Ramblings from an unfocused mind

Posted on October 10, 2018 by admin

This just in: Every now and then, I just need to clear all the temporary files in my mind. The result is a random flood of unrelated things with no attempt to weave them into a story. This is one of those days.

Let’s begin…

When I travel, I allow myself one stop at Popeye’s Chicken and one stop at Taco Bell. The result of this well-intentioned effort on restraint is that I stop at Popeye’s once and buy enough food for everyone on the block…and one plastic fork. Today…it was $20 at Taco Bell. The last few bites were slow going down but still awesome.

51% of of our Senate represent 44% of our population and 26% of our country’s GDP. Yes, they represent the poor states; those states that have made bad investments in themselves and their economy. Instead,they rely on the Blue states to subsidize them.

When I read for fun, it’s usually “hard” Science Fiction. There has to be a couple of spaceships and some sort of war. Neal Asher is my author of choice. However, I am now reading a book about two little girls that are solving a neighborhood crime. It’s called “The Trouble With Goats and Sheep.” I’m really enjoying it!

I’m going to San Diego to watch Navy play Notre Dame. It should be a lot of fun as a few of my Naval Academy classmates will be there. The game will be a horror story as Notre Dame will probably score like a basketball game.

Yesterday, I left my hotel room in the morning as MSNBC was interviewing people about Kavanaugh. The question was, “Who is more energized by this; Republicans or Democrats?” I came back 10 hours later are this was still the question they were discussing.

The New York Times ran a story about Trump’s history of tax evasion and tax fraud. The result: His fans still love him. Go figure. This guy belongs in jail and my hope is that he dies wearing Folsom Orange.

I’m taking a class on “influence.” Chapter 3 was about the downside of influence. It talked about traits like Narcissism and how those are basically used for evil. As an example, the course used Donald Trump. By the way, this was recorded about 10 years ago. The course says avoid Narcissistic people because they lie all the time and promise you great things but have no substance. Pure Trump.

A UN Climate report came out and said, “You have 11 years until the end of the world.” Everyone in the world is terrified. Not Trump. He continues to think Climate Change is a Chinese hoax designed to somehow hurt American manufacturing.

Last word on Kavanaugh…The Republican Party said the following 2 statements (paraphrased here): “We believe Dr. Ford” and “Dr. Ford was a hoax.” They wavered between these two, depending on the audience. The Republican Party also defines “Mob” as “Angry women that raise their voices and make old white men uncomfortable.”

As I write this, MSNBC has moved from “Who is the most energized” to “Live coverage of people wading through water while carrying puppies.” It seems to me that the major news outlets have three modes: (1) Politics because no one is dying right now, (2) Plane crashes because a bunch of people died at once and (3) Hurricanes because “Who doesn’t like watching roofs blow off?” Honorable mention is the occasional mass shooting (or…act of terrorism if it was committed by a non-white.)

I’ve been doing some work in Canada recently and I would like to report that Canadians are as nice as we think they are. They look at Trump and understand that we had a temporary lack of good judgement and they will wait patiently for sanity to return to the lower 48.

I guess that’s enough of a data dump for now…I still have a Burrito Supreme that’s not going to eat itself.

Up, up and away…

Jim

The Shame

Posted on October 5, 2018 by admin

This just in: “Every nation gets the government it deserves.” – Joseph de Maistre

Last night I had a dream. I was some sort of Terminator-type guy and I was fighting off an alien invasion that was enslaving mankind. In the end, I saved the world. There was a brief celebration and then everyone turned against each other to see which of them would be the new leader and thus, the new “enslaver of mankind.”

At this point, I turned my back on the populace and walked away knowing I had accomplished…nothing.

I think the moral of the story is that the enemy is within.

Our government is in a shambles. I can’t blame Trump. I can’t blame the Republicans. Why? Because if we get rid of them, the “system” that gave birth to them will endure and thus…produce replacements that are just as bad.

What do I mean when I say “system”?

I think if I had to choose one issue…it would be the absence of accepted facts.

