This just in: I am thinking of writing a biography on Donald Trump. Here is my outline of chapters by title. What do you think?

1. That time Trump’s dad hired him as a consultant before he (Donald) had entered puberty as a way to avoid inheritance taxes.
2. The time Trump bought a casino and actually when bankrupt.
3. That time Trump university was shut down and fined for fraud.
4. That time Trump airline, vodka and steaks when kaput.
5. That time Trump committed adultery on 3 different wives.
6. That time on the debate stage when Trump claimed to have a big penis.
7. That time Trump organization was fined for discrimination.
8. That time Trump was accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women.
9. That time Trump said it was okay to “grab them by the pussy” so long as you are famous.
10. That time Trump’s charitable foundation was found to nothing more than a family piggy bank.
11. That time Trump became president after losing the popular vote.
12. That time Trump was found to have colluded with Russia to win the presidency.
13. That time racists killed a person at a riot and Trump claimed there were good people on both sides.
14. That time Trump wanted to quit NATO.
15. That time Trump offered to let Putin interrogate Americans
16. That time Trump let Turkey run over our Kurdish allies
17. That time Trump was impeached.
18. That time Trump became the first president to be impeached twice.
19. That time when Trump lied more than 30,000 times in 4 years.
20. That time Trump tried to get Republicans to overturn the will of the people and make him president again. (aka the Failed Coup)
21. That time Trump claimed he won the election but was unable to provide any evidence in more than 70 court filings to justify his claims.
22. That time Trump threw nearly everyone in his circle under the bus.
23. That time Trump corruptly pardoned those that helped him be corrupt.
24. That time Trump admired his daughter’s breasts.
25. That time Trump cheated at golf, over and over and over.
26. That time Trump tried to get his failing golf course selected for a G20 meeting.
27. That time Trump allowed COVID to kill more than 150,000 Americans through inaction.
28. That time Trump was investigated for trying to manipulate the vote in Georgia.
29. That time Trump was investigated because of his company’s history of financial misdeeds.
30. That time he incited a crowd to storm the capital
31. That time he went to jail and married a 300lb Arian brother.

Still in the early stages but I think this could be a best seller.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: Have you ever taken a moment to just look at a stranger, maybe at the airport or in a line ahead of you or walking down the other side of the street? Have you ever looked at a stranger and wondered, “Who is that person? Does he have a family? Does she laugh easily? What does he love or fear?”

I know I have.

I wonder why the people I know well are a treasure to me. Did I just get lucky or is this a potential that every person has? If I knew more people well, would I find that everyone has value to me; value as a person; value as an addition to my life experience?

I have in mind an experiment.

I am in the early “thought” phase but if it works out, I will expand it.

I am going to take 2 people that don’t know each other and randomly pick one to be the “asker” and the other the “answerer”.

I’ll give them a relatively short time, maybe 10 minutes.

Their instructions will be for the asker to learn as much as they can about the answerer. Not things like names or ages. More like, “What would you ask someone if you were interviewing them for a spot in your life?”

After the question period, I’ll ask them both how they felt about the experience.

I’ll take this data and expand/change my process.

Ultimately, I see a website where you can go through a catalogue of interview videos.

The goal will be for us to see how the richest thing in our lives, our relationships with others, is just right there; right in front of you in a line or serving you coffee or living across the street.

I’m open to suggestions. Soon I will be looking for a way to get volunteers to participate. I may use this blog to solicit for them. I could even do this online with a Zoom meeting.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: The filibuster, in the senate, allows debate to be stopped on ANY legislation unless 60% of the members agree to it. This is because it takes 60% to override a filibuster which is essentially a “stop sign” when it comes to moving legislation forward. The downside is that 41% of the senate can stop 59% from doing what they want. In other words, the minority rules.

Those that favor the filibuster like it for two reasons. First, and completely unimportant, is the fact that it has been around forever and thus has some magical power simply due to tradition. Secondly, it keeps a simple majority from changing the laws as power goes back and forth with each election.

For example: Let’s say party A thinks the home mortgage interest should be tax-deductible. They are in power so they pass a law making it so. Since it is now law, people go out and buy houses because of this deduction. Then 2 years late, the other party gains the majority and they change the law back so that it is no longer deductible. This could go back and forth every election as one party and then the other gains just the slimmest of majorities.

There are two fallacies with this issue.

Fallacy One: The filibuster will keep a slim majority from constantly changing the law. The fact is that the senate routinely eliminates the filibuster for certain laws. Republicans did it just a couple of years ago to allow them to install Supreme Court justices. Since it is possible to “selectively cancel” the filibuster, all one has to do is take a quick vote at 8:00 am so that by 8:15 am the filibuster for ANY issue is bypassed. In short, the filibuster is an easily overcome legislative procedure should the majority party elect to bypass it.

Fallacy Two: The Republican Party will change all of the laws they don’t like once they take power if there is no filibuster to stop them. Let’s face it…Republicans don’t pass laws, they block them. The last thing the Republican Party wants is for the American public to see the Republican side of any debate on any law. Suppose the Voting Rights Acts were to pass under the current senate. If the Republicans take over the senate, what do you imagine their argument is going to be to overturn this act. It would boil down to “We Republicans are racist.”

The filibuster is a false barrier to progress. When a senator tells you otherwise, they are playing to your misconception of what it really is.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I have learned to hold it in; this frustration with politics. Every now and then I need to let off a bit of steam and this blog is my outlet. Time to let off some steam.

I fly a lot. Every time I go to the airport and get on a plane, I blame the Republican Party for the fact that I have to wear a mask. They didn’t create COVID but, when they were in charge, they did nothing to stop it. This was because they don’t know how to get stuff done. Now that the Democrats are in charge, Republicans actively try to stop efforts to stop COVID so they can blame the Democrats.

Let me summarize;

1. When Republicans are in charge, they stop progress by doing nothing and preventing the minority party from offering to help.
2. When Democrats are in charge, they propose massive legislation which then stalls in the Senate because they don’t have a 60% majority and thus, the minority Republican party can once again stop progress.

Do you want everyone to have free and fair access to the ballot box? Do you think the vote of the people should determine the outcome of elections? If the answer is “No” then you are a Republican.

Do you want infrastructure repairs and updating? If the answer is “No” then you are a Republican.

Do you want universal healthcare? If the answer is “No” then you are a Republican.

Do you think Science and Facebook are equally good places to get facts? If the answer is “Yes” then you are a Republican.

Do you think that the invasion of the Capital on January 6th was an FBI plot or just a bunch of pushy tourists? If “Yes” then you are a Republican.

Do you think Joe Rogen knows more about COVID than Dr. Fauci? If “Yes” then you are a Republican.

If you think a state legislature should be able to overturn the votes of the people in their state because they voted for a Democrat…Then you are a Republican.

Do you think Joe Biden won the election? If “No” then you are a Republican.

I think you get the point.

However, the Democrats have let me down as well.

Joe Manchin and Kristen Sienna are two Democrat senators that have sold their soul for money.

Diane Feinstein has been MIA.

Dems are failing to pass voting rights.

How do we fix this?

Vote.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: Yesterday, I watched the Netflix movie “Don’t Look Up.” I was amazed by the number of A-list actors so I thought I would give it a go.

The movie is a spoof on the Trump administration and the way it handled the COVID pandemic.

The president is played by Merle Streep and her Chief of staff is the president’s idiot son.

A comet is discovered that will hit Earth with 100% certainty. When this is explained to the president, she replies with, “Let’s take some time to assess this.” She doesn’t want it to be made public because it might hurt her poll numbers.

As the truth gets out, the President starts to hold rallies. Since the comet is now visible to the naked eye, she promotes the saying, “Don’t look up.” She says things like, “They want you to be afraid. Be an American and refuse to look up.”

Polls show some Americans are afraid, some are not and a large portion don’t believe there is a comet (remember, it is visible).

As the comet nears Earth and panic sets in, a news cast (Fox) completely ignores this and runs a segment, “That all of America is talking about – topless elder care facilities.” or something like that.

To completely understand this movie, take our current “Pandemic” and substitute “Comet”. This really brings out how criminal Trump was; how negligent Fox news is and how clueless about 30% of the population is.

As I watched this had two thoughts in the following order: (1) This will show those Trump supporters how stupid they have looked to the rest of the world and (2) The Trump supporters will watch this entire movie and not know it is about them.

Alas…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I have long suspected that I have ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder. Why? Because I am rarely able to sit down and do just one thing for very long. I get bored quickly and a part of my brain begins to look for shiny things to distract it from the task at hand. Here are some of those things…

YouTube has me figured out. First of all, it has changed something so that you can’t get out of it with just one click. I watch a video and try to close it. Instead of closing, it just changes size, revealing all kinds of other juicy videos that I need to watch right away. It’s like falling down a rabbit hole. I can pass a quick hour just shutting down YouTube only to find that there are other videos I must see right now.

My television isn’t much different. I have HULU, Netflix and Amazon Prime. All have tons og great content. In fact, there is so much good content that the bar for what I find acceptable has been significantly raised. I now spend most of my time trying to choose between a great show and a really great show and an even greater show. In then end, I often give up and go for a walk instead. Having said that, my current binge is the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I fought off watching this for a long time but finally gave in. After making it through the first 40 minutes, I found myself hooked.

When the day gets slow, I turn on politics so I can find something to be pissed off about; specifically, Republicans. Here is a list of things Republicans appear to oppose:

1. Universal free healthcare (by free I mean higher taxes and no private insurance)
2. Voting rights
3. Spending tax payer money to repair infrastructure
4. Fighting climate change
5. Fighting COVID to save lives and the economy
6. Any effort to fight racism
7. Women’s rights
8. Fighting poverty
9. Solving Immigration

Next page…

Abortion seems to be on the front page everywhere. I’m 63 and have little need for an abortion (I’m also a man) so this issue does not affect me directly. However, I do have an opinion. First, I think women should be able to make their own decision. Second, I oppose only men passing laws that impact only women. Third, I am astounded at the hypocrisy of those that want to control a woman’s own reproductive rights are the same ones that oppose mask and vaccine mandates that affect everyone’s health.

I thought the following was funny, at least to me: Stephen Miller, Trump’s residential racist advisor was subpoenaed by Congress to testify about something. This news made it to Reddit. The top comment was, “Stephen Miller? Isn’t he the guy that entered politics because his hands were too weak to strangle prostitutes?”

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in:  I was recently asked, “What personal characteristic do you have that is getting worse with age?”  My immediate response – I become more impatient every day. Combine this with the fact that people are starting to fly again and you get today’s blog.  (By the way “amateur” is a really hard word to spell.)  I am going to list those things associated with the flying public that bug me.

The Sound of Music Phenomena:  This is when a family of 4 or more walk through the airport side by side.  They remind me of the Von Trapp family holding hands as they simultaneously sing and flee the Nazis.  At an airport, this creates an impenetrable wall of humanity on the concourse that can only be bypassed by taking a great circle route through Tulsa.

The Bash Burger line:  This is when people line up at a food joint  form a tightly packed line that stretches straight across the concourse instead of bending parallel.  This is another impenetrable barrier This one can be overcome by standing near the line and shouting, “Hey, there is no line at the pretzel place.”

The phone walker:  For some reason, people on cell phones can’t walk in a straight line.  At the airport, they bury their heads in their phones and then just follow the cues of whatever youtube video they are watching.  If they see a kitten run off the screen to the right, they swerve to the right.  Plus, they are slow-walkers.  The trick is to time their movement and accelerate quickly past when the moment is right.

The back looker:  This is the person that looks where he is walking and then turns back to see where he was walking; the assumption being that is no one was in his path the last time he looked forward, that path will be clear for the next several minutes so no need to watch where you are going.  When I see one of these, I just stop and let them walk into me. We lock eyes and instantly both know what happened. 

