WWIII shaping up

 I got back here after mailing things and doing a study session at the Baguette, found some shipping stuff on the way home, and got back here and got in a productive practice session. I'm finally coming down to the realization that playing up high is going to require my midsection being in better shape, so I'd started the day with some crunches as well as other exercises. 

Ken came by at the usual time, and brought me a burger and fries. I got my pay check, and we talked about things. One of the things we talked about was getting out of here if things get worse (is there any doubt they won't?)

He said that I could "easily" sneak out into Mexico or Canada through one of the places on the borders that are not watched. I said the only reason for me to go to Canada or Mexico would be if it's easier to get to Israel from there than from here. 

My own forecasts are much gloomier. I said that if things get bad here in the US, while Jews don't do the "1/2 Jewish" or "1/4 Jewish" thing, you're a Jew or you're not and no one is "more Jewish", Israel may have to prioritize which Jewish people it extricates from here and those with family in Israel, those who are not converts, and so on, may be able to leave first. 

I said my plan is to slide out of here with as little a ripple as possible, because fighting in war is work and I'll be retiring and don't want to work. But if I have to work I will, I'll arm up again and put in the work. 

Ken said his own plans are probably to move to Italy. Suzy, his wife, being a Spanish speaker, can get by in Italian pretty well, they've made a trip there a few years ago which may have been an investigatory trip, and between her money and theirs from selling their house, they could do it fine. He's done work with companies over there like the European Space Agency, and could still probably do remote work for his employer here. I said, "You'd better take your kids too since they're brown". 

I said what worries me is if the FDIC is ended. Ken said he thought it was already, and that sent me on a tirade about how ignorant he is, and looking it up online. I think I managed to convince Ken that the FDIC still exists, barely. My point being that if the FDIC is ended, then anyone's bank account can be emptied out  - kind of like PayPal's original business model of cleaning out the bank accounts of random people - so anyone from journalists, scientists, basically people on the orange turd's shit list, can be cleaned out, all the way down to anyone who's a registered Democrat. 

On Reddit today people were talking about re-registering to vote as "independent" or "no party" but I think it's too late - they can just look up what a person was registered as in the last election. 

As for one's bank account being wiped out, Ken said that's the time to buy gold, and I said Yes, gold or any assets and talked about cigarettes being currency in wartime. And booze. Guns, ammo, this last being jokingly called "ballistic wampum" in prepper circles. 

But after Ken left I thought about it and one of the best ways to isolate oneself from the seizure of assets is to have skills. It's the reason why Jewish culture is huge on education (it's no accident that in Israel, you can go to college regardless of class or skin color, very reasonably or free). 

I know how to buy and sell things, I know how to make little handicrafts and hustle them on the street, I can do art to some degree, and I'm a fair trumpet or cornet player, even above "fair" as a busker, busking standards being so low. What would be really good would be to be outstandingly good at a single thing. Like, started-trumpet-at-age-5 good. 

That ship has sailed, but I'm fair ahead of the people whose posts I read on r/homeless 99.99% of whom seem to have NO skills. Nor any interest in acquiring them. 

Yet they seem to expect to be fed and housed and supported. These are people who are not mentally retarded, they have working arms and legs, they don't have any reason to be housed and fed with nothing expected in return. They just don't want to do anything. 

I'm not sure even Jewish culture, as kind as it is, supports this way of thinking. There's the belief that if parents don't set their kids up with some trade or occupation, it's as if they raised criminals. Unlike the hyper-individualism of English-speaking culture, there is the feeling that we're all in this together but one has to do something to contribute. 

It doesn't even have to be something flashy like art or music, it could just be a person who's good at cooking or cleaning or anything like that. But if there are homeless on r/homeless getting along by going to all the little shops in down and becoming their odd-job person, or being the car-detailing guy, or anything like this, they're not writing about it. 

I guess my point is that I won't have the director of the Israel Philharmonic saying they've got to get me out of Nazi America, but if I can get to Israel, I think I can survive there and it sure will beat ending up being homeless and killed by feral dogs or zombies, or worked to death in a concentration camp because that's the way the US is headed. 

In a sick way it's interesting living, day to day, in a country that's going into hard Fascism. Things look pretty normal, people going to jobs and doing normal things. Back in Hawaii the University of Hawaii is going right along with all of the orange turd's orders and even recommendations. I haven't looked up today where the latest ICE raids are but I'm sure there are some going on around here. The guy whose land I lived on in Gilroy, who I'm certain voted for Mango Mussolini, may now be reaping the rewards as his livelihood depends on the EPA, and the EPA is going away. But by and large is looks terribly normal around here. 

In my testing of my two cornets and the trumpet, I've realized something. With the cornets I'm using the same Bach 3C mouthpiece because I just have the one (I have a Bach 7C too but I don't really play a 7C). With the trumpet I've been playing the Blessing 3C I have, but I wonder if I got a Bach 3C trumpet mouthpiece for the trumpet if it might make a difference? 

After all, if I had to go out busking tomorrow, I'd take the trumpet because I've got a gig bag that fits it and it's not an expensive horn if something happens to it. The Connstellation needs new valve corks and felts and stuff, and I'd not take that out busking besides not having a gig bag for it. 

So I might visit the music store tomorrow, among all the other things  I have planned for the day, and buy a Bach 3C mouthpiece because they're sure to have one.