Pick any issue. Let’s use tariffs. I think we should know exactly why the tariffs are in. We should know exactly how these affect our target (China) and our allies. We should know how they affect us. We should know how, as a tool, tariffs stack up against other options that may achieve the same goal.

We don’t clearly know any of this.

What about the tax cut that was passed? What about immigration? What about NATO or the Paris Accord? What about Kavanaugh? What about auto emissions? What about Net Neutrality? What’s the impact of income inequality? Can we do better with healthcare?

Suppose we knew exactly the impact and various solutions to these and many other issues. We could then make good choices. Perfect decisions come from perfect information.

This brings me to the title of this post: Shame.

The “Shame” is that we are completely able of finding the answers to these issues and making them public. We are smart and capable. We can do this.

But we don’t.

We don’t because people are “influenced” to turn the other way. It could be “vote this way for me and I’ll vote that way for you” type of thing. It could be “I don’t’ want Trump to give me a nickname.” It could be, my billionaire campaign contributor won’t back me if I don’t vote a certain way.” Once influence, the fact are often hidden as they may contradict a desired action.

These types of influencers are what got a tax cut passed that is adding trillions to our debt so the extremely rich have even more money. These types of influences gives us a circus for Supreme Court nominations where 90% of Kavanaugh’s history is kept secret even from the Judicial committee’s Democrat members and the FBI is directed to apparently “not find anything.”

What’s that you say, “We don’t know what the FBI was directed to do.” That is true. So I ask, “Why don’t we know exactly what the FBI was directed to do?”

We now have permission to lie. We have permission to hate. We have permission to ignore science. We have permission to scam the tax system. We have permission to ignore the plight of women and minorities.

And with this permission came an astonishing revelation: We have been waiting all along for this to be okay.

The most shameful thing of all is that the mirror has been turned towards us and the picture is not pretty.

That Shame may also be the hidden blessing. I can pretend that my face is not dirty so long as you don’t make me look in the mirror. When confronted with the fact…maybe I’ll decide it’s time to bath.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

Why I think Kavanaugh is lying

Posted on September 28, 2018 by admin

This just in: I don’t care what Kavanaugh did 35 years ago; at least not nearly as much as I care about what he is doing right now. Right now, he is lying to Congress and that is a felony crime.

I think he is lying for a couple of reasons I’m going to lay out right now.

Reason #1: He is acting like he is guilty. If I’d been accused of the type of conduct he is being accused of, my first action, as an innocent person, would be to insist on a thorough investigation. Anything short of that would leave lingering doubts about the type of person I was.

Saying there have been 6 Background Investigations is nonsense. If a BI was so conclusive, why would there ever be a 2nd one, much less 5 more. When conditions change, a new BI is warranted.

Saying, “We have signed notes from a couple of people” is about the same as saying, “I climbed a tree and nearly touched the moon.”

Reason #2: Kavanaugh has skin in the game; a lot of skin in the game. He will get the job of a lifetime if he is appointed so there is a lot riding on this. Additionally, anything short of his getting the job will leave him tainted as “The man that lost the job because of a 35 year old sex offense.” His reputation is on the line along with the job.

Reason #3: The woman has nothing to gain. In fact, she has already lost a lot. She’s lost her privacy. She’s exposed herself to death threats and hate mail. She is demonstrably non-political.

Reason #4: The Republican Party is rushing this through. Why? Because where there is smoke, there is fire. The longer he is sitting on the hot seat, the more stuff about his past is likely to be exposed. They act like it’s important to fill this seat on the SCOTUS as soon as possible. This ignores the fact that they just allowed a seat to be left open for several months so that Trump, not then President Obama, could fill the seat.

Those are reasons I think he is lying.

Here are a couple of reasons I think he should not get the job:

His opening statement yesterday made it clear that he is going to hold a grudge against the Democrats. So much for non-partisan judges.
He will end up Judging Trump which means that Trump is picking a SCOTUS justice that will get him off of the hook.
He is emotionally unstable as demonstrated in yesterday’s hearing.
He is lying to Congress.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim