Thursday, December 31, 2015

Racist Fucks

If you haven't already seen the video, I invite you to check it out.  A "man" in Pennsylvania decided to harass a few protesters.  This guy, who news sources have identified as John Pisone, approached a group who were protesting fracking in Mars, PA, just after Christmas.  

John Pisone - Racist Fuck
Now, Mr. Pisone approached the group, apparently to find out if any of them had ever worked for a living.  "...I do work.  What do you do?"  Because THAT is the one thing that determines a person's right to protest something they believe in.  Many of the folks I saw in the video looked old enough to have retired.  More than once, you can here him telling these people that they are lazy.  

It gets worse within the first minute.  Little Johnny decided that the camera man was a nice target, especially because he was a black man.  After showing everyone his commanding use of the English language by calling him "chimp" and "nigger", and getting admonished by several of the group, he states, "I don't give a fuck.  He's milking my tax dollars."  

Let's consider that the cameraman, Tom Jefferson, HAS a job.  He films and distributes video of events, mainly protests, near his home near Pittsburgh.  His YouTube channel has 311 subscribers as of the time I write this.  People DO make money posting videos to YouTube.  I don't know who his employer is, or if he even has an employer but, my point is, neither does John Pisone!!  He just walked up and started harassing people because HIS job (what job was that?  Oh yeah, "work".) was rained out.

Pisone is the definitive racist, insisting that Jefferson couldn't possibly have a job because the man is black.  He manages to cover most of the racist talking points in the first minute of the video, then prods the cameraman by grunting like a gorilla.  

Patrick Rushing - Racist-in-Chief
Let's move on to Airway Heights, WA, where the mayor turns out to be a bigoted S.O.B.  That's right.  THE MAYOR!  The Young Turks did a piece on this loser back in July that is poignant.    Patrick Rushing is this pud's name, and he was the mayor of this city until August, when he finally caved to pressure to resign.  His explanation?  "...back and forth banter that my friends and I do."  Nice friends, hey?

Airway Heights, according to Wikipedia, is 69.51% White, 10.47% African American, 9.93% Hispanic, 3.20% Native American, 1.84% Asian, 0.38% Pacific Islander, and 1.56% from other races.  I'll lay odds that during the next elections, the people of this city will be asking candidates if they are now, or have ever been, RACIST FUCKS.

More over, as any red-blooded American has done, he's posted his rantings on Facebook, of all places!!  Folks, if you've got something to say that could possibly be considered controversial, YOU DON'T POST IT ON FACEBOOK!!!  Now that he has, though, feel free to run to his page and comment.  In some posts, Rushing also claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  There's a real Christian, hey?

And, finally, just because I think it's funny, I present Dumbass number 4,264,994.  (I made that number up.  It's probably higher.)  This one is out of Florida and features this white trash.

Miss Congeniality
Pretend that she has a clue and listen to what she says.  More than once she accuses these gents of taking pictures of planes and calls it a prelude to terrorism.  Never mind the fact that two of the three guys in the video are/were in the U.S. military and served in Afganistan!  BTW, she's putting their faces and license plates on...wait for it.  FACEBOOK!  Oh, and I should mention that she has "Gawd" on her side.

Ignorance comes in many forms and these are only a scant few of the many examples.  "He's black and he's not in a factory between 9 and 5 so, he must be a lazy n--gger."  "She's black and has a 'gorilla face' that only her 'monkey man' could love."  "They're brown so they have to be 'Middle-Easters' and terrorists."

Isn't America great?  More and more, people who have NO clue go out of their way to become real assholes and preach it to the masses.  

Thursday, December 24, 2015

In practice, and now, on paper...


In the last couple years, there've been changes to the headlines regarding marijuana.  We're hearing less and less about federal authorities raiding farms, businesses or homes in search of weed.  Most of the time, there's one of two things happening.  One is, they're raiding a place for something different and find the marijuana. ("Dude rolled up to grab Tommy for stealin' Social Security checks and found his stash.")  The other possibility is that the quantity of marijuana just can NOT be ignored.  ("They busted that fucker with $25,000 cash, a new car and 14 pounds of Kush, but he works at Burger Sling!  That fucker's going down for dealing!" or "DEA agents in Miami confirmed that Pablo Ortiguez was apprehended last night by federal agents, and charged with trafficking more than 17 tons of  marijuana from a port in Mexico...")


One other headline we don't see much of, recently, is the local dispensary getting raided and all of their inventory, their computer records, their real estate and their money seized.  

It's been common knowledge for a while that the federal government has bigger things to worry about, when it comes to drugs, than marijuana.  
Graphic by HuffPo.com
 Since 1996, 23 states have legalized medicinal use of marijuana in one form or another, and three states have legalized recreational use for adults.  In the beginning, there were headlines about the DEA's raids on several (state-legal) dispensaries in California, and on outdoor grow operations.  Farmers in Northern California were used to the sight of DEA helicopters flying in the hills, looking for enterprising people getting back to the land.  

In December of 2014, Congress and President Barack Obama ended the federal prohibition on medical marijuana very non-dramatically.  And, just a few days ago, Congress passed a spending bill that now prohibits the feds from messing with states that have enacted their own marijuana laws.  

But, I'm not planning on buying a sea going vessel and a map of the Colombian coast, either.  It is still illegal to import it.  It is still against the law for businesses hoping to cash in on marijuana to use banks to transfer moneys for their business.  You still can't use the interstate highway system to transport it from one state to another.  

One other thing to consider.  Marijuana is still listed as a Schedule I drug.  This means that in the eyes of the federal government, marijuana has NO medical benefits and does NOT treat chronic ailments or acute illness.  Veterans of our armed forces cannot take advantage of medical marijuana and VA doctors can't even mention the term.  

There's more work to be done...

Sunday, December 20, 2015

The facts...

One thing that we're going to see a lot of this season is fact-checking.  There used to be a time where Joe Public couldn't access the information that we have at our fingertips.  As little as 30 years ago, you wouldn't have been able to look at "evidence" cited by politicians who were delivering speeches on the campaign trail.  Heck, twenty years back, many search engines would have had a hard time looking at analyses by think-tanks across the country.

But that was then, and this, of course, is now.  So, it makes you wonder if The Don has anyone on his staff with, say, a smartphone?  I mean, if the guy I work for, when referring to the 9/11 attackers', tells my country that "...the people, the animals that did that, they sent their wives and their families back to Saudi Arabia. Most of them went back to Saudi Arabia. Those wives knew what their husbands were going to do.", I want to check and be sure that the statement is correct and that any of the perpetrators had so much as a PET, much less a wife and/or girlfriend.  I mean, that way, The Don doesn't have a delusional moment and quote his most famous line while looking directly at me.  "No, Donald.  I'm not fired...."

Read Politifact's analysis of this very reference.  Then check out the numbers on more of the things he's said.  (Feel free to browse the statements made by, and about, the other candidates on either side of the aisle.)

I found a great video that exposes more examples of "facts" that just don't match reality.  Follow this link and spend five minutes hearing the REAL facts.

Photo by www.prnewsonline.com
This brings me back to the fact-checkers.  These guys HAVE to get it right if they expect to have jobs a year from now.  "I see you've gotten a degree from DePaul University...13th in a class of 210.  Very nice...oops.  What's this?  A stint with Trump for President?  I'm VERY sorry.  Umm,...we filled that position."

And, for those of you wondering where I got my facts from, here's a list of links that will illustrate my point much better than I:

FactCheck.org
PolitiFact
and Flackcheck.org


UPDATE:  Donald, Donald, Donald.  Can you shut the fuck up?

During a recent speech, The Don was heard to say that Hillary Clinton got "schlonged" when she lost NC during the 2012 primaries against Barack Obama.  Not ready to leave well enough alone, he went on to explain himself via Twitter:  "Once again, #MSM is dishonest. "Schlonged" is not vulgar. When I said Hillary got "schlonged" that meant beaten badly."   #MSM refers to "Mainstream Media".  Now, I'm not going to pretend that our media is totally accurate OR honest.  We've been through too much to believe that.  But, then, to say that "schlonged" means "beaten badly"...   First, get a dictionary in the language that you plan to use.  Second, I hope I'm not the first to make the connection between The Don and his badly beaten schlong...

The mainstream story....

Monday, November 30, 2015

Trump's foot must taste like Cotton Candy

There must be something about Donald Trump's tastebuds that make him crave the flavor of his own foot.  I mean, he sticks his foot in his mouth so often, that's the only explanation that I can come up with.

CNN has a list of groups that he's managed to offend.  They include the disabled, Muslims, Seventh-Day Adventists, Blacks, Asians and Women.  The list also includes the other Republican candidates but, that's the nature of the beast when you're running for president.  (You think Kennedy and Nixon didn't exchange barbs?)

And yet, he's still the front-runner as the Republican nominee!!   Sure, his numbers have dropped, but HE'S STILL LEADING IN THE POLLS!

Has the Republican voter worn blinders this ENTIRE campaign season?  I mean, I KNOW that there are black Republicans and disabled Republicans and female Republicans.  There HAVE to be.  And yet, 31% of those polled would still vote for him.  Sheep...

UPDATE: (12-14-2015)  The Don has managed to do it again.  He recently introduced an idea that would prevent ANY muslims in the country.  Now, this may seem relatively harmless except, this will include American citizens!!  That's right.  We're supposed to shut down immigration of muslim people.  Then, muslims already in the country must stay in the country because, if they leave the country for ANY reason, they will not be allowed to re-enter, even American citizens who are muslim!!  And, the real kicker, this may not include our muslim Americans fighting in Iraq and Afganistan, but he feels that we should watch them, or, as he puts it, "be ever vigilant".  

Now, where did I leave my swastika armbands?  

Ben Carson, the current runner-up, can't seem to get support from the one group that he should bet on!  While he leads the Republican field with Blacks, Hillary and Bernie get more support than he does.

Ted Cruz likes to misquote others regarding national issues...

Marco Rubio can't seem to find a fact he couldn't distort, as well.  Maybe I'm just super-sensitive to the failings of the Republican group, but DAMN!!  And, let's look at what other groups are saying about the candidate.

Jeb Bush?  Well...  Sorry Jeb.  You seem poised to lose your place at the big-boy table.

Now, let's look at Hillary's records at FactCheck.org regarding recent statements.  Sure, she's a politician so things are a different shade of gray, but fewer outright untrue statements come from her and/or her campaign.

And Bernie?  Well, he may not get his facts straight 100% of the time, but at least his solutions to the nation's ills make sense!  If you look at his campaign platform, I'm sure that you'll find, at least, five stances that can affect you in a positive way.

One more link.   This points to the New York Times and their take on the public statements made by most of the presidential candidates.  VERY revealing!

Christ, folks.  Vote with your brain.  Vote with your wallet.  Just check what the candidates say and apply it to your own lives and experiences.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Grammar Nazis

I am somewhat the Grammar Nazi.  I'm not the best one, I'm sure.  There are, no doubt, several who have read these posts who would attack entire pages of my material with an editor's pencil and kill the entire thing, but I know more of the rules than you might guess.  Punctuation is not my strongest suit, but spelling and usage are.  I try my hardest to use words as they are intended to be used.  "Less" versus "Fewer", for example.  "Good" vs. "Fine", "Your" vs. "You're", and the classic "There" vs. "Their" vs. "They're"...

Compliments of Oxford Dictionary's Twitter page
So it really bugs me that The Oxford Dictionary decided that an emoji should become their Word of the Year.

Can we truly call something that would be unrecognizable as a word without a computer translating it to a visual representation a "word"?  What happens when there is no computer between the person writing the "word" and the receiver of the message?  Then, an emoji just becomes a sequence of symbols that, alone, make no sense.  :-(

We called them "emoticons" until the intervening computer translated them into graphical representations of that sequence.

OD defines "word" as: "A single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed."  I suppose that an emoji can be considered a word if you use this definition.  It seems to meet the requirements.  It is a distinct element, it is often (though, not usually) used as part of a sentence.   But, is it still a word?

A list of the most recent Words of the Year include a hashtag, and the word "hashtag", itself.  While one might fit the definition of "word", I'm not as sure about the other.  Just as nominating a specific emoji might make me wonder if OD should start to use it's own definition of "word" when announcing their "Word of the Year".

Thursday, November 12, 2015

A new idea for Social Security

I don't know how many people are aware that our country's millionaires are NOT paying their fair share into the Social Security fund.  There is no easy way to explain it, but here goes:  If you make money at a job that deducts FICA from your paycheck, you're paying into Social Security.  You continue to pay a percentage of your income up until you make $106,000.  At that point, you stop contributing to the fund!!  You can make several million per year, but you stop paying FICA after the first $106k, each year.  That means that our country's richest citizens are not paying their fair share.  Most of us are encumbered by this throughout our working years.  Yet, CEOs who make a million a year will only pay %10 of what should be their fair share.

Many people, if they thought about it, would know that our problems with SS would be alleviated simply by telling the "1%" to pay up.  "You were fortunate enough to make this kind of money, therefore, you should be able to contribute to those of us who were not as fortunate as you, to compensate for your good fortune."

Elizabeth Warren - D, Mass.
Japan has an informal policy regarding the pay offered to CEOs.  What ends up happening is, the CEO of the average Japanese corporation will only take 1000% of the average worker's pay.  In other words, if the average pay for a factory worker in Japan was USD$65,000, the pay of the CEO of that corporation would be approximately USD$650,000.  When was the last time you heard of an American CEO making that seemingly low wage?  I heard about this practice several years ago, and I can't say that the practice is still in effect, but it sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?

Elizabeth Warren is the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts.  She has a new plan for those of us on Social Security.  She lays out her plan this way.  I say that it's high-time that there was a cost-of-living increase that reflected the real numbers that those of us on SS have to deal with.  Medications cost more.  Utility bills are going up, steadily.  The only reason that SS hasn't seen a COL adjustment is that gas prices are going down.

Bernie Sanders - I, Vermont
Democratic Presidential Candidate
Bernie Sanders came up with a plan to improve our healthcare.  This plan does one thing.  It removes two words from the Medicare prerequisites.  Those words?  "Over Sixty-five".  Basically, give Medicare to EVERYONE!    Now there are those who believe that this will raise taxes to compensate for the cost.  Listen folks, you already have deductions from you check for health insurance.  The average cost of the average taxpayer is near $150 per month.  That's $1800 per year.  As a Social Security recipient, I already have to pay $104 each month for Medicare.  If every worker in America paid into the fund, that amount (the $104) would go down, and the average worker would see an increase in their net pay.

Once again, I'm going to ask you to check the Republican plan for SS and Medicare.  Do the research and tell Washington D.C. what you want to see in your future...

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Gadgets

I have a confession.  Okay, most everyone I know can tell you this, so I guess it's more of an admission.  I'm addicted to gadgets.  If it's coming out in the next few months, I want one.  If I've seen others using a new gadget, I come up with several hundred reasons to have one of my own.  As of now, I have absolutely no need for 75% of the gadgets that I want.  I don't need the gigabit router and I don't need the GoPro Hero 4, but I have imagined several reasons why my life would be better if I had one of each.

That's not to say that I currently buying any of them.  I've long realized that I will never be able to afford all of the gadgets that I want.  And, even if I could afford them, I realize that I may never have a need (or use) for most of them.  But, the ones I could use...  

When cable started offering internet access, I had to have it.  I went from 1.5 megabit speeds, in the beginning, to the current 60 megabits, and I'm behind the times!  I was the first on my block with near (relatively) instant website load times!  Dial-up?  Don't make me laugh!  

I've always had this thing for finding and wanting guitars.  Seeing as one can only have so many guitars before being crowded out of my own home, I've had my eye on Line 6's HD500X multi-effect processors.  I have their UX-2 Studio (one of the last indulgences I succumbed to) hooked into the computer, now.  I can only imagine getting the HD500X out in public.  But, at $500 a crack, I won't see one soon.  

From my previous post, it's obvious that we have a new (to us) car.  Now, all of a sudden, I have a need for a dashcam.  I don't know much about them, but that doesn't matter.  I keep seeing these two guys on my shoulders, one saying: "C'mon.  You KNOW you want one.  Just get out the plastic and get it over with," and the other saying: "Yeah, but you have to eat and pay rent, too."  In most cases, the latter wins out over the former and sanity reigns.  It's the same story with multi-effect processors and GoPro cameras and RC helicopters and...  you get it.

I bought a GPS unit a couple years ago.  It's not like I needed the help getting around.  I spent 5 years running around the country in a semi.  I know how to navigate.  But, you know how, when you see a hotdog, your mouth waters?  And then, to justify having purchased it, I notice that my speedometer isn't all that accurate when compared to what the GPS says.  And, I didn't know that there was a road behind that house.  Interesting...

So now, Apple has come out with a new watch.  I don't even like Apple.  Since the early days of the Mac when I found out that everything they produce is proprietary, I've disliked Apple's business model.  What do you mean, I have to buy the $3000 computer just to get their operating system?  I might have liked OS7, or OS8, or OSX, but I don't want the hardware.  I only wanted a chance to let the operating system impress me and THEN I'd have bought the rest.  So, I've settled for Windows (to replace OSX), MusicBee (replacing iTunes), and Android (as a suitable substitute for iOS).  Mostly, I'm happy with that.  I prefer Android on my phone.  I hate the way iTunes practically takes over my music library.  

But, I think I need a new Apple watch.  I haven't even seen one outside of a website, but the thought won't leave me alone.  The Timex Expedition that I received for Christmas some years ago still tells time, as advertised, but it doesn't sync with anything.  And, how am I ever getting along without Skype on my wrist.  Placing a call?  Heaven forbid I actually use my phone!  How perfectly gauche.  Phones were made to entertain me and to keep my contacts organized.  Just like how my personal organizer keeps my paper receipts in order.  (Who am I fooling?  No one actually owns a personal organizer anymore, do they?  And, paper receipts?  That's what e-mail is for.)