A Trumped Up Economy

I found an interesting take on the impending republican tax cuts and how they would likely benefit blue states while punishing the red states that supported Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/04/democrats-can-look-forward-to-the-coming-republican-era-being-a-disaster-for-republican-voters/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.5b951a3dc06c

Trumpublicans have also made a lot of noise about eliminating the Federal minimum wage and (probably) leaving it up to the states as a 10th amendment thing. Stupid people might find a wage cut *honorable* if it freed them from the yoke of gubmint oppression and everyone else was in the same boat of individual wonderfulness. But, smart people in smart states might instead see the opportunity to expand their business by paying more. Even strict (dominatrix-like) constitutionalists might not be able to figure a constitutional remedy to stopping states from paying citizens more money.

Now, if you are one of the denizens of Trumpland, you would scoff at this notion because surely all business would head to Texas for it's cheap labor source of poor-but-proud 'Mericans. Why would a business pay $15 or more for any employee when Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, etc. and etc. offer employees at far lower wages? Well, because that's business.

There's Walmart and there is Costco. Both are very successful. There were plantation owners in the south who had slaves and there were businesses in the north that had paid employees and both business strategies were successful. There is always at least two ways of doing something- anything- right? Which one is "right" depends on how well you do it. You can make money paying damn-near slave wages (do the math) but- amazingly- you can make money paying employees a fair living wage! If you've paid attention over the years you'd see this. It's what made America great in the post WWII years, a greatness title we had undisputed until 1980. There are different approaches to capitalism it seems.

Progressive states such as those on the west coast and in the northeast, would likely keep their higher wages and attract the best employees with those wages and the lifestyle they bring. That would be an interesting juxtaposition to the *right to work* states offering more flexible wages, perhaps in the $2 an hour range. You might see a renewal of the trek out to California by Okies from as far away as Florida.

It's good business to pay people good wages. Happy, contented workers not only perform better, they put those wages back into the economy in the form of purchases and taxes that lead to good roads and gooder schools. It's amazing that even successful, otherwise intelligent people can't seem to grasp that.

But, they do. They just choose to disavow this. The easy way out is government sanctioned oppression as we saw in the south with slavery (and now with right to work) and, yes, Russia with communism. That's right- communism. An oligarchy controlling wages and production is just a bastard relation to communism. What is the different between state-controlled economies if it's 6 or 7 corporations or 6 or 7 members of a politburo?

The problem with capitalism as it is practiced in this country, is that eventually you run out of other people's money. You may have heard a slightly different version of that before. With Trump they seem to be poised to get it all. Then what? I really don't think they know. I don't think they've thought that far ahead.

Holes In Her Stalkings

One of the features of Blogger is that they give you stats so that you can know where your blog traffic comes from. This can be useful information. Sometimes it can be a little disturbing too.

Recently I noticed that one of the traffic sources was a gay porn site. Yikes. I also use a service called Statcounter. This not being a well-traveled blog, I went to stat counter to see what IP matched up with that visitor. Turned out to be Oviedo, Florida. That's CrunchyBacon territory! Regular non-readers know that Crunchy is the stalker also know as "Sam" and the original character of "Angelique770".

We never believed that A770 was an actual woman any more than we believed she was an actual therapist. The internet is a place where you can be all that you can be. You can be a Vietnam veteran, a lawyer or a therapist. And you can be a woman even with male genitalia. As the MTV show "Catfish" has documented a few thousand times, it's quite common for men to masquerade as women and vice versa. Nothing is out of the realm of possibility in these Trumpy times. It's not our president-elect's fault, of course. I simply mean that a billionaire populist was elected by the great unwashed of America to "drain the swamp of DC" and, well, he hasn't come close to doing that. Very Trumpy, indeed.

We also found it hard to believe that A770 as a woman would devote (now) eight years of *her* life to stalking the likes of this Ferrerman. I've been with some crazy women but they all gave up and moved on relatively quickly when things ended. And this one I had had nothing remotely resembling a romance with, by any stretch of the imagination. I don't even think he *thinks* so.

So, why does this guy still obsess over me? Why am I the overwhelming concern in his life?

I have no fucking idea. How do you rationalize mentally ill people? I don't know what set the asshole off. It might be as simple as my having busted the whole silly therapist scam years ago. Much of obsession is based in revenge. It's curious where some people draw their lines in life. I recall a guy we threw out of a bar once damn near broke his hands pounding on the back door of the bar to get in so he could be thrown out the front door like his buddies. Mind you, they were all outside at the time. That's what he told us. Hard to argue with such logic.

I don't know if CrunchySam770 runs the gay porn site or how he uses it to view the blog. That's above my cyber paygrade! He claims to be a software developer and a professional gamer though.  He uses it, a Youtube proxy, and a variety of other proxies to view this blog and, of course, to troll me and others on Topix. Many of the usual *Sam* locations show up on the Stats as well as Topix. Again, not a well-read blog so, it's pretty easy to match up who is who.

I'm not upset that a gay man is stalking me, posting songs and house pics in the CrunchyBacon voice and frequent references to cocksucking and cum, usually in the *Sam* voice, all over Topix. I wouldn't want a woman doing that either! I'd rather not have anyone stalking me at all. But, you can't pick your stalkers, can you? For whatever insane reason, they pick you. Only they know.

An open mind is a terrible thing to waste

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.

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.

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.

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.

HANDS OFF! DON'T GROPE!

I'm rather famous for being a bottom spanker, if I do say so myself. And, as dedicated non-readers may note, I do say so myself. So, what do I as a bottom-spanker think of Donald Trump and his pussy grabbing?

I think he's doing it wrong.

The media and public are making it too much about semantics and not enough about Trumps physical actions. It's one bad thing to say he's grabbing pussy and it's another- worse- thing to admit he does this. It's a YUUUUUGE difference, you might say. This Ferrerman does not go about spanking random women's bottoms because I'm famous. That would be rude and ignorant. Definitely illegal too. Offering a woman whom you are acquainted with a spanking (in the right circumstances) isn't a bad thing either. It's something that's on the menu, subject to substitution. They may decline and go for the tongue lashing and the schtupping.  It's a full service operation here. No tipping!

What isn't on the menu, any day of the week, is going up to a woman and grabbing her pussy. Nor breasts or bottom. I've never been that way. No point in starting now. That's sexual assault. It is illegal whether you are rich and powerful or poor and charming. This is what so many people are missing in all this trumpery. He was wrong to do this as a famous millionaire and he was wrong to do this as a candidate. Wealth and fame do not entitle anyone to crime.

It's also disingenuous to drag President Bill Clinton's affairs into this. Receiving a blowjob from a consenting adult intern is not a proper thing for a president to do but, the operative word here is "consenting". She wasn't raped. She knows that. Affairs are not rape. Only rape is rape.

And grabbing a woman's pussy is sexual assault (a precursor to rape) without consent. If that is Trump's foreplay, he's doing it wrong. It's not an acceptable way of saying "hello" or showing interest. He is a sexual predator. No two ways about it.

Let's be civil out there and let's keep things in perspective and our hands off the genitalia of strangers. It's just the right thing to do, no matter who you are.

Life In And Above The Gutter

In last night's debate, we saw Hillary Clinton go up against a walking, stalking, sniveling, live version of the internet comments section. I feel her pain...

Been there, done that. Didn't get the t-shirt.

Ever argue with a drunk? You know how futile it is. Empowered by alcohol,they are invincible. They are devoid of logic. They'll whip your ass! Call the cops! They'll whip them too! That was last night's debate.

I've said for months now that Donald Trump is the comments of several hundred sites on the internet- not just Breitbart or any of the obvious, usual suspects. Kinda Topixy, really, like if Denny Crain were running for president. For the uninitiated, Crain is an imaginary person on Topix who is well known for his gullibility and regurgitation of reichwing talking points and *info* as fact. So too is Donald Trump.

The absolute low-light of the debate might have been Trump's assertion that, as president, he would jail her. There were so many to choose from but, that third world threat was the pick of the trash pile. Jailing Hillary is a common wet dream on the 'net. I don't think any politician has been as thoroughly investigated as her and, of course, she has never been indicted for anything. Of course, no indictments means she is guilty to the internet brain trust of deplorables. They might acquiesce to a special prosecutor for bread and circuses but, they just want her taken out back by the Emperor...and then buried under the jail. A legislative lynching.

I thought Hillary did well. She did her best to not get dragged into the gutter by this idiot. I know the drill all too well. Dedicated non-readers know the assholes I've been up against. You can be brilliant, charming and witty as a Ferreman but some piece of shit will counter with a slur or an obscure song. That's all they've got. It's their arsenal.

You can beat them up and down the threads (or debate stage) but they keep coming back with comments saturated with cum and gerbils. Pathetic. Sure it is. It isn't even close to being effective. It plays to Jerry Springer's audience rather than Springer himself or any kind of historical record. How do you respond to that? You don't. I don't, not on Topix. At least not in the manner they expect.

You are expected to respond in kind- unkind really. Hegel and I are feared and loathed on Topix because we refuse to play by the Troll Rules. This deeply offends and frustrates them. We know that. We are better than these people whether we post or not because we simply are, and because we don't play by their rules.

They love posters like Harley Honey because she is the mirror image of them. She is at home in the gutter with Carla, Bex, Beth and Jane. They need her for that purpose. Hegel and I don't do that. We are both IP-banned from Topix because of that.Try linking this blog on Topix. It cannot be done. It's someone at Topix' way of shutting us down as a way of punishing us for not playing by the rules made via them by the trolls. Obviously we have ways around that. Rebels always find a way.

One of the myriad of things that irks me about this election is that the media keeps hyping the sameness of despicability of the two candidates. They have a bad habit of- allegedly in the interest of fairness- of painting each candidate with the same brush. That's why when Trump gets caught admitting to grabbing pussies, Bill Clinton's affairs with grown, consenting women are equated. They aren't equitable. One is sexual assault and the other is sex. The first was committed by a candidate, the latter a matter of  lust by a candidate's spouse. It's apples and pumpkins. How can anyone possibly equate her "basket of deplorables" comment as the same as his horrible comments about women? And then extrapolate his comments about women as equal to her condemnation of her husband's past liaisons? It boggles thinking minds.

It's what Hillary is up against though. They go low, she goes high. She stays out of the gutter but, because her opponent is in the gutter, slow-witted people believe her to be there too. A greedy media perpetuates that for fun and profit. The takeaway tends to be that she is awful because her detractors are awful. Same with me. Ferrerman must be awful because- just look at the awful people who hate him!

Yep. A small basket of deplorables there. A specimen cups worth maybe. But, Ferrerman didn't create the sample. It was like that when I got there.

Wild Cards

For the most part I watched the debate between the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays. There was more at stake in that contest than the VP debate. The beauty of baseball is that you never know what will happen next. Politics is mostly about what happened and about denying what happened than what will happen. Baseball is about anticipation. Politics is regret.

What I did see of the debate was the bench players, Kaine and Pence, speaking for the starters. Well, Kaine did anyway. He did his best to promote Hillary Clinton while Pence did his best to distance himself from Trump. Does he even know the guy? Has he paid any attention to the crazy things Trump says? Evidently not. He acted like he was hearing this stuff for the first time.

Some pundits think Pence was laying the groundwork for his own run for the presidency in 2020. I don't think he's that smart. That's certainly a long shot this early in that season. He may be smart enough to know they'll likely lose and that that would be better for him. If Pence were to break from Trump in the next election after having been his VP, he'd be out before you could say "Tim Pawlenty". I mean, that's assuming we still have a country after a Trump presidency. What republican could hope to win after a Trump presidency? Look how hopeless it was for McCain after eight years of GW. Four years of Obama didn't help Romney.

By all rights of past being prologue, after a pretty good two term fix by a democrat, the nation could be saying that it was safe enough to let a republican in The White House. However, the nation learned a harsh lesson about that in 2000. No one knew how awful Bush/Cheney would be but, people had a suspicion and Bush did not get the popular vote of the people. As you might recall, he was appointed by the Supreme's. Obama did great but he did not republican-proof the WH. Well, we thought Bill Clinton did but, look what happened. Those people get more incorrigible by the day. They don't draft well after they lose, as most teams do in baseball.

Bush taught us too that Vice Presidents do count. They used to be throwaways until Cheney happened. There is a school of thought that Mike Pence would handle the nuts and bolts of the presidency like Cheney did, while Trump would handle the Twitter. I say this because Trump's kids offered that very circumstance to John Kasich but, he turned them down. If you know anything about Trump, you must know that he doesn't want to be bothered with the commitment that is the presidency. He just wants to win so he can say he won. People in the basket of deplorables don't get that.

You pick a decent VP who can step in should you die or become incapacitated in office. Or, as in Trump's case, you get indicted. (I'm not a member of the media so I don't have to perfunctorily say that the same could be the case for HRC. These fuckheads have been trying to make a case against Hillary for 30+ years. It's not gonna happen while she's in the White House.)

Pence might just be the guy the GOP wanted but was too afraid to run. I'd watch what I eat if I were a President Trump. Pence would do as he's told. Trump won't. I think that's quite evident to the republicans. You just never know what mischief those people have in mind.

Blue Jays won, by the way. Who knows why the Orioles didn't use Zach Britton?Still a long way to go.

In Defense Of Adultery

Marital Arts experts, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani, are all over television talking about how wrong it was for Hillary Clinton to have had an adulterous husband. Yeah... what was she thinking? Add in their candidate, Donald Trump- who feels the same way- and you've got three adulterous husbands with nine marriages between them. That's three apiece, if you're scoring at home, which all of these guys were apparently doing, by the way. Say what you will about Bill and Hillary, they have been married- to each other- for 42 years. For the other three, the art of marriage is quite a bit more abstract. Art is soooo subjective.

Each one of the three committed adultery multiple times. This should preclude them from criticizing anyone but, their own indiscretions have been overlooked by them. Rudy says he's Roman Catholic and has been forgiven for his sins via confession to a priest and besides "everyone cheats". Oh. If only that cleared that up. It doesn't.

Newt served a cancer-ridden wife with divorce papers while she lay on a hospital bed. Trump has auditioned two wives for the unreality show that is his life while married to others. Rudy had one move into his house, I guess to encourage the then-wife to leave. These guys have no shame in their game.

Nor are they the least bit ashamed to publicly stone Hillary for her treatment of the women who transgressed with her husband. They cite her contempt for those tramps as being her contempt for all women. She's been a champion of women all her life. Just not a handful of women who slept with her husband. Go and figure!

Well, that is what those three Marital Arts champions have done. Forget Trump's affairs. Forget his long, public feud  with Rosie O'Donnell. Forget his fat-shaming of  Miss Universe 1996, Alicia Machado and thousands of random comments about random women over the years for being "fat" or "ugly" or "not a ten (because they are flat-chested)". Turns out it is Hillary who is bad for negatively portraying her husband's willing conquests! There's no word on whether the terrible trio's wives had anything but praise for the women their men cheated with. Maybe they thanked them?

It's hard to see what the bottom line is in this ridiculous election because every time you think the republicans have bottomed out, they find a way to go lower.

Adultery is as old as the hills in politics but divorce used to be an eliminator for anyone seeking the presidency. Only Ronald Reagan comes to mind as a president/candidate who had a divorce on his marital record. Today, evangelical Christians overlook Trump's marriages just like fiscal conservatives overlook his bankruptcies. It's a cost of doing business, I guess. It's rare to have success without some failure and, if you're going to win big, you're risking losing big.  I guess that is what they are thinking. The evangelicals are not really saying much about it at all. That's why we get the Marital Triad of Newt, Rudy and the Trump himself condemning Hillary and Bill for- I don't know- staying together? My God- who does that?!

Divorces and multiple marriages would seem to be a *good thing* in the Family Values Party,  at least for now. Evidently working things out is not an option with them. Just repeal and replace.

GENIUS!

The NY Times reports that Donald Trump likely paid zero taxes for as long as eighteen years. No cheating- he was able to pull this off because he was smart enough (I gather...) to lose more than $900 million dollars in a single year. He took advantage of the rules. Who does that?

Welfare recipients, that's who. Welfare is perfectly legal and millions of Americans ingeniously take advantage of it every year. Who could find fault in anyone who so wisely takes legal advantage of the system? 

Republicans, that's who. It's genius for an alleged billionaire to game the system and pay no taxes but, criminal when poor people take advantage a pittance of money, just to survive.

We do love people who steal big. Finance your lifestyle with a bogus charity or play legal hardball with people who do work for you but you don't want to pay- as Trump does- and you are a genius. Steal a loaf of bread to feed your family- you go to jail! You can steal more with a pen than you can with a gun. America respects that. So many of us root for the gangsters. Bonnie and Clyde cinematic-ally at least, were heroes for robbing banks. In reality though, they mostly robbed the mom and pop grocery stores of the day. Their press got better in later years.

Trump complains about our crumbling infrastructure. Well, our race to the bottom of infrastructure begins with a congress unwilling to spend money on roads, bridges and the like because it does them no personal good and, in the case of the last eight years, could make a certain black, democrat president look good. Who the hell thinks like that?

Republicans, that's who. Not doing stuff is perfectly understood by many in the electorate. You cut welfare because that's how your team wins. You don't fix roads and bridges to win too. Same goes for USSC justices. You don't allow him to pick one because he'll pick a winner that won't overturn Roe v. Wade, the ACA and the 14th Amendment.

Politics is a team sport and your team has to take advantage of everything they can to win. But, just as important, is the other team losing. It no longer matters what is best for the country and that is so clear this season. People actually believe that a candidate who refuses to release his tax returns- likely because he paid no taxes for close to two decades- is a genius for not doing that, especially if it's true.

Taxes paid by an (alleged) billionaire like Trump could have prevented that bridge collapse in Minnesota in 2007. It could have repaved untold miles of streets and highways or levees in New Orleans. But, no. Trump is like a bizarro Oskar Schindler putting on an expensive watch, marveling at the tragedy that enabled him to buy it. And that makes him a "genius"?  

NO FAT CHICKS!

"No fat chicks!"

~ Homer J. Trump

Of all the insanity of this election, Trump doubling, tripling and quadrupling down on his ill treatment of former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado is perhaps the most puzzling. It strikes me as more of Trump's (perceived) "tell it like it is/blunt *honesty*" persona that idiots admire so much.

Republicans have long been leading up to this though. What is condemnation of political correctness but a backlash by assholes against common decency? They are once again trying normalize their assholiness.

Yet Hillary's assertion that half of his supporters belong in a "basket of deplorables" is seen by them as "offensive"? That was extremely tame (but honest!) on her part. Anyone offended by that, basks in the basket of deplorability.

But, what about spankability? More precisely, the once upon a time, robust spankability of a former Miss Universe? Alicia Machado is lovely by any tip of the scale.

It's interesting that one of the angles of the oh-so-republican attack is from the oh-so-republican angle of business because, as pedestrians have noted, there was a weight clause in her contract. There you go. It was legal. I've seen the same defense with slavery before. Forget morality. Forget right or wrong. It was "legal". You gotta read that fine print when you sign.

True. But, have you fully read your iTunes agreement or anything else you have signed off on internet-wise? Whether you did read or not, you owe iTunes your first born child. Look it up! You signed it!

That aside, she signed nothing saying Trump could drag her body through the mud, years later. The asshole chose that tact himself. Hillary helped by mentioning it in the debate but Trump and his apologists opted to bring their supply of shovels. It was a brilliant move on Hillary's part. She baited him but it either takes off like this or it's ignored. It worked. It dovetailed nicely with her current commercial of all the other horrible things Trump has said about women and (as per the commercial) and how it pertains to women of all ages. The guy is a fucking pig. There's no doubt about it. They counter that Hillary is worse but, the only bad things she has to say about women were about the tramps who slept with her husband. What would you expect from a spurned wife- sisterhood?!

Beauty is subjective. I can assure you that millions of men prefer full-figured women. But, this isn't really about that. As all things in life these days, it's all about Trump and how he feels picked on because Hillary and the media won't stop him from digging all these holes for himself.

Trump isn't funny anymore. He hasn't been funny for awhile. I personally do not know anyone who supports him. The closest you get is people who are just so anti-Hillary that they seem to be supporting Trump. When pressed though, they won't commit to voting for Trump. That basket of deplorables might be bigger than polls suggest. You toss in people who know Trump is a deplorable, incompetent candidate but they hate Hillary for generic, unsubstantiated reasons, and that certainly is a recipe for political catastrophe, right here in the United States.

Frightening. A major party candidate spends part of a debate and then five days attacking a woman who was Miss Universe twenty years ago, for her past weight gain. A nation that is already dangerously obese supports that. Incredible! And, on top of that, he and they want to take away health care from millions of Americans and replace it with nothing. That's not healthy for America.

In Defense Of Cocksuckers

You hear it all the time. In fact, I recently said it in a post here about baseball umpires.

"How the actual fuck can that cocksucker call that a fucking strike???"

Yikes. Why so hard on cocksuckers, Ferrerman? That's not nice!

It isn't. Anyone who has ever received a blowjob probably realizes that it was a very nice thing for that person to do. It is widely acknowledged that bad head is better than no head at all. Recipients are grateful. And they should be. When someone cares enough to take your penis in their mouth, you should be thrilled at that and with them for doing so. It's one of the nicest things someone can do for you and, subsequently, one of the nicest things you can do for someone. So, why do we denigrate cocksuckers so much?

Well, the easy answer is that it's something you wouldn't do so you (literally) look down on anyone who does. OK. But, why do we voice this so often and with such contempt? It's a guy thing to say but women say it too. It's a common part of the vernacular today in public, in film and damn near on television. I've heard women say it as well for years, about each other, about men and about situations. One of the funniest women I've ever know would say "Suck my dick!" to other people even though she most definitely did not have a dick to suck. I LOL'ed the first time I heard Karen say that. By her own admission, she was a talented cocksucker herself. Yet, she seemed to be denigrating her own actions every time she said this. To her, it was something she enjoyed doing but she also seemed to be declaring to to be a "bad" thing that "bad people" do. Maybe. It might have been her owning it in a way like black people calling themselves "niggers".

It isn't always meant as a literal pejorative either. You can say it without it literally meaning you think that person sucks dicks- just as if to say you don't like them or what they may be doing at the time. That's like with me and the umpires, other drivers or many internet posters.

However, when you do say it disparagingly you are actually belittling the act itself whether you give, receive or both. Kinda odd, don't you think? Especially when said around women, by men. Like saying, "Honey, that guy is a cocksucker! Oh- it's OK that you are too but, not that guy..." So, the act is generally considered a gay thing- something that straight guys don't do- but have done to them- by women. It's a bad thing when done by guys to guys but a truly awesome thing when women do it! Just so you know, honey!