The sudden stopper:  This is when a person or a group of people decide to suddenly stop and regroup.  This can be in the middle of a jetway during deboarding or in the exact middle of the concourse.  No one knows they are going to stop until they do.  The resulting pileup all around them goes unnoticed by the parkers.

The slow deboarder:  On a plane, when its time to get off, its time to get off.  Amateur fliers don’t seem to know this.  When they finally see its time for their row to get up and off the plane, they seem surprised.  Only then do they stand in the isle and put on their coats and repack their diddy bag and wrap their scarf just right.  The take their roller bag which is 20 inches wide and try to drag it down an isle that is 18 inches wide; refusing to acknowledge this fact; stopping at each row to straighten their bag with the apparent believe that the next row of seats will give a wider birth for his roller bag.

The rental car perfectionist:  I usually rent way in advance and don’t have to wait in line for a car, but when I do, the person ahead of me is making sure they are renting the exact car they want.  How much mileage does it get?  What color is it.  Can I get only some of the insurance?  This goes on and on.  I have literally seen a single person take over 30 minutes to rent a car while a line of 20 stands behind in line.

As you can tell, I am a frequent flyer ass.  I view everyone at the airport as my enemy.  They are all walking the wrong direction and at the wrong speed. 

I don’t want to be this way. Even worse, I am certain that someone like me sees me as the amateur.  If I ever meet him, I will tell him what a terrible person he is…just like me.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I have a very simple, 4-step process for upgrading your computer’s operating system from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

Step one: Go to Setting and click on upgrades and press OK when it asks if you want to upgrade to Windows 11. This will start a process of downloading the software and then installing the software. You can tell when this step has been completed when it gets to some random number (for me it was 61%) completion and then freezes.

Step two: Go to a reputable college and get a doctorate degree in computer science. This will be needed to read through all of the “easy online solutions” that explain why your computer didn’t completely install Windows 11. You will understand things like “Now go to your command prompt and disable quantum tunneling for all audio apps that don’t contain a prime number in their serial ID.”

Step three: Realizing that you will never be able to do this, go through the various stages of grief. I’m currently on stage 8 which, I believe, is hunger. Earlier, I ate a half gallon of Caramel Swirl ice cream. After a brief sugar coma, I awoke feeling much better.

Step four: Go online and buy a new computer that already has Windows 11 installed.

Easy – Peazy – Lemon – Squeezy

Glad to help.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I can’t post every day so I thought I would just fire off a few shots from the hip.

1. Street hotdogs are delicious.
2. Anti-vaxxers are the reason we are still fighting COVID.
3. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is way better than I thought. I had to stick it out for most of the first episode before I finally got it.
4. On a plane yesterday, I watched Cosmic Sin starring Bruce Willis. Possibly the worst movie I have ever seen.
5. I trust the jury in the Rittenhouse trial. However, I think that a couple of people would still be alive today if this kid hadn’t decided to play Deputy Dog.
6. It’s really easy to know when I am talking with someone that gets their news from Fox.
7. I don’t spend enough time helping others. I am going to change that.
8. The Republican Party stands for nothing real.
9. Passing the Voting Rights Act must happen soon.
10. I really like videos of kittens attacking big dogs.
11. My golf swing is hampered by my tendency to swing “over the top.”
12. Good people tolerating bad people is one of the reasons we can’t have nice things.
13. Passive acceptance of racism is the same as being a racist.
14. Donald Trump represents the worst in humanity. Those that support him represent the second worst in humanity.
15. Try the Mac and Cheese sandwich at Panera.
16. Bitcoin is a house of cards.
17. Daily breathing exercises…works for me.
18. I’m 63 and considering going back to college for another degree.
19. Climate change is real. The biggest roadblock to solving it is the Republican Party and Joe Manchin.
20. We need to open the borders in an organized manner. We have to do this to support our economy which is currently starting to flounder due to lack of labor.
21. The writers of Calvin and Hobbs, The Far Side and Bloom county are geniuses.
22. I believe we have been visited by aliens. However, I don’t understand how they could have gotten here and I don’t believe they are conspiring with any government.
23. I think we should take notes any time Elizabeth Warren talks about money.
24. So long as we don’t have universal healthcare, we don’t have a non-corrupt government.
25. I don’t like that my eyesight gets worse as I age.
26. I love the holiday season.
27. Tomorrow I get my COVID booster.
28. I would chose to eat any of my wife’s homemade soups over any other food.
29. One rich person cheating on his taxes to the tune of $1,000,000 creates the same needless cost to the government as 347 people scamming food stamps. I am a big fan of food stamps. My point is that white collar crime is vastly underreported and under prosecuted.
30. I trust science and experts because it saves me time and takes advantage of expertise that I don’t have.
31. I have been off of Facebook for several months and I don’t miss it at all. I love not being a part of it.
32. Fox News has successfully argued in court that Tucker Carlson’s show is for entertainment and a reasonable person would know not to believe him.
33. If you ignore a congressional subpoena, you should go directly to jail without bail.
34. Republicans rewriting the Jan. 6th riot are the equivalent of the Lost Cause Writers who said that the Civil War was not about slavery.
35. A man claimed that someone voted as his dead wife and Republicans held this up as an example of rampant voter fraud. That man was just convicted of being the person that voted for his dead wife. Republicans are silent on this.

