend a lot of my time studying the things that I opine on in writing and/or in person.  If you are a person who does not study or who gets their opinions straight from Rupert Murdoch”s colon - or that of his toadies, yes, you have a right to your opinion.  That does not make your opinion right.