Saw a good tweet via Facebook on Thanksgiving.
"Are racist people like: 'Ugh- my open-minded uncle is going to be at Thanksgiving this year!'"
That's not a holiday dilemma in my family as we are all an open-minded, free-thinking bunch. I've got some cousins that are kinda iffy politically but, that's the way it goes with extended family. And we don't get together with them at holidays as those tend to be more immediate family anyway.
I LOL'ed at the tweet because it reminded me so much of Topix. The internet is the venue these days and Topix and a gazillion other sites are where you definitely will get eyerolled and trolled just because you have an active, open mind.
Recently a sort of democrat on the Chicago Dregs thread asked me why I still post there when clearly I clash with even him and the other three assholes that post there. Ferrer question, I guess. Just odd that it came from the alleged democrat. He was appealing for civility. He had bonded with the other assholes over shared racist views and thought I should do the same- or leave.
Well, he's not wise in the ways of Ferrerman, that's for sure.
That particular thread- as dedicated non-readers will recall- was kinda a home thread to me as it was where I first posted. At that time at least, there were some open minds in attendance. Those and others went away years ago when the fake therapist ruined the thread. *She* is back, BTW, posting as CrunchyBacon, a now male, six-figure earning, software something or other that lives in the exclusive state of Florida and kayaks more than anyone should. Oh- and stalker of Ferrerman- still. Not a very fleshed-out character. Are any of them, I ask rhetorically? The other two posters are "Sublime1" and "race" to go along with the above mentioned, "Go Blue". That's it. However the latter three are actual individual people at least.
These days they get together and post mostly racial shit, stuff that you'd find on Breitbart or World Nut Daily. If I'm a "social justice warrior", these fucks are definitely "social injustice warriors". They were trumpy before trumpy was cool. Not that trumpy is cool. (It's not) And they vehemently condemn Ferrerman for every single liberal thing I say. I am the open-minded uncle they despise. And fear.
Here's the thing about politics. It's essentially about right and wrong. Not just knowing the difference. Acting on it. And that would be acting on the right things in a positive way. These jagoffs probably sorta know right from wrong but, I promise you, they do not care. And, I'm not so sure they appreciate Ferrerman pointing out that they are very wrong about what is right and wrong...
Isn't it odd to see that the voices of tolerance and compassion for all people are met with vitriol and threats on the internet? If Jesus were to return and start posting his gospel on the 'net, the above mentioned Social Injustice Warriors would harass and hound him day in and day out. So would thousands of others. They'd troll the shit outa Jesus!
Now, I'm not portraying myself as Christ-like or even Christian but, the man had some pretty good ideas. So does Ferrerman. So do so many people out there who are so callously met with vulgarities and vitriol, simply for understanding life and the human condition and daring to care about the world...
One of the best things we as humans can do in life is not hurt anybody. For a lot of people that idea is simply not cost-effective. These people think they are higher up on the food chain than they actually are and thus, insulated from anything Trump might do. Odd but, they were convinced Hillary Clinton would and could hurt them directly just as they imagine Obama did. They believe Trump can't and won't for some reason. It boggles the mind but, these are not deep thinkers. They are cowards, shaking in their shoes that people might be nice and kind and thoughtful about others instead of fearing them, as if the economy and life itself depended upon it. I would imagine that their holiday table is at least one chair shy of the number of guests and, while they walk about the table as the music plays, they want to make sure they have a seat when the music stops. "More for me!" they cry. But, it really isn't more for them. It's just less for someone else. Cold comfort warms them.
Friday, November 25, 2016
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Minimum Rage. Maximum Return.
Lately there has been some chatter about a guaranteed minimum income in the US. It's done in parts of Europe- France for example. As the world progresses, modern technology causes many jobs to go completely away. There is less for people to do for a living, especially when many of those jobs that do still exist go overseas to an underpaid market. Trump has promised to bring those jobs back to the US but, he also promised to bring coal-mining jobs back to Kentucky and that's not going to happen either. If a corporation that makes widgets can get those widgets made in China paying 98 cents an hour, why would they pay $7.25 an hour to Americans to make those widgets?
