i am very sorry for your loss.

years ago
driving my older step-daughter, her husband and his son to the range
son asked "is 0bama as good president"
the dad answered "sometimes it can take a while for someone to be seen for how good they are"

me, i nearly drove off the road...

When someone who is either a leftist and/or a totalitarian (often both) asks me for whom I voted, I tell them that I voted for myself ... because I am the only person fit to rule ME.

Yes, one whose father created his own company from scratch, grew to be one of the largest electrical contractors in the area,
and hired his eldest son to work in the business. That was a significant mistake. His next mistake was to head the electrical
contractors national organization, and to then take a lot of government contracts (offered because of his position not his competence.)
With a change of administration, the government cut the contracts to the bone (temporarily reducing that bit of foolish govt spending)
and his company was crushed, being dependent on those politically sourced contracts to survive.
The son may have been turned to the dark side by this chain of events. Not a rational response, but he never learned to be a
producer, living off his Dad's business and not having his Dad's strength or productive ability.

I do joke with a friend who lives in NYC on occasion, but he doesn't take offense and doesn't overtly reveal his political leanings.
I suspect he is brainwashed, having grown up in NYC and he lives in a rent controlled building - even though he has a successful
small business with no looter sourced revenues.

What I don't get is how some successful small businessmen refuse to see how the government is making them an endangered species.

Sorry about your dad. Me dino lost both of my parents and my latest loss is a brother who died in a car accident. I could pull a Joe Biden and make being aggrieved about me by carrying on more about my own family losses but I won't.
Anyway, I've got three brothers left and one is a lib we've all given up on. When he is at family reunions (because we're scattered somewhat) he stifles conversation to a certain degree.
Fortunately, the brother I talk to the most lives 30 minutes away on the other side of Birmingham. He is the one who introduced me to Ayn Rand by gifting me with all three AS DVDs.
It's because of him that I did the PC research that led me here to The Gulch.

My sister. Can't sit down to dinner with her without Monsanto coming up at some point. She thinks that Roundup herbicide is the focus of evil in the modern world, and that Monsanto bribed all of the US government to allow them to sell it.

Your brother is an addict. No need to argue: he's incapable of rational discourse. Addicts have confabulated thinking. Karl Marx, after all, was a full-on alcoholic.

That said, usually pot alone does not cause crazy thinking and the other behaviors you describe. My bet: he's drinking or using some other drug in conjunction with the pot. Because of potentiation, it doesn't need to be much. A little bit of this and a little bit of that can make one high as a kite, and you won't necessarily even know it because addicts have extraordinary tolerance to the drug alcohol at the get-go, and develop such tolerance to the other drugs over time.

I'm a little disappointed with my offspring, as they're all high IQ, and should be capable of thinking for themselves, but seem willing to swallow what the MSM is selling, without question. When I suggest they might want to actually check the credibility of what they're hearing, they say they're too busy.

What's even more aggravating than when they vehemently disagree with a statement I make is that when I make a point of logic that they can't refute, all I get is silence. If I follow up when I don't get an answer, all I get is a non-commital statement like "I don't know how I feel about that."

The trigger for silence, universally, is when I point out the disconnect between blaming government for all our ills, but then endorsing the idea that the solution is to give that same government even more power and money to mismanage. Another trigger is when they go off on capitalism, and I point out that the most capitalist nation on Earth is also the most technologically advanced and most generous. Why those contradictions don't trigger a few more brain cells mystifies me.

I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters.(I am the oldest of the 5). Brother #1 is a sort of "knock-about", I guess. (I mean I'm not certain of the meaning of the word). He lived in the house #2 inherited from our father a few years, rent-free, but now I'm uncertain where he lives. Sister #1 was born when I was 13. Sister #2 about 2 years later. #1 lives near a small town near brother #2. Sister #2 lives in Louisiana with her second husband. Brother #2 is a sort of leftist, welfare-statist, is for Obamacare. Sister #1 is more "conservative", is a devout Baptist,votes Republican, read "Atlas Shrugged" and enjoyed it, but not Galt's speech, called it "the rant". Sister #2 is a Democrat. I get along all right with her by not discussing politics with her.
I had a buddy for about 49 years, worked as a carhop with him from in Staunton; I worked that job about a year and a half, with him about 1year. We were good buddies for many years (nothing romantic; he is gay). But he started e-mailing me on the computer (I use the ones at the library), and got nasty with me for not remembering many little nitpicking details. And after I called him and told him about the libraries being closed in Richmond (he lives in Waynes-
boro now, so far as I know) he would overwhelm me with newspaper clippings, seeming to rebuke me for voting for Trump (as the alternative to Hillary Clinton).And he would b____ at me so much about gossipy details about what was tweeted (which most of the time, was inacessible to me [see above][). He told me he was not in-
terested in politics, and I said he seemed strangely obsessed by it, in view of that claim. But it seemed to me that he was obsessed with nitpicking, gossipy details, but was mainly interested in resentment about one particular individual,but didn't really care about basic political PRINCIPLES. He finally made remarks about my memory, professed to be sad rather than angry, and does not write to me any more, and will not answer the phone if I call. That is strange and sad, after nearly 50 years.

I agree that just staying away from people that irk you is the best. Don't have the energy for it anymore.
Like the others, I am sorry for your loss and thinks it's pretty cool that your father's ashes were scattered with his dogs.

Leftists just like ideology and when the SHTF due to the leftists policies, they want to escape and take advantage of other cultures that still have wealth. The want to take that wealth and then move on to even better pastures.

I dont even want to associate with leftists anymore. Entitled blacks are at the top of my list of peoples to avoid. Blacks should thank obama an biden for setting back race relations many decades

From Dr. Jordan Peterson, I learned that the Right tends to appreciate/support a hierarchy and the LEFT hates them (because it leaves people abandoned).