I've never been gay or anti-gay but, yeah, I have disparaged gays for what they do. I don't really care though. Just because doing something doesn't appeal to me doesn't mean others shouldn't do it. I'm not the judge here. Over time, with luck, we evolve instead of devolve about things in life. Condemning people for the type of very popular sex they participate in is pretty disingenuous when you participate too, just by receiving.

I was thinking about this last week when International Bisexuality Day came and went without much fanfare other than a "trend" on Facebook and Yahoo. If you missed it, now you know what it's like to be late for Happy Hour and miss out on 2 for 1 at the bar. In my youth I thought nothing of women being bisexual as I figured it came natural to them. Women are soft and sweet and desirable and why wouldn't they desire each other? That's a pretty common male take. The common take though for men who might play both sides of the street is that they are really gay. Like my old tale of Jimmy W. dealing on Richard, whom we worked with: "Richard, you can work all your life and maybe no one calls you "a painter". But, you go out there in the parking lot and suck one dick and everybody is going to call you a 'cocksucker'!" It was pretty good, break-time humor. Even Richard laughed. All things being equal, men and women can be bisexual. Why not? It can be argued that they do unto others as they would like to be done themselves. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

We need to stop and think about what we say, who we say it too, and how we mean it so that we don't unintentionally hurt others. It's more than just being politically correct. Show some motherfucking courtesy!

Oh damn... We'll leave that one alone for now...

In Support Of Our Boys In Blue

How would you like cameras watching your every move on the job, leading to second-guessing by experts, civilians, and people on the scene observing? How would you like cameras all over your job, recording your every move- good or bad- for scrutiny? I bet you'd hate it, or at least balk at that.

Well, if you did balk, an umpire would be there to call it. That may be the one call they always get right too because they are the only ones who (seemingly) know what a balk is anyway. I guess they do it well. Who knows?

However, they sure as fuck seem to be in the dark as to balls and strikes. The best thing you can say about their rather fluid strike zones is that they are generally unfair to both teams. Yep. Wrong but, fair. Does it get any better than that? I hope so.

Is it fair to the umpires to judge their work with cameras and computer systems like Pitchtrax? I think so. I am a Cubs fan and watch a lot of other Major League Baseball games, as well. I love baseball. The coverage on any given game is very good and you get a great view of every pitch. After years of playing (as a kid) and watching MLB, I'm a pretty good judge of the strike zone. That doesn't mean I could go behind the plate and be as good as the average MLB umpire. Nor does it mean I'd be worse. It's a tough job. Just to get to the bigs, they work of thousands of hours calling tens of thousands of balls and strikes. The way the major's works, they are only calling balls and strikes behind the plate every fourth game as they rotate around the bases. It's not something each guy does every day. It's hard to become an expert at that rate.

Pitchtrax might not be perfect but, it's better than any MLB umpire. And it might be perfect. It sets a standard strike zone and it stays there. There's a lot to be said for that. Essentially, the strike zone is between the letters (on the players uniform) and his knees, and over home plate. It is a pitch that a batter should be able to hit. A good pitch. The problem, and my beef, is that to a lot of the boys in blue, a pitch a foot off the ground is all too often called a strike. It's not what anyone would reasonably call "hittable" yet of late, many umps call it a strike. There are a lot of questionable calls east and west as well- pitches that aren't exactly over the plate, but the low-strike seems to be in vogue.

By and large, MLB umpires are the best referees in sports. It's a tough job but on the bases at least, replay often proves them right. They tend to get safe and out right and if they don't, replay review now corrects that during the game. Prior to that you had to write it off to human error and accept that mistakes are made. Nobody is perfect.

But, too many of them really suck behind the plate. And it's killing the game.

It's time for MLB to fully enter the 21st century and let computers call balls and strikes. The umpires have a union and I don't want to see anyone lose their job ('cept maybe that fucking asshole, Joe West) so, retain a guy in the capacity of home plate umpire but, do NOT let him call the pitches. Obviously a human being needs to be there to document runs and call safe or out in plays at the plate. You can't change that.

The players deserve consistency and so do the fans. The players make their living playing this wonderful game and how well they ply their trade should not be subjected to the whims of an arbitrators subjective interpretation of balls and strikes. A player or manager can be thrown out of the game and fined just for arguing balls and strikes. If they didn't have that in place- as awful as umpires can be- we'd still be in spring training now with players arguing bad calls. Take humans out of the equation. Take the arguing out of it too by relying on the consistency of modern technology. It will speed up the game and certainly take some of the angst and vulgar language out of it, at least in my house. Wouldn't we all be better off without a Ferrerman screaming: "How the actual fuck can that cocksucker call that a fucking strike??!!"  It would sure clean up the game in so many respects.

Post Debate Analysis

I thoroughly enjoyed the debate. Of course, my candidate won so, I would enjoy that. Hillary did fine. We knew she would. Trump was a belligerent, bully. We all saw that coming.

But, it all means so little. At this point are there any real undecided voters? Should we even care about people so fucking dumb as to be on the fence wondering which way to fall? I think undecideds are just people who want to get on TV and think they sound smart when they say they haven't made up their minds yet and won't until they get more facts or something.

I hate to use a Topix poster's personal name but, it's Crystal Clear that Trump is a racist, alleged-billionaire, conman who does not care a lick about average American people because he only cares about himself. Conversely, Hillary Clinton is an extremely qualified woman who can and should be president. She can do the job. Trump can't.

If anyone can't see Trump for the asshole he is, they're beyond hope. However, if anyone thinks that might be okay for a president to be an asshole because (I'm guessing here) "he can get things done", then those people are beyond being just assholes. They are idiots. There is just no sense backing up any of the alleged pluses of Trump.

This goes beyond the usual partisan politics and you know that is true when famous conservatives like George Will completely and willfully denounce Trump. How stupid can anyone be to not see the magnitude of that? No living president endorses him and that includes two guys named George Bush. Spin it any way you want about Jeb but it speaks volumes that two men who had the job know that Trump cannot do it and, most important, should not do it. They could have easily and honestly endorsed any of the other candidates that Jeb lost with- even Cruz- for party unity and no one would be surprised. And Carter, Clinton and Obama I believe would come to the same conclusion if their party were running a Trump too.

I understand republicans not liking Hillary. It's stupid but, politics is stupid. It's sports for people who can't play sports- or worse- think they can. You pick a team in politics and you hate the rival team. It's as deep as the Bears/Packers rivalry. It's that simple. If there is anything worse than political coverage on cable, it's sports commentary anywhere in the media. It's hard to tell The NFL Today from any CNN panel. Same spin. Same nonsense. They sorta stop just short though on The NFL Today of saying: "The (losing team) really won according to the polling..." because, though they do poll a lot, the bottom line in sports still is wins and losses. Ultimately that's the bottom line in politics too but, it takes soooo fucking long to get there. It's painful to watch.

It's also painful to see that so many people are so fucking stupid as to believe Trump has their interests in his heart. Love your team but don't tell me the Bears will beat the Packers this season. Yes, it could happen but you are mistaking hope and dreams for practicality if you believe that. Leave the fantasy to football and masturbation where it belongs.

If you think that an (alleged) billionaire jagoff should be president, fuck you. If you don't think that is a flaw of any sort that should preclude him from the presidency, fuck you. If you think Hillary Clinton would be worse than Trump "because of the emails or BENGHAZI! or pantsuits, fuck you. And, if you're just supporting your team because that's what a good fan does, bless your heart, you stupid fucking idiot.

It's going to be close. Fucking asshole Trump could win. We all have to face that possibility. Worse, we will all have to deal with the carnage if he does prevail. The idiots do not realize that. Because of them though, we all may deserve the horror. At least in sports we survive the winners and upsets.

Long Suffering Fools

CrunchyBacon Oviedo, FL

#106869 23 min ago Sublime1 wrote: Here's how all this non-sense started. Tale is typical ... another black male, produced by black parents, and the product of the black community, who simply is completely infuckingcapable of functioning in normal society: Plain clothed police rolled up to serve someone else a warrant and he parked next to them and started rolling a blunt in view of them and everyone. That's pretty dumb ... I've never known anyone to broadcast their drug use so openly, but he couldn't leave the stupidity there, he also started waving a gun in view of everyone. Complete dumbass. The police were just gonna ignore the blunt (sorry, a white kid likely wouldn't get away with this in the burbs) and leave him be. They weren't even there to deal with him. Once they saw the gun, however, the officers had to put on vests identifying them as police officers and deal with this clown. Even after identifying themselves, the stupid dumb eff wouldn't listen to them. What generally happens to people waving a gun when they don't listen to the police? Does it take a rocket scientist to figure this out? No it doesn't. However, only in the dysfunctional black community is personal accountability completely ignored and something so predictable become a so called tragedy and an excuse for all their problems. <<< this response is a big part of the problem. If anything they should stop standing for the national anthem until the black community stops producing so many men like him. If a white guy is stupid enough to wave a gun and not listen to police, NO ONE CARES if he is shot and killed. Only when the black community evolves to this point will things get better. "Couldn't agree more. If you took this story and replaced it with a white dude in my neighborhood, I'd feel bad for the poor sod, but protest and riot, I don't think so. Tragic outcome, but he brought it on himself. Also, how the hell does a convicted felon with a traumatic brain injury that requires medication ever get a CCP? I thought felons couldn't even own a firearm. His wife was a real peach, just saw her husband shot and all she did was curse the cops and keep filming. Not one word of comfort to her dying husband."                                                    ********************* The above exchange is why trolls will never lead or win an American revolution. No heart. No desire. No balls. No brains is a given.  These two imaginary persons on Topix are two of the more gifted trolls that Topix has to offer. They understand absolutely every killing by police and know more about them than even the cops, and certainly the media. Just as Trump the candidate knows more about ISIS than the generals, these two trolls got it all figured out. It's about personal responsibility. They hold black people personally responsible for everything that has happened to them- except when it was the fault of liberals, that is.  Notice how the breakfast side-order admits that if a white dude in his neighborhood was killed like that, he wouldn't riot or protest. I'm assuming that he doesn't mean it as a one-off incident but rather, in the context of several hundred years of such incidents visited upon whites. He's white and if there was a history of whites being enslaved by blacks, freed, and then subjected to "James Crow Laws", segregation and then a fight for civil rights,

Hammers Seeking Nails Need Not Apply

It's hard to keep at these killings by police straight. Which was the one where the black guy had a book but the cops say he had a gun? What was the one where the helicopter cops- who sounded like a morning-zoo radio team- could tell from way up in the air that the black guy was "a bad dude"? Was that Tulsa? Or Charlotte? The cops found a gun somewhere! And, what about the one from 2011 where now they have video of the cop planting a weapon on the black guy he killed? Sunday- somewhere- the cops pepper-sprayed a 15 year old black girl who had been hit by a car on her bicycle because she refused to wait for paramedics. They did that for her own good, I guess? The ungrateful little justice obstructor...

It's hard to keep them straight but there is one common denominator. Black victims.

It is also hard not to think it's a racial denominator, even when black cops are the perpetrators. Does seem to be a pattern, especially when there are dozens of these cases every year.

There undoubtedly are racist cops in America but, I contend again that what we have first and foremost is a bad cop problem. It's easier to become a cop than to become a cosmetologist. Easier by several hundred hours of training. I'm not sure why so much training is involved in cosmetology. They have no powers of arrest and they rarely (if ever) kill anyone. Why though, does a cop (on average) receive only 622 hours of training with no required apprenticeship, while a hairdresser trains for 1570 hours and then (on average) performs 1080 more hours of mandated apprenticeship? Hair is important but, not 4 times more important that serving and protecting. This varies from state to state and that means it's easier for cops in some states than described above.

Since I last worked with guys who were set on becoming cops, they've upped the ante for the job quite a bit. I had a coworker that I tended bar with, kinda proudly admit that he failed the psych exam to become a cop. I could have told him he'd fail long before he took it. The kid was the son of a suburban cop and a bit judgmental as a result. He'd often figure stuff out about people "...because my dad's a cop..." There you go. It's genetic! Another fella lamented that he was always competing with guys who had military time (not just Military Police service) that he didn't have. It used to work that way- and I think it still helps- but, I've heard there is less emphasis on that these days. Maybe. There might be more given the militarization of many Police Departments these days? Anyway, in the 90's many PD's started looking favorably at college being a prerequisite, preferably a bachelors in Criminal Justice. But, those are preferences. They vary by departments and by state.

Anybody who knows a family member of a cop on Facebook knows that those family members all want their loved one to come home each night. True that but, cops don't even make the Top 10 of dangerous occupations. Time magazine has them at #15 in 2014. Loggers are #1 and cops come in right after "general maintenance and repair workers".  They all want to come home at night too.

Cop killings are actually down of late, during the Obama regime. It's rhetoric about a "WAR ON COPS!" that has risen during this time. Several hundred Americans are killed by cops each year. It's very popular for white people to note that cops kill more whites and Hispanics than African-Americans but that's usually to highlight that "white people don't riot when one of us is killed..." We tend to save our rioting for more productive reasons such as winning or losing a championship in one's city. Ain't that 'murica? Whites are a far larger percentage of the population than blacks, by the way. We've got the numbers! For now...

Simply, we need better training for all cops. A better screening process too, to weed out potential trouble makers. The people getting killed aren't always the desperadoes in our society and I doubt the cops doing the killing are our best and brightest. The woman officer in Tulsa "feared for (her) life" despite being with three other cops immediately by her side, two in the air and more nearby. She panicked and a man died. That is preventable with training. It's avoidable. Life will never be fool-proof. Neither will death. We can try to do better though. All we have to do is try, and to try to give it the attention that we think our hair deserves.

Sawhorses

I seriously doubt Trump's sincerity in this campaign. He is deplorable and always has been but, I've never seen a candidate so obvious in his obviousness. He literally phones it in. The guy's entire career has been as a shameless huckster, a self-promoter. If you know any salesman, the key to their real or imagined success is to tell people what they want to hear and have no conscience about lying to them. It's what you do. It's no different than Earl, whom I wrote about a few years back, the guy who would stop women on the street to tell them how lovely they looked, in the hopes of hooking up with them. Earl stated that, "If it works once in a thousand tries, it will have worked!" So, basically, try anything. The shame is in not trying.

Trump's presidential run is just another money-making scam to him. He's more of a brand-builder than an actual builder and that is kind of interesting because evidently he has built buildings. Well, I guess he has. I don't really know. I bet he couldn't put together a set of sawhorses but, tool skills are not really a prerequisite in the construction business. You'd be surprised. There is no "right" way to build sawhorses, by the way. Same basic design but, whatever works for you. They just have to hold something up.

What works for Trump is to say absolutely anything that comes to mind, as at this point, nothing he says is "wrong" to say. He doesn't have to mean it. It doesn't have to make sense. It doesn't have to be moral or even close to the truth. He just has to say it. The conviction of his voice is all that is needed for the media and his minions. Thing is, that conviction voiced is the same whether he's telling you Trump Steaks are the greatest thing since sliced bread or that you need a wall that- by the way- Mexico is going to pay for. You just have to believe him on both. People do. Whose fault is that?

Trump recycles reichtarded views that I've been reading on the internet since I first logged on eight years ago. Most recently, he regurgitated the notion that Hillary Clinton intends to take away your guns. She doesn't, of course, and no president can. Repealing the 2A would take congress and a majority of the states and that is simply just not ever going to happen. Taking guns away from everyone may be on some liberal's wish list, somewhere on the internet, but it is not on the agenda of any democrat politician. Trump probably knows this but, millions of Deplorable-Americans do not and, frankly, they love hearing this. They learn by rote and they've been hearing this for decades in the gun stores from salesmen who advise them to stock up now because, you know, a democrat president wants to take away their rights....

So, Trump throws that out there because he knows they want to hear that. Same with the recent exhortation that Hillary has armed body guards and maybe she should try going about in public without armed guards....and see what happens...

Trump's is the only candidate actually calling to take away people's guns! Isn't that interesting?

It's nothing new under the internet sun though. The D-A's have been been saying that for decades, long before they achieved Deplorable-American status. The same has been said about Rahm Emmanuel as mayor of Chicago and they still say that even though Chicago has concealed carry. Disarm your guards and live as we do- without bodyguards! But, also without guns- unlike regular citizens who live in the fifty states that have CC. If you're scoring at home, that's all of them.

TRUMP has armed bodyguards. He's had Secret Service protection for several months now, even before he became the GOP candidate. Someone was thinking ahead and reasoned that he was more worth killing than the other candidates. But, Trump doesn't disarm his bodyguards to set an example or a precedent. That's not the way he works. All he has to do is call for her to do it. Neither his minions or the media seems to notice his hypocrisy.

It is dangerous to publicly call for his rival to disarm her guards and it certainly does seem that he's calling (again) for someone to execute her but, I don't think that was his intent. I hope I'm right about that. I think he saw the reichtarded notion of unarmed Secret Service guards on the 'net, liked it, and decided to make it his own. That's what he does. I don't think he's ever had an original thought in his life. This asshole started out on third base and wants you to believe he hit a home run. It's your fault if you believe that. Rich daddy gave him money to begin his adult life. Whether it was $1 million or $200 million, it was more than most of us get. His entire being in life has not been to justify that gift, but rather, to convince people that he made his own way in life. Trump the son of a bus driver would be Trump the car salesman. Maybe Trump the name on the Vietnam Memorial. Nothing he has done in life qualifies him to be President Trump. Everything he says now proves that.

Masturdebaters

Dedicated non-readers of this space know that Ferrerman brings the politics and social commentary pretty good. It's not hard really. It's just in how you do it. The opponents, regardless of where they walk or drive in life, all have the same sorry positions to defend. An educated, almost-lawyer in North Carolina has the same reichtarded views as a drunken, sorta-electrician in Oregon. They may begin from different coasts and educations but they wind up in the same cesspool of nonsense, politically or socially. It all comes down to right and wrong, no matter how well or poorly you say it.

I heard Neil De Grasse Tyson discussing this recently. He compared the bulk of most lawyers to members of the debate team in high school. I never participated in debates but the familiarity is that you are given a topic and a stance and then tasked with defending it. It doesn't matter whether you believe in your position or not. You win by defending *your* position better (in the eyes of the judges) than your opponent. Well, isn't that our judicial system in a nutshell?

This is why there is a debate about climate science and global warming. Despite 97% of scientists all over the world, using overwhelming scientific evidence, concluding that carbon emissions are destroying the planet, we wind up with debate over something that is pretty obvious, just because it's natural for someone to have an opposing viewpoint, even for unnatural reasons.

I'm all for dissent but, dissent for dissent's sake is a waste of everyone's time.

Possibly worse though, is on cable news where, to appear non-partisan, CNN or MSNBC will detail the fraud and criminality that clearly is Donald Trump and then try to balance that with the ridiculous scandal of Hillary Clinton's emails while regurgitating that "some people consider her untrustworthy..." Oh. Well, that clears that up! They're the same!

Not everything is debatable. But, everything is debated. You could debate the weather and some people- soaked in the rain- would tell you they are dry. That's the internet in general and Topix in particular.

I rarely get good debate on Topix. Actually, I'm not sure if I ever have. Also not sure it's even possible. What I get in response to my brilliance essentially ranges from "your a deadbeat!"(sic) to a Google image of what is presumed to be "the boarding house" that I surely live in. I basically just get attacked. Maybe the best defense is a poor offense? Sure seems that way.

Ad hominem attacks are as common as weeds on the internet. Harder to control though. Though I'm not trying to *win*, I can't help but win when nearly every assertion I make in a post is countered by "your a deadbeat" (sic).

Back in January of this year, Danny Christensen of Eugene, Oregon (as seen elsewhere in this blog) called the house and left three messages. I assume the asshole was drunk. The gist of it was that I should "leave (his) brother alone" and that he would be coming to Chicago to "talk" to me. Danny played "Dr. Dirty" on Topix-Offbeat but, to my knowledge at the time, wasn't posting. I have no idea what prompted him to call and threaten me.

Well, in the imaginary world of Topix, no one actually "goes away". These mentally ill people are characters. The characters may come and go but the actual fingers on the keyboards remain.

(It's amazing but, you read all the time from people with avatars/profiles extolling others to 'man-up" and have "the guts to show your face" by registering... a totally fake profile.... And you thought Trump's 5 year quest to get to the bottom of President Obama's birth certificate was farcical? How does an avatar with a phony name by way of a throwaway email provide identity?)

So, why was Danny suddenly re-involved in Topix and making impotent, drunken threats against me in defense of a brother of his that he would not name? I have no fucking idea. How do you begin to justify someone's mental illness? Why should you?

Just as a lie doesn't become truth because a majority believes it, a lie doesn't become truth because you defend it by attacking someone over it by way of slander or innuendo or, outright vulgarity. That works in the imaginary world of Topix but actually, not very well there either. I rather doubt that anyone reading from the sidelines as Ferrerman posts against Trump's bullshit plan to build a wall or the mass deportation of Muslims and Mexicans, sees *Sam* counter with "Hows the blog going, deadbeat?" (sic) as a valid counterpoint. Like; "How will Ferrerman survive that?!"

I've left a few thousand of those comments unanswered. Probably 95% of them were posted by *Sam* who usually is played by the aforementioned, Danny. Others fill in. It's pretty easy to be *Sam*.  You just need a proxy and an empty head and soul.

Somewhat more worthy of battle is, Sublime1. Michael fancies himself a lawyer because evidently he did attend law school and graduated, yet never dropped the hammer on taking and passing the bar exam to actually be a lawyer. He does something with patents for a Swedish car company. Michael is quite Ayn Randian in his views of the world. The son of a millionaire who paid for his schooling, he considers himself to be one of those John Galt/Donald Trump types who pulled themselves up by the bootstraps despite having a daddy that gave them those boots, straps and all. It's not his fault that daddy is rich. He would have turned out well even if born poor. That's just the way it is...

Sub's tiresome but, he can be fun just because he's one of those that just has no clue how transparent his bullshit is. He's a "family values" type of guy who, despite being married, delights in posting masturbation fantasies of him and the wife's swinging lifestyle. They may be swingers but, I rather doubt it. He posts about random women frequently falling in lust with his short, bald, middle-aged self. It's some pretty obvious self-aggrandizing nonsense from a very needy person. I think he just likes to fantasize a lot.

Sub's pretty racist but, where he gets kinda interesting is when he uses his education to defend his racism. Of course, people who do that don't believe that they are the least bit racist. They're just enlightened, I guess. I love fucking with people like that! He will resort to "deadbeat" taunts but he generally takes such a wordy, circuitous route to get there that usually involves his muscles, the law, his obvious desirability to women and something to do with how many people worship not only his motorcycle but him for having it. It makes for some curious reading. However, when someone gives you an intellectual essay on how horrible black people are, you have to give them props when they try to do it with $20 words used in complete sentences. Sub does that. It's still racist though. Even when he lauds "the Asians" for their perceived family, education and work ethic, it's to denigrate the blacks for his perception that they are lacking in those qualities and (I guess...) maybe that's why they get shot by the cops so much- even though percentage-wise he purports that cops actually shoot more whites than blacks. Therefore, why is there a Black Lives Matter movement and a Black Entertainment Television network?!? Throw in some hero worship of him from life-affirming strangers and you have a typical Sublime post. Thousands of them....

Now, having said that, this post has become Sublime-like in length! Oops! I hope that doesn't detract from the message! If it does, go fuck yourself, deadbeat! Does that suffice?

 

Long National Nightmare Closed As Washington Hotel Opens

Well, it's official: Obama was born in the United States!

After years of telling us Barack Obama was not born in the US, Trump now says he was!

I wonder what else has Trump lied to us about? Is he telling the truth now? How can we tell with a waffling flip-flopper like Trump? You like to think that a politician can stick to his guns but, Trump evidently can't. I'm really beginning to doubt he's going to build that wall. Why should I believe him about that after this take-back?

I was just starting to like the fucking asshole too. Now this.

And not one of those military veterans bothered to thank him for his service in Vietnam! Ungrateful bastards!

Trumpenstein

Maybe we shouldn't fear a Trump presidency so much.

If you remember back to the primaries, the GOP had nobody capable of winning the nomination in their party but Trump. They had like 17 other options but Trump was the only hope. You couldn't hope to win running a Ted Cruz or a John Kasich against Hillary Clinton or even Bernie Sanders. Neither of them would be thisclose with Hillary as Trump is, at any point in the election. In a year when they were looking to punt, a trick play was their only way to get back in the game and, maybe even win. It could work and, unless it's all media hype to keep it close for their own ratings and bottom-line, it definitely might.

But, what happens if Trump does take the oath in January? It might not be the chaos in the streets one would reasonably expect given the bullshit promises this asshole has made. The presidency is a pretty big deal but, it's not the government that the republicans would have liked you to believe it is, these past 8 years or any time a democrat is in The White House. Government goes on as government does no matter who is in *power*. I figured out long ago that they just don't give the keys to the kingdom to anyone every 4 to 8 years and just hope for the best. That's checks and balances, folks. It's lip service that it's the most powerful job in the world. The powers that be restrain regardless of party affiliation.

Remember though that Frankenstein was the name of the guy who created the monster, not the monster itself.

The GOP created Trump in that they let Trump create himself. He's always been the ridiculous prick you are seeing right now but, without the GOP, he's Gary Johnsonstein. His "self-funded" campaign does not happen if he ran as an independent.

A president Trump would find out real quick that he can't build that wall and he can't deport 11 million people because all that shit is just stupid and there is no money in it or for it. Trump probably knows this already. He doesn't care. It's just shit you say to get elected. The American people pretty much expect that from politicians. I've seen plenty of his fans admit that he can't nor won't build the wall but, they appreciate that he said it in the first place. Same with deporting Muslims and Mexicans. They know he won't really do that either. It's the thought that counts...

A Trump presidency might answer how seriously he takes himself. That could be scary. It's looking like we might have our own Saddam Hussein here. He's got the solid gold toilet to poop in and he's got the ego. He probably fancies himself more in the mold of Vladimir Putin but, he's Saddam. Long before they were elected, the Bush administration planned an invasion of Iraq because they knew that Saddam was an an egotistical prick that they could easily goad into a long, lucrative war. They just needed to get in power and get a reason.

Trump is the same sort of egotistical prick that can be goaded in the same manner. The good news is that we have a government in place that won't allow our leader to be buffaloed like that. Don't worry- we won't be forced into a war because this asshole will be intimidated by Putin or China. They'll likely intimidate him but, not the US government. It's bigger that that dickhead no matter whether he knows it or not.

If Trump wins, he won't make the four years. He's looking at this as a business deal. His mentor Putin is reportedly worth as much as $200 billion and he got that way by seizing and retaining power through any means necessary or unnecessary. But, that's Russia. The banks, the corporations- the real powers that be- won't let that happen here. This scumbag Trump means nothing to them beyond what he can do for them. If he steps out of line, they'll bury him. That's in the literal sense even though they'll first bury him in the political sense. If you are incredulous that Trump is popular despite being a criminal enterprise now, wait until he crosses the real powerbrokers. The media and Donnie Ray in Kentucky may wink at Trump's crimes now but, the Big Boys will smack the wig off his head if he tries to go up against them. And if you don't think that that is a wig and that it is his real hair, it won't be if they say it isn't. He will kneel before them.

For better or worse, this country is bigger than one man, no matter who that one man is- or *thinks* he is. If he wins it will be close. No mandate from the disenfranchised Donnie Ray's of flyover country. The Deplorable-Americans can speak and even be heard but, they're never going to run things. Douchebag Trump stops listening to them the moment he wins. He doesn't care about them any more than he cares about you or I. The same guy that has fucked contractors out of thousands as a matter of business will do the same to citizens, just on a larger scale. Why not? Tell me why he wouldn't. That's the way the fuckhead rolls. But, if he doesn't roll the way they want him to, they will rock his world in a hard way.

So, WHEW!- we might be OK after all. We'll see...

Deplorable-Americans

The same people who just yesterday called for Hillary Clinton to be jailed and hung, are now calling for her to be jailed and hung, this time for her assessment that they are deplorable.

What a country, eh?

Deplorable-Americans, the latest group of Americans to be hyphenated, are upset that Secretary Clinton referred to about half of Trump supporters as racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic and lumped them into "a basket of deplorables".

Well, I guess now they are standing up to be counted.

With our First Amendment protections, you cannot yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theater. The First does not protect dangerous speech. However, you can yell "ASSHOLE!" in a crowded theater. You may annoy theater-goers by doing this but, if anyone stands up and says: "Yeah? What do you want?" that's kinda on them for self-identifying as an asshole.

A whole lot of Trump supporters are Deplorable-Americans as they most definitely are racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic assholes. No one knows the exact number so she may well have underestimated by saying half. It could be all but, you gotta assume that some may be good people. It could be 99.9%. It could be just 47%. It's hard to say. Perhaps the next census will tell as Deplorable-Americans are a relatively new demographic, discovered just last night by this Ferrerman. They've always been there and they've always been deplorable but, they've not been recognized as official, Hyphenated-Americans by anyone but me and, admittedly, I'm just one Ferrer-American. I don't carry a lot of weight in the media.

Perhaps Donald Trump will further address this persecuted segment of America. Maybe he'll declare that, on his first day in office, he will declare Deplorable-Americans to have Platinum Status as Americans, offering them this for a one-time fee (renewable annually with another one-time fee of @ $5,000) this special status? Who knows? The fucking idiots will fall for it though as, not only are they deplorable but, they're kinda dumb too.    

Think About It

We're going to be just fine with Hillary Clinton as president. She is absolutely the only qualified candidate- even more qualified than my man, Bernie Sanders. No republican who took the stage for the primaries was as qualified as she is. That's how and why they wound up with Trump. He is the designated loser. Any of the others would have lost to her. Look back at the eighteen or so former contestants and see if you can pick one that "shoulda been..." I bet you can't.

I've been contending for years that the GOP does not want the presidency. They are not leaders. They fancy themselves better on offense though because they are very offensive people by nature. Trump is too and that's another reason why he was a rather genius pick to be the fall guy for the party. He isn't really one of them so they won't lose in November, he will.

Today's GOP is a party of anarchist rebels who hate government. It's all they talk about so it would follow that it's disingenuous and kinda foolish to put anti-government people in government. That was tried with the Tea Party folk and nothing good came of that.

Barack Obama did (and is still doing) a tremendous job as president despite nothing but obstruction from congress. Hillary Clinton will face the same obstruction but may at least have a democratic majority in the senate to undo much of the republican house chicanery. If you think they hate him more than her, you haven't been paying attention. They have been hoping for and fearing an HRC presidency since Bill left office. They are going to get it.

Republicans are at their best when they are complaining. The self-proclaimed "Party Of Personal Responsibility" points fingers at absolutely everyone but themselves. It's comical to read comments on the internet about various races, genders and liberals in general about how they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and not rely on government. And they could do that if only they wise up...and put more republicans in government...

Mind you, the GOP loves having their own senators and congressmen in Washington. They just don't want one of their guys in The White House. That would seem kinda weak and foolish but it's actually just cowardly and smart.

They can't lead. They know it but, they don't want you to know it. GW Bush proved that. The ensuing weak campaigns of McCain, Romney and now Trump further illustrate that. 330 million people in this country and they can't come up with a solid presidential candidate? They have not legitimately won the presidency since GHW Bush back in the 20th century. You can look that up.

Why win? You get your guy in the WH and you're looking at 4 years of playing defense of a guy that is likely indefensible. This GOP is best at attacking. They need a black man or a white woman in the WH to do that. No one in the democratic party wants Hillary Clinton in the WH more that the GOP does. Fox news is a close second. They make billions attacking democrats. They do not want to be Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House repeating: "REMAIN CALM! ALL IS WELL!" while getting run over by the masses. Let's face it- Fox is the GOP. Fox is a business and so is the GOP. They make their money attacking and selling the notion that they can lead. They don't want to disprove that.

They do though at the state level. There are currently 31 republican governors. When Trump (or anyone) talks about how not-great America is, shouldn't a  republican majority of governors be complicit in that?

They've been wisely spending their loot on securing these governorship's to advance their cause because that is the slowest but surest way to affect change in America. Kansas and Louisiana can fail under republicans but you can always blame the black democrat president. Or the woman. But, that's wearing old and more people are looking at the failures of their state's leaders and thinking that maybe it isn't the black guy after all.

Where Kansas went wrong was in foolishly implementing republican rhetoric into actual policy. Oops! It's theory- not practice, dummies!

In what business would your model be to take in less money and give your services away for free to your best (wealthiest) customers?! No business that I know of and certainly no (successful) government. But, that is essentially what Kansas did and what the republicans tout as their plan for the US government. It's ridiculous to even pretend that it works.

It works on stupid people though and, in a nation of 330 million, the numbers alone allow for millions of stupid people.

That brings us back to Trump. Can you imagine that anyone who is not already a millionaire themselves would think for a moment that an (alleged) billionaire actually cares about them? Or, that he would be their savior? Actual billionaires like Mark Cuban and Michael Bloomberg laugh at Trump. They know he's not a billionaire because they've never seen him at the meetings. I believe Cuban said that the only way Trump is a billionaire is if Cuban gave him $975 million to wash his balls. I'd do it for half that!

So, Trump has millions and that's great but, not if your claim to fame is having billions. No doubt that his refusal to release his taxes is less about what might be there and more about what isn't there. He has nearly ten billion reasons for why he doesn't want to make his taxes public.

Hillary Clinton. She is the best prepared candidate for the presidency in decades. She has the resume' and the talent to do the job. Oh, but she's "untrustworthy". Who told you that? The media and the GOP who have dogged her for 25 years? Has she ever been indicted for these crimes you have been told she committed? Of course not. Talk is cheap but it pays well in a country that is obsessed with Kardashians. I honestly don't know why the republicans didn't run Kim. She might be smarter than anyone thought and turned them down. If you're looking for a fresh face in politics and someone who could have beginners luck and had a reality show, Kim would fit that bill as good as Trump does.

But, the presidency actually is a position for career politicians. Hillary is a career politician. She knows exactly what to do and how to do it. If you don't think that is important, you simply do not think. 

A Fluff Piece

First, let's dispel the myth of "fluffers" or "fluff girls" as they pertain to porn films. The myth is that they have girls on set to keep guys erect while they stage scenes and move cameras around and get the sound and lighting right. They actually do that, you know- the changing of the camera angles and typical movie-making magic. It may be "Two Women And A Pizza Delivery Guy" but actual movie professionals work on the mainstream porn films and take them very seriously. There's no need for a gal on the set to fellate a male actor to keep him erect for the next scene. He's got a hand for that.

So, what Matt Lauer did the other night at the Commander In Chief Forum on NBC wasn't him fluffing Trump. It was more of a full-on blow job given to Trump. Matt Lauer swallows!

Well, most of the media does. He's not alone. Most all swallow Trump.

Throughout this never-ending election cycle the media has been accused of coddling Trump, even making him the candidate he is today, for their own profit. Months ago the Chairman of CBS pretty much said that Trump was a moneymaker for CBS. True, he couldn't have done it without them. Ask Gary Johnson or Jill Stein about that. The axiom in the news business has long been "If it bleeds, it leads!" And Trump hemorrhages news. He's a train wreck wrapped in hurricane. You can only report on the phenomena that Bernie Sanders was so much when he's doing nothing but repeatedly making sense about how the 1% is strangling the country. It's true but it's boring! They naturally want to cover the guy that openly fantasizes about building a YUGE wall and making our neighbor pay for it, to keep that neighbor's people out because they're mostly murderers and rapists...though some, he assumes, are good people. News-wise you have to go with the freak rather than the voice of reason and boring sensibility. There's a reason Fox is number one in cable news.

The reason is that stupid people really rock our world. The ones that swallow Trump and other actual republicans keep the network dicks hard. And that equates to money. It's that stupidly simple.

Why did Lauer get on his knees for Trump? Ratings. I doubt Matt's capable of sparring with Trump (though he did go after Hillary) but, should he? Would it do any good?

A competent moderator or interviewer could destroy Trump. He's clearly an idiot and politically no match for even a first year political science major. He has no idea how government, the military or the Constitution works. You could destroy him at every turn of a phrase as he's as politically astute as a fourth grader. That happens to be the level he converses at, by the way. It works so well because his fan base is at the same level of understanding. It works for him because he works for them- politically. These are the people who believe Barack Obama can still take their guns away and that if he doesn't, Hillary will. They claim that Obama is a ruthless dictator (though a weak one at that) and thus, a real, strong dictator is needed to protect the country. Essentially they are ignoring the built in checks and balances of democracy and the three branches of government for the wont of a guy who praises Vladimir Putin for his strength. They'd be pleased with Putin-style government here...because it would undo all the damage that communist Muslim Obama wreaked upon the country...

We are an irony-deficient nation at times. Well, some of us are.

It's like trying to fucking nail Jello to the wall asking Trump to answer questions in a concise and coherent manner.  You would like to see them at least try but, I think that the reality is it's pushing a round rock up a hill. Journalists of all degrees of talent could call him on his bullshit all day long but, that would take all day long. Frankly, if they did, they'd look like bullies in the minds of his unwashed masses. That would strengthen him in those blind eyes as well. He'd be under attack...

There's no shortage of good journalists and pundits out there who would eviscerate Trump if given the chance. They won't be given the chance though. Media doesn't work that way. Just when you think it should, you take a look at Fox and you quickly realize how it can be abused. We're left with Monday morning quarterbacking instead and that has to suffice.

Trump himself isn't the problem. It's the idiots who blindly follow him and swallow what he gives them. The guy with the sign on the street corner, who screams out Bible verses and inanity annoys us but, we move on past him. He's a harmless fool- until he gets a following. Without believers, he's just ranting. Follow the money in politics and you'll discover this and that and the ways and means of the movers and shakers. But the followers themselves? Watch the parking meters. The followers aren't.