Okay, we're back. It's the one o'clock clock. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech. Our show today is Global Connections. And the title of our discussion with Carlos Suarez is the global perspective on what is happening in our elections. Welcome to Global Connections, Carlos Suarez. Hello, Jay. Aloha. Always a pleasure to reconnect. And I'm coming to you now from Cholula Puebla in Mexico. And as you know, it's been my home now the last couple of years as I'm also with one leg and arm in Texas at times. Normally I'm globetrotting all over the world, but these days like everybody staying home. And well, that's just that's the reality. But here we are. And of course, you know, the United States, wow, I got there's so many things on the plate these days happening. But of course, in barely two months, we now have an election for the president and Congress and many other state and local. And yet the United States being such an important global power, there's keen interest from outside. The world is watching, is curious, is confused. And so as I think you've laid out in the description, we want to touch on a few things. Some of them are things that we should know. And sometimes we need to revisit. Other things are maybe just putting them in a comparative context. Because as it happens, every four years, we have the same discussion. The United States comes to learn many people that we have an indirect election of the president, and it's not a direct election, like most places you count the ballots, the one with most wins. No, we have this funky electoral college. But let me leave that on the background for now. And maybe first want to talk about because here we are today, bringing closure to the Republican National Convention, which is one of the rituals in American politics. Every four years when we have a presidential election, it is a process that, oh, my gosh, compared to other places, it seems to go on for years. And it does quite literally. The campaigns and the process of selecting the candidates, it's the primary process. Gosh, think back how long ago was it when we had those huge groups of, let's say, the Democrats this time, or four years ago, the Republicans, when they had 20 people. And that process of selecting is done obviously by the individual political parties, the two parties in the US system. And we won't talk about it too much today, but we have to begin just with the understanding that the American political system has two political parties. It is very, very difficult for a third party to gain enough across a national level to be a player. So if you want to be president of the United States, not only do you have to be 35 naturally born, you have to basically be, well, how shall we say, you have to choose A or B, you have to be one of the main parties, because if you're an independent third party candidate, you have a big, big hurdle to get enough across the board. So just begin with the two-party system. What we have now culminating today is the end of the Republican Party choosing their, or not choosing, but formalizing the process of nominating their candidate. President Trump is the current president and leader of that party, the Republican Party. So he is the obvious nominee. He's being renominated because his term will end in January. So he's hoping to gain a reelection in November, and they go through these rituals. And of course, we're living today in this pandemic era, it has changed everything. We've had a long, long tradition in maybe modern American politics, where these conventions were sort of a very exciting time for the party activists, come together, all the different states are represented. It goes through the motions over days, very patriotic. Today, given the reality that we couldn't see everybody come together, it's taken online, virtual. So, you know, different, maybe different aspects about that, maybe some of it is a little bit more choreographed or more tightly controlled. Some of it is a little bit... What's been going on with Trump this week is all theater. There's nothing left to the imagination, except trying to believe what he has to say, because it's really remarkable how they're all on the same page, but that page is not the reality of some other global world. Well, remember before becoming president, what was his profession, his job, among, you know, head of his Trump organization, a reality TV host, and in some ways his own presidency, and certainly this production right now, is that it's something made for television, you know, to sort of give it that feel. When you think back and you compare, compare, I'm thinking I don't know why, the Madison Square Garden, filled with people, right up to the last seat, and they're all hooting and hollering, and they have signs for their favorite son, and then they go, you know, through this procedure of calling for that state to cast its ballots from the state of Massachusetts, and they give a roll call basically, very young, this long tradition. And it wasn't always for sure about who would be nominated, there were fights behind the scene, scenes and all that. Those days, I suggest to you, and I really like your opinion about this, those days seem to me to be over, that this is not a convention along the lines that we have seen in our lifetimes, or in many lifetimes before. This is theatrical and it is a kind of inefficient, really very inefficient. All this trouble, boiling, boiling trouble out of Shakespeare, and you already know exactly what's going to happen. It's almost like, why go through this? As you mentioned, you know, it takes years to get through this political process. Every country in Europe is more efficient. I don't know why we don't clean it up. Anyway, those are my reactions. Well, yeah, I mean, you've put it well. And clearly, the other thing, a couple of quick observations is traditionally what happens to it, in addition to that roll call and all that, if a candidate or the candidates are coming, by then they've had the primary. Sometimes it's clear there's a clear winner. Sometimes it's not, and there's a jockeying that goes on, and it's the old image of the smoke filled cigar rooms, you know, dealing in the background, and a wheeling and dealing that goes on. And eventually, a candidate emerges. So indeed, sometimes as they go into these conventions, they don't have a clear candidate. Today we do. We've got Joe Biden, who essentially beat out the others, he steps in. And so what is the convention? It's less about substance and let's say program, even though traditionally, you have a program that gets discussed and approved. The programs in general tend to be pretty extreme, either very conservative or more than what maybe can be often realistically implemented. But it's a goal that's aspirational. This time we have so little substance, and even as it turns out for the Republican convention, there's no real new pro programmer platform. It's more or less dusting off the 2016 story. And I think the latest is a slogan, you know, make America great again, again, somehow. And then that's kind of a puzzle, because well, here we are in the middle of a very difficult reality that certainly the president didn't expect to be in.  What a mess. Meanwhile, put on the show to sort of distract attention on some level. But regardless, this now formalizes the process, both parties after this now have their candidates in place in two months time, we will have the election. Suffice it to say that in most other parts of the world, you do not have a process that it goes on for so long. In many of the European countries where there are parliamentary systems of government, it's a very quick process, often a couple of months. Sometimes because there's not always a fixed date for the election. Usually it's within a five-year period, for example, they must have a general election. But that can be called sometimes at any given moment. Usually, you know, by when you have to do it. And so there's a time. But in some cases, you often see where they will call an election early from some maneuvers, either to try and solidify more support. And that can work sometimes at backfires, like we saw in the UK with Theresa May, she called the election and ended up losing support. Well, very different, very fluid. Just wondering this, Carlos, I mean, again, the perspective countries and people outside the US.  The ones who have survived is tests of loyalty, so to speak, over the years. And they're all on the same page and they're all engaging in the same distractions and disinformation and lying and so forth. It's quite remarkable that he tells you he's doing really well on immigration, when in fact he's busted the chops of so many people. It's remarkable when he tells you that he's done a great job on COVID, when in fact, a lot of people, including me, feel that he is actually complicit in killing 170,000 people and infecting 5.5 million. So he lies.  He understood how to twist the facts in propaganda, how to repeat a big lie and get the German people who were otherwise relatively liberal in those days to go along with him and to join his team and accept the lies and believe cult-like in the lies. Query, this is really an important question and I've been reading as a background to it, I've been reading on tyranny by Timothy Snyder, a history professor at Yale, about the comparison psychologically and sociologically and historically between what happened in Europe in the 30s and what's happening now with Trump. So my question to you is, if a leader in Europe, say Western Europe, just for a good comparison, did that kind of lying, you know, big lying, huge big lying and repeated lying, would he or she be able to get away with it or would he be shattered down? Well, I mean, that's a fair question. I think my quick answer, it depends and I say that because I think it depends where in which specific kind of country because Europe is a collection of, well, at least the EU today has 27 member states, but there are many European countries, a handful that are not in that, but leave it at that. The point is that you have some where you have a considerable amount of legitimacy, credibility, a well-informed public, a media that will hold them accountable. I can't imagine something like that happening in, you know, a Denmark or, you know, a Norway or, I don't know, even the, well, just naming a few that where you have, I guess, a little bit more credibility and legitimacy of the system. On the other hand, you know, many countries are today, even under very authoritarian populist leaders, the president of, I'm sorry, the prime minister in Poland, in Hungary, to a less degree Italy, although they've lost, you know, in and out, but they, even in recent past, they had this media mogul, Berlusconi, who himself, while not maybe lying on the scale of President Trump, nevertheless, using media, manipulating this information. I guess my point there is that we do see a rise of populism in a handful of countries in Europe. Those are worrisome trends. And at the local level, you know, the rise of some of those. But yeah, I think you have a fair point in that my sense overall is that the European public's probably are a little bit more vigilant of that and call it for it. But nevertheless, I mean, you have some far right parties that also, you know, carry out a lot of the similar tactics and strategies. And so it varies. But more to the point, in most of the European political systems, you would not have a leader like Donald Trump come through the system that way because the parliamentary democracies and the political parties that basically are in them tend to, again, it's a little bit over generalized, there are some exceptions. But it tends to be very difficult for somebody to get in from the outside. It's less common. Now, it's not that it's been common in the US either, but of course, Trump has now broken that he's not a political leader figure, he comes out of the private business world. Europe has had a handful of those, but more generally, they tend to have very, you know, professional politicians who govern and a political culture that has often been maybe more accepting of that of a political class critical, of course, and there's plenty of protests all around. But I think the American ethos, the American ideals, often this idea of the man on horseback, you know, the entrepreneur, the billionaire, for many, and particularly those who maybe aren't really steeped in a lot of history or are interested in those details, you know, Trump comes across as well, he tells them like it is, he's different, you know, he's shaking it up. Obviously, when you dig deeper, and even when you talk to even prominent conservatives, increasingly many are saying, wait a minute, this guy doesn't represent our ideals and values, he is destroying the party, what have you. So it will vary, but boy, Trump is certainly a phenomenon that is part of the product of the US and the media and the sort of the emphasis on individualism and sort of even these concepts of freedom, you know, freedom to say what you want, to do what you want, freedom from government intervention, etc. All of these are puzzles. You know, maybe let me continue quickly. I mentioned at the outset, of course, the Electoral College, we revisit this all the time, this doesn't exist anywhere else. The United States is rather unique in having an indirect election of its leader, of the president. And it's sometimes complicated to clarify, most of our viewers will understand it in general, but we just want to remind what we are voting for when we cast a ballot in the fall election is who is going or the state that you live in, which delegates are going to be given to them. And every state has a specific number of delegates, which is a formula based on the number of representatives plus the number of senators. So Hawaii has four, California 55, etc. And the result is in 48 of the 50 states, this is where it gets a little messy 48 of them have a rule that says winner takes all whoever wins the popular vote in that state, the political party gets all of those delegates. So in Hawaii, the Democrat candidate Joe Biden will win the majority vote, all four delegates will go to the Democratic Party, and they will, they then will forward the specific delegates, there are specific people that are named and they're usually party leaders, insiders, loyal, who have pledged to cast their vote that way. Let me quickly just say that there are two states, Nebraska and Maine that don't stick to that. Theoretically, they can choose to divide their their delegation, I think they only have three, three delegates, but they could choose to go two and one. They don't often do that, but they could. But anyhow, what is this, they may be foreclosed from that. I think this litigation, maybe even the Supreme Court, for the proposition that they are bound, that they can't they can't exercise discretion. That's right. And last time there were some puzzles because a handful of the delegates chose not to not to move forward with Donald Trump and instead put in I think John Kasich in some cases or maybe the other senator from Utah, this guy, of course. But here, more to the point, what is one of the most important implications of this? When we have an election, because certain states are very solid, either blue for Democrats or red for Republicans, the election ultimately is taking place in six or seven or eight swing states, states that could go either way. And that's where all the energy and resources are being put. And that's the game. And the magic formula is not the popular vote, as we know in the last election. And again, in 2000, it went the other way. The other candidate who did not get the popular vote won the electoral college vote. So the magic number of 270 is simply a majority of the 538 electoral delegates. And the 538 is 435 reps, 100 senators, plus three additional for the District of Columbia. So you have to get a majority of those delegates. That wins the presidency. How is the number of delegates for a given state determined? It's a simple formula. The number of representatives plus the number of senators. So Hawaii has two plus two, Texas has 27 plus 229, California 53 plus 255. And the idea in general, the idea was in the early, and again, this is the formula from 1787 when they adopted the Constitution. Many of the states in the South at the time, the Southern states, very small populations, planned patient economy, etc., they had a fear that by strictly population, the states like Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, they would control the process and always have the selection. So it was a way of trying to guarantee some measure of, you know, sort of a compromise, giving some smaller states a little bit more voice. The same idea in the Congress, the reason we have the bipartisan, I'm sorry, bicameral, the two chambers, the Senate gives representation equally to every state. So South Dakota has two senators, California has two senators. That's a, you know, part of the formula of dividing power up a little. Well, again, back to this. A lot of people in this country would like to throw out the Electoral College. They don't feel it's democratic. And it is not a matter of two senators per state. It's not democratic either. But, you know, why do we have two Dakotas? Why can't they merge into one? Just kidding me. So, but my, you know, my concern, my interest is you can have all the polls you want. You can have all the young liberals you want saying to throw out the Electoral College. What's the chance of that happening? Well, I think the short version is nil, very close to nothing. It is a constitutional amendment. We haven't had one of those in literally a century. It requires basically all the state, three quarters of the state legislatures, two thirds of the Congress, both houses. And it's just unlikely to happen. Because there are, you know, some would argue that, for example, the Republican Party has benefited from it more because it has been able to garner the support of a lot of small states, the sort of whole red center of the U.S. versus the more populated coastal, you know, more liberal districts, let's say. And so once you have one party that doesn't want to change it, good luck. It's not going to happen. So unfortunately, we are stuck with it. And so some analysts say, well, let's put the best spin on it. It is, you know, it is what it is, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, in the modern era, because I don't think the founders knew in 1787, you know, that we would have social media networks and television and all this. Today, it does become, ultimately, it becomes a game in those swing states, which are a specific handful, and they often are the same ones for a while. It's remarkable. You know, just a Woody Allen thought. I like to have Woody Allen thoughts. You know, it's just like the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court. It's the same notion. If I could go back to 1787 and explain to those guys what's happening this year, they would, they would be so interested and they would change some of the things they've been, they were thinking about, and it would be a grand service to them if they could only have somebody tell them what the future would really bring. Yeah, quite a, quite a puzzle. And you know, I'm thinking there often are shows. There's one I watched recently on Netflix called Outlander, where they go like, and this woman goes back in time to Ireland or Scotland, I think, blah, blah, but the other thing to say real quickly, I wanted, before I forgot, I wanted to mention about the electoral college situation. Let me think of what it was that is, it, gosh, how can I put this? Let me think I'm trying to phrase it in a different way. Oh gosh, I'm having a brain fart. Right now it escaped me what I wanted to say. I'll come back to it in a moment. But I think, you know, I can't underscore how much of a puzzle it is for the outside world, too, that every four years is like, wait a minute, Hillary Clinton got three million more votes, but Donald Trump got the office. And it just, you have to kind of wrap yourselves around that. It isn't easy to understand. Here's what I was just remembering, that in many ways, back in 1787, the founders, and we have lots of essays and documents they wrote, the Federalist Papers, Hamilton, John Jay, and others, they had a real fear of democracy in the way that they did not believe that the average person, the average citizen that today, of course, we all assume, yes, I'm a person, I have a vote, my vote counts. But in 1787, certainly those leaders that were forming and writing this constitution, they did not want to go outside and let everybody have a single vote. And so the indirect election was a way of kind of saying, no, let these representatives, they will hear the voice and they will have input from the population. But ultimately, these party insiders, they weren't called that, but these maybe educated, civic responsibility people, they would move forward and cast a vote. And theoretically, again, the idea is that they could choose to, at the end of the day, because let's remember, let me maybe clarify this, the election is November 3rd. The delegates actually formally cast their vote in December. There's a time somewhere in the middle of December where formally they have to do it. Now, in the pandemic time, I don't know if it's going to be done online or by mail or what, that'll be interesting to see. But normally, they literally go in Washington DC to an office where they cast their vote, these delegates. And then that formalizes it. And then the following January, whatever it is, the 20th or so, is the inauguration, the transfer of power. Never mind that we're here, before I forget this, in a comparative perspective too, we are facing an election today like we have not seen in the United States, where the entire system and the credibility and legitimacy of the outcome is going to be at stake. And I can predict with a pretty high degree of certainty, we're not going to know the outcome the next day on Wednesday. There's probably going to be some fuss and fight and legal battles. Hopefully, it won't take more than days or weeks. But it's very likely that we're going to see some of this. And you can already see Trump and some of the supporters, specifically the president, kind of setting it up for that. Allegations of mail fraud and so on and the mail post-service and all the challenges there. If I win, it'll be a legitimate election. If I lose, it'll be a rigged election. Exactly. So I have to win. Yeah. And again, when asked that, I mean, it's astonishing that a president, a sitting president, cannot say, of course, I will abide by the results of the, I mean, by saying that we'll wait and see is already stirring more confusion and eroding legitimacy and trust. And it's setting up a future safety. I told you so. We knew and everybody knew and blah, blah, blah. That's astonishing because again, the United States has had a very stable political system overall. I mean, it's had social turmoil and had a civil war, etc. But we've not had an election in the recent past, where the stake is so prominent of the legitimacy, the credibility, the accusations of fraud and so on. We're likely to see that and let's hope it doesn't also get revealed in massive violence because that's potential as well. We've had, look in these last days, another incident there in Kenosha, Wisconsin, violence in the streets, protest movements that are continuing. It could get ugly. He's already said he's going to send troops there. Sounds like martial law to me. So it's a mess. And then add to that the foreign entanglement by what we know the Russians are meddling once again. Will it be as effective or just more chaos and particularly with social media? So these are strange times we're living in and a little bit worrisome, very worrisome for some. Increasingly, you know, not just the fringe margin questioning it, but many, many credible sources saying, look, our democratic institutions are really at stake on the line. And it will be difficult to bring back trust and credibility as we get through this. It's not going to be easy. Well, after the war, you know, this was the greatest generation, set the liberal world order for all these years, the Marshall Plan. You and I have talked about that before. And I can imagine a lot of countries, a lot of people have grown up in that thought that the U.S. has led the world in a moral approach in liberal world order in democracy. Democracy equals the U.S., right or wrong. That's the way a lot of people in this world, the seven or eight billion people in this world have seen us under Trump that obviously hasn't hasn't been the case. And he's turned in on himself and isolated and going nationalistic and populistic and all that. But this election and the kinds of phenomena that you describe, I wonder how people feel about that. If I were living again in Western Europe and I saw this sort of thing happening, this confusion and all these remarkable statements about he's not going to be bound by the election and so forth, I would be terrified that this is the last leg of the liberal world order and it's falling apart. It's on fire. I mean, am I right about that? Oh, absolutely. And some of it is generational. Obviously Europeans, particularly Europeans who are let's say over 50 or 60, who understand the legacy of the Cold War, the legacy of the World War. Younger populations, I think as they are in many places, tend to be a little bit less historical in their grounding. But I can imagine and I can assure you that there are many Europeans who are looking at this and shaking their heads because even not just the democracy that is eroding, but this obviously this global pandemic crisis, United States should be the leader, should be as traditionally looked upon. And now even in the last 24 or 48 hours, we have the CDC coming out with some new guidelines that are really just eroding its credibility. This is the premier public health agency of the world that together with the World Health Organization should be leading this and instead it's being politicized. So again, the world is looking, I think, very weirdly. And I don't pretend to say that I know the world's perspective, but certainly the elites and those who understand and plug in and follow American politics are dismayed and just quite confused and really disappointed because it's difficult to explain. And yet again, it's not as if it doesn't exist in other places. Europe has its share of populism and the rise of some of these same pressures. But I think it's remarkable to see, I think, the United States political culture on display in a way that is eroding our credibility in the world. Yeah. So over the past few years, and I'm sure there's taken it toll, I'm sure that Angela Merkel and Macron, they both don't think much about Trump and they don't like them much. And I think their followers and their respective countries don't like them too much. And the question I put to you is, we haven't seen the end of this. If he wins, there'll be more of the degradation of respect. One writer for an Irish newspaper came up with this notion about it. It's time to pity the United States. And that really has caught on, I think, that people in Europe pity the United States now. And ultimately, it's a question of whether they will continue to treat us with the kind of respect they have in the past in terms of foreign policy, in terms of global trade, and in terms of the reserve currency. And I suggest to you, Carlos, that going forward, if he wins again, those things will further deteriorate almost immediately and we will lose what we have left in terms of world leadership. What do you think? Well, absolutely. There are definitely clear signs of that. And again, it's the kind of thing that it's on one hand, it's difficult to measure and quantify, but we know it's there. It's also difficult to see, well, how do you fix it? How do you get beyond that? I think it also coincides with the United States kind of having to come to terms with even the irrespective of Trump and this current, let's say aberration, United States losing relative power and having to come to terms with a changing world where we must become more humble, more, we need a seat at the table. There's no question about that. We don't have it right now. And when we show up, we sort of elbow everybody and make a mess. But the United States needs a seat at that table as a partner, as a inspiration. Today, sadly, many of the ideals that the United States at times tries to promote, you know, democracy, freedom, liberties, look at what's happened in Belarus. We have no feedback or input or statement from the US government about that. What's happening in China, again, similar, you know, situation there. There's a trade war, but there's not a lot of attention to the sort of the democratic deficit there. And instead, we've seen now, sadly, our current leader in the US praising dictators and coddling up to them in ways and then completely attacking and eroding trust and personal relationships with democratic leaders, traditional allies. So we're in a strange environment. It's going to take time to, and so yeah, you can imagine one scenario if we have continuity four more years, more erosion of that same, it's not going to get better. The US will continue to be more and more isolated and marginalized.  Otherwise, they also know that they, if they have to deal with it, you, by now, enough experience how you deal with it somehow, you know, keeping a certain distance, being very careful, monitoring the Twitter war, because it's for Trump, it's all about that. And the unpredictability, the chaos, it is, it's nerve-wracking for anybody.  Let me understand your interests and make sure that you get what you need and vice versa, not today. We have a zero-sum transactional president who can say one thing in the morning and tweet something else in the afternoon and that's not an easy way to negotiate across borders to carry out diplomacy. No, you wind up with a kind of bankruptcy, including business bankruptcy, but beyond business bankruptcy. So my last question to you, Carlos, is actually the one that interests me most, aside from the perspective of other countries, other leaders, the populations of other countries in Europe and elsewhere. What about the U.S.? You've described some social political processes that are profound and the question is whether the American voter, the American electorate, including the base, I suppose, maybe they're an important group to distinguish here in dealing with this, whether they understand this, they understand the way other countries feel about us, how the relations have degraded, how their perceptions of American government, American democracy, American fairness and morality have changed. What about the people here in this country? I mean, again, a little crass to say this, but the short answer is that most people in the U.S., most Americans don't have a lot of interest, awareness, knowledge of foreign perceptions of the U.S. Nevermind foreign policy, which itself is complicated and messy, but the view that others have of the U.S. And there's a small group that, yes, do travel and anybody who does global travel knows that. The image is the stereotypes of the ugly American, but unless you're literally a foreign policy junkie, you are not likely to be aware of this. Now, the Pew Research Center, very prominent research think tank in the U.S., regularly publishes reports and analyses on foreign perceptions of the U.S. And I myself, most recently, I teach every couple of years, of course, at HPU on images from abroad, the perception of the U.S., different places. And so when we have seen over the years these regular studies, it's suffice it to say that we are at a point today where many parts of the world look down upon the U.S. in a way that has just never been seen before, a very negative perception. There's some interesting variation. There are a few places where the president remains very popular, the Philippines and on parts of Eastern Europe, a couple of Middle East countries. But by and large, and for the most part, it has been a pretty steady erosion under the current president. And again, while he may have made it more than it might otherwise have been, in some ways, he also reflects trends that were going on already. The U.S. has been disconnected more and more, for example, with Latin America, a region that is so important and so deeply connected. But effectively, the United States has neglected it. It has not been nurturing the relations in ways that maybe 25, 30 years ago, there was all this outreach, you know, NAFTA and promoting, you know, trade and even, you know, defending human rights, promoting democracy today, not much. Other places again, it will vary, but the U.S. is no longer calling the shots in the way that it might have been 20, 30 years ago. And I think that's where we are now, where the world is now seeing that, and the U.S. is no longer having the influence it might have had in the past. A final note, let me just say this, that irrespective of all this, the United States still remains a very powerful force for soft power. And what we mean by that is maybe cultural appeal, you know, the role of popular culture, music, you know, television, etc., you know, cinema, and even just the attraction that despite criticism people may have all over the world, it still is a place that attracts many of the best and brightest, many of the hardest working. And although the pandemic has certainly put a pinch on that, I think it's fair to say that the United States will continue to be a country that draws people for the opportunities, for the connections, etc. You know, we say in Spanish about that, from your lips to God's ears. Carlos Juarez, a professor at the University of the Americas in Puebla, New Mexico, also associated with HPU, and whose middle name is Fulbright, because he's been on so many, so many Fulbright scholarships all over the world. Thank you so much, Carlos. It's great to talk to you. Look forward to our next one. Aloha.


Bob Lorenz and Jack Curry with you final from Boston the Red Sox winning it nine to two so Jack it is a series sweep their own six against Boston this season and we talked about it numerous times this season certainly on the pregame every time they take a step or two forward it's the same steps back just a frustrating and exasperating weekend for the Yankees Bob and you pointed out some of the reasons why we're about it halfway through the season and every team has an identity so far this team's identity is as an underachieving team that as you just said takes two steps forward starts to get a little bit excited and then takes two steps back and leaves itself saying well what kind of team are you Garrett Cole needed to be the best player on the field for the Yankees today and he was far from that gave up a homerun on the first pitch then gave up a three run homer later in the inning both on misplaced fastballs and then you look at the Yankee offense trying to mount any kind of comeback it was unable to do that they get runners on baseball and they just don't have the ability to generate scores they're scoring at about 11% of the time when they get runners on base so I think the Yankee should be aggravated I think they should be embarrassed and I think as they head back home they should all find a mirror they need to look in the mirror because they know they were supposed to be better than this and the only one that changes this narrative or changes that identity that I talked about is the Yankees themselves so they need to take a look in the mirror and figure out why they're barely above a 500 team right now. David, Michael and Paul at various times during the game had some spirited conversation about game awareness and things going on.


At this point I'm like, nobody knows, nobody's got it figured out, and the only thing I have a problem with is if you tell me that you do have it figured out. It's sort of a stone age moral philosophy. That is something that that philosophy has been incredibly harmful to a lot of people, and to a lot of people who call themselves mythical beasts. I have a truth, I possess the right answers, I possess the truth, and there needs to be an exchange of right truth to them that they don't have it. Rhett and Link of Good Mythical Morning are some of the most recognizable YouTube personalities in the world. While the vast majority of OG YouTubers have fallen off or started some other ventures, these two best friends have continued to crush the YouTube algorithm shooting their brand into the stratosphere. They've managed to avoid controversy being canceled and just the general drama of any YouTuber that has been on the platform for a few years, let alone 15.  As college missionaries and Bible-thumping conservative Christians, but now they reject it all. They went on a podcast this week fleshing through some of the controversy and the follow and opened up about the brutally honest reasons they left Christianity. Be sure to stay tuned till the fourth clip where Rhett explains what he thinks is the most problematic part of modern-day Christians. This podcast was super interesting, so let's jump into it. The funny thing is the whole deconstruction movement they call it now, which is people leaving Evangelical Christianity or Christianity in general, has become a bit of a trendy thing, because we're seeing this huge exodus of people from the church, just a generational shift that we're experiencing for all kinds of reasons. So people talking about it is a little bit trendy, and it wasn't like we're doing this to enter some new status or be considered in a certain way. I don't like controversy, I don't like people being upset, I don't like people saying they're never going to watch again because of this. And I was a little, and I do feel like I've pulled back a little bit in the amount that I want to talk about it, because I don't want to disparage people who have faith, you know, and it's like, it's very difficult to figure out what is going on with the world. It's very difficult to figure out what the nature of this reality is. The thing I had the biggest problem with now is people who say that they know exactly what the nature of God is, what they know the nature. They know exactly what happens after you die, and this is what you need to do to be prepared. At this point, I'm like, nobody knows, nobody's got it figured out, and the only thing I have a problem with is if you tell me that you do have it figured out. If I were sitting down with Rhett right now, the simple question that I would ask him is, how do you know? You say you're chill with everyone, as long as you're doubting or questioning or unsure that that's cool, but the second somebody comes forward and says, I know truth, or I know what happens after someone dies, that's where you have a problem. You say you can't know that, but how do you know that? You see, our secular culture celebrates uncertainty. It's one of the greatest virtues of our time. To be unsure, to question, to be doubtful, to be skeptical, to never have your feet planted on solid ground, to be uncertain about the most important questions in the universe, but certain that nobody could know for sure what the answers are. Let me tell you why I have certainty about what I believe in 30 seconds. There were supernatural events that happened. These events were documented and prophesied about hundreds of years before they actually happened. When they happened, they were documented by eyewitness accounts, people that were actually there and written down. These events also were corroborated by people that were not from the Christian religion. These were people that were Jewish scholars like Josephus. Further, going in a different direction this time, without God, we are just star stuff. We're just chemical reactions in meat bags. We have no meaning. We have no purpose. There's no dignity. There's no worth. There's no morality. There is no truth. None of those things can be accounted for without God. That is why I know there is a God because we know those things exist. Otherwise, our world is just absurd and we know it's not absurd. We know there's meaning. We know there's truth. We know that human beings have dignity and there's intrinsic worth. That worth has been given to us by the Creator. And that's why I am certain that not only God exists, but He has revealed Himself in the Scripture. I was a loving, inclusive person that wasn't excluding somebody based on any type of orientation, you know? Right. And was that, which is a dichotomy toward the teachings of... Exactly. All these fans who come from all walks of life, all different perspectives. Yeah, some people who are, you know, are conservative Christian people, but a lot of people who are not. And I think that our philosophy of inclusivity and of accepting people and encouraging people to accept themselves versus encouraging them to adhere to sort of a stone age moral philosophy. That is something that that philosophy has been incredibly harmful to a lot of people and to a lot of people who call themselves mythical beasts, you know, our fans. A clear distinction needs to be made here.  There's a big difference between acceptance and approval. Acceptance and approval. Remember this when you're talking about LGBT issues in light of the Scripture. Acceptance and approval. I accept people. I accept people where they're at and I love them, regardless of their lifestyle, regardless of how they orient their lives, regardless of what they believe. I accept them. And that's what we're called to do, to welcome them in with dignity, knowing that they have great worth and they're created in the image of God. But that doesn't mean that I approve of every one of their behaviors. This not only goes for people that are in the LGBTQ lifestyle, but it goes for a sibling that's doing something that is against the Word of God or goes for a friend that's making an irresponsible financial decision. And I disagree with it. Like, I don't always agree with every decision that everyone makes, but that is not mean that my love is being withheld. But rather that I have such great love for them that I'm willing to say, Hey, like, I don't think this is going to be best for you. And in this context, it's saying not only that I don't think this is going to be best for you, but this is against God and this is against his ways and his design. And he has so much more for you in his design of you. And he wants you to step in that. And he doesn't want you to go counter to that. He wants you to stop rebelling against him and submit yourself to him. That's a hard message, but that's the truth. And if I truly love someone, then I'm willing to say that. Now, Rhett says, when they move past the stone age morality, my question for him is, okay, what morality do you have now? You say the Bible is a stone age morality that's not relevant anymore. What morality are you trying to cling to? Because I know that you have some sort of foundation for morality. You say some things are wrong, but just not all the things that the Bible says are wrong, are wrong. And so you have this new kind of edited document that you'd like to have. Is it based on culture, whatever culture says goes, whatever the country the law says goes? Because we know, based on history, that that is a very dangerous place to be. So surely it couldn't be that. The truth is, people want morality. They want God's morality to an extent, but they'd like to edit it. Well, listen, let me tell you, on this side of it, it's a lot better. As someone who lived within the confines of that system, and someone who is more of just a humanitarian humanist at this point. Yeah, it's easier because, I mean, there were years of, I have to find a way to love gay people, but not really accept them or their partner or whatever. This is simply a false dichotomy. You can either love and accept someone and embrace every single one of their decisions and lifestyles and approve of it all. You disagree with their lifestyle, and therefore you hate them, and therefore you can't really love them properly, and these are the two options that you have. And this is just a false dichotomy. The Bible says that part of love, part of loving somebody, is to speak hard truth, is to speak things that are going to, maybe even cause somebody to feel uncomfortable. The hard words of a friend are actually a blessing, because they help to grow us and lead us in the right path. And so somebody that you think is your best friend, somebody that you think is just this really nice person, like a progressive pastor who just, no, you can do whatever you want. They're actually your worst enemy.  They're demonstrating their hate towards you, because they refuse to say something that might cause you to dislike them, but ultimately would be for your good. More so than that.  Jesus telling people to go and share the gospel, right? You're supposed to bring people into the fold. What that does is it sets up this dynamic with every single interaction that you have with a person. There's a burden that you need to tell them this thing. And that the dynamic in your mind is that I have a truth. I possess the right answers. I possess the truth. And there needs to be an exchange of right truth to them that they don't have it. That dynamic is toxic. It is debilitating. It changes every interaction that you have with somebody. I enjoy living life so much more now where I get to talk to somebody, and I'm like, well, what am I going to learn from this person? Not what can I teach this person? How can I tell this person that what I believe is right? Well, it's like, well, let's see what... Here's another person with another specific experience from a different place in the world. They've got a certain perspective. I have a lot more personal satisfaction out of getting their perspective and being like, well, how does that impact my perspective?  Even if you're doing it in love, it's the dynamic is that you're right and they're wrong and that you got to settle it. Honestly, this is a fair question.  I can tell you how to get to heaven. And I have the key. I have the answer and you need to talk to me and I need to tell you in every opportunity how wrong you are and how right I am. And this is a fair question. I'm going to tell you two stories that will help make sense of this. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a story of a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee went up to pray and he held his head high and he said, God, thank you that I'm not like these other men, these extortioners, these adulterers, these idolaters, this tax collector. Thank you that I'm not like these men. He prayed a boastful, a prideful prayer. But then the tax collector goes up and he doesn't even lift his head to heaven. And he says, God have mercy on me, a sinner. Second story is of a young man wandering through the desert. He's been without food and water for quite some time. He can't remember the last time he had a drink of water. His mouth is shut because of the lack of moisture. His feet are tired. His bones are aching because they've had no sustenance whatsoever. And he walks and he walks and he walks and all of a sudden he feels a different sensation on his feet and he looks down and there's a spring of water breaking forth from the ground, from the depths. And he breaches down and he drinks some and all of a sudden his thirst is quenched. He's just like this immense joy just floods him. And he remembers back as he was walking, he saw other travelers too that were experiencing the same level of thirst and lack of nutrition that he was experiencing and he wanted to share with them too that this is where you can find water. This is where your thirst can be quenched. Humility and gratitude are the fuel that lead us to share the gospel with people, that lead us to share God's love with people. It's not this prideful look at how awesome I am and you need to believe this. Yes, that can definitely be a temptation to go about sharing Christ that way, to feel like we are that much more superior. But the way that God has called us to is to humility, to say, hey look, I'm no better than you and I was exactly where you are but I have found living water where my thirst has been quenched. I have found bread of life where my hunger has been satisfied. I was a sinner and I cried out to God and he heard my prayer. This is the heart that we ought to have when carrying out the Great Commission. Unfortunately this doesn't always happen but this should be the place that we go back to. To humility and gratitude and let those two things lead us to sharing Christ's love and his truth with others. Now I believe God is still working on Rhett and Link. It's not that they need more head knowledge or they need more information about the Bible. They have all of that.  I'm praying that God does just that. Thanks for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, give it a like and subscribe to this channel because I'm putting on new content all the time. If you want to support what I'm doing and equipping people to follow Jesus daily, support me and my mission. Join on Patreon and the link in my description. That would be an amazing blessing. I'll see you next time. God bless.


So, Guru, when I am into the height of my emotions, surrender seems to be the nearest, sweetest thing and possible. When it… when so many other things go up for me, it goes off out of my vision. Can I consciously do the Saranagati? Don't try to surrender because what will you surrender? What is it that you're going to surrender? If you bend down, that is not surrender, that's good exercise. If you declare, I have surrendered, that's a horrible ego. So how will you surrender? What will you surrender? What have you got to surrender, first of all? It is out of a certain realization that surrender happens. It's when you see that these words are very… can be very misleading because you've always been taught self-worth, self-esteem, confidence, isn't it?  Surrender is against all these things.  If you have self-worth, self-esteem, confidence, how to surrender? But can you live without confidence? Can you live without self-esteem or some sense of self-worth? Right now, no. See, I have no sense of self-esteem or self-worth. That's why any moment I'm willing to… if necessary, next moment I'm willing to go because I don't think this is worth anything. Personally, I don't think this is worth anything keeping this on. But because it's… it seems to be useful for many lives around us, we keep this going. But there is no self-worth because the sense of self itself is gone. So where is the worth? Self is not worth anything. And to that which is not worth anything, if you add a esteem, that's lots of trouble. And because of this esteem, this worthless thing, if it becomes confident, that's real trouble. But for the sake of survival, because people believed… people only believed it's not true. People believed unless you believe in yourself, you cannot survive. It's not true. It's not true in an essential way. But people believe that and it's become true for them. Because whatever you believe, if you add sufficient focus and emotion to it, it becomes real, you know? It becomes very real. All kinds of nonsensical belief systems around the world have become absolutely real for lots of people. Not for a small number of people, for a vast majority of population, it's become real. They believe it and it is so. So because of belief, these things have become real. But whatever you believe and whatever you empower with your thoughts and your emotions has no existential basis. When you talk surrender, you're talking about passing, passing from the limitations of one dimension to another.  Now you understand that unless you become like thin air, you will not pass. When you have realized this, that in your present form you will never pass. When you realize this, see suppose you're imprisoned and the doors are thick and nothing happens, you can't go. There is a gutter, filthy gutter. If you crawl through this filth, you can get out to freedom. Will you choose to crawl through the filth or no? You will, right? Yes? If that's the route to freedom, through the most horrible filth you will crawl. It will go into your nostrils and your mouth and everywhere, but it doesn't matter. It leads you to freedom so you will crawl through filth. That's surrender. That's surrender because you have realized you can't cross the prison wall standing. That is why you're crawling. So surrender is a certain realization that you realize in your present form you cannot pass the gate. So you find a more intelligent way to pass that will not come by cultivation. That will come only by a certain realization.  There have been any number, these are the known names, there have been any number of them. They're insane. They're not sane. They're not nice. Not at all nice, I want you to know. But they're fantastic. That which is fantastic need not be nice. Usually it's not nice.


The Mustangs continue to knock on the door. Can they break on through? Rosa, sending it, looking for a header. Castillo punches it out, winning it. Shot, Medtart, had a 10! Medtart score, punched it out, but Medtart was on the other right foot, and he sends a sizzler inside the far post. The Mustangs lead it here to the one.


I threw this other color, blue gear color, flake, didn't work, I threw the lizard, trying to get her babies, trying to eat her babies, didn't work. I threw the worm, didn't work. I threw a frog, didn't work. I threw this, didn't work. Now I threw a special over, so let's see if she goes for it.  I'm jigging it, trying to make it look like I'm trying to eat her babies. I see the bass with my polarized glasses. I'm just jigging it, scaring her babies, trying to make it look like I think she got it, I think she got it. Oh, she got it, she got it, she got it. Got her. Oh, I got her, got her. Got her. Oh my God, it's a good one. It's a good one, baby.   Get over here, get over here. Oh my God, he's almost hitting two ponder. Ah, he's a good one, baby. That's what I'm talking about, man. We recording, yeah, we're on minute 32 seconds in. Oh my God, bro, almost hitting one ponder.  Oh my God, man, look at this good bass, man. Good female, guarding her babies. Damn, bro, she got a belly on her, so we two minutes in, I caught her over here, man, guarding her babies. Her babies is still over there. I'm gonna put her back on her, near her babies, so she can keep protecting them. But it's a good one, man, almost hitting two ponder, man. Just like a one-ponder sign. Let's put her back on her, on her bed, whatever, near her babies, so she can keep on protecting them. Let's go for the release, baby. Look at this, guys, look at this one, man. Good bass, good female. Let me put her back where she was with the babies. Ah, there she goes. She's back with them, right there, over here. Ah, that was a good bass, baby. It's cold, baby, but the fish is here, man. Good female, man, good bass for the babies. Let's see what's up on this part, man. Here, this grass, man. It looks promising. There's gotta be a bass around here somewhere. Across the edge, near the water. So let's see what's up, man. This spot look promising, man. Look, near the edge, there's a lot of grass, man. There's gotta be one around here, man. Oh, one got it, one got it, one got it. I just threw it right here in the grass. Oh, I got him. Second bass, baby. And there's a good one. Another large, small bass, baby. Get over here, man. Ah, he's a good one, baby, let's go. Behind these grass around here. I threw the black and blue curl. Got him. Come on, man, quit playing, get over here. Oh, my guys, I have you one. Let's go, baby. Large, small bass. Thank you. My God, bro, look at this. Like almost one pond in eight something. Heavy, look at the belly. Caught him on the crawl. Let me pulse it over here and take a picture. And I'll be back for the release. Stay tuned, guys. Look at this, cool, large, small bass, baby. Second of the day, baby, let's go. All right, I got some pictures. Let's go for the release, man. Cool, large, small bass, baby. Almost hitting two ponder, bro, on the crawl.  I'm gonna release it from over here, man. I guess I'm gonna make, let me drop her. There he goes, man, he's fine, man. He's just left. That was a good one, bro. Over here, I threw it over here. Next to the grass, second bass of the day. First bass was one, guarding the fries. The little babies, I threw everything on that one. But hey, I caught it.  Over here, let's go for more, man. But the fish are here. Come on, come on, get it, get it. You got it, you got it, you got it. I'm about to set the hook. Let's go, baby, get over here.  Get over here. Almost a one ponder, oh, little dink, man. Another one, man. Third bass of the day, baby, let's go. That's what I'm talking about. This one's not that big, but hey. On the crawl, baby, let's go. That's what I'm talking about, baby. Little dink, man, but hey, still good, baby. Third bass of the day, baby, let's go. You know how we do, baby. Let's go for the quick release, man. I don't know why. Let me pull the rod down over here.  This man, third bass of the day, baby. Oh, I think he got it, I think he got it, I think he got it. I think he got it. Yeah, yeah, he got it, he got it. I don't know about to set the hook. Ah, this is a little one. Doesn't feel that big. Ah, don't jump, don't jump, baby. Fish number four. Let's go, baby, get over here. Ah, it's a small male. Ah, I think I lost my crawl, man. Don't matter, baby, let's go. That's what we do, baby, let's go. Bass number four, baby. We killing it today, baby, let's go. Not that big. Like fish number three, but hey, I'll take it. A bass is a bass, baby, you know what I mean? Let's go, baby. All right, let me put my rod down. Let's go for the quick release on this dink. Damn, man, we better start catching big one, man. This is the second one on this same spot. The other one was like almost two pounder. Two pounder, but hey, let's go, man. Let's go for the quick release. Let me release it over here. There he goes, man. Safe and sound.


Guys, those little bit of few clips you just saw where the sundress bathing suit cover up thing I found at Goodwill yesterday. I of course, took it home and washed it. And as you can see, I turned it into a skirt. And I think for me, it makes a much cuter skirt. I also found two white twin size fitted sheets, brand new still in the package, which I disassembled this morning after washing them yesterday. And they're now back in my fabric stash because I'm low and or out of muslin or good mockup fabric. So I'll use those. I have some fabric bags sheets come in. The blue one's actually for my dad. He just got himself some new sheets. He's like, give this to Gina, he said to my sister. I know she'll use it for something. So anyway, he's not wrong. Anyway, I was pulling out some fabrics for my next round of projects. I'm just having fun with sewing, although I am going to get back to painting tomorrow. And I do have a couple of painting mixed media videos I need to film, but anyway, a while back, my friend Laura in Canada sent me a bunch of these kind of scarves. Now, this might not be enough. And I might need to thrift some more, but when I was looking for a pattern for something else, I forgot I have this one. I've never made it. It's brand new still in the package. Laura, guess what your scarves are gonna turn into? And you know, I think that black skirt would look nice with them. Anyway, I also have this 19, this is from the 70s, doesn't even say. It looks like a 1970s era pattern. It's a wrap dress apron sort of thing. I wouldn't wear it as a dress because I'm gonna be 60 and just trust me when I say I need to wear bra. But it would be a cute apron. I might even modify it so it's not a tie neck, but you'll see when I do it. I have this fabric I thrifted a long time ago. I sold off some of it because it was a gigantic piece, but I saved enough of it to do this pattern. It took me a few minutes to find the pattern because of course I put it away in a safe place. Anyway, so there's my next two sewing projects ready to go. Anyway, other than that, Bob and I have done a whole lot, hot lot of nothing today. It is after lunch.  My alarm thing has already gone off. So I need to go do that after I do a little cleaning, but that skirt is so cute. Anyway, all right, that's it for the minute. I'll be back. So good morning, only it's 342 p.m. Oops, it's Monday, March 20th, by the way. I spent the morning video editing, doing some writing of my social media posts and getting those all loaded and scheduled. I was finally able to turn the computer off, yay. But of course I've got the phone on, I've got the tablet on. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Anyway, tomorrow is gonna be a filming day. I need to film a couple of different things and I need to, then later on in the week, get those edited. But I'm gonna do that tomorrow. I'm not gonna push myself. I have to go, I have to go downstairs. So gotta make the bed, I know, right? I did laundry and all that stuff. I gotta do chores, gotta get them sometime. I'll be back. Good morning, everybody. Listening to one of my favorite YouTube channels and I am sorting through and refilling my daily drying collage bag because it is way past time and although there's still quite a bit in it, the selection's getting thin and I need to spruce it up a little bit. So I'm going to pick through some collage bits that were in my art journaling cart because I like to start with emptying that cart before I go into a drawer. But I also have like a pile of collage stuff. I haven't opened, I bet you it's been a year. Yeah. So I'm gonna put some of this into the bag. I also see a couple of bits on top that I think I maybe wanna use in one of my art journals. So I'm gonna pull them out and set them aside. So first thing today, we're gonna work on that. I will say it's already almost lunchtime and I've just had a slow start to the day. I'm not mad about it, but you know, all right. Let's see what we can do. I'll be back. Okay guys, I got the next episode of the RT Trio filmed, camera's out. It's gonna stay out for a little bit because I think tomorrow I'm also gonna film the next installment of Fixing the Flow. I of course, as I said earlier, have some sewing projects lined up. I did add a third one, I know. I also took out my husband's soldering iron and some more of my leather scraps and made some more of the water lily or lotus patches, like the one I put on the dress that I made. It's not as easy as you think. Watching Ella Harp do it, it's not that easy. Anyway, Bob is finishing up his work day, I think. Sometime between now and six. And then after that, we're gonna go for a walk. So anyway, I'm trying to control my snacking. That's the thing, drinking lots of bone broth today. And for the next few days, I'm also trying to make another lake pigment with some tea. You wouldn't know it by looking at it, but it was red. Will it turn red? Will it do anything? Will I be able to get paid? I don't know. So we're gonna just leave it sit for a few days. It's got all the things in it. It's doing its thing that it's supposed to do. I've got videos on this if you wanna see and there's lots of information on how to make lake pigments on the internet. Anyway, I think I'm gonna wrap things up up here and go downstairs. I'll be back for a walk. Bob got out of his meeting. It's bright and sunny out. It's in the mid fifties. I don't have a coat on because, you know, it's a little chilly right now, but just give me a couple blocks. I'll be hot. Bob's freezing. Anyway, we're gonna go get some steps in and then have dinner. I'll be back. We are out in the car this morning. It's 10 37 a.m. I just got done at the office supply store. Since when did printer paper go up so much in price? Holy cow. And then I had to make some photocopies because despite the increase in cost on everything, including copying, it's still cheaper to print things at a copy machine than to print it at home when you have a significant amount of things to print, which when you're downloading indie patterns, online patterns, free patterns, Etsy store patterns, like it's still cheaper to like go print them here. Anyway, and unfortunately I had more than one. I got them all printed. Except one, it seems like my flash drive wasn't being read by the printer. So the girl transferred my files to one of their flash drives, but the pattern pieces for that pattern weren't on the flash drive. I don't know. It's just one, so I'll print that one at home. And it's an easy one, so it shouldn't be too many pages. Anyway, I'm gonna stop at TJ Maxx. Then we're gonna go check the peel box and go to Goodwill. So I'm looking for something in particular to upcycle into that clothing. So anyway, let's go get it done. I'll be back. The pattern's done this morning and I stopped by TJ Maxx and Goodwill. I found nothing at TJ Maxx, but I found three pieces of clothing at Goodwill that I can upcycle. One of which is gonna be used for the waistband on this pair of pants with this fabric. I know it's a little crazy, but I mean, anyway, and I got done reorganizing my sewing patterns because now that I'm sewing again, that was past time. And the little ones from next door just came over. Well, one of them. And then she left her water glass here. See little pink right there. She went home to go get her sister, so I don't know. Anyway, I've been running up and down the stairs. Now I'm hot. Okay. Lake Pigman is, I'll leave it sit for another day or two and then we'll find out. I'll be back. It's 2.13 p.m. on Thursday, March 23rd. I am editing, currently editing video for RZTrio 19, and I also have fixing the flow part four that I need to edit. I have a five o'clock appointment with the kids to go out food shopping for adopted daughter Jenny's birthday dinner, which is tomorrow. Why do I have this feeling my desk is like falling apart? Anyway, so I'm gonna go do that. And I sorted out the purge stuff from the fixing the flow part four last night after I finished filming. And I have three purge boxes that I'm gonna be selling. And I will put how many are available in the video description when the video comes out. At the moment I have two. One is spoken for and they're mostly collage material and rubber stamps. So you'll have to wait and see with the video. You'll have to see, because that's all I'm gonna say. Anyway, one is spoken for if you'd like one. Let me know, message me. All right, I'm gonna finish filming. I'm just seeing where my desk chair leg looked like it was loose and I'll be back. Hey everybody, it is a rainy slash snowy day in Oregon. Welcome to the land of much water. Anyway, it's about 20 before 10. I'm headed and that's the windshield wiper. Sorry, it is raining. I'm headed over to the store really quick. We're having a family dinner tonight. It's Friday, March 24th, I think. Adopted Otter Jenny's birthday is tomorrow. So we're doing a bunch of stuff with her today, including dinner. I have to go pick up a couple things at the store.  I got a lot done yesterday, including editing and loading the videos that I filmed earlier in the week and listing a bunch of artwork on Facebook Marketplace. I'm trying to move away from Etsy. At the same time, I need to still sell things and I need to still make some income. So if you go to my Facebook group of Life of Arts self-expression or if you're friends of me on Facebook and my personal page, you can see the listings there to Marketplace. I've shared them in both places. If you want some artwork for your house, take a look, there's a lot up there. I was surprised I actually got that done. I'm not gonna do any more right now unless this goes well and things sell quickly. So we'll see. Yeah, yesterday was a pretty productive day. Today has a lot going on, but mostly we're just gonna be hanging out with Jenny. And by we, I mean me and my daughter, Rebecca.  And then my dad is gonna come down from Washington State and he's gonna have dinner with us and we're gonna celebrate Jenny's birthday and all that stuff, but I have to get a birthday card. I haven't done that yet. So it's one of the errands I'm gonna do this morning. All right, lots of speed bumps. All right, let's get it done. I'll be back. It is just about 9.30, Saturday, March 25th. Again, sorry about the lighting, but we are in front of the window. It snowed last night. Can you see that white, that's white? Yeah, that's snow. Anyway, spring really. It is adopted daughter Jenny's birthday, so happy birthday, Jenny. We're gonna be running some errands this afternoon, including dropping off a box to USPS. Wendy, your box will be on the way at some point today.  What else? We're gonna just run some errands. We're still recovering from, they're really good, but very filling Korean barbecue family dinner last night. Oh my God, I'm still full. I've had coffee, but no breakfast. Just stuffed. Hazel, AKA our robot vacuum is downstairs, doing the floors. I'm up here, of course. I'm gonna be sipping on some water this morning and watching some YouTube and just relaxing. Bob had to go out and do help with one chore over at the Masonic Lodge, so he's doing that. When he comes back, then we'll go run our errands. And yes, a squirrel's got her nails painted last night, so my fingernails and toes are black. All right, that's it for the minute. I'll be back. I framed a few more watercolors that I think I wanna hang on to for the moment, so now I have to find some place to hang them. I also got a new dress form, she came in, and I have found this double XL little sundress while thrifting recently. And it's like four sizes too big for me, but I have adjusted the dress form to my size and I've done some pinning to try to figure out what I'm doing with it. And I do think I'm gonna make it into two pieces, a top and a skirt or a top and a pair of pants. There's plenty of fabric. So anyway, I've been working on that. We're still really full and exhausted from the birthday celebrations last night. Anyway, we got errands done. I picked up some photo, picture boards. They're big, they're huge, 10 by 12 maybe. In the back, and I guess you photographers out there will know sometimes when you're doing photo work for clients, they would print a large copy of a photo. These are self-adhesive, so then you stick the photo to the board and then the board has slots on the back. You can hang it on the wall. I'm actually thinking about covering the front of these with watercolor paper and doing some very large abstracts. What do you all think? Would you buy one if I did that? Question? Still have to do dishes from last night. I haven't, my hair is just a mess. I don't have my coat on anymore, but I did have a cute little outfit on this morning.  Anyway, it doesn't matter that it's too big, it's a thin material, it's very drapey. It's cute. Anyway, I also got a giant pair of blue jeans. Ah, they're there. Over here, they're huge. Yesterday, these for $7 in change. And when I was thrifting, and I'm gonna cut them up and we're gonna, I'm gonna make a hip pocket. I have one already in green that I bought. I'm going to see if I can make one like it for the times when I don't have outfits of pockets because I haven't carried a handbag since COVID started. So, yeah. Anyway, it's been a day. I'm gonna finish watching station 19 and then we'll see what we get up to, I don't know. I'll be back. So it is Sunday afternoon. I can't even say it's Sunday morning. I forgot to close the vlog yesterday. Oops. I don't have a good excuse, except it's a nice quiet weekend and Bob and I are kind of enjoying having a quiet weekend before grandson gets here. And yeah, no other good excuse. Well, it's been busy all the last couple of weeks since then. Yeah, the last couple of weekends have been really busy and after the Korean barbecue for Jenny's birthday, Friday night, which was great, by the way, we were so full. We barely ate yesterday. I mean, I'm still kind of full. So anyway, we hope you've all had a great week that you have enjoyed the peaceful times along with the busy, crazy times. And if you have any questions, comments or concerns, leave them down below. If you wanna support the free content, I do have a Patreon. I am going to be slowly shutting down Etsy. It's just not doing much. But I do have some artwork for sale on Facebook Marketplace. If you search Marketplace for my name, you'll find it. And I do have Patreon. They have ready access to me through a Facebook chat and they have their own private YouTube channel. So anyway, links are all down in the video description. I'll see you next week. Don't forget to go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it. I need to catch my breath. See you next week.


So when is there a practical application for using this pass-by reference? Well, here's a good one when we think about something like shuffling maybe a deck of cards or some random numbers say for example again, I Built out some code where we look at this. I basically am saying create a new array of 100 integers and Just set them equal to 1 to 100 Okay, 1 to 100 right now. They're in order But let's jumble them up. Let's just put them all over the place. Well, what we can do is again because we're using pass-by a reference if I say shuffle nums What happens is that memory address gets passed to shuffle and becomes list and any direct manipulation I do to the elements is going to be Persistent so even though that this is a void data type even though it has no return Any changes I make to the array are going to be persistent So even though right now it is 1 to 100 in order as soon as I run through this You're gonna see that They no longer are and if I run through it again not compile it again, but run through it again And run through it again. I get a random Set of numbers I get a random order each and every time so one way you can think about it again Is maybe this is like a deck of cards instead of it being? 100 I'm playing 52 and instead of shuffling around, you know a card objects Because those those are complex I can shuffle around my kind of indices and now again This is a way for me to sort of have a Way to persistently know even though I'm randomly generating a number What's the next randomly generated number? What was the previously generated number? So I can go back and forth between my number So say for example instead of it being a deck of cards I'm thinking a playlist a music player for example I've got it on shuffle, but I really liked the song. I was just listening to so I want to go back Well random you would figure that I can't do that. Well, luckily, you know with this version Let me actually clear this out and run it again With this version right here if I really liked Track 3 and I moved to track 36 out, but I really liked track 3 So I want to go back and I want to hear it again Guess what? I can do that now that I have this kind of shuffled array and again I can use this shuffled array right here to do that now. What am I doing? Each element I'm going through each element in just like with a linear search instead of me Comparing if my linear search just to even kind of put that on the screen In my linear search, I had an index and I would take my Element at that index and compare it to a key instead of doing that What I'm doing is I'm saying create a random index and then whatever's in my current in my current I My current index take these two numbers and Swap them. That's it. So I'm going through and literally instead of this three We can think of it in the sense of I randomly generated a number. So I randomly generated the index Three why not? So I go all right. Well, where's three? This is zero one two three Okay, well this guy and this guy just so we can see the code for a second I say make randoms. I've made the randomly generated three That's a terrible three, but that I'm going to store temp Well list I I'm going to store that in temp. So temp now is going to equal Six it's hanging out there because then I say right here List at I is now going to equal list at random in so this suddenly is No longer six. It is now I have nine. There's now nine Okay, well that last little bit was list at random Randomly generated index is now equal to temp again temp is six. So guess what nine? magically becomes six That entire process gets repeated over and over again So even though I just did it here with this element. I only did it once I do it again here I do it again here. I do it again here. I do it again here here here and Here until they're all completely shuffled and that's what I get when I run through this


So, a little bit of housekeeping on your way in, or while you're sitting in here, you may have received a blue marble, hopefully you have it. If you could find it, if you put it away, put it in your hand. And while you're doing that, I just want to say, I don't think it's been said before, but this is the coolest podium I think I've ever stood next to. And if it's okay, I think I'll drive it home, is that right?  Super cool. It's even cooler from up here than it is from out there. So, if you take your blue marble out and hold it up like that, that is what we look like right now from a million miles away, depending on the length of your forearm, of course. I did the math.  And it's a reminder that we are small relative to the universe, and we're blue because of the water. We're a water planet. We're water beings. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about what I'd like you to do with your blue marble a little bit later, but just keep it in your hand as we chat. If you have questions, comments, feedback, you want to debate or fight over something or go a little bit deeper, get in touch. I'm pretty easy to find. Email, Twitter. We use the hashtag BlueMine to talk about this conversation. But this is our responsibility, this little blue marble that we call home. As far as we know, there's not another one out there that we're going to anytime soon. NASA has been searching the universe for Earth-like planets. They have an acronym they call FTW, follow the water as they search the universe. They actually use that acronym for short over at NASA, FTW. They're searching for water because we know water is the matrix of life here. We know it works. So we search for other places where it may occur.  And I want to ask you, what's your water? Simple question, but what is your water? What's the water that you fell in love with? Who were you with? What is the name of that water? How did it feel? What were the circumstances? There are a lot of different answers to that very simple, slightly provocative question. For some people, their water is necessary directly for hygiene and hydration. It's a very intimate relationship, perhaps involving the movement of water in buckets in small quantities. For others, the relationship is a little more exciting and a little more adventurous, maybe a little more ex-games. For some, it's an interaction with the other beings that live in the water, perhaps standing on the shore or a cliff, looking out and watching animals hang out together. Maybe from the bow, looking out, this is a backup, we're switching.   Perhaps your water experience was more submergence. So our friend Brian's scary at the bottom of the ocean, face to face with a beautiful animal, quite a moment. Maybe it's in a flowing river, casting your line, meditating, maybe catching nothing, but happy to be there. When we're in the water with those we love, we create a special bond. We create deeper memories, nostalgia. We fall more in love with each other. Sometimes our water experience involves the built environment, a pier, a building, a place to go. It's a special pier in the UK that actually burnt down a year ago. It will be rebuilt because it carries so many memories for so many generations who spent time there. Perhaps your water is more urban. We have a rooftop pool. This is one in Singapore that I've never been swimming in. Pretty nice spot there on the roof of a skyscraper looking out over the city. Maybe your water is more domestic, indoor in your bathtub, like our friend Jack.  Maybe something really simple like the water fountain. I remember this photo always reminds me of that standing in line as a little kid in elementary school in New Jersey, waiting for my turn, so thirsty and you just move a step forward one person at a time and you finally get to the water fountain and get to be just in charge of the water fountain and luxuriate in the taste of that water and then you get back at the end of the line if you want another drink, you wait on line again. Remember those days, pre-plastic bottles, right, we had water fountains, they worked. On a real personal level, my water earliest memories involved my father. My best memories were just being in the water with dad, holding on to his shoulders.  A little older, I remember backpacking in the Rocky Mountains in that water called Deep Lake, it's just seared into my neurons. I can look at a photo like that and I can feel the grass between my toes, I can feel the water, I can smell the air, I remember it so clearly, I remember the wolves howling while I tried to sleep in my little tent, the tent wall just seems so thin when you're listening to those wolves. But as a kid, I was completely enthralled in and loved with turtles. I just had a thing for turtles for some reason and I built a career around being a marine biologist and studying turtles and one of the first things that we did when I was a grad student is we put a satellite transmitter on this sea turtle and let's see if that'll play for us, yeah there we go. We named her Adelita, we put a satellite transmitter on her shell and we released her into the ocean and she swam off and the interesting thing about this little video clip that'll repeat a few times is that she swam about 10 meters and then paused because the tank that she was living in was 10 meters in diameter so watch as it comes around again she enters the water and then she kind of pauses there as if to say wall, where's the wall and there's no wall so she continues to swim through an imaginary wall so a turtle, a little turtle brain, imagined a wall where there was no wall and then she swam through that imaginary wall, interesting metaphor for this group in particular, the walls that we create in our mind that aren't really there that stop us from swimming where we need to go. Well in Adelita's case, we named her Adelita, she swam home and home in her case was the other side of the ocean, her home swimming from Baja California, Mexico across the north Pacific all the way to Japan and I was a grad student I was tracking her over the course of 368 days and I'd say this is probably my first officially my first float I floated for a year riding this turtles back day and night and day and night for 368 days across the open Pacific Ocean until she reached her home. We shared her data online in real time and I was told that was career suicide the scientists don't share their data until they're published in peer review journals but I put it up anyway and it wasn't career suicide in fact I met poets and other scientists who knew how to do things that I didn't know how to do so by sharing and building a network and reaching out and giving and corresponding and communicating we built this like super turtle geek network kind of like your super float geek network that you have so we were into turtles seriously totally I mean it was amazing so the question is what are the walls that you've swum through and what are the walls that you are going to swim through that aren't even there they're stopping you they're holding you back but you can swim through them and that's the work of this group to help people not just yourself but all of your clients all of your colleagues break down those walls and swim through them across vast oceans lying on the other side now our understanding of this conversation is getting a lot deeper thanks to people like Justin and his colleagues the research continues to move forward we're understanding our brains in a completely new way and the old way was kind of as a black box you could stimulate the brain and then you can see what happened you can ask people how it felt and write that down and talk about that you couldn't really look inside early neuroscience required a used brain of somebody was done with it that you could look at and see what might have gone wrong with that brain while it was in use but that was a very different endeavor so studying used brains was the way neuroscience was carried out now we can look at brains while they're in fact in use brains in progress brains shrinking and growing brain plasticity brain on flotation brains on water brains on music the technology continues to grow continues to expand and blow our minds literally we're now able to understand the brain that rest relative to the active brain and we know physiologically and our neuro anatomy is in fact different we're able to understand our chemistry and understand dopamine and serotonin understand chemicals like oxytocin that are implicated in trust in building trust so you are boosting oxytocin you are putting people into a state of trust in awareness and