But what I have TOTALLY noticed... The left USES a Hierarchy to CONTROL people on the right.

Take a NEWLY MINTED Doctor. Taught to be a skeptic... But only of the "incorrect" things like HCQ, Ivermectin, and NEVER Remdesivir.

Interesting. The left was smart, they took the meaningless jobs in Admin and HR... And now control the hiring practices. They could care less about the bottom line. Just getting people who will toe the line.

And the companies and the country will fall because of it.

Now, you can't fault the doctor. They are literally MINTED through the SAME PROCESS the CIA uses to brainwash people (Sleep Deprivation, Rote Memorization, and ABSOULTE TRUST of authority).

And those are supposed to be the wise people amongst us...

Our grown daughter, sent to conservative college, rad Ayn Rand, moved to a big city. Became Libertarian, and more and more liberal. Anything I would say was a "conspiracy theory. She shut herelf in her house for a full month, fearful of the virus, kids too. Lost her job when the place shut down, where she made good money before. Unimploy. ran out, she wanted us to pay for her car. NO. We were talking about her vege. beds one day, and I got up the next day, to find screens of tirades from her. She hated corps., he wanted her ex-boss in jail, she felt everything was the Repub. fault. Toward the end =, whe siad her life would have been better had we put her on Ritalin, and she was now on something! Her school and her doctor, both said she was no in need of Ritalin at the time. Then it went into endless tirades of our parenting. So much stuff, I decided answering it was futile. She took both vaccines, and was awaiting a thrd. Have not herd from her for weeks. Her brain proteins may be folding, as she makes no sense. Common sense and science were long ago dismissed. Liberals can really screw up people, and they just do not reason any longer. Last I heard, she was working as a chef (former CEO)! At least she is not wearing Muaslim head hear anymore, which was one phase.

Sorry for your loss . Abaco this is a war between Good and Evil, not between D’s and R’s. I support the Only man I have seen with power who is fighting the evil foul feces viruses called the deep state. That is Trump. Previously I voted
3rd party. I hated Bushes Clintonistas and Obummer. Now you can see I was right. They are one and the same. Satanic luciferian Globalist pedo files.
I lost mom in January my sister in law in March and my sister in July. Great timing for this post. When my sister died we went to see her 2 husband of 46 yrs and our 2 nieces.
We had to sit outside and no hugs because we aren’t jabbed. Then in the obit it said Anne would want everyone to get the serum. She was in very good shape at 69. Her2 grandmothers and three aunts all lived to their 90’s. She had serious pain in her upper back and her chiro saw anomalies in her X-ray and sent her to the ER. They gave her a pain/sedative prescription . 2 days later she felt like she could not breath with in the hour she was dead from a cardiac arrest. The death certificate said natural causes ,hmmmm. I believe she had blood clots in her lungs and that was what caused the “wrap around” pain. To go back, Anne was selected in a Minnesota lottery to be among the first peoplein the state to get the mRNA potion.
We invited our brother in law to come over for a dinner. He arrived on time with a mask on . He then informed us he had forgotten about a prior commitment and could not stay. So we rescheduled for the future. The BW called him yesterday to set a day. He said he had to tell her that it would break every rule he had. Rule one not to go into any home where people aren’t “poisoned” ( my word ) . Also if he got sick from us his daughters would kill him. He then giggled after hearing his own words. My wife said that she really is upset that we are being ostracized for our informed decision and that it hurts. See he had just returned from 4 days with my other sister and brother in law . Those two have posted that the world will be better off if the unvaccinated die, you know survival of the fittest. Also they have posted that , If you talk about the riots without invoking George Floyd something is wrong with you. Another post that was laughable was that Trump supporters ignore the facts about the election , the systemic racism , the great job Xiden is doing at the border saving oppressed migrants. At one time 4yrs ago my sister asked my wife if I was psychotic (she a psychologist) when I pointed out the Epstein Island pee doh ring. Anyways we know they were talking about us during my brother in law’s visit. My BW said she is done with them all and I can only hope that’s true because I have zero respect for them , blood related or not.

My daughter-in-law's family is solid liberal. Her sister attends a state liberal college, and over the course of her first year her posts became downright crap. She accused all of her sister's conservative family of racism, anti-science, stupidity, Trump worship, every liberal label she could dig up and throw at us in the most hateful fashion possible. She was and still is vicious, even refusing to visit her sister at her home, insisting that they meet at the parents' home. We were blocked from her posts. This is supposed to be punishment. My daughter-in-law is sweet, but afraid and overwhelmed and over-cautious about everything, but at least she and I find common ground and enjoy each other's company. She hasn't seen her nasty sis in several months.

And then there's my liberal uncle who remarried several years ago and their wedding party was a life-sized cardboard Obummer, right there in their only wedding photo.

And then there's my brother's stepson, a campaign worker for the Dems. He came home to his stepfather's house (where the little freeloader pays nothing to sleep, eat, watch TV, etc) to find a McCain campaign sign on the lawn. We all watched in disgust as the shithead ripped out and tore up that sign then threw it away. Our question was "by what right? " My brother said it kept the house peaceful. His attitude has since changed to far less tolerance. It's about time.

Thanks Abaco and other contributors.

So many of us have these stories of old friends and family who we recall we could long ago talk to, work with, eat dinner with and enjoy a beer together on a hot day. Now, there is a demand for sharing some political identification before common civilities can start.

Cherish the memories, but there are people who are to be dropped, our time and contact is not appreciated by them, most of all, they are not good for ourselves.

While you can sit and stand, talk and listen and walk, new friends acquaintances and relationships are to be made.

Were your dad's dogs killed because he died, or were they already dead anyway?