I'm amazed at how little I watch network TV these days.

 

I am amazed at how out of touch I am with most pop culture programs.  Have I watched Survivor or Big Brother? No.  Have I watched the Voice? Never.  Have I watched Yellowstone?  Nope.  I'm so out of touch with what passes for modern "culture", that most of the people involved in these shows would get no recognition from me.

Most evenings, you'll find me going to sleep with Perry Mason playing in the background.  Am I living in the past?  No.  I just find that old TV shows had a better production quality than the shows we make now.  However, that doesn't mean all were good.  There were way too many copycat shows on the air way back when, and most of the copycat shows were crap.  I tend to filter out the crap and look for good shows.

Before getting addicted to YouTube videos, I watched the Western Channel constantly until I got bored by their limited selection of movies.  I feasted on shows like Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted Dead or Alive, and Bat Masterson. All of these had good writing and good performances.  This doesn't mean that I limited myself to these shows.  It was that the channel had predictable entertainment.

Sadly, with media consolidation, we're seeing fewer good shows being produced - especially news shows.  Recently, we've seen CBS (now controlled by a billionaire's son) delete negative coverage of El Salvador's CECOT prison, as it would make our president look bad.  But then, our corporate overlords don't care about law and order.  They only care about control.  

Fascism comes by first anesthetizing the public so that ignorance of important daily events takes place.  Eventually, people ignore what happens when their neighbors are scooped up in a regime's pogroms.  I am lucky NOT to be interested in pop culture, as I am not blind to what's going on in the USA.  And that means I will be to leave the country I love for a safe haven if needed.  Hopefully, this won't happen.  But if it does, I will keep up writing from my unique point of view.

Paperwork - I'll probably need to get more official copies

 

As my readers know, I've been preparing to file the paperwork to get a second passport.  It's nice to know that because of my genealogical heritage, I qualify for a citizenship via birthright.  If I recall correctly, even the Nazis didn't stop Jews with foreign passports from returning to their homelands.  They simply wanted Nazi held territory "Judenfrei." 

Even though we haven't had any official pogroms yet, the USA has killed people simply because of their ethnicity.  (Just ask any African-American or Native American/Indian about how their ancestors were killed by "White" Americans.)  Given this administration in power, I don't trust that it will be stopped before they put transgender people in prison camps - we're already seeing people deported to Salvadoran prisons without due process.  

With these considerations before me, I will file my citizenship (overseas birth) registration, and hope to have my second citizenship before year end.  But this is not the only paperwork I have to take care of.  Right now, I must deal with unclaimed funds for both my parents' estates. Since I don't have originals of either death certificate, I'm planning on sending photocopies, as New York isn't asking for official copies of these documents.  (This is where I may need to take the time to get official copies of these documents.)  Unfortunately, I have no idea of how much my brother and I will receive, as New York doesn't list the amount to be claimed on their site.  And this is not the last bit of paperwork to be filed.  I have to find several savings bonds bought by my late wife and then file for their redemption.  Once this is done, the important paperwork that needs to be done will be done.

Thankfully, I have my friend Maria that I can ask to notarize documents for me.  If I can, I'll finally get to introduce RQS to Maria when RQS is next here.   But that will be on a busy weekend, as Vicki, RQS and I will be going to the Flax Barn Sale for some discount shopping.  I'll bet that by then, I'll have even more paperwork to deal with.