Everyone is wondering what Trump will do now that he has the presidency and both houses of congress. I'm curious as to what they won't do. Add in the reichtarded USSC judge(s) that they openly covet and I can't see what's stopping them from doing anything that their little, cold hearts desire.
Paul Ryan and his crowd want to eliminate the minimum wage. Trump has occasionally said that American's make too much money and, when a billionaire who cheats contractors as he does says something like that, you know who he's talking about. Ryan and them think the minimum is driving business overseas. How is a company supposed to make it in America paying outrageous amounts like the minimum wage? Golly, they usually did before. And if they didn't, that was considered business. There's no guarantees of success. Most businesses fail because of poor planning or poor execution. If you can't afford payroll, you shouldn't be in business.
The republicans may or may not be serious about bouncing the minimum for good. It's insane in a capitalist society but, greed is insane. If you could virtually eliminate payroll, profits would rise. It's happened before in this country.
Slavery. After the initial outlay of cash to purchase a human being, you just had to feed and clothe them rather than pay them a wage. You could even breed your own stock, like you would with cattle. Prior to the Slaveholder's Rebellion of 1861-1865, the wealthiest city in the US was Vicksburg, Mississippi. Cotton was king and payroll was virtually non-existent.
Instead of a guaranteed minimum income, I could see republicans opting for slavery again. Like anything else (as in electing a faux-billionaire president) you'd have to convince the poor folks that it was their idea. I've seen paid-posters on the internet try to sell the elimination of the minimum as a good thing to working folks, often saddled with anti-union stories of people going to their boss for a raise and being told: "I want to give you a raise but, the union won't let me! They insist that everyone make the same wage! My hands are tied! Until you leave the union and- better yet- the union leaves you, I can only pay you the same union wages that everyone makes- nothing more..." I would hate to have a job selling that bullshit to people. But, that's why I'll never be a republican congressman- I just won't apply myself, I guess.
That is a genuine argument that I've seen. They'd also kinda misconscrew the minimum as being a sort of maximum, like you couldn't be paid more because of the gubmint law but, if there were no minimum, you could get more! Yeah, you could get less too but, that's the chance you take if you have that entrepreneurial spirit that all good citizens should have. The thing is, you could get more than the lazy bastard next to you and that is the American dream. Make more than your neighbor. Even if it means taking less...
We'll see what happens with the minimum. The congressional assholes have to remember that we have guns. Ironically, that was their doing. Until recently they might have thought they'd never see the White House again and guns were a great source of revenue for them as long as there was a democrat boogeyman they could claim would grab them. Now that there is about to be a republican pussy-grabber in there, guns are a tougher sell.
I imagine the republican plan to counter a guaranteed income would be a bit more like the guaranteed employment that slavery was. Food. Clothing. Shelter. That's it. Oh, not for everybody but, just the poors. No welfare. No SNAP. No SSI or Medicare. Just a benevolent master to care for you. That's Biblical, ya know. You can look it up. Plus, it was the way things were when our Constitution was crafted. You can look that up too. We live in interesting times. Those times are about to get more interesting.
Everyone is wondering what Trump will do now that he has the presidency and both houses of congress. I'm curious as to what they won't do. Add in the reichtarded USSC judge(s) that they openly covet and I can't see what's stopping them from doing anything that their little, cold hearts desire.
Paul Ryan and his crowd want to eliminate the minimum wage. Trump has occasionally said that American's make too much money and, when a billionaire who cheats contractors as he does says something like that, you know who he's talking about. Ryan and them think the minimum is driving business overseas. How is a company supposed to make it in America paying outrageous amounts like the minimum wage? Golly, they usually did before. And if they didn't, that was considered business. There's no guarantees of success. Most businesses fail because of poor planning or poor execution. If you can't afford payroll, you shouldn't be in business.
