This just in: It occurs to me that we, as a society, make a lot of choices without even being aware of it. Or, and even worse, we are aware of it but refuse to consider alternatives to what we want to believe to be true.

Here are some choices that are currently available to everyone living in the United States:

1. Do you choose to fight in wars in the Middle East for a variety of reasons or do you choose to address those issues through other means; possibly economically or diplomatically?
2. Do you choose Popeye’s Chicken or KFC?
3. Do you choose fear or love?
4. Do you choose the vastness of our current military or do you choose healthcare and post-high school education for all?
5. Do you choose Taco Bell or a normal Mexican restaurant?
6. Do you choose Fox News or do you choose a variety of news sources specifically known to be unbiased?
7. Do you choose white supremacy or do you embrace diversity?
8. Do you choose being right or being happy?
9. Do you choose what you want to be true or do you choose what is actually true?
10. Do you choose oil or electricity?
11. Do you choose big money in politics or not?
12. Do you choose horse de-worming medicine or a vaccine?
13. Do you choose to stretch your 8-iron or a softly hit 7-iron?
14. Do you choose a healthy planet or a dying one?
15. Do you choose salty chocolate and caramel candy or do you choose communism?
16. Do you choose today’s Republican Party or do you choose governance and Democracy?
17. Do you choose a Labradoodle or a plain Labrador?
18. Do you choose sound economic theory or do you choose Trickle-Down economics?
19. Do you choose a cool bedroom at night or a warm one?
20. Dog or Cat?
21. Do you choose to overthrow the election results or to accept them?
22. Do you choose unfettered gun ownership or regulated gun ownership?
23. Chicken or beef?
24. Do you choose, “America, love it or leave it” or do you choose to work to make American better?
25. Bewitched early Daren or latter?
26. Do you choose to close the southern border or to improve/streamline our immigration system?

Just something to think about.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: Republican economic policies are about as legitimate as using horse de-wormer medicine for COVID.

This has been the case for decades. Republican economic policies are not based in any rational economic thought and amount to essentially a con game. Don’t take my word for it. Look at the following link: Democrat VS Republican

Let’s briefly look back at the economy under Trump. Their proclaimed major accomplishment was a tax break for the rich and any company that would contribute to their party. The promises:(1) Bring back manufacturing to the United States, (2) More money for the rich that would “trickle-down” to the poor, (3) 3 to 6% economic growth and (4) A tax return you could file on a post card. All of these failed. All of these. However, they did manage to drive up the national debt by 8.3 trillion dollars with nothing to show for it.

Now that Democrats are in charge, it looks like the government doesn’t want to simply give money to the rich. Instead, it is rightly being talked about as an investment. The price tag over 10 years is around $4 trillion. This is a staggering amount of money unless you consider that the return is likely to be several times bigger.

Let’s take a look at the Republican plan under Trump: “We will take $1,000 from you and give it to the rich and magically, you will become rich. Trust us when we say they won’t spend it on themselves or hide it off shore.”

Now let’s look at the Democrat plan under Biden: “We will take $1,000 from you and invest it in you. Green Energy, Transportation, Education, Infrastructure Modernization, Technology etc.”

I bet you can guess where my sentiments lie.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: Voter suppression laws are measures taken to weaken democracy. End of Story.

First of all, let’s look at what voter suppression is. It is basically taking steps to make people not vote and is specifically targeted against those that would vote against your party or candidate.

It works because we are lazy. Getting an identification to vote is not super hard for most of us. Getting a ride to the polls is not super hard for most of us. Thus, most of us are not affected by suppression efforts. But for some of us, getting an ID means going to the DVM and waiting hours and then paying money and then waiting on the mail in order to get an ID. Some of us don’t live near polling places and maybe we can’t get a ride.

All of these can be overcome if we just vote by mail. But this too takes an effort. You have to find out how to do it and then you have to actually sign up for it and then you have to cast your vote by mail. All of this is doable…unless something else comes up.

Something always comes up.

To illustrate how easy it is to decide “I have more important things to than jump through several very easy hoops in order to vote,” I’d like to tell you about Organ Donations and the Scandinavian countries.

