Homophobic Crackdowns No Worry

In Russia, Africa, and the Muslim world, there are crackdowns against gays, with the death penalty, prison, and torture all on the table, either being considered or being actively implemented. Look at Chechnya, Russia, Zimbabwe, Iran, Egypt, Uganda.

It is useful for repressive regimes and corrupt politicians to scapegoat a minority--preferably an unpopular minority--and gays fit the bill, having a sexuality outside the norm. So that's the reason. The right-winger Satanists over in the U.S. (those charlatans that claim to be Christians) are delighted, and do everything they can to finance/enhance/support any homophobic laws or brutality that they possibly can. The more killings, the better, in their book.

Question--Will all those tortures and murders result in fewer gays? Well, with an eye to history, my answer is a firm No. In the past, gays had it far, far worse. About every country killed a gay, as soon as he was known. That policy obviously did not result in fewer gays, but in more gays, because the gays kept in the closet, and then tended to get with women and reproduce, thus producing, ironically, more gays. This is known as "poetic justice."

In the end, there will be half the world, the West, that is good to gays, and another half, the evil side, Islamic, Russian and African, that is wicked. I think that the good side will have the advantage of a vast hidden network of sympathizers, who will want to help the good side of the world, whereas the bad side of the world is never really going to know who is gay and who is not, and is going to make a lot of false assumptions and false arrests in their frenzy to detect and apprehend the harmless gays. In any event, going around punishing people for being gay is not a profitable use of time and resources. Meanwhile, the wicked side of the world falls further into corruption, vice and ignorance, as is the case with evil-doers.

Alternative to Organ Donation is Rot

The BBC reports that families often block organ donation, because of sentimentality. The cemetery should live-stream the corpse for a couple of years and show them what happens to a corpse buried in the ground. Instead of the organs being donated, what happens is worms eat the eye balls, and bacteria and funguses start a-sprouting, and all kinds of bugs and creepy-crawleys dine on a great big feast--instead of a nice, clean, organ donation that saves another person's life. It is complete nonsense that people can be so weak and mean-spirited as to deny others any use of a dead person's organs. They need a refresher course in morality or else need to spend time in a mortuary and learn what happens to dead meat. It would also be poetic justice if they need an organ and are told, No, we need to let this organ rot and provide food for fungus, bacteria, worms and crawley bugs, so you can just take some Tussin to shut up your fussin.

A Spoonful of Tussin Shuts Up Your Fussin

Another friend of the Trumpette without health insurance, after Trump's latest moves to gut Obamacare, is Robitussin. Take 'tussin for whatever ails you. It is said to be the cure for everything. You don't need no Obamacare! Be a true Republican, and go without health insurance, as your leaders desire. A spoonful of Tussin shuts up your fussin.

Stocks are in Wacka-Wacka Land

True, stocks are in Wacka-Wacka Land, with P/E ratios through the roof in comparison to historical norms. But with bonds, even high yield, yielding well under 5 per cent, is there really a choice for investors? Anyway, dividends on stocks often match or exceed the bond market. I have to stay in stocks, at least until bonds recover from their low interest rate disease.

Roy Moore

Alabama's Roy Moore, he's a live one, a typical specimen of hatemonger that, while professing his piety, is steeped in wickedness. To what entity, then, is his piety directed? For transitory power in this world, men estrange themselves from the other--a poor bargain, in any event.

Take Some Bufferin to Ease Your Sufferin

Those that voted for Trump now stand to lose their health insurance. Oopsy-daisy! You voted for Trump, now do what he says. Trump says you don't need health insurance, all you need is to take some Bufferin to ease your sufferin.

The Arab's Women

I read about an Arab up in New York who left his date to burn to death while he hailed a cab. With the influx of refugees in recent years, that's what we're bringing over from the Middle East, the idea that a man's minor discomfort is of greater moment than a woman's whole life. That fits in with the way the Arab culture treats women in general, beating and whipping them for minor infractions of the rigid religious laws. Women that go along with that sort of thing must have a taste for fist.

Sadistic Religion

The attraction of harsh, dogmatic, judgemental religion, like most strains of Islam, and some strains of the other religions, for some people has little to do with the spiritual. Such faith is hostile to spirituality. Instead, some people view religion as a rule-based system for sado-masochistic role-play. For them, it is fun, pleasurable, giving a new lens to their life-experience. Politically, they seek "religious liberty" to indulge in their sado-masochistic role-play. There is a considerable attraction for such people in a well-defined system to denigrate both themselves and others, to spread derision upon all and everything, and obtain pleasure through suffering and the infliction of suffering, while reserving all their devotion for a hidden entity, a Master unseen. Their actual god is Thanatos, son of Night, whose history with H. Sapiens is long and storied, but they are ignorant of the name, and suppose it is another entity, that out of respect, they dare not name. They dare not name, because the name is known, and is not conducive to trust. Ultimately, what they crave most of all and look forward to is dissolution from this world.

Trump is the President Some Americans Deserve

Trump is the President that a big segment of our fellow Americans richly deserve. The Vanity Fair article says it all. Trump reflects a big segment of our population, say around 46%: fat, lazy, old, and grasping for quick, simple, easy solutions to a complicated and changing world. People just don't want to be bothered to think about things. They want everything to be easy, across the board, quick and easy, most of all, first and foremost. But the world isn't easy, never has been and never will be. Thus, we have a President with a fundamental disconnect from reality, living in an alternative Universe of his follower's making, based on Fox News and Sean Hannity and little else. That everything they believe is false, is a thought that never occurs to them. Perhaps they deserve Trump. As for the rest for us, we have merely to survive and nurture hope for the future. Perhaps it is too early to advise teaching one's children Chinese.

Treatment of Animals is the Ultimate Moral Litmus Test

When one reads about the needless torture of lower life forms, such as pigs--a grave sin committed in an effort to maximize profit--and probably ineffective--and the alarming footnote, that this torture is now defended with all of the vast resources of our Federal Government, by directive of the Trump Administration, it is a shock indeed; and one wonders whether the moral divide between the U.S. and other countries, such as N. Korea, has diminished from a mighty chasm, to a hop, skip and a jump. Our enemy tortures humans for no good reason, for sport; we torture pigs for no good reason--and persecute those who would show any consideration at all to the animals. We are better, still, but there is a stain.

How can it be that the "Conservative Christians" that are all for Trump can turn a blind eye to the needless suffering of animals, committed out of pure callousness? The question must be posed: if their god would approve callous cruelty against animals, then what sort of god is it?

We may one day by judged, if not by God, than by an alien race, based upon how we treat other life forms on the planet, and if that day comes any time soon, then I certainly hope we are judged individually, rather than collectively.

Trump the Motivator

Trump is doing more for the Democratic Party than any of his predecessors ever did. I think, for all those Democrats, Independents and IDunnoKnow's, next time election-day rolls around, they are going to feel like voting. Thank you, Trump, for motivating the people to vote.

Emotional Support Pets

A Muslim woman was dragged off a plane merely because she mentioned she had an allergy to dogs. The pilot freaked out and ordered police to remove her by force. Turns out the dog on the plane was for so-called "Emotional Support," not because there was a blind person on board. And, by the way, seeing-eye dogs are exceptionally well-trained and well-behaved, and in all my days, I've never seen one act up. Seeing-eye dogs are better-behaved than a lot of human beings. Emotional support dogs get no training at all. You can have a toy poodle that barks its head off all day, and that's your emotional support dog that you can bring on to a plane.

Those morons that insist upon bringing animals into public spaces due, not to blindness, but to the supposed "emotional support" should be required to complete Army Basic Training as a condition of release from a psychiatric labor camp. If they fail to complete Basic training, they should stay in the labor camp to work out all of those emotional issues and help clean toilets, garbage cans and ditches in public spaces. I think, after either Army Basic Training or twenty years cleaning toilets, they may not have a need for an emotional support pet any longer. Of course, at either facility, pets would not be allowed.

Iran's Reparations

Iran should be paying the U.S. reparations for all the terrorism over the years. About a hundred billion a year, for ten years, would be about right. They have plenty of oil, they can pay. Terrorism should not be a risk-free or cost-free business. If Trump does go to war with Iran, then he should make sure the U.S. does not wind up footing the bill for the entire exercise.