expansiveness and and wall breaking it's incredible in fact what this group of people does for our fellow humans we're understanding how love works the levers that slide up and down and different mixes of neuro chemistry and I just want to caution you if you're starting to geek out on the neuroscience particularly the neuroscience of love there's a time and a place to talk about it my my wife does not dig it so when things are getting really nice and romantic and I talk about oxytocin and serotonin really bad idea I just you know and you can get kind of enthusiastic about this stuff and there's a time and a place for it and maybe you already knew that but I just thought I'd offer that free unsolicited advice the world is just exploding in terms of the applications of neuroscience and you go to the library and you go to the section on science you'll find book after book after book on the neuroscience of of illusion and magic the neuroscience of music the neuroscience of stress and creativity neuroplasticity on and on and on there's even a book on the neuroscience of bacon just kidding there isn't a book on bacon but that's a funny joke because I thought there would be a book on your our brains on water the neuroscience of water and there wasn't and so I tried to convince fellow scientists neuroscientists to write that book and I wasn't successful so I had to buckle down and write it and it took five years Nobel Prize winners in neuroscience are studying our brains ability to build mental maps doesn't sound relevant to this conference but it totally is the neurons that create the maps that allow you to find your way back into this room even though you may not have been here before back to your hotel room or in particular back to that coffee cart really important neural maps that we need to create the cover of scientific map American magazine the science of meditation on the cover that's awesome that would have been like the punchline of a joke ten years ago and now there it is bam on the cover this generation is the first to have a decent user's guide to our brain think about that some people take things out of the package and they throw the user's guide away anyway but this is the first generation that least has that option to not throw the user's guide away to open it up and read it and to think about how our brains work and the question the fundamental question is what are we going to do with that why is it important and how are we going to apply this incredible knowledge to our lives now let's be reminded that we are a water planet but it's a bit of an illusion that big marble well that's all the water that slightly smaller marble that's the fresh water and that really teeny tiny tiny teeny one that's the fresh water we have access to so this illusion from space is in fact a bit of an illusion when we get out on the water it changes the way we feel the cognitive emotional psychological and social and some people say spiritual I say spiritual I had just said spiritual in public I'm a scientist I said spiritual look at that thank you thank you very much thank you those benefits of water are real they're measurable that's new that's exciting I call this emerging field that connects our brains to our water planet neuro conservation how are we going to use neuroscience to take care of our planet as we begin to understand that healthy water is medicine it doesn't come in a pill it comes out there you just have to go get it it occurs in your facilities you just have to get in there our world is increasingly stressful more and more I don't need to go too into deep about too deep into that you know it's true and we all wish we could go to the doctor and and have that happen just can you can you just take it out please just pop it open pull it out let's get rid of that at the extreme we have post-traumatic stress that's the extreme extreme case but we're all dealing with some level of chronic stress in one way or another psychological stress and that is the state I refer to as red mind for a lot of people it's the dominant state of mind that they live with those are the people who show up at your door saying I need a little help I need a break I need some rest people are living in fear of their neighbors other neighbors literally next door of our neighbors to the north and the south and the east and the west of our neighbors who look different they're living in fear of ideas we're stimulated to be afraid in contrast to red mind is what I call blue mind and that's what we deal in blue mind delivering blue mind guiding people into their blue minds now we've known about this forever a long long long history of art and literature describing the human emotional relationship with our waters people used to stand online to stand in front of paintings like this they'd wait online and pay money to stand in front of paintings by the great masters of water because it made them feel something big bigger than themselves imagine that standing in line to look at a painting of the ocean the modern masters is my brother John Ember who passed away last year of ALS painted into his last days as he lost the ability to use his right hand he switched to his left then he put the paintbrush in his mouth when he couldn't hold in his mouth he strapped it to his head and painted this of the main coast he was in love passionately in love with the ocean and my sister and their son ran Ortner paints the water massive triptychs sometimes five inches of paint stuck to the canvas his paintings look like photographs poets describing our deep connection to water as a source of creativity and imagination Jim Harrison writer I like to read that sound you know that sound now corona got it they built a whole ad campaign that built a brand that sold a lot of really bad beer to unsuspecting Americans thinking that they were getting a bottle of vacation or something first give away clear bottle first giveaway second give away the taste but amazing ad campaign all about water Hollywood gets it Shawshank Redemption remember that film the last line of the film the last line the film ends with that we dream of water we long for it little Leo up in the bow of the Titanic what was he saying there I'm king of the world surrounded by water surrounded by it made him feel so good then he goes back with his lover and they feel really good too now we'll just pretend the story ends right there otherwise my thesis is not supported you cool with that right we'll let James Cameron know that we just sort of adjusted things remember that scene from here from here to here imagine that scene without the water kind of weird totally rolling around in your underwear in the sand you like gross but not sexy at all like not romantic not memorable no Academy Award game over but you add the water and it's good whoa is it scandalous really it was quite scandalous cities like Modesto they knew that water was key when they built this archway into their city water is all about happiness right they knew that this is not a new idea places like Pittsburgh are restoring their waterways bringing them back and bringing back the soul of their cities ancient idea that water is medicine say again water is medicine one more time water is medicine it is Oliver Sacks one of the great neurologists who's in his dying days right now swims every day and got his best ideas his best ideas this is a brilliant man with numerous New York Times bestsellers smart smart guys best ideas came to him while swimming so you had to keep a notebook handy to jot them down this is Naoki 13 year old boy who wrote a bestseller about autism here's what he had to say about water I'm free and happy there free and happy I feel like you because the world is so noisy but in the water I'm free that's what it's about is Martin Pollock veteran from the UK returned from service missing both legs and an arm he planned on being a blob on a stool he said in the pubs with his buddies with his mates then you got on a surfboard and saw his life ahead of him got on the water now Martin is a surfer he sees himself as a surfer and he's an ambassador not only is he an ambassador for surfing he is an ambassador for the ocean for our waters so if you want to dig more into the research you can look up the work of the university at the University of Exeter medical school look up blue space Michael White and his colleagues have produced a vast body of literature so it's another list of references for you to dig into along with the others that have been mentioned throughout these past few days what we need access to that water and that's what this is all about keeping the gates open opening more flotation centers giving people access to their waters this is Jarmila she lived for 10 years in a nursing home suffering of Alzheimer's my friend Greg met her and said where do you want to go and say I want to see the ocean she got to the ocean she stood up out of her wheelchair and he said I didn't know you could stand I didn't know you could walk as she shuffled forward and she said I didn't have anything to walk for until I saw the water that's Jarmila we limit access in lots of ways culturally we limit access we need to open the doors to everybody and that may take some work it may take some reaching out it may take some education it makes and take some some active behavioral change but people around the world need to get back in their water like our friend Carlos and Mozambique who was told his whole life that his people didn't dive they didn't swim they didn't go in the water and he said I want to dive I want to be a diver and I want to take other people diving and he became the first dive master from Mozambique and now he takes people diving opening up their eyes to a whole new water world now we can have access but sometimes people go there and they bring their devices which closes them down completely and so imagine getting in a float tank and then and tweeting the whole time or you tubing the whole time and I know you've done it but you don't have to admit it it's okay those waterproof iPhone cases are really handy but people get to they had access they have the privilege of access and then they have their faces down in their devices I'd rather replace that device with a baby turtle right leave the smartphone home here's a baby turtle take that to the ocean and release it so home stretch here water gives us awe and wonderment when we feel awe scientists tell us we change it changes our brains chemistry it changes our body we switch from a me perspective to a we perspective and then what happens our compassion grows our trust deepens our creativity expands when we have solitude which is becoming more and more rare in our world we can get in touch with ourselves Justin pointed out this study earlier about the electrical shocks I won't go into that in detail but we're losing the ability to do solitude we're losing our privacy in lots of ways in this connected world water gives us romance when we fall more deeply in love with ourselves we can fall more deeply in love with others crash told the story about his experience and he learned to love himself again which allowed him to love others of course we relax we reduce our stress and that's very very important because stress is implicated in a whole range of modern diseases and illnesses we find our most precious memories and nostalgia when we're near in on and underwater and this all comes back to one thing love love for ourselves love for each other and love for this little planet that we share so my challenge to you my encouragement is to continue to build those bridges that you're building between people and themselves and each other and further their favorite water the local water your lakes and rivers and creeks and oceans and bays and swimming holes and ponds wherever you are make that connection when people can't surf they should float when they can't kayak they should float when they can't scuba dive they should float really it'll reactivate the stoke and I want you to take that blue marble and here's your homework you knew there would be homework take your blue marble keep it safe but pass it on it may be today maybe tomorrow and maybe in 10 years but I want you to take your blue marble and put it into the hand of somebody that you need to say thank you to for what they're doing and ask them to do the same thing and you'll see your blue marble float around the world and around and around thanks for what you're doing keep it up but on