There are two counties right next to each other way, way up north. In country A, you are automatically an organ donor unless you take a very easy step to not be an organ donor. This is called “opting out”. It could be as easy as a simple phone call. Over 95% of the people in country A don’t take this step and thus nearly everyone is an organ donor.

In country B, you need to “opt in” if you want to be an organ donor. A simple call and you are in. Over 95% of the people in country B are NOT organ donors.

Simple opt-in/opt-out steps decides for people in advance that they will or will not be donors. This seems like an important issue; one that most of us would have opinions about and yet, we are too lazy to make that call or go online and check that little box.

Now, back to voting. I got busy and didn’t register to vote by mail. Now it’s election day and my dog is trying to throw up a tri-tip it stole from the grill an hour ago. Oh well, my vote won’t count much anyway. Next election I will vote for sure.

That is how it works. Reduce polling times and locations where the opposing party is likely to get the most votes and you will change the outcome of the election.

This is a purely Republican tool. Republicans don’t want you to vote unless you are going to vote for them.

This is why The Big Lie regarding Trump having the election stolen is embrace by Republicans. They don’t believe it is true but saying so justifies their efforts to restrict voting. This is the ONLY reason that Republicans keep repeating the obvious Trump lie.

All voter suppression can be overcome by making an effort. Becoming unlazy.

But wait! There’s more!

Republicans are preparing for you to “become unlazy.” They are now passing laws that will allow a state’s Republican legislature to overturn the public vote in that state and instead, cast all of the state’s electoral votes for a Republican. This means that if your state votes for a Democrat, the Republicans can ignore the will of the people entirely.

Currently, Democrats are trying to pass legislation that makes voting free, fair and easy in all states. Republican are claiming that states have rights to ignore the will of the people in their state. This “state’s rights” arguement is identical to that which the South used to succeed from the United States starting the Civil war. It was a state’s right to have slaves just like today, it’s a state’s right to void the elective will of the people in that state if they don’t vote for a Republican.

It is my view that if states don’t want to be part of our democracy, let them go. Financially, they are a drain on the rest of the country anyway. Let Texas and Mississippi and Alabama and Kentucky go their own way. There is no economy there that we need. Residents that don’t want to succeed will be welcomed into other states. In the same way that other states can let their residents leave for the New South if that is what they want.

Of course, this is a bad idea. Still, we seem to have some unreconcilable differences that I am getting a little tired of. You think the earth is flat, that vaccines cause autism, that trickle down economics works, that whites are supreme and that God hates gays? If you think that, great, just don’t let these thoughts of yours impact this life of mine.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in:  I didn’t do any research.

Why?  Because I’m not qualified to do vaccine research.  Yes, I can read Facebook memes and I could watch Fox News (If I were a sheep).  But I don’t (and I’m not).

Instead, I rely on experts.  When the best medical minds in the world tell me that wearing a mask is helpful, I wear a mask.  I don’t like wearing a mask but you know what I like less?  Laying in a hospital bed for weeks with and air-snorkel shoved down my throat.

A couple of the QANON (aka…The Gullible) rumors include things like deworming medicine for horses.  An anti-vaxxer will say, “I don’t know what’s in the vaccine so I’m not taking it but….I did read about how horse deworming medicine is accomplishing great things.”

Another is, “I don’t think it has been tested enough.  I always wait until more than 5 billion doses have been given successfully before I try anything other than de-worming medicine.”

I fly a lot and when I get to an airport do 2 things: (1) I put on my mask and (2) I start blaming people for my need to wear a mask. 

I’m wearing a mask because people refuse to wear masks. 

I’m wearing a mask because people want my efforts to give them free heard immunity.

I’m wearing a mask because someone read on Facebook that COVID is a hoax so that must be true.

I’m wearing a mask because the same people that want to control a woman’s reproductive rights think that it is an infringement on their freedom to have them not spread their contagion to others.

I’m wearing a mask because an entire political party has told their sheep to “Stay strong.  Stay free.”  Leaving out that part about death of yourself, loved ones or just the anonymous loved ones of others.

I’m wearing  mask because an embarrassingly huge portion of our population is irrational, anti-science, self-serving and fearful.  Fearful being evidenced by their loud pronouncement of “I am not afraid.”

I just saw where one company was raising the medical co-pay of their unvaccinated workers by $200 per month.  I think this is brilliant.

I would like the anti-vaxxers to have to wear a tattoo on their foreheads that reads, “Facebook is my doctor.”  I just can’t seem to get my congressman interested in sponsoring the bill.

I think anti-vaxxers should not be allowed indoors in ANY public place.  They should not be allowed outdoors in any crowded place. 

When I was a kid, I watched Ben Hurr, or maybe Moses (Charlton Heston playing basically the same role) goes to a lepper colony.  We need Anti-vaxxer colonies.  They would be just as scary.  We would look at them through binoculars as a recorded tour guided message babbles on about the high death rates and how you could support them by buying an air-snorkel for only $5 and it would be tax deductible.  Life in the colony wouldn’t be all doom and gloom.  They could have flat-earther meetings and protests about Trump’s election loss.  They could even form into any number of hate groups and then attack each other in the name of God and Patriotism.

I would name this colony “Darwin’s Prophesy”.

So, anyway…Banana Cream Pie falls into a category that I call, “Too good to eat.”

I call it this because if I allow myself to eat it at will, I’ll never stop eating it.  So, I keep it out of my house.  Out of sight, out of mind…right?

Sort of. 

I had a client call me the other day and say, “Jim, we need you to go to our plant in North Carolina this November.”

I don’t remember anything of the call after that.  The reason:  I know a place in North Caroline where it is all you can eat and every night they have a giant tub of Banana cream pie.  For some reason, they put small bowls next to this as if to say, “You really don’t need to eat more than this.”  I take a dinner plate and just pile on a much as I can fit.  Plus…a dinner roll in case someone is looking at me thinking I don’t know how to eat a balance meal.

So , for the next three months, I’ll be thinking about this place.  Too good to eat means I don’t keep it in my house.  But hey…it’s not my fault if the restaurant has it.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I have been offline, blog-wise, for several months; resisting the urge to respond to the ludicrousness of daily events. Starting with this post, I may be about to change that.

Let’s start with this – I am never going to change anyone’s mind if they don’t want their mind to be changed. For example, a person stood up at a recent school board meeting and announced “There is zero evidence that COVID exists!”

Since I typically use my blogs to talk to myself, I think I’ll recap a bit.

COVID has only affected my lifestyle…not my life. I got my shot as soon as I could. I don’t know anyone that go seriously sick from COVID. However, like everyone else, my lifestyle was impacted. Not going out to eat for over a year. I went from flying 120,000 miles a year to zero. Stuff like that. Not big deals compared to what others have been through.

I have some TV viewing recommendations. I bring these up because, this has been my major source of entertainment for the last year and a half.

1. The Blacklist
2. Fargo (the series)
3. Schlitz Creek
4. Taboo
5. Killing Eve
6. Rick and Morty
7. Modern Love
8. Several documentaries about bands from the 70’s
9. My Octopus Teacher
10. Anything on Thegreatcourses.com (buy the streaming version about $10/month)

I’ve also been doing quite a bit of reading. The latest book is a Hugo Award Winner written by an author from China called The Three Body Problem. Even if you don’t like SciFi, this is a really interesting book.

On the Staying Home page: Over the last 18 months we have replaced all of our floors and painted all of the walls. We initially did this because we wanted to be in a position to sell our house and move out of the state if PG&E continued to shut down our power to stop potential fires that makes the air unbreathable for weeks at a time. We also ordered a sofa back in 1980. When we call for a status, the answer is always, “Any day now.” In the end, we love the look of our house and have decided to “love it” instead of “list it.”

I’m back on the road now; have been for the last few months. I love my job but flying all day with a mask on is a pain in the ass. I’m not against masks. I trust the experts. But, that doesn’t mean I like wearing them.

BTW…some of you may be wondering why I am no longer on Facebook. A few months back, someone hacked my account and I got locked out. When I contacted Facebook they said, “Log into your account and change your password,” completely ignoring my complaint that “I can’t log into my account.” So, I gave up and haven’t missed it a bit. I strongly recommend this to everyone.

Future hot topics that will interest you: What I ate for breakfast, Economics. Foreign Policy. The Big Lie. Why I love Banana Cream Pie.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim