Running Bear's October 2023 Coffee Shop

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I'll answer TomO's question about why and try to keep it very generic to avoid the no-no topic

Because we live in an echo chamber of reinforcing thoughts and moving the Overton Window farther and farther.
My degrees/experience are in Journalism and in Politics on the grassroots level.

Over the last four decades, I remember listening to that brash man who bashed people from Rio Linda and sold ties for a while. I was all in. Then came the financial collapse of 2008, and I went full grassroots in the tea movement, seeing it as a middle-of-the-road, everyone-is-angry movement (I was very wrong about that). I somehow landed in the Indiana power structure for those local groups. (Closed-door meeting with Mike Pence in 2012 before he ran for Governor of IN, that type of what we were doing).

I was part of the groups' efforts to oust Dick Lugar from the Senate... we did, but we failed in the end result. That's about when I started to question...

After a lot of self-examination, and learning masters level communication theory (what PR is, and why it works), I realized that I hadn't changed. But the language around the right and left had. The rhetoric was driving people's understanding toward the extreme ends of the spectrum.

If you're not sure what the Overton window is: that's the window of allowable discourse within a topic. It moves a little back and forth. Think of the 1860s... it shifted hard to the anti-slavery end in the North of the US, and hard to the pro-slavery end in the South. It was no longer a shared window.

We're in about that same situation now. The political discourse is split. Look at where you invest your news time. Is it mostly talking heads pontificating? Then you're probably in the new Overton window for your end of the equation. The windows don't overlap any longer. You've probably been affected by the PR that has been pulling the Overton windows farther and farther away, so you only get "It's our way or the highway!" motivation.

I didn't leave the XYZ party, they left me... I'm still where I was 20 years ago.
 
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Good morning. The other day I thought I was about to be involved in a "Duel":
IMG_20231002_121718401.jpg

Someone obviously did some work to the cab of this beast;
IMG_20231002_121701721.jpg

Not much in modeling in few days, gotta work. Few weekends ago stopped over in "Outer Station" in Reading to see what's in town:
20230916_181845.jpg

This is former Blue liner electric car build in Bethlehem in 1930. A set of RDCs just pulled in from Jim Thorpe:
20230916_182506.jpg

Possibly the only place on the continent where one can see and ride RDCs in multiple...unless there's still an operation like that way up north in Canada.
Back to work.
 
Morning all,

65° and cloudy. Had a thunderstorm come through about 1:15a and by 2:00a was gone. Dropped a little rain, too darn little. There were severe storms off to our north and west, but as always, they barely whimper when they get here. Supposed to rain maybe, possibly, a little later this morning.

Not much going on yet, but a couple of things I need to get done before the masses show up.

BBL
 
Good Morning all. 63° here in the Ozark Foothills. I’m hoping to get to the HO layout soon I’ve been wanting to run some of my NYC stuff. Well better go feed the chickens and get ready to go Dump Truckin talk later.
 


Tom: It's a issue that happens all the time. I'm becoming more socially conservative, financially liberal. which is a change from what i used to be. The wife, is socially liberal, fiscally conservative...we do discuss issues, but neither of us tries to force our views on the other. My sons, I'm not sure where they are, and I like it that way. I am very uncomfortable discussing politics, religion, or finance with others. I really don't need to know what others think. We live in a pluralistic society, with many different people having many different beliefs and ideas. We all need to respect others and their beliefs...
Not for nothing, I have been disappointed with politicians for a long time now...even though I don't expect much, they always disappoint.
Is it our old age springing up on us? The values and the respect IMO seems to be diminishing but not gone completely. Not everything needs to be a confrontation. Some ( not all) of the younger folks (mid 40’s and below) just seem like they need to get their point across but need to keep hammering it home. No respect for other people’s values or last night even just common thoughts.
 
I'll answer TomO's question about why and try to keep it very generic to avoid the no-no topic

Because we live in an echo chamber of reinforcing thoughts and moving the Overton Window farther and farther.
My degrees/experience are in Journalism and in Politics on the grassroots level.

Over the last four decades, I remember listening to that brash man who bashed people from Rio Linda and sold ties for a while. I was all in. Then came the financial collapse of 2008, and I went full grassroots in the tea movement, seeing it as a middle-of-the-road, everyone-is-angry movement (I was very wrong about that). I somehow landed in the Indiana power structure for those local groups. (Closed-door meeting with Mike Pence in 2012 before he ran for Governor of IN, that type of what we were doing).

I was part of the groups' efforts to oust Dick Lugar from the Senate... we did, but we failed in the end result. That's about when I started to question...

After a lot of self-examination, and learning masters level communication theory (what PR is, and why it works), I realized that I hadn't changed. But the language around the right and left had. The rhetoric was driving people's understanding toward the extreme ends of the spectrum.

If you're not sure what the Overton window is: that's the window of allowable discourse within a topic. It moves a little back and forth. Think of the 1860s... it shifted hard to the anti-slavery end in the North of the US, and hard to the pro-slavery end in the South. It was no longer a shared window.

We're in about that same situation now. The political discourse is split. Look at where you invest your news time. Is it mostly talking heads pontificating? Then you're probably in the new Overton window for your end of the equation. The windows don't overlap any longer. You've probably been affected by the PR that has been pulling the Overton windows farther and farther away, so you only get "It's our way or the highway!" motivation.

I didn't leave the XYZ party, they left me... I'm still where I was 20 years ago.
IMO this was a great explanation. Thanks Troy!
 
Good morning to all. Decent sleep last night and the house is still quiet. We will be off to explore the area this morning and will meet our hosts for lunch at 1:15 at a place that Terry remembers from her visits here in the early 2000’s. We will visit the Henry Ford Museum but we are not going to do Greenfield Village. We did that before Covid. There are a couple places on campus that Terry wants us to visit today after lunch. If the River Rouge factory tour is available we will do that tomorrow. We will not though cross a picket line. It’s not that we agree or disagree but why endanger anyone’s safety, especially our own. I couldn‘t get an answer when I called yesterday. Just the same response that the tours are open 3 times when I asked about picket lines. That tells me there are pickets up…

We head to Ohio after River Rouge on Thursday or if we don’t go straight out from here. No matter what Thursday night is at a hotel in Sandusky, Ohio and it’s not a Holiday inn Express for a change. Great Wolf Resorts and Lodge has a resort there and it’s less than an hour from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I had a good friend who was part of the original investors when GW started up in the WIsconsin Dells years ago in the 1990’s. It’s always been a good experience and they are all over the country now so we try to stay once a year.

It’s 60f degrees now heading to 83. So it should be a good day for touring the area.
 
Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and 75° this morning. NWS is still predicting rain today, but these ain't rain clouds here right now. 90% chance of up to 2" they predict, starting in mid-afternoon. I expect a high today of just 90°, just like yesterday. Wind will turn north around midnight, but not really cooler until Saturday. I am calling the pool done for the season, water was 81° yesterday, that's about it with clouds today and the shortening days, it will not go up. Still was rather pleasant yesterday evening. I'll miss it for a few days and then my mind and body will move on!

The capsule endoscopy yesterday went OK I guess. I swallowed the capsule without incident, now waiting for it to come out so I can send it to the lab. Get this! Besides a camera, video chip and battery, it also has a light in it! This modern medical technology has me amazed. On another medical front, I got the results of my blood draw done Monday, mostly normal but my A1c has bumped up a bit to 5.7, a bit of a disappointment. I'll have to cut back a little more on bread and pasta.

I got home early enough yesterday to spend about 45 minutes chipping and shredding the brush pile from the recently removed trees. I intentionally limit my work sessions to 45 minutes with at least 30 more minutes between. I learned a few years ago that I am best off by pacing myself - I get more done.

Out in the train shed yesterday, it was somewhat productive. I got the last walkway glued on the fuel storage tanks that I had dropped. I have kept it on the workbench for now, because I decided to paint the handrails "safety yellow". Otherwise, I finished ballasting the track along the back of the scene and added a bit of ground cover.
IMG_0522.JPG

A future project will see the backdrop on the left get a coat of blue paint, but that wasn't within the scope of the current project.
Over to the right, I did the ground cover and gravel parking area and drive for the liquor store.
IMG_0523.JPG

Here's the store next to it's final resting place; glue is still to wet to put it in place and I have to drill a hole for the wiring for the interior lights first.
IMG_0524.JPG


Sherrel - Fostering??? That's an attachment waiting to happen. We reluctantly gave up pets a few years ago and are now "dependent-free". Kind of a necessity since the neighbor's teenage daughter grew up and moved away and we no longer have a convenient person to take care of them in our absence. Even though she never asked for anything in return, I always gave her a twenty so she could buy cigarettes. Teenagers haven't changed since I was one in the last century. To make up for it, both of our daughters bring the granddogs up for me to care for when they go on vacation. It's actually a vacation for the doggies since there are no fences limiting their pursuit of rabbits, squirrels and deer.
Tom O - 2' swells on Lake Michigan? That's not calm to me!
At work you never talked about sex, money or politics!
Says who???
Curt - Wow! I didn't realize that the Canadian smoke made it that far south. Hope that you and family have no respiratory issues to deal with.
Joe - I have to chime in with Mike, I think that the refinery backdrop is superb.
Troy - You have a great way of wording posts. I agree with the one from this morning. I tend to be conservative, my wife is more so. We no longer talk about the ex-leader because I think that we should move on, she doesn't. Both of my daughters are mostly middle of the road and they both (and husbands) skipped the top box on the 2020 ballot. My son went far-left and he and his mother didn't speak to one another for over a year, his choice. They've made amends and just don't discuss politics any more. I don't really discuss politics with any of my children. I still do with my siblings, even the one who still has Mondale-Ferraro bumper stickers and signs plastered around the house. Me and my brothers regularly give her hell about her views but are always given and taken in a friendly way. We more than cancel her votes any way.
I'll stop here before I run afoul of "the rule".

Kind of a culinary day today, it's National Taco Day, National Cinnamon Bun Day, and National Vodka Day. Some places are probably giving away some of all of the above, but I am not driving 25 miles one way to take advantage of it.

You all have a great hump day.
 


OK All. I have posted for two days about this capsule camera that you swallow that takes pictures inside of your small intestine mainly. It may take others as well. In case any of you are confronted by this procedure, this is the capsule camera in all of it's glory. That's the retrieving magnet used to get it from the strainer that is attached to it. The ball point pen is for size comparison.
IMG_0525.JPG


Camera. light, memory chip and battery all in one; supposedly took 50,000 pictures on it's trip through the digestive system. Never felt a thing, and couldn't see it standing in front of a mirror in the dark.
 
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