Random Thoughts on Events This Evening

I want to focus a bit more on our current political system and particularly the people that are in it. Starting at the top.

The President is either insane or in complete dementia at this point. The things he says get more outlandish and erratic every day. Watch his “press conference” from yesterday, or the videos of him at the Easter Egg roll. In no way was any of this normal, not to mention his threat to commit war crimes and eradicate an entire country. Fortunately, that threat is now paused for a bit. He openly admires dictators. He does nothing for the good of the people in this country. He is corrupt as hell. Despite his promise to release the Epstein files, he has been working hard to keep them covered up. One thing we never tolerated was a person who lied constantly and did not keep their word.

The first time I saw DJT was having dinner and a few beers with some other cowboys back in 1980 or so. He was being interviewed on some TV show that was on at the bar. We knew then that he was just some rich punk, and his attitude showed that he was also a bully. We called that one right. We’d all worked at one outfit or another that had someone like that, usually the owner’s kid. Not many. Most were good people but there were a few. There was a treatment for that attitude that was known as a blanket party. I won’t go into details but let’s just say that it taught a quick lesson. How a punk like him became President is somewhat baffling but in some ways crystal clear. Big money. A corrupt two-party system that basically was owned by billionaires and corporations. Legislation written by lobbyists instead of those who were supposed to represent us. Both parties are corporate parties with the exception of a few individuals.

Then we have the Congress critters, and a more cowardly bunch I just cannot imagine. Ain’t nothing cowboy about any of them, even if a couple wear the hats and boots. No good cowboy I ever worked with would ever bow down to any man like they do to 47. Yet here we are. For some reason, they and the media call them our leaders. They are not leaders. They are our representatives. But since they are owned by the big money, they have set themselves up as some sort of damn royalty. They have given themselves raise after raise while the minimum wage hasn’t been raised in decades. They have gold star health coverage while denying it to the rest of us. I could go on, but you get the point. The outfits we worked for were fair to us, even the poor ones. There isn’t a damn thing fair about our political system. The corruption is right up front and blatant. There is never money to help people but always money for weapons and war.

I understand that the generals at Central Command refused to obey some of the orders from the Secretary of Defense. If there has ever been a person so unfit to be in charge of the military, it was in a movie somewhere. And this ass seems to think he is the hero of some movie about the Crusades. There is an entire cabinet full of unfit people. And I cannot for the life of me understand how some people I know believe that a group of millionaires and billionaires is truly looking out for the working man’s interests.

Anyway, when we rode for outfits, there were always “bosses”. Most were good men, and true leaders. Other outfits had bosses in title only. The real leaders were working men who had the skill and knowledge to get the jobs done, who truly cared about the men and their safety, and were willing to adapt and change plans as circumstances dictated. They did not lord it over anyone else. They worked beside the men and just as hard. And they sure as hell didn’t just quit and take a break, or vacation, when the work was hard. Too bad that the folks in Congress never had that kind of ethic.

We worked together. It didn’t matter where you came from, what your religion was, what color your skin was. We took care of each other. We worked to obtain the best result for the men and the outfit. We took pride in our work and in ourselves. We did not back down from whatever was in front of us. As far as we were concerned, no person stood above us, no matter their wealth or position.

It seems that this country worships money and the wealthy, rather than the qualities of the individual people themselves. It has been a long road to get us to this point. I do believe however, that we are on our way to building a system that works for everyone. The current system is collapsing. People are seeing it for what it is and rejecting it. A con artist saw that trend and convinced enough people that he would “drain the swamp” and their lives would be better. Of course, he has done the exact opposite. But in doing so, he is exposing the rot within.

Now is the time to look forward. Do not look back and just try to control the old system. We are better than that. Keep an eye on what is going on and put pressure wherever it is needed to help hasten the collapse. But most importantly, focus on what a new system can be. One that is based on fairness, comradery, and cooperation. Not rebuild a system where competition is the primary goal. A system where people are free to live their own lives in any manner they wish, so long as they harm no one else, or the planet we live on.

When you spend years in the saddle, in some of the most beautiful and remote places left in this country, you gain a deeper respect for the natural world. When you work side by side with people for a common goal, working together in spite of personal differences, you gain a deeper respect for humanity in all of its beautiful, messy glory. We are all in this together and we can make the changes needed, together.