Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias. or ( A life lived in fear is a life half lived)

       Let's talk about fear. I could barely get any sleep last night because when I went to bed Donald Trump was in possession of half the necessary electoral votes to become president. my wife beside me felt the same restlessness. Upon waking up I find that he did indeed win the election. So, fear. Donald Trump took fear out of the Republican party toolbox and modified it into a power tool that cut a swath of red across the country. He played to every fear he could grasp with his tiny hands. He equated Muslims with terrorists. Fear that refugees from Syria are going to be a parasitic plague descending on our nation. Fear that the next Latino you meet could be a Mexican rapist. They all are. Fear that if they are in any way different from you. You being white, middle to upper class, heterosexuals, they are bad for this country.

    He is now our President-Elect so those fears are no longer relevant. He has the job "so now it's time to work towards unifying our Nation" Wait who said that? It wasn’t Hillary this time. He did in his speech after Hillary Clinton's concession call to him. He was gracious and generous in his praise of her long history of service to our country. Hilary Clinton was gracious providing the call because she knows this is not the first time a woman was passed over for a job by a man with less experience. So now the fear is in the hearts of those who hoped for better things.

     So what do we have to be afraid of during a Trump regime, sorry I mean presidency? The dust is settling and what we have is a republican majority in the Senate and a republican majority in the House of Representatives, So the legislative and executive branches of our government possess the roughly the same ideology and goals give or take. Our Judicial branch is awaiting a nominee to be selected by the Executive and approved by the Legislative. I am sure that there will be at least one more vacant seat to fill on the bench over the next four years. What does all this mean? Let's throw some campaign promises and issues out on the table and speculate.

     Health care. the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare will most likely be folded, spindled and mutilated the burned in effigy as an example of the previous administration.  Abortion. Roe v. Wade will have executive and legislative pressure put on it to be overturned.  LBGTQ. All advances in gaining rights will be put on hiatus for the next four years as momentum moving forward will be balanced by executive and legislative pressure pushing back.  Second Amendment. I don't think there will be a lot of change in gun reform. as long as the NRA is happy. The Fourth Estate He is going to push for stricter definitions for slander and libel. Prelude to censorship anyone, anyone?... Here is some good news his immigration policies will cover his promises of more jobs. First the Brute squad that will be going from door to door to remove the undocumented and Muslim population wit be need motivated hard working individuals. Then once they have been kicked out of the country, people need to build that wall to keep them out and fill the jobs that were involuntarily vacated by the rapists and terrorists. So jobs, all taken care of. Foreign policy, I see this boiling down to a handful of responses. if they are from a "terrorist nation" bomb them and their families and turn the country to glass. Pay for our support and friendship. If there is even a hint of disrespect, ignore them, or if he is feeling himself that day sanction them. Net Neutrality, when the appeal comes before the Supreme Court, don't hold your breath.

     If you are not still at least nervous, lets remove all the politics. My biggest fear lies in the man/boy himself.   Donald Trump has proven himself to be a misogynist. despite what he says his respect for women is negligible. He jokes about sexual assault, His defense for not sexually assaulting a woman is that she was too unattractive. his body language during the debates indicates his need to dominate or distract attention away from a woman with an opinion. look at our new first lady, this the first time in my life that I have seen a president that did not show some level of respect to his wife, he treats her as an accessory. He married her because she was a vapid supermodel. All of his ex-wives started out as trophy wives until they asserted themselves and were summarily divorced. He is also a narcissist with the reactionary temperament of a spoiled five-year-old. the mildest insult would distract him from the business of campaigning for president. This is who will be Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military force on the planet. He is a master of the blame game. Why take any amount of personal responsibility or have any empathy if you don't have to? He has no idea about how much power the office of POTUS actually has. or how to use it.  If he plans on running it like his business empire.... Fear.

    Trump campaigned on the platform of change. The pundits and analysts had long made know that the country as a whole was dissatisfied with the way things are. After all this the biggest fear may have been what would it mean for the supposedly most progressive country in the world to have a woman for president. I think it would mean that you could never look a little girl in the eyes and say that you can’t' be what you want, and that would give the Old White Men sphincter lock.

    The Teflon Don is President. He is going to try to make America great again. No matter how you look at it, it means moving backwards. Fear. When in the past was America great for everyone?  The United States of America was only great when there was the hope of moving forward to make it better.

      Do not let your fear of the future hamper you. Fear is the warning you get when you need to do something to survive. Unfortunately, our fear of clowns was not strong enough. But then we were not caving into fear, we were striving for hope.

Let's keep doing that.

Thank you for your Support

Delays, delays nothing but delays !!!

And... the hatch is stuck.
<<OOC>>
Release is delayed until Aug, 9 2016.  Will pick up from there. Enjoy your summer

...And then it happened

    Space is big. I mean really big, if you think that a trip to the pharma was a long way you can’t conceive on how big space can be …

     My grandfather gave me a book about a book that began like that. He gave that book to every one of his 167 grandchildren. It was a very funny book about the adventures of two men caught in odd situations with occasionally funny excerpts from the aforementioned fictional book. He gave me that book when I was 10 and would quote a line or two whenever he visited to see if it was read.

    Like every other of my cousins and siblings, on my 18 birthday He asked me, “What is it you liked most about the book?” Most of my family had forgotten completely about it, other remarked that they had reread it when they needed a good laugh, but those answers would always leave him sighing and shaking his head.

    I had said,” I liked the idea that the Guide was always in state of being updated and little changes can mean great adventures.” He froze and a big smile lit up his face “ Jhon m’boy you just got the golden ticket. I knew you were one of us” he gave me a big hug and left me very confused, but I was happy that he was happy. That night I gave the book a quick reread and dreamt of infinite improbabilities.

    I woke to find myself curled up in a life pod wearing a new no-frills exploration/survival suit.  I sat up and looked around. A moment after examining the controls, I found the pod I was in was never ejected. It was placed here in good condition. With no immediate danger around me.

    “Ok, personal safety, assessed as green,” I said to myself “what are my assets?” looking in all the storage areas of the pod I laid the found items in my lap. A helmet and a pair of gloves to complete the suit, and what looked like a gun in a holster.  When I put the helmet on, it lit up like a Christmas tree. HUDs started displaying information. I pulled the gun out of the holster. The display told me that I was holding a multitool. It had three settings, combat, mining, and scanning. I put the tool back in the holster and belted it on.  

    The last Item on my lap was a satchel with a green and gold insignia bearing the letters “BC”. Inside was a ruggedized electronic book. Upon activating it. the words “Not all who wander are lost” flashed on screen before for settling on a title page “Fogg's Field Guide for NMS Explorers by Prof. Phileas Fogg IV.” There was one message unread. From the screen rose a holographic image of my grandfather.

    “Good morning sunshine,

                Let's get this out of the way. I am not going to apologize for putting you in this position. If anyone should it’s your mother for trying to stifle your wanderlust. She was going to put you on the fast track to academia. Well if anyone is going to decide your future it’s going to be me. “

    The hologram calmed down. “You are currently somewhere on the ass end of the galaxy. How you got there is not important. Neither is getting back, because you know what is here already, and like me that bores the crap out of you. Don’t think I hadn’t noticed how you dive into things until you know the answers. This book is from my days as a Bedouin Cartographer for you to fill, change and update you can keep your logs in it as well.  I, Phil and the gang had a lot of fun getting stories to swap.” He clears his throat.  “You heard some of them already. There are mysteries out there, seek them out . The only advice I can give you is, be smart, trust your instincts, and take care of your equipment. Now in the best possible way I am telling you to GET LOST”

    “And don’t forget your towel.”

    The image flickered then disappeared.

I slid the book back into the pouch shaking my head with a smile just like he does “That old bastard.” When I put the pouch into my pack I saw scratched into the leather in large letters “DON’T PANIC”

    With a final check of my equipment I opened the hatch into the great unknown.