I liked this format. Got a lot off my chest without too much drama or effort.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: You don’t need to spend hours every day tracking down facts and watching a variety of news shows to find the truth. Maybe you do you want complete accuracy but for a “general feel” of whether or not something is factual, you have what you need in your head.

Let’s try of few examples…

Is global warming a hoax started by the Chinese?

The first thing to ask yourself is “Why would they do that? How do they benefit?”. The second thing is, “Is this so cleverly executed that no one can find any supporting evidence?” Clearly, China is one of the biggest polluters in the world. If they start a fake program to “clean this place up” then they will have a bigger burden that nearly every other country. It’s actually in their interest to deny global change. As far as a “clever coverup,” Benjamin Franklin said, “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.” There is just no way this is a secret conspiracy. None.

Did Donald Trump win the last election?

There are several reasons to doubt this. First, it is a claim made by the loser; a person known to tell a lie when the truth would actually work better. Secondly, there is no evidence. No witnesses. No videos. No emails. Nothing other than claims.

Why do Republicans claim the last election was rigged?

Look at the motivators. Republicans are in the minority and cannot win an election if everyone votes. They know the election was not rigged but claiming it is allows them to put laws into place that will let them overturn state elections. Republicans act like they believe this claim because it will help them cheat on the next election.

Why did Joe Manchin not want to support the Build Back Better plan?

Look at his motivators. He gets money from climate damaging industries. The plan he opposed would significantly damage those industries.

Why did Republicans vote against a very popular infrastructure bill that they wanted to support under Trump?

Look at the motivators. Under Trump, the Republicans would have been able to take credit for this bill. However, under Biden, the Democrats would get credit. It is more important to Republicans to get credit than it is to pass a bill that benefits nearly everyone in the country.

Why did Democrat Sinema vote against efforts to lower drug prices?

Look at the motivators. In her case…dollar bills….lots of dollar bills given to her by big Pharma.

Why can’t either party fix immigration?

Look at the motivators. If Democrats are in charge, Republicans complain that Democrats are letting in non-white people that will gobble up all of our good paying jobs and cause crime. If Republicans are in charge Democrats complain about the inhumane treatment of immigrants. Both parties want this problem to exist so they can beat the other party over their head with it.

Why do Republicans focus so much on lowering taxes for rich people and companies?

Look at the motivators. Both of these entities represent nearly all of the money Republicans have. They take care of their donors instead of their constituents because…money.

It’ amazing to me how many people will stretch their belief system to accommodate the most ridiculous conspiracy theories. There are Flat-Earthers. There are those that believe we never landed on the moon. There are those that think a dead JFK jr. will come back to life to run as Trump’s running mate.

These people represent THE reason we can’t have nice things.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim