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...