The republicans may or may not be serious about bouncing the minimum for good. It's insane in a capitalist society but, greed is insane. If you could virtually eliminate payroll, profits would rise. It's happened before in this country.
Slavery. After the initial outlay of cash to purchase a human being, you just had to feed and clothe them rather than pay them a wage. You could even breed your own stock, like you would with cattle. Prior to the Slaveholder's Rebellion of 1861-1865, the wealthiest city in the US was Vicksburg, Mississippi. Cotton was king and payroll was virtually non-existent.
Instead of a guaranteed minimum income, I could see republicans opting for slavery again. Like anything else (as in electing a faux-billionaire president) you'd have to convince the poor folks that it was their idea. I've seen paid-posters on the internet try to sell the elimination of the minimum as a good thing to working folks, often saddled with anti-union stories of people going to their boss for a raise and being told: "I want to give you a raise but, the union won't let me! They insist that everyone make the same wage! My hands are tied! Until you leave the union and- better yet- the union leaves you, I can only pay you the same union wages that everyone makes- nothing more..." I would hate to have a job selling that bullshit to people. But, that's why I'll never be a republican congressman- I just won't apply myself, I guess.
That is a genuine argument that I've seen. They'd also kinda misconscrew the minimum as being a sort of maximum, like you couldn't be paid more because of the gubmint law but, if there were no minimum, you could get more! Yeah, you could get less too but, that's the chance you take if you have that entrepreneurial spirit that all good citizens should have. The thing is, you could get more than the lazy bastard next to you and that is the American dream. Make more than your neighbor. Even if it means taking less...
We'll see what happens with the minimum. The congressional assholes have to remember that we have guns. Ironically, that was their doing. Until recently they might have thought they'd never see the White House again and guns were a great source of revenue for them as long as there was a democrat boogeyman they could claim would grab them. Now that there is about to be a republican pussy-grabber in there, guns are a tougher sell.
I imagine the republican plan to counter a guaranteed income would be a bit more like the guaranteed employment that slavery was. Food. Clothing. Shelter. That's it. Oh, not for everybody but, just the poors. No welfare. No SNAP. No SSI or Medicare. Just a benevolent master to care for you. That's Biblical, ya know. You can look it up. Plus, it was the way things were when our Constitution was crafted. You can look that up too. We live in interesting times. Those times are about to get more interesting.
Friday, November 18, 2016
A Second Place Finishers Perspective
Let's dissect why we lost. Was it pitching? Lack of timely hitting? The intangibles of various player's heart and desire?
No, of course not. It was none of those things because the Chicago Cubs are the motherfucking World Series champions! No one can tell you different! It's a done deal.
So, I must be talking about the recent election. Yes, I must be.
Let's not over analyze it. In sports you can say, "Well,they out-scored us and so, we lost." and everybody more or less gets that. In politics though, at least this time around, you can note that Hillary got one million plus more votes than Donnie and she still lost. That's the Electoral College- rivaled only by Trump University for it's uselessness.
If the Electoral College had an Athletic Department, would the Cubs have won the World Series?
That's a frightening thought, even if you're not a Cubs or sports-fan. The very idea that someone could win by losing is foreign to most all people except for republicans who twice in this young century have gotten in The White House a la' the EC.
The TV pundits, almost all of whom called this election wrong, now dissect it like the Medical Examiner who concludes in an autopsy that the victim "...died of lead-poisoning..." not the six bullets shot into his body. There was a bit more to it but, there was a lot less too.
Voter suppression played a huge role. Obviously, taking out hundreds(?) of thousands of democratic voters in various states had an impact. How could it not? Maybe Hillary could have lost by getting two million more votes than Donnie?
Clearly Trump did not have a mandate yet that doesn't stop pundits and republicans from proclaiming that "the people have spoken" and pretending that there is relevance to the angst of white males. There isn't. And white females came out for Trump too. He grabbed them by the pussy, I guess, and they liked it. This was supposed to be Hillary's year and women were supposed to propel her into the presidency by standing up to the pussy grabber, and up to all of the Mr. Man's of the world. Instead of sounding off like they had a pair of ovaries, they whimpered like they'd been kicked in the balls.
I have to tell you that though they tend to be soft and sweet and smell nice, women are as dumb and evil as men, any gawddamn day of the week. For gawd's sakes, people, people are good or bad based on their personal being, not on their genitalia. When is the world going to get this?
So, white men's shallow persecution complex and women's secret, dark desire for having their pussies manhandled wasn't really it. What then, Mr. Ferrerman, was the reason Trumpy won?
The EC! I said that above! Why aren't you paying attention?
Oh. The EC and the huge demographic in America known as Asshole-Americans. They were the deciders in this one. These A-A's looked Trumpenstein over and decided that we all needed a disgusting, un-qualified-for-the-office asshole to lead us into the cowardly new world of getting even with everybody. These assholes literally said: "Let's do SOMETHING, even if it's wrong!"
They sure did! Never in the history of this pretty-good country had a candidate stepped up and exposed himself as such an insufferable prick as Trump did, and even made it through the primaries. Remember Gary Hart? His candidacy was ruined merely by a photo of a pretty seated on his lap. Maybe he should have been shown clutching her pussy? No, that wouldn't have worked for him then. That works now though. These are interesting times, indeed.
History- if we have history in the future- will wondering what the fuck America was thinking, just as history wonders what Germany was thinking in 1933. You can rationalize Nazi Germany (to an extent) because Hitler's rise came in the midst of a world-wide Depression on the heels of a humiliating defeat in war. The German people wanted something wonderful, right away. They fucked up but, we know why they fucked up.
What history won't know is why America followed up a great president like Barack H. Obama with a dandy demagogue like Trump. Asshole-Americans is the only thing that makes sense. They gave up being *forced* to be nice and fought back. They wondered aloud what was wrong with police shooting unarmed black people and questioned why their sensibilities should be offended by gay people marrying or existing. Why have big gubmint telling you how to live your life when constitutionally speaking, the founders clearly intended for local smaller gubmint to dictate your wants and desires and why you shouldn't have them? Why isn't up, down? Damn libs passed the Law Of Gravity and, with a couple of righteous USSC appointments, that to can be repealed and replaced with nothing! Why not?
Interesting times, indeed.
No, of course not. It was none of those things because the Chicago Cubs are the motherfucking World Series champions! No one can tell you different! It's a done deal.
So, I must be talking about the recent election. Yes, I must be.
Let's not over analyze it. In sports you can say, "Well,they out-scored us and so, we lost." and everybody more or less gets that. In politics though, at least this time around, you can note that Hillary got one million plus more votes than Donnie and she still lost. That's the Electoral College- rivaled only by Trump University for it's uselessness.
If the Electoral College had an Athletic Department, would the Cubs have won the World Series?
That's a frightening thought, even if you're not a Cubs or sports-fan. The very idea that someone could win by losing is foreign to most all people except for republicans who twice in this young century have gotten in The White House a la' the EC.
The TV pundits, almost all of whom called this election wrong, now dissect it like the Medical Examiner who concludes in an autopsy that the victim "...died of lead-poisoning..." not the six bullets shot into his body. There was a bit more to it but, there was a lot less too.
Voter suppression played a huge role. Obviously, taking out hundreds(?) of thousands of democratic voters in various states had an impact. How could it not? Maybe Hillary could have lost by getting two million more votes than Donnie?
Clearly Trump did not have a mandate yet that doesn't stop pundits and republicans from proclaiming that "the people have spoken" and pretending that there is relevance to the angst of white males. There isn't. And white females came out for Trump too. He grabbed them by the pussy, I guess, and they liked it. This was supposed to be Hillary's year and women were supposed to propel her into the presidency by standing up to the pussy grabber, and up to all of the Mr. Man's of the world. Instead of sounding off like they had a pair of ovaries, they whimpered like they'd been kicked in the balls.
I have to tell you that though they tend to be soft and sweet and smell nice, women are as dumb and evil as men, any gawddamn day of the week. For gawd's sakes, people, people are good or bad based on their personal being, not on their genitalia. When is the world going to get this?
So, white men's shallow persecution complex and women's secret, dark desire for having their pussies manhandled wasn't really it. What then, Mr. Ferrerman, was the reason Trumpy won?
The EC! I said that above! Why aren't you paying attention?
Oh. The EC and the huge demographic in America known as Asshole-Americans. They were the deciders in this one. These A-A's looked Trumpenstein over and decided that we all needed a disgusting, un-qualified-for-the-office asshole to lead us into the cowardly new world of getting even with everybody. These assholes literally said: "Let's do SOMETHING, even if it's wrong!"
They sure did! Never in the history of this pretty-good country had a candidate stepped up and exposed himself as such an insufferable prick as Trump did, and even made it through the primaries. Remember Gary Hart? His candidacy was ruined merely by a photo of a pretty seated on his lap. Maybe he should have been shown clutching her pussy? No, that wouldn't have worked for him then. That works now though. These are interesting times, indeed.
History- if we have history in the future- will wondering what the fuck America was thinking, just as history wonders what Germany was thinking in 1933. You can rationalize Nazi Germany (to an extent) because Hitler's rise came in the midst of a world-wide Depression on the heels of a humiliating defeat in war. The German people wanted something wonderful, right away. They fucked up but, we know why they fucked up.
What history won't know is why America followed up a great president like Barack H. Obama with a dandy demagogue like Trump. Asshole-Americans is the only thing that makes sense. They gave up being *forced* to be nice and fought back. They wondered aloud what was wrong with police shooting unarmed black people and questioned why their sensibilities should be offended by gay people marrying or existing. Why have big gubmint telling you how to live your life when constitutionally speaking, the founders clearly intended for local smaller gubmint to dictate your wants and desires and why you shouldn't have them? Why isn't up, down? Damn libs passed the Law Of Gravity and, with a couple of righteous USSC appointments, that to can be repealed and replaced with nothing! Why not?
Interesting times, indeed.
Friday, November 11, 2016
Apathetic Victory
Well, shit. How did this happen?
Ideally, this election should have been about Bernie versus Donnie rather than the usual two parties. Bernie was not a democrat and Donnie is not a republican and it's interesting that neither party could field a winner from their own club house. It was all about free-agents even though the democrats went with their home-grown gal.
I like Hillary and she would have been a fine president. She was extremely qualified. However, when you see who *beat* her, you have to accept that the American people don't really give a shit about qualifications. That's painfully obvious. The presidency is- for now- an entry-level position.
It used to not matter who won. Even when GW Bush was first sorta-kinda elected, you just had to shrug and figure that everything would be alright because, well, this is America. Well, this is America now. We have a wholly unqualified asshole about to enter the White House in January. He's not an idiot that we can live with- he's an asshole. He has always been an asshole and he did nothing to hide that ever and certainly did not change to run for the presidency. He tried to tell us and actually we listened and shrugged and admitted we were cool with that. It's OK to be an asshole. It's suddenly presidential.
Monday morning quarterbacking cannot be avoided. The media is 24/7/365 Monday morning quarterbacking. I couldn't help but notice that on election night there were commercials about every five minutes on MSNBC. You would think that on such an important night that Brian and Rachel and the revolving panel would have our full, unpromoted attention. But, this is America, brought to you by... well, I don't know. The thing with commercials is we accept them as the ubiquitous noise they are. It's the background din that's just always there. I don't know who the sponsors were but it was like watching an episode of "The Walking Dead" with 4-5 minutes of action or plodding plot development and then a few minutes of commercials. Lather, rinse, repeat. Maybe it was Breck?
Anyway, when I would watch MSNBC, it was odd that the graphics kept showing us how close the race was while every pundit assured us that Hillary would win and that the GOP was dead. I didn't get that. If it was so close, how was she a lock? We had just had a game 7 of the World Series that was tied in the 10th inning. You can feel all you want but, you can't call the game until the last out is recorded. That's the way baseball works. Politics works that way too- after the fact though
All these smart men and women were telling us that Hillary would win. Even the conservative pundits were saying this. For some reason their words of defeat are supposed to carry more weight because they are presumably being honest in accepting defeat. Well, similarly knowledgeable Cubs fans just knew the Cubs were going to lose too. We're all pundits on this side of the television.
So, nobody really knows about this shit. Don't tell me that Trump voters knew anything. They are as seen on TV. Word is though that a very silent majority of wealthier, educated suburban, white female Trump supporters put him over the top. I noticed a distinct lack of political signs in the neighborhoods around here. No Trump. No Hillary. Odd. The sign was that there were no signs. That seemed to suggest a Trump loss. He had so many prominent republicans un-endorsing him in the last months that you couldn't help but believe he would lose. Of course, no one really knows how they voted on Tuesday or how they intended to vote all along. It was all apathetic deflection. And apathy won, dare I say, BIGLY.
Ideally, this election should have been about Bernie versus Donnie rather than the usual two parties. Bernie was not a democrat and Donnie is not a republican and it's interesting that neither party could field a winner from their own club house. It was all about free-agents even though the democrats went with their home-grown gal.
I like Hillary and she would have been a fine president. She was extremely qualified. However, when you see who *beat* her, you have to accept that the American people don't really give a shit about qualifications. That's painfully obvious. The presidency is- for now- an entry-level position.
It used to not matter who won. Even when GW Bush was first sorta-kinda elected, you just had to shrug and figure that everything would be alright because, well, this is America. Well, this is America now. We have a wholly unqualified asshole about to enter the White House in January. He's not an idiot that we can live with- he's an asshole. He has always been an asshole and he did nothing to hide that ever and certainly did not change to run for the presidency. He tried to tell us and actually we listened and shrugged and admitted we were cool with that. It's OK to be an asshole. It's suddenly presidential.
Monday morning quarterbacking cannot be avoided. The media is 24/7/365 Monday morning quarterbacking. I couldn't help but notice that on election night there were commercials about every five minutes on MSNBC. You would think that on such an important night that Brian and Rachel and the revolving panel would have our full, unpromoted attention. But, this is America, brought to you by... well, I don't know. The thing with commercials is we accept them as the ubiquitous noise they are. It's the background din that's just always there. I don't know who the sponsors were but it was like watching an episode of "The Walking Dead" with 4-5 minutes of action or plodding plot development and then a few minutes of commercials. Lather, rinse, repeat. Maybe it was Breck?
Anyway, when I would watch MSNBC, it was odd that the graphics kept showing us how close the race was while every pundit assured us that Hillary would win and that the GOP was dead. I didn't get that. If it was so close, how was she a lock? We had just had a game 7 of the World Series that was tied in the 10th inning. You can feel all you want but, you can't call the game until the last out is recorded. That's the way baseball works. Politics works that way too- after the fact though
All these smart men and women were telling us that Hillary would win. Even the conservative pundits were saying this. For some reason their words of defeat are supposed to carry more weight because they are presumably being honest in accepting defeat. Well, similarly knowledgeable Cubs fans just knew the Cubs were going to lose too. We're all pundits on this side of the television.
So, nobody really knows about this shit. Don't tell me that Trump voters knew anything. They are as seen on TV. Word is though that a very silent majority of wealthier, educated suburban, white female Trump supporters put him over the top. I noticed a distinct lack of political signs in the neighborhoods around here. No Trump. No Hillary. Odd. The sign was that there were no signs. That seemed to suggest a Trump loss. He had so many prominent republicans un-endorsing him in the last months that you couldn't help but believe he would lose. Of course, no one really knows how they voted on Tuesday or how they intended to vote all along. It was all apathetic deflection. And apathy won, dare I say, BIGLY.
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