With Age Should Come Dignity

As one ages, the most important thing to hold on to and nourish is one's dignity. Check out this article, about a fracas between a young, eloquent, smart, attractive college student and an old, haggardly, unemployed and, certainly by now, unemployable, ex-professor. What a way to end a career. That entire episode was undignified and an example of how not to behave. The main moral of that story is that with age should come calmness and philosophy. That is why I plan to remain sober and avoid vendettas. Better to remember the New Testament and turn the other cheek, than to make a big scene in a grocery store.

How to Live in France

If one lives in France, definitely one should travel armed and ready to slay a terrorist dead, along with any of his accomplices. France should institute nationwide defense training to educate its population on the most efficient methods of slaying terrorists, and everybody over there ought to be armed with something, be it mace, knife, or even a pistol. There shouldn't be a single woman walking in public over there without a fully loaded pistol in a holster on her hip, with additional cartridges in her purse along with a can of mace. The obvious solution to terrorism is to arm the populace, to militarize it. Terrorists treat civilians as military targets, so might as well in fact make them military, with the capability of slaying the terrorists. The only reason civilians are targeted in the first place is that terrorists are low-life, rotten cowards looking for a soft target. A good old bullet to the brain is the best cure for a terrorist, and there's no reason a civilian can't serve it up, when needed.

This is the consequence of letting in all those Muslims that hate democracy and hate the West. You have to arm everyone in society and be ready to kill in an instant. Basically, the Middle East is exporting itself, its instability, craziness and senseless violence.

Sonic Warfare on U.S. Diplomats in Cuba

I am tired of reading about the so-called "mystery" surrounding hearing loss of U.S. diplomats in Cuba. It is no mystery. It is obvious and transparent. A sonic generator was deployed. Those gadgets, anybody can buy for a hundred bucks or so. Whup-de-doo. Where's the mystery? It's not rocket science. You plug it in, hide it somewhere, and a sonic wave emanates below the range of detection by human hearing, yet quite damaging. The only tip-off the victim has is that they feel bad in a certain area of a building. There is no mystery, repeat, no mystery. As to who did it, I think that will never be known until somebody squeals. Most likely, it is North Korea or Iran, because these are the declared enemies of the United States, and these countries have a huge interest in cultivating animosity between the U.S. and Cuba. At any rate, blame Iran or North Korea, because those regions are completely worthless, full of evil-doers with no value to the world, and deserve whatever punishment gets meted out. Ultimately, who cares who is to blame? Iran and North Korea are the default scapegoats. Iran actually says "Death to America!" on a regular basis, and North Korea threatens to nuke us, so their intentions are clear.

Trump is Right about Puerto Rico

The reality is, Puerto Rico won't be around in a couple decades. It will be under the ocean. To invest money on rebuilding anything else on that doomed island is ludicrous. Hand out birth control and food, and that's it. Temporary shelters at most. Anything built will become homes for the fish of the future. All we have to look forward to is more and worse storms in that part of the world. Rebuilding New Orleans was stupid, too. I think people need to educate themselves on climate change and what exactly it means, then reconsider investing billions on the coast. Maybe billions of their retirement savings, but not of taxpayer dollars. If they want to go bankrupt flushing money into the ocean, that's their business. But it shouldn't be the taxpayer's.

As for the debt, default. Wall Street should have known better. Maybe they can recycle whatever is left on that island or sell the land to carnival ships, who can use it as a tourist destination until it disappears.

Stocks and Bonds Ain't Hard

Stocks and bonds ain't hard, at least if one chooses to use mutual funds. Stock-picking is not my game, because I feel like the system is corrupt and rigged, with inside knowledge dominating. Those "in the know" can make bundles of cash, legally or not, just like those Equifax business criminals did, knowing full well they had crucified the American consumer and that Equifax's share price would sink. Folks like me "in the dark" are marks. Unlike the business criminals, I wouldn't know about the Equifax Debacle until Equifax announced it. I don't bother with stock-picking and consider it a fool's game, because only fools trust wolves.

My advice is simple. Choose a low-cost mutual fund family like, oh, say, Vanguard. I do not know of any other. Vanguard is by no means perfect, but they are reasonably good and low-cost, allowing them to beat the performance of most mutual fund families, because let's face it, the stock market mainly moves in unison. There is not a whole lot of advantage to be had in stock-pickers, although there is a whole lot of risk to be had. That 1 or 2 per cent expense ratio on your darling mutual fund is probably being used for massage therapy and new luxury cars for the mutual fund manager, who is ultimately using a computer to pick stocks, anyway. To think you pay a guy more, and he picks better stocks, is a charming little fantasy.

With stock funds, all one needs to know are the fundamentals. One must know what a P/E ratio is, and bear in mind that in today's environment, 17 is not too shabby, but over 20, it's time to bail. One must pay attention to earnings growth. Anything in the double-digits is dandy. That implies red-hot growth. Right now, large-caps stink, but mid-caps and small-caps excel, and that's why investors are buying 'em. The smart money always looks at the fundamentals.

With bonds, one must keep in mind that bonds suck and have sucked for a very, very long time. Any interest rate under 5 per cent really is not worth the time of day. It is extremely high-risk, and there is a possibility one could encounter double-digit losses, depending on the bond fund, due to rising interest rates, defaults, or even inflation. All bonds these days are junk bonds. They are garbage. There is little to no protection against inflation, little to no protection against rising interest rates. That is why people are moving the lion's share of their money into stocks right now, because what's the alternative? There is no alternative to stocks, unless you want to stash your cash under your mattress.

I keep an eye on bonds, however, because if interest rates do recover, then bonds will become very attractive, especially in today's market, where the P/E ratios are through the roof, judged on a historical basis. Bear in mind, P/E ratios used to be in the neighborhood of 11 or 12, for about a hundred years or so. It is only in today's environment that a P/E of 17 or 18 has become "the new normal."

Uber

Uber is another loser corporation that provides crappy service using scabs working at subsistence wages, just enough to buy McDonalds for a treat on Sundays. Uber is another company run by irresponsible, childish executives and another tool to destroy the middle class. The basic model of Uber replaces moderately-waged jobs with crap jobs that have no benefits. Uber doesn't want to comply with any licenses, rules or even the basic law of the land, so good riddance if it gets the boot in Quebec and London.

The only way a spoiled, know-nothing corporate executive earns his keep is this: he figures out a way to pay the workers less for more work. Uber is no exception to the rule that pervades all industry and all commerce.

People working for Uber need to ask themselves, why did I wind up working as a temp scab for a company that pays next to nothing and will fire me just as soon as self-driving cars become a thing?

Going back to the land may be a good adaptation in today's economy, where so many manufacturing and service jobs are getting replaced by automation. Farm, as our ancestors did. At least by farming, one is assured of having enough to eat and enough land to dwell in.

The Equifax Debacle

The American people have been told, yes, Equifax had all your permanent, private, personal data: your Social Security number, birthdate, et cetera. No, you are not allowed to ever change this data. Yes, anyone can apply for a new credit card with that data, thus placing your credit history, privacy and even freedom in jeopardy. Care to play dice with your financial future? There goes your retirement, chump. All your hard work, down the toilet.

I don't recall consenting to give Equifax all my information. They invaded my privacy and then gave my information away to criminals.

Personally, if I have to go through identity theft hell at some point down the line, then it seems only right that Equifax people have to suffer, too, because that's not my cross, it's theirs. The amount of time I am willing to spend cleaning up Equifax's mess is zero. I will not lift a finger to resolve any kind of identity theft problem. Equifax makes me whole. There is no other way. If my dinner gets taken away by identity theft, then they feed me. My life is not about cleaning up after Equifax; otherwise it is no life. But if millions of people suffer identity theft, then our entire financial system is called into question.

The proper response, which would have already been taken by a benevolent dictator, is to make credit card applications much, much more difficult. Credit card, loan, or any kind of financial account application must be done in person and require a DNA sample, retina scan, or something else that is very individualized and extremely difficult to fake. That is the simple, elegant, permanent solution, not just to Equifax, but to all the other scandals that have hit our sorry, stupid, negligent and corrupt business community, driven by greed and completely unconcerned about the country.

However, none of the above is going to happen, because the Republican Congress is just as stupid as the business community. Maybe more so.

Congress has proven again and again it is incapable of acting, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that action is justified. Marijuana was proven non-toxic and harmless way back in the early 1970s, during the Nixon administration, and due to stupidity, Congress never did anything about the laws that equate pot with heroin.

So, is social collapse on the horizon? No, because the American people have a high tolerance for pain and suffering, a limited memory, and are easily distracted by social issues like bathrooms, prayer and abortion. What will happen is that millions of "nobodies" like myself will go through identity theft hell, and nothing will be done, and there will be a lot of hand-wringing but ultimately no changes, and the cycle will continue with more scandals, more data-leaks in the future, and future generations will deal with the problem as well. Because stupid rules the land.

In the end, the only hope for H. Sapiens is that genetic engineering creates a smarter species, capable of seeing through obvious lies and falsehoods. Then the electorate might become capable of electing good people into public office. Such a species might demand more accountability from the corporations that control so much of our lives. But today's people? They just roll over and take it, again and again. They focus on what's important, like Hillary Clinton's email server, or Anthony Weiner's weiner.

Dumbsday Prediction

That a Doomsday prediction of Sept. 23rd received widespread, mainstream media coverage, followed soon after by "what exactly does dotard mean?" betrays the cretinism in the American population. Cretins played their Trump card in 2016, and now Stupid rules the land. Goodbye, several trillion dollars, hello, waste and corruption. Poetic justice will be served if medical care is stripped away from the cretins that voted for Trump.

Sobriety

One reads, everywhere, that alcohol in moderation is good for you, or your heart, or your general state of mind, or your immune system, or something. A glass of wine with dinner, say, or a beer with your buddies, is supposed to enhance well-being. It helps the heart, well, they don't know how, but they think it may, due to statistics, or something.

On the one hand, we have trillions of dollars made through the global marketing of alcohol-based products. Of course, with so much money at stake, funding will be readily available to any scientist that wants to find virtue in a shot-glass.

On the other hand, we have zero dollars to be made, by the business-criminal class, from healthy, happy, high-functioning human beings.

It is clear to me where the truth lies. For the business criminal, the suffering and death of billions is of small concern, whereas their corporate stock price, and the luxuries afforded by their trade, is everything.

In the beginning, after I cut alcohol from my diet, my thinking was actually impaired, as my body chemistry took time to adjust. But after time, I see that I am stronger and in fuller possession of my powers. I sleep well, long, and deeply, awakening each morning refreshed, renewed, eager to begin the working day. My emotions are calmer, held in a tighter rein by the higher reason, which is of vast benefit. Money that was spent on expensive piss instead remains in my pocket. In addition, I lose weight.

There is a pleasure to be had from alcohol, but many paths lead to pleasure, and alcohol is neither the best nor the only way.

The trouble with a glass of wine at dinner is this. Those with ambition want more. If one glass is good, two must be better, after all.

Dyslexia of Spirits

"Many threes," "four at the end," and a "a three-long sequence," showed in a found crystal. But the drawing had, instead, many fives, a four at the beginning rather than the end, and, yes, a three-long sequence, not of thirties, but of fifties. The failure, rather than being worthless, hints at accuracy tinged by dyslexia. Observe that the Arabic Three, with a single line transposed, resembles the Five, an effect most pronounced on old-fashioned calculators. And looked at from a mirror, or upside down, it is not obvious whether a number is at the beginning or end. Therefore, a better strategy is to choose not just the revealed number, but possible interpretations of it, given the risk of transposition.

Iraqi Asylum Seeker, Stupid England

I read that an 18 year-old Iraqi asylum seeker committed the latest act of terrorism in Great Britain. In the first place, he should get the death penalty, whether it killed anybody or not, and it should be a hanging.

I don't think the Brits know what time of day it is, if they are letting in asylum seekers from barbarian territories that follow the cult of death. Anyway, why do asylum seekers need to come to the developed, rich West? Britain is a crowded island as it is. Is Africa so bad? Send them over to the Sudan, Kenya, or Zimbabwe, and let the folks over there deal with 'em. Definitely I would vote Conservative in every British election if the Conservatives are the only ones that have common sense on this particular issue. The Labour Party needs to sit down with the bombs and think about those nails, knives and screwdrivers penetrating their eyeballs. I think then they could "see" the simple truth, that granting asylum to every Tom, Dick, and Harry is stupid and wrong, and a poor use of taxpayer money. Those people can go over to Africa and live there. There is surely some African nation that will take them, or they can just slip off into the jungle and live off the land. Beggars can't be choosers. I can't even immigrate to England, so why should some 18 year-old Iraqi who doesn't know anything except how to kneel before the demon-pig?

Hopefully, the educational system over in England will improve to the point where politicians can trace the obvious line between letting terrorists into the country, and people getting blown up in bombs. Hopefully, they will learn that letting in terrorists in not such a great idea, and that includes all the Muslims, who are always going to feel alienated from Western culture and will always hate the West and are really just ticking time-bombs, destined to kill Westerners at some point in time now or later. To accelerate the learning process, politicians that don't get it should be voted out of office.

Identity Theft

As far as crime goes, my #1 concern in life is avoiding becoming a victim of identity theft. I read this morning this poor chap's story. Credit ruined, flagged at airports, taxes in disarray, collectors hounding him--I'd rather get beaten and sent to the hospital than have to go through all the paperwork hell, sitting on hold with disinterested, zero-knowledge customer service representatives, to restore my identity. I am pretty careful about safeguarding my personal information. Unfortunately, with the Equifax hack, everyone's a potential victim, whether they adhered to proper precautions or not. If the system cannot be trusted to hold confidential information, then where are we? The Wild, Wild, West, I'm afraid.

I think applying for credit cards should be far more difficult and involve DNA matching, in-person. Only one credit card per person is really needed. Anymore is nonsense. The more complicated finances are, the more opportunity for abuse, fraud and negligence. A lot of credit card companies and banks are worthless, including Equifax. I think Equifax betrayed the country. Is the Equifax betrayal worse than what Chelsea Manning did? Apples to oranges, but I think so. The executives at Equifax basically said, who cares about the American consumer. We can save a little bit of cash by skimping on security, so let's do it. Meanwhile, they played golf. They should have treated the confidentiality of our personal information like they were transporting gold bricks, but they acted like it was used rubber tires.

But I am a voice in the wilderness. Apparently, tons of people apply for credit cards online daily, and many people have multiple credit cards. No one will listen to me, and every day, the list of identity theft victims grows. But I bet you one thing. I bet you the identity theft victims agree with me.

Equifax, the Know-Nothing Company

A college music major was the top Equifax executive for security--but it was a she, and probably she was good eye candy at those executive luncheons, is my guess. That she knew nothing about security is no surprise. Most corporate executives are lucky to know how to tie their shoes. That is why the United States has a huge trade deficit and has so many problems without solutions. The idle rich at the top know nothing and do nothing, while the workers at the bottom that actually get things done are given more and more responsibilities for less pay, until they eventually drop the ball due to overwork. Without effective management, how is a company supposed to innovate?

The only thing an executive knows how to do is fire Americans and send the jobs over China for less pay. Steve Jobs, often held up as a shining example of a corporate executive, hated America with every fiber of his being, and that is why he told Obama "Hell, no!" when the President asked him to think about his country for one moment, think about American workers. Steve Jobs had the most ironic name in history, although Steve Traitor would have been more accurate. When I look at an Iphone and see "Made in China," I think of him, and think what a traitor he was. He sent all those factories to China, those factories that can be easily converted to produce military hardware.

My opinion is, we need fire executives like that and put people at the top that are actually capable of leading companies, instead of spending all day playing golf. Looks like Equifax did indeed fire their security officer and chief technology officer, although they sure did take their time coming to a rather obvious conclusion. Equifax owes the U.S. taxpayer a couple trillion dollars for negligence. Really, there is no need for a company like that, if it is going to give all our data to criminals. Equifax should be investigated for criminal negligence, let alone the civil lawsuits.

Inviting Terrorism

Hopefully, the Europeans have added one plus one and concluded, in their infinite wisdom, that it equals two. After so many terrorist incidents, is it not clear that inviting all the Muslims over to the West, for cheap labor, or whatever, was a bad idea? They hate the West, want to kill/rape Westerners, and if they had their way, every one of you would be dead. Now, how many you want to immigrate into your country, again? Maybe reconsider that thought?

St. Louis Shooting / Protests

After reading this story in the New York Post, I'm persuaded that the officer involved in the shooting of an urban heroin dealer, who was driving 87 m.p.h. on wet roads, was justified. Or at least, there is insufficient evidence to conclude it was murder. People don't listen to the facts. They just weave what they want to believe about the police and about society. I doubt anyone rioting bothered to read the judge's carefully crafted 30-page explanation for his verdict. Violent protesters that destroy property should be placed in prison. It may be that St. Louis needs martial law, and the National Guard needs to be activated. There is no right to destroy the property of hard-working home owners and store owners. No "letting off steam."

In the U.S., there is a certain element of blacks that make a living out of racism complaints. They feel like any sin can be excused based on the color of their skin. They are not without sin themselves. In reality, they are the racists. Every white person they see, they call racist. I have seen more black racists in my day than white racists, and I have encountered racism from blacks more often than I've seen black people on the receiving end. The only time I see blacks on the receiving end is in Hollywood movies.

The way to end racism is simple. Act decent, obey the law, work for a living. Any other proposal just smacks of reverse racism. There are plenty of black police, and local departments are eager to hire. Want to improve the police? Join them! They are looking for a few good men and women. Color of skin, unimportant.

The Pledge

The Pledge of Allegiance, like praying, should be voluntary. Observe that praying is compulsory in barbarian territories, so-called Islamic "countries" ruled by despots, where "morality police" punish those caught skipping prayers.

Teachers shouldn't assault kids over prayer or the Pledge. That is a foolish thing to do. In the first place, it won't make a kid patriotic; quite the opposite. In the second place, it is a poor excuse for an assault. Teachers that do that probably should not be in the profession.

The reason people pledge, or don't pledge, is a feeling of belonging to a nation and its system.

I remember back in the day, when I skipped the Pledge, as a fourteen year-old high school freshman. The reason had to do with complete alienation from the school and the country. It seemed like the school was run by the bullies, that is, the mean teachers and the tough kids, who seemed to recognize one another on some level and work hand-in-glove in many ways. The teachers turned a blind eye to bullying, and the mean kids just had a field day and ran the school. It was like prison--no different, really. There was violence, a good deal of it, and a lot of ugliness. Under the circumstances, I did not feel motivated to do the Pledge.

One day, one of the mean teachers, the Phys. Ed. instructor, who hated my guts anyway for being queer and was always working with the bullies to tear me down, yanked me up out of my seat, just like in this media story. I returned his hatred. "Big Red" can thank his lucky star nothing came of it--at least, that is, in my case. With an eye to the future, I absorbed, rather than reflected. Of course, violence begets violence, which is a basic lesson that people forget, and so the cycle continues, from prehistoric times to the present. I concluded that it is better to look toward the future than to dwell in either the past or the present. There is nothing about the high school years worth remembering. It was all wasted time.

Today, I pledge without a second's thought, and the reason is, I feel a part of the system, and a devotion to the country that is genuine, based on my good life, and a comparison of other countries around the world. Other countries, generally, stink. The U.S. is far superior in many ways, until you start comparing the most enlightened, such as Finland, Norway, Sweden, or Canada, for example. Canada, of course, has the better health system and many other things, but even so, the U.S. is definitely worth the pledge. And, I think for a black person, the U.S. is worth the pledge, because black people have it far worse in any given African nation. Yes, even with a certain level of background racism, even with the occasional police shooting, black people generally have it pretty good in the U.S., as demonstrated by the sizeable black middle class. If I were black, I'd certainly prefer the U.S. over any African nation, and I'd try to prove the racists wrong, by living a decent life.

Police Reforms

There need to be reforms to law enforcement in the U.S., because police shootings are out of control. However, the political will just is not there in many states, for various reasons. I think aversion to crime is a bigger reason than racism. People fear thugs more than police officers, and in the final analysis, people are willing to turn a blind eye when the occasional cop pops the occasional fleeing felon. The constant accusation of racism simply cheapens it, until people are inured and ambivalent to the charge.

One of the biggest problems of law enforcement today is that people take drugs or drink and then get behind the wheel of a large automobile. Where politics has failed, technology will succeed, and self-driving cars are the ultimate answer to the problems besetting law enforcement. If there are no drivers, then there is no need for quite so many police, and no need for chases. Every vehicle can have a "kill switch" installed if the vehicle ever becomes a problem. Whether stupid people drink or not, their cars can get them to where they are going. The police will then be confined to foot patrol, investigators and S.W.A.T. teams, resulting in a reduction of their manpower and significant savings to the taxpayer.

At any rate, there will be no jobs in the future, because robots are going to do just about everything, including driving. In a low-employment future, where so many of our current professions have become fully automated by robots, people will be willing to die for a job, and only the best of the best will be selected for a nice salaried job with benefits, such as a police officer. The top 1% will become police officers, while the vast majority will be unemployed, selling their organs or bodies in order to make a living.

My guess is that the vast hordes of the unemployed will become bandits, stealing and pillaging to make a living, and law enforcement will then need to be robotized. Vast armies of machines will fly about killing bandits and composting their bodies for agriculture. Mass-production of the flying killers will be necessary in order to reduce the human population by 99.99%. For the super-rich, this is all about forging a wonderful paradise for themselves and their future genetically-enhanced generations of godlike beings. After all, our ancestors did give Neanderthals short shrift. We cannot expect easier treatment, now, can we?

Chelsea Manning

The former CIA Director Mike Pompeo was right to oppose Manning's presence at Harvard. Manning wants to make a career out of her treachery. I think that she should be working the drive-through window at McDonalds, and anywhere else needs a strong backlash from the media and the social media. There is nothing she has to share with the world. Instead, she has much to learn, and should be listening to others. She received excellent treatment by the U.S. government, all things considered, and was not grateful to Obama for getting out of prison. In times past, she would have been hung, and indeed, there was a good argument to be made in favor of hanging. Had she picked the wrong document to upload, in her confused state of treachery, she would be on death row.

Martin Shkreli

If all rich people were like Martin Shkreli, then all good people would have to become communists.

Now, it's not rocket science. The other rich folk know that he makes their whole class look bad.

Just goes to show, a rich man has to act abominably, and make the other rich folk nervous, before the law comes after him. If Shkreli acted nice, played silent and listened to his lawyers--that is, if he had a lick of sense--then he'd get off, despite his alleged crimes, because money buys the law, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. Money buys the law, except in the case of a fool.

Shoe's on the Other Foot

In no way is Islam even remotely equivalent to modern Christianity or Judaism.

Over in Burma, the shoe's on the other foot for Muslims. Instead of Muslims butchering Christians and other minorities, in Burma, the Muslims are the ones getting kicked out. Well, too bad, so sad, real glad. How do you think the Muslims got there in the first place, if not by butchering and war? That's how Islam spread in the first place. Anywhere the Muslims are, they are in the business of getting rid of other religions and even giving the atheists a hard time. Either beheading, rape, or milder persecutions in the case of so-called "moderate" Muslim nations like Indonesia. There is probably a good reason the Burmese want the Raping-ya gone, and the Western media isn't reporting on that. Instead, the media just blindly treats the whole spectacle as a human rights crisis. In reality, Burma is cleansing itself of a dangerous, evil cult that always kills or marginalizes outsiders. Look at any Islamic country, and the truth is clear. They want the non-believer gone, period. They serve evil and behave accordingly. Muslim countries tend toward dictatorships, and the populations tend toward fanaticism, terrorism and brutality. The less Muslims, the better.

The Neighbor's Dog

My neighbor got a dog recently. I like it. I like hearing the sound of the dog barking when I go outside. You know what's worse than a dog? Human beings. A good guard dog, contained within a fence, will sound the alarm at any approaching human. Humans are the real danger, coming to steal, vandalize, urinate or defecate, or something similarly undesirable. A dog, we can deal with. A dog's no trouble, unless it wanders freely, in which case it will leave countless reasons arguing in favor of a fence. As long as a dog is kept in a fence, it is a net asset to the neighborhood, and people should be grateful. Never would I complain about barking. It is music to my ears. Dogs are the friends of mankind, and I have always gotten along with them.

Environmental Poetic Justice

I was quite amused at this article, which shows that tap water in the U.S. actually has more microscopic plastic fibers than tap water in...drumroll, please... Uganda or India. We have more of everything in the U.S., so why not microscopic plastic fibers in our drinking water, too?

What do microscopic plastic fibers do to the human body? Who knows? We are conducting an experiment on our bodies, you see. Just an uncontrolled, high-risk experiment, for funsies!

My best guess is that the super-rich, like Donald Trump, probably put their water through a lot of filtering which removes all the pollutants, including microscopic plastic fibers. I could be wrong, but that's what I would do, if I were super-rich. I'd also be nice and purchase filters for police and fire stations, to ensure they have clean, safe water. You don't want your heroes coming down with cancer or whatever it is.

Trump Believes

I wager Trump believes in global warming, because if there's anything he pays attention to, it is his own well-being. He says he doesn't, but he's a liar, so what he says doesn't matter. Often, the opposite of what he says is where the truth lies. Trump doesn't play around much with half-truths, he likes the whole hog, the complete and utter lie, because the more brazen the lie, the bigger the gonads of the liar, in his book.

The way the Republicans are going to solve global warming is simple. The world will mass-produce robots to replace every existing worker. Already, drivers are being replaced. That's huge, putting millions out of a job. Next, soldiers. Then, teachers. In the end, there will be no jobs, hence no need for all these people. So, with all these unemployed bums sitting around unhappy and miserable, there will be inevitable wars that serve the higher purpose of killing everyone off--that is, the people that don't matter, of which the majority consists--those making under, say, a million dollars a year, the middle-class and lower-class. I don't know, how many people do you need, in the end? One? A dozen? A thousand? That's subjective. There is no necessary number of human beings. If a human being is still in charge, then some extra humans will be retained as sex slaves and organ donation bags. You need a certain redundancy in kidneys, hearts, and parts like that. The rest are compost.

With no population to generate carbon dioxide or other pollutants, global warming will go into reverse, and plants will take over again. The whole Earth will be a beautiful, charming, luxurious amusement park for the super-wealthy, the elite, the chosen by God (as per Christianity's Prosperity Gospel). Must be nice, for those that live to see it.

We Should Load Japan and S. Korea Up

Since Russia and China wanted N. Korea to have nukes so badly, it is high time the U.S. load every available inch of Japanese and S. Korean soil with nuclear warheads, preferably the largest and mightiest possible. We should also arm Australia, New Zealand, and any other decent, stable republic that wants to pay for the privilege. Instead of just giving countries protection, we should sell them nukes, and pay down the national debt. Japan can give us a couple trillion right away. S. Korea is probably good for at least a trillion. They can pay down our debt and make up for the horrible trade imbalance.

S. Korea should be buying nothing but American goods, and shunning China. No Chinese products should be purchased in any of the imperiled Asian countries, if they know what's good for them. What we need to tell the Asians is this. Want your hair to glow in the dark? No? Then buy American. Otherwise, eat North Korea's nukes. The day when the U.S. just accepts a horrible trade deal and then turns around and gives free protection is--hopefully--over, if the Trump man-child can only focus for a minute or two, instead of spending all night sitting on his golden toilet typing insults on Twitter.

Outcome of Lottery Number Divination Experiment

One thing's for sure, spirits ain't good with numbers.

Our Weakened Country

The U.S. has to tip-toe around the tulips until it rebuilds its manufacturing capacity. China does all the manufacturing now, so China will win any war in the long-term. Our leaders let all the factories go overseas, with the result that 99% of all our stuff is made in China. Let's face it, China holds all the cards. Every computer gadget we buy is made in China. China knows all the technological secrets by now, because security is just an after-thought to most governments and businesses. The reality is that China is THE world power. The U.S. is just a proud old lion, about ready to serve as vulture food.

Unfortunately, Trump is as stupid as the rest of them, or rather more so. All he thinks about is jabbing liberals in the eye with the transgender ban, the Wall and denying medical care to the poor. He never thinks about China eyeing Hawaii, Guam and Alaska as future Provinces. The inhabitants there would serve as slaves until the land is repopulated with Chinese...or North Koreans.

Rebuilding America is the last thing Trump cares about. Trump just cares about being the center of attention with his loud, nasty, ugly hyena-face with somebody else's hair pinned on top. Trump is a petulant child, not a man. If leaders like that waste of space would do something other than brood over real and imagined slights, things might move forward. More likely, the U.S. is destined for long-term decline. The people, unaware of history, bored with science, and only semi-literate with their gadgets and toys, plastic Jesuses and opiates, seem incapable of looking after their own interests and electing any kind of leader worth his salt.

If I Won a Million in a Lottery

If I won a million dollars in a lottery, after taxes and fees, then most would have to be put away for the future. I would try to preserve most of it in bond funds, so that I could enjoy a decent income every year and no longer have to work for a living. That is not to say, I would quit my job. I probably would keep working, because let's face it, a million bucks ain't what it used to be. I happen to love my job and the people I work with, anyway.

I'd put, say, $600,000 into savings, so that a modest 4% annual return would result in $24,000 a year. Nice to get 24 grand for doing nothing, eh? Stock funds are all well and good, but why risk it if you don't have to?

The other $350,000, I'd spend on furnishing a fabulous house, not a mansion, mind you--but I could afford a nice 3,000 square foot brick home in a hilly area, and surround it with a high fence for security, in case the bottom drops out and the world goes crazy. One never knows. I wouldn't want to live too far out in the sticks, but nearby to my favorite amenities: the police, fire department, and hospital. I like police, I like firemen, and I like doctors. Those are really the necessary professions in a society.

I'd tithe 5%, or $50,000, to worthy individuals who need a bit of help, friends and relatives that need a new car, say. I'd prefer direct contributions to individuals rather than giving to big organizations, because organizations can be like a black hole, and one never knows where the money goes.

What's interesting to me about the lottery is treating it as an experiment into the art of divination. If it were possible to divine a future event, such as a lottery drawing, then that has certain implications, the first being that the future is either predestined and knowable by some beings or else maleable by them in some way. An entity would need to be either powerful or prescient to predict a winning lottery number. Treating a lottery purchase as an experiment also has the advantage of limiting exposure. Of course, the mathematical odds against winning a lottery are so great, that a lottery is an extremely poor, even stupid investment. The only way it can be considered, in my view, is as a divination experiment, and for that purpose, only one ticket is required, not many. If a single purchase fails to win, then it follows that the experiment failed, end of story.

Science is Cool

Science is cool, as demonstrated in this recent article about diamonds raining down from the sky. I think that in the U.S., more needs to be spoken about science, and scientists should be on T.V. giving their educated opinions. We need to hear a lot less from the politicians and their hangers-on, because those types don't know anything, whether it be the economy, the climate, or even military endeavors. To know nothing, and to think one is wise, is dangerous. What we don't need is FOX TV. Instead, we need FACT TV. What is really going on in the world, and why? What are the reasons for it? A really good scientist is a cautious one, reluctant to draw conclusions based upon limited data, and always considering myriad possibilities, so long as they remain possible and supported by evidence.

Illustrative Samsung Corruption Case

South Korea seems a decent and respectable, if conservative and right-wing, country, and their decency is reflected today in the fact that a really rich man is facing actual jail time for corruption. He had a team of 28 lawyers working for him--imagine that. I'd be lucky to have one, juggling my case with a dozen others, probably boozed up and disinterested, at that. I find this case remarkable, because a rich man might actually go to jail, and illustrative, because the sentence seems light at five years.

A poor man may steal something, or deal drugs, or both, and get twenty years, sent to a hard prison, where who knows what will happen to him, and who cares? A rich man may steal millions, and get no jail time at all, or if he does get some, it's going to be a light sentence at one of the easier jails, where at any rate he will get preferential treatment.

That's the main problem with justice in our world. It's not new. Always has been, and still is. It's the left-wingers that want to change this scenario and make justice truly blind. In other matters, such as love, ordinary life, and medicine, the rich may have all the advantages, but in matters of justice, to which human beings attach a spiritual significance, they should be equal to the poorest of the poor. Now, the right-wingers would not agree with that. They would say, to be rich is to be handed a blank check. Until the bank account is empty, the check can cover anything, including any sin. Money is equated with piety. To me, that is blasphemy. But there are even "Prosperity Gospel" Christians who believe money means Grace.

At any rate, I can't imagine such a sentence being handed down in an American courtroom. The rich here get off. No matter what the crime is, they get off, except if the crime is against other rich people. If there are rich victims, you know, rich people matter, so an exception is made, as in the case of Maddoff, who sinned against his own kind.

Even O.J. Simpson got off a murder charge, because he was rich. Color of skin did not matter one iota. I don't think black Americans understood that race was not a factor in that case. They rooted for O.J. and seemed elated when he got off. I recall black coworkers cheering as if they had won something. For my part, I was not surprised. He was rich, he would get off. A poor black man would be on death row right now. Not everything is about race. Money is far more important.

Now, if most blacks were rich, then the shoe would be on the other foot. There are plenty of poor whites, and ironically, they seem to be the ones marching in these white nationalist protests. They lack all class consciousness. They fail to understand, they are viewed under the same lens as the poor blacks. All are dispensable. Racism is opposed because it disrupts productivity and profits. Most barriers in society are generated not by race, but by class. It is not the blacks that are out to get whites. That has always seemed a ludicrous proposition to me. Why some whites want to single out a minority race as a scapegoat for all their problems just seems like blind animal stupidity, like a dog biting its tail because a flea bit its behind.

Serpent Brazille

I watched Donna Brazille, former head of the Democratic National Party, on the Daily Show, and just thought, "Thou Serpent."

In point of fact, which she did not deny nor refute, she cheated and gave Hillary Clinton the questions to the debates with Bernie Sanders, thus betraying all Democrats and, I suppose, all Americans. Where was her sense of Patriotism, of basic morality and fairness? Where? She should be ashamed to show her face on national television, but is not, and instead trumpets herself in the hopes of future rewards, and thus is exposed on the spiritual level, which is all that really matters. At least she is easy to see through, and there is gratitude for that. She is no great shakes, just a roach feeding upon the detritus of similar creatures. Hillary, too, deserves blame for accepting the cheats, and much is exposed about her as well. The Trump fiasco is, in no small part, their fault, on their conscience, such as that tattered creature may be.

Rather than pointing the finger right and left, Hillary Clinton should focus on spiritual purification, and specifically upon improving her modus operandi. Shortcuts are not the way. Sometimes the harder way is best. To lose to Bernie Sanders was right, if Trump were then defeated, but out of myopic selfishness, Hillary chose the path of cheating, which speaks volumes about her previous actions and lends credence to unsubstantiated claims against her from long ago. Bernie may have placed her in his administration, had she fought with honor. If a cretin like Trump beat her, clearly she is not a good candidate for public office and never will be.

Republican vs. Democrat

For me, the clearest and earliest distinction between Republican and Democrat came in the 1970's. Jimmy Carter's administration studied moving the U.S. over to the Metric system. Reagan's administration nixed that plan and committed the U.S. to be the sole adherent to the antiquated old English system. That is why we boil water in 2017 to 212F, instead of 100C. It is why we have to use all these formulae to figure out how much a fraction of an inch is, and how much a fraction of a gallon is. Fractions upon fractions, none simple, none decimal-based! The U.S. is the only holdout today using Farenheit and other old-timey measurements. The rest of the world uses Metric. Our country is embarrassed before the entire world. Thanks a lot, Reagan.

The Republicans are unscientific and hostile toward education. They dwell in the past, and don't accept change of any kind, unless it involves going to war, in which case, they're for it.

The Democrats embrace science, support education, surround themselves with learned men and women, and embrace positive change. That is why I vote Democrat.

What's Wrong With Best Buy

What's wrong with Best Buy is the same thing that's wrong with Sears and Target and all the other bricks-and-mortar dinosaurs. After they go bankrupt, perhaps their space can be used for something useful. The problem is that their upper management, the corporate types, don't get that they are living in 2017, not 1970. Best Buy's plan of action is push sales of high-margin gadgetry to the suckers that walk through their doors. Lots of luck with that. Meanwhile, I do all my shopping online. Best Buy's web site sucks and so does Sears'. They don't get 2017. What they need to do, right now, is sell out to Amazon. Just take pennies on the dollar for their stock price. Because they are already irrelevant.

Staples is the same. I walk into Staples, and it is a wasted effort. They have nothing I need, nothing I want. All that Staples wants to sell me are the high-margin gadgets like tablets and phones. I need specific accessories, like a cable or adapter. Staples doesn't have it. So they aren't going to get me into their store, ever, in a million years. I buy all the high-margin stuff online, anyway. If Staples knew anything, they would focus on just the things they are good at, instead of trying to cram everything office-related into one store.

The only thing I remember about Best Buy is that, twenty years ago, I bought a refrigerator from them with no money down and zero interest. I paid it off before the interest came due. They charged me interest anyway. They violated the terms of the agreement, and I wound up paying a hundred-odd dollars and staying on the phone with their customer disservice for an hour or two. Have not been in their store since. That's twenty years of sales lost, because Best Buy places the emphasis on screwing the customer, rather than providing good service. All these cunning little tricks and traps for the unwary may succeed in the short-term in garnering a little bit of money, but consider for a moment the sales I've directed, not to Best Buy, but to their competitors, because I would never suggest anyone buy anything at Best Buy.

Motley Fool is wrong about Best Buy, but right to describe themselves as fools. Best Buy doesn't need more online promotions or advertising for their web site. Everybody knows about Best Buy already. What they need is to make their web site one-tenth as good as NewEgg's. Right now, Best Buy has the worst web site in the universe. They need to crawl out of the land of Suck. What they should do is to go to NewEgg and just buy NewEgg's system. Pay them a billion, whatever it takes, but get the system and the people that designed it. Only then could Best Buy stave off bankruptcy, maybe, if they're lucky.

Global Warming Comes to North Korea

Looks like the temperature in Pyongyang may be rising 1000 - 2000 degrees in the near future. Global warming is coming to North Korea a bit sooner than the rest of the world. They have only their mad dog dictator to thank for that.

What People Don't Understand About the Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings saga is a Spiritual parable. Without an understanding of the Spiritual, there is no understanding. There are layers within layers. Some things are clear, and other things are hidden. It is a great work, but only those that believe in Spirit accept it as such.

Wasted Money on Haiti

The Haiti government wants to ban not only gay marriage, but any demonstration in favor of LGBTQ rights. I am reminded of all the U.S. taxpayer money, billions most likely, wasted on those savages throughout not just the decade, but the century. Not a single crust of bread should we have ever sent them. For as long as Haiti has existed, it has been nothing but a whiny, troublesome third-world country, always with the hand out begging for scraps, never producing anything of any value to anyone, other than voodoo superstition and zombie lore, which they really believe in. Now the ignorant savages talk about their moral values! A belly-laugh is the only response to that. Next time they beg for medical supplies, refer them to their local witch doctor.

Marijuana Edibles

Apparently, H. Sapiens will work and experiment until even a safe substance is made unsafe. He has the creative genius for that.

Marijuana edibles always were a terrible idea. It is evil to hide a surprise in an otherwise innocuous commonplace food. Any chocolate bar with THC could be ingested by an unsuspecting person.

The only people that ever used edibles in the first place were idiots. There is absolutely no reason to use edibles, ever. Weed vaporizes efficiently and cleanly. Thus, anyone that can breathe, can vaporize. So there is no need to cook with marijuana. This idea that you eat or drink and feel nothing until two hours later, when you either trip to heaven or hell, is both stupid and criminal. Warning labels aren't enough, because labels get mislaid, discarded, or just ignored.

I predict marijuana will be legal, but not edibles. Too many problems with edibles. No one likes to be tricked, least of all H. Sapiens. Those that trip against their will will be filled with hate and thirst for revenge. Cooks, you have yet to know every ingredient in your cauldron.

Suggested Charities

Corporations and, it seems, even government have a compulsion for donating time or money to charity. I have some suggestions.

Apple, Microsoft, and all the Linux Distros should donate to free eye care, for producing desktops with blinding white backgrounds that burn out the eyes of computer workers.

The narcotic departments should donate to medical marijuana farms for depriving patients of their life-saving medication for so many years. Also to rehab clinics for focusing on marijuana, just because it is easy to detect, when the real enemy were the hard drugs--meth, smack, and pills.

The U.S. military can donate to the U.S. taxpayer for blowing so much money on blowing ragheads up. They could have been using old, obsolete, expired or at any rate, cheap munitions and try to save the government some money, but no, they have to use million-dollar smart bombs to defeat a two-bit moron. I'll bet you one thing. I'll bet the ragheads can pump jihadi babies out of their female slaves faster than we can replace million-dollar bombs. Military decisions need to take in account the financial cost to the U.S. taxpayer.

The utility companies can donate to the U.S. taxpayer for blowing billions on nuclear plants, then abandoning them and switching to coal because its cheaper, and at the same time saddling the taxpayer with the costs. They should not be allowed to have their cake and eat it too. The owners need to cough up the money to pay for those expensive plants that were never used.

Climate Change

I imagine all those Trump supporters are the ones most riled up about Climate Change.

For those Trump supporters, this must be the number one issue for them, if they read much or pay attention to what's going on.

If not--crocodile smile. Am I afeared? Nay. I'll be gone, and I've no kin to carry on. 'T'will be Thee & Thine that drink the wine from that vine. I predict--disaster. Thus I mark this with the predictions category.

Looks to me like Trump is preparing us for a big old bankruptcy of an environmental variety.

That's all Trump was ever good for in business--bankruptcy. He was really clever, when it came to taking advantage of suckers. About 47% of the electorate fit that category, according to the last election. I bet they don't fasten their seatbelts, either.

Venezuela Goes Down the Tubes

The latest country flushed down the proverbial toilet is Venezuela. How come none of the military down there have an ounce of patriotism in them, enough to rise up and depose the petty little dictator, Maduro? The same situation presents itself everywhere in the world. Dictators simply persist, and the military goes along with it just because of fear or benefits. Monarchy is, perhaps, the natural state of mankind. That is not an endorsement. It is a flaw. A good king is one thing, but good kings are about as rare as diamonds.

Trump Admin Suffering from I.D.D.

The Trump Administration is suffering from Intelligence Deficit Disorder, also known as I.D.I.O.T. I wonder how long before a foreign country really pulls one over on us. Check out how vulnerable the White House is to simple spear-phishing.

Obama was an intelligent man, and it was reflected in his whole Administration. What we need right now is Obama back at the White House. Maybe his wife will run in 2020, if these United States are still around.

North Korea's Threats

In the nuclear age, a threat is as good as a promise. North Korea's threats to the U.S. homeland should be taken seriously. We should act as though the missiles are launching right now at all the major cities of the United States. We are about as ready as we are ever going to be. Now is the time. Seize the moment and throttle the viper.

Thanks Trump

Thanks for ensuring a new generation of gays will vote Democrat their whole lives and for motivating them to vote. More voter participation will be a good thing and result in a Congress that better represents the people.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan

Revenge rape against 16 year-old girls is O.K. in Pakistan. That is why you don't want to let those savages in to Western countries. All they know for a thousand years is rape, torture, and Islam. If they come over to the West, it will be for the same motives the Vikings came West. They need to stay where they are and fix their backward country instead of betraying it.

Still Using Linux Mint

I donated $25 to Linux Mint just because it is my go-to distro, and I can't imagine being without it. Linux Mint is a curious beast built on the back of Ubuntu. Mint offers a more customizable and convenient desktop for the end-user. It's not a huge improvement over Ubuntu, but is an improvement, and the user gets to have options about which desktop to use. The only reason Linux Mint ever existed was that Ubuntu's chief of grief goofed everything up with the Unity fiasco and other cat-herding exercises.

Japan and Phillipines Need to Cough Up $$$

One thing Trump was right about, although he will never follow through on the point, was that our foreign partners need to cough up money to pay for our defense of them. It isn't right that Japan sits on its laurels while we pay for their defense. And as for the Phillipines, the bloodthirsty thug down there should be presented with a fee for protection. Foreign aid should be ended outright, and foreign fees should be assessed instead. It is about time that other nations help the U.S. pay down the national debt. It isn't right that the Republicans go spending more on defense and then saddle future generations with paying it off. The foreign nations that benefit from this military spending should be paying for the debt.

Mexico, a Kleptocracy

No one in their right mind would visit Mexico after this story, on top of all the drug cartel nonsense, corruption and pollution in that country.

South Africa Going Down the Tubes

When I was a boy, I fervently believed apartheid was wrong and thought the white South Africans were bad. Now it turns out, the black South Africans are just as bad. They elected corrupt Zuma to power, and right now there is talk about seizing all the white-owned farms by violence and giving them to blacks. Racism is alive and well in South Africa, and it is practiced by the blacks. Do the right thing by them, and they come to your door to behead you and seize all your property. Look at what happened over in Zimbabwe--white farmers got beheaded, their land seized, and police did nothing. Zimbabwe experienced hyperinflation, corruption, people getting killed and no rule of law. Everybody lost in that scenario. The black Africans have exhibited a tendency toward despotism, crime and corruption. That seems to be all they know to do with themselves. The only reason Africa ever had a half-way stable republic was that the mean old racist Europeans came down there and bestowed the gifts of advanced technology, republicanism, and rule of law. If South Africa goes the way of Zimbabwe, which it probably will, then that will be a signal to the whole world as to their self-governing capabilities. I see an Africa emerging with despots in every direction, beholden to China and Saudi Arabia, with incessant wars, terrorism, pollution and corruption. Too bad for any endangered species living down there. Once the lions and tigers and elephants die out, there won't be much interest in traveling to that continent anymore, because people would rather see an elephant on TV than a native. Also never understood the "sponsor a child" charity for Africa. "Sponsor birth control" would have been more effective at reducing hunger and a thousand other maladies. People that have sufficient resources are the ones that should reproduce. Just doing it without a thought to the future is irresponsible.

The Clintons

The Clintons really lowered the bar in ethics and prepared the citizenry for the Trump abomination. I think the Clintons do share some of the blame. True, Republicans exaggerated a great deal, but I am of the opinion that where there is smoke, there is fire, and as a point of fact, Bill and Hillary used a lot of weasel words and half-truths and also untruths in their defense of how they made a living. It would have been better to have been poor and wear homemade dresses rather than smart fashions. It would have been better to drive a Toyota Camry and live in a modest three-bedroom home. I think the American people really would have rallied behind the Clintons, if there had not been the taint of corruption. Of course, with Trump, the taint has become the stench. But it is difficult for goodness to be seen as good, when it has sullied itself and decayed from white to gray. Many can tell white from black, but not as many see the difference between gray and black.

Air BNB

I got tired of getting burned by Indians or Pakis running these run-down little motels on the highway. These immigrants do not speak good English. They actually hate Americans. They employ bait-and-switch, advertising one price and then charging a higher one. They have nasty little surprises to inconvenience the unwary traveler. They invest nothing in their business, and their motels look shoddier and shoddier, like the third-world country they come from.

Enough of these shady "entrepreneurs" that just want to take advantage of the weary traveler.

I'm not renting hotels or motels any longer. Air BNB all the way, baby!

Nelsan Ellis

Nelson Ellis died of alcohol withdrawal. I think it is a good thing that the family was open about the cause of death. People need to get over the notion that alcohol is harmless. Alcohol kills living cells. The chemistry and biology is crystal clear. What is not so clear is why lawmakers decided that the one recreational substance to make legal would be the deadly poison, alcohol.

I watched all of True Blood, and in it, Ellis was indeed a good actor. He made the most of a bad script, which was the only thing holding him back. The story itself was pretty stupid, as were everybody's lines. I watched it mainly because the acting was pretty good. True Blood is a bunch of good (and good-looking) actors making the most out of a bad script. The music, special effects and camerawork were good too. I am always attracted by depictions of the supernatural.

Firefox Goes AntiSec

I used to be a Mozilla evangelist, preaching Firefox to the masses, but nowadays Firefox has aligned its star with that of Yahoo, the worst search engine on the planet, which serves up malware and spam to the unsuspecting. Just do a search for Dell drivers and see what comes up. The way to get a computer user infected is to set his default search engine to Yahoo. I can no longer in good conscience recommend Firefox for security reasons. What other reason would there be? And as for me installing Firefox on client systems, why should I spend extra time reconfiguring Firefox to do what it should do by default in the first place--namely, search Google, not Yahoo. Alas, Firefox has lost its way, squandering precious dev time on pointless projects reminiscent of Don Quixote, like Pockets. Wiser would have been to incorporate Thunderbird into Firefox and build real functionality into its browser that would beat its competitors. But perhaps that required too much creativity out of poor little Mozilla. Well then, welcome to the dustheap of browsers. Care to make the acquaintance of Netscape Navigator?

The New Vice: Gas Stations

The way to promote electric vehicles is easy--create an environment where there are plenty of electric recharge stations and less gas stations. There are far too many gas stations at the moment. You eliminate approval for new gas stations right off the bat. That is the first thing. Then, increase the business license fee for each gas station by 2% per year, with no end in sight, but with a waiver for those gas stations that offer electric recharging stations in addition to gas pumps. Then, increase direct taxes on gas by 2% per year. All of this extra revenue can help to pay off the U.S. deficit, instead of being spent. I don't believe any incentives are wise. Just increase taxation on "vice", which gas is nowadays, in a similar category as cigarettes, booze, and pot.

The trouble with Republicans is they talk about wanting to reduce the deficit, but only when it comes to programs for the poor and the middle class. In reality, the Republicans want to spend all the money they can on their two love birds, the military and the rich. Tax breaks for the rich, and at the same time big increases to buy expensive toys from the defense industry, which means huge bonuses and cost overruns and the usual corruption, negligence and lack of oversight that allows Republican cronies to get richer without breaking a sweat. That's the real reason Republicans want the increased defense spending, because it is a way to spirit off vast quantities of moolah from the U.S. treasury.

Adobe is FUBAR

I am familiar with three Adobe products: the abominible security hole known as the Flash player, Adobe Acrobat-out-of-Hell, and Photosh**.

Acrobat won't print .pdf's half the time and does not even have the common courtesy of giving the user an error message when it fails to print an ordinary, humdrum .pdf to an ordinary, humdrum printer. You know, with a PDF editor, printing is kind of a big deal. I have been on the phone with Adobe tech support for hours. They do not know what time of day it is. It is time for Adobe to stop publishing software and go bankrupt. That is what time of day it is.

My, how I wish market forces were even half as efficient as Republicans think they are! That would be a good thing.

As for Photosh**, it won't work on half the graphics cards out there, and won't tell the user why, either. Just very user-unfriendly, slow and sluggish, and rather irresponsible of Adobe to stop supporting graphics cards that are less than fifteen years old. Come on, not everybody has the cash to buy a new system every five years. That would include businesses and government as well. Desktops are built to last a long time and should last a long time. That is one of the many things desktops are good at.

I am not sure what sort of lame-brain computer programmers Adobe has working for it. I think they are using spaghetti code a mile-long coded by morons twenty or thirty years ago and patched a little bit year by year by an ever-changing base of employees until they don't know what does what or how. I think if you asked every Adobe developer in existence to fix the problem with printing in Acrobat, they could not do it, even given a year, because they don't know how to fix it, or fixing it will break fifty other things, because the dirty secret in Adobe is that their code is FUBAR. The only reason printing ever works at all is probably because of accidental bugs. I have seen spaghetti code, worked with it, reformed it (or tried to), and I know what it is like. That's what's wrong with Adobe. A mile of legacy spaghetti code, with no veterans around to figure it out.

Canada Got It Right

Fixing health care is easy. All the Republicans need to do is look North. Canada got it right.

But no, they won't adopt Canada's system, and why? Because the penny-pinching bean-counters want to leave the middle-class saddled with an inadequate, complicated and confusing maze of health care insurance. As for the poor, let the chips fall where they may, seems to be the motto. I suppose it is ironic that those who don't believe in Evolution seek to practice it upon their fellow Americans.

Ironically Scared of Death

I don't understand those on death row making clemency requests based on the convicted killer's mental status, upbringing, hardships in life, or just because an attorney thinks the death penalty is bad.

If a man kills another person, it is a bit rich that he objects to society exacting justice. Scared of death? Grow a pair, I'd say. Easy to pull that trigger--not so easy to be on the other side, eh?

If people object so much to the death penalty, one option I would support is that these folks personally pay 100% of the cost of incarcerating the killer for life, as well as the cost of reparations to all victims' families, the exact amount to be determined by the victims at their own discretion. If the victims want millions, then that's what the death penalty opponent should pay. Billions or trillions would most likely exclude any possibility for parole, although perhaps collections could be taken among all the death penalty opponents in the world. I'd like to see the first victim-trillionaire.

I also believe those opposed to abortion should pay 100% of the cost of raising those fetuses that would otherwise be aborted. They can pay for college, as well, at a four-year institution of the parents' choice. That would probably run to about a million dollars. I say cough up the money, if abortion is so bad. Get a second job moonlighting at McDonald's.

What we don't have in the world at this time is any shortage of human beings. The number being generated far outnumbers the number lost through the death penalty or through abortion, and it could be argued, the quality gained is better than that lost. If a mother seriously wants to off her offspring, if that is her final choice, then she probably was not about to give birth to a rocket scientist, a saint or a great leader. Daddy must not have been all that great, is the most likely conclusion. Never a good scenario for a kid to grow up unwanted. And there are killers a-plenty in the world, and offing a few here and there through the death penalty is not going to keep this world from turning. If a killer's death brings a small measure of solace to the victims, or relief that they won't have to attend any parole hearings, so much the better.

Johnny Depp

Reading about Johnny Depp's horrible management of his money, I'm reminded how overpaid are the male superstars of Hollywood. They are worthless. Completely without value. They could be replaced in a day just by browsing the theatre department at a local university. Talent is plentiful. Talent is everywhere. There is not an actor in Hollywood worth more than a million a year. Instead of spending 2 million a month on a lavish lifestyle, Depp should be moonlighting at McDonald's. Real, honest work would do him a world of good. Never saw the fascination with spoiled, addicted, selfish, puffed up no-talents like that one. Spending $5 million to blast Hunter Thompson's ashes over Colorado is the height of stupidity. Why not just gather millions of dollars and have a bonfire with it, why don't you? Meanwhile, the rest of us work for a living.

Insurance Stocks

Insurance companies should do well under Trump's presidency, because the Republicans will ensure a massive transfer of wealth takes place from the lower classes to the insurance companies, which should enjoy double-digit growth in their share prices as they provide less and charge more.

Bad Brands for Kitchen Appliances

I wasn't surprised to hear a Hotpoint refrigerator killed scores in England. There are certain brands of kitchen appliances, that if your landlord has installed them, you know he wants to save every dime, and could care less whether you burn to death, screaming in agony while watching your family meet the same fate. By the way, I hope the authorities do put the landlords behind bars, because what they did is just as bad as a drunk driver killing people--just pure negligent greedy stupidity. If a poor man goes to jail for shoplifting a pack of cigarettes, then a rich man should go to jail when his decisions kill people. There are some manufacturers that should simply be liquidated by the government, because their products are just bad and wasteful of materials, if not indeed hazardous. Hotpoint and Magic Chef are two that come to mind. I have first hand experience with both.

Basically, any brand that occupies the lowest 5% of the price range. These types of appliances are missing quality materials that result in a minor price break for the greedy landlord--who, in the end, probably won't save money, because he will be forced to replace the shoddy appliance prematurely. Greedy landlords are stupid.

Good brands include Frigidaire and Kenmore, although Kenmore is a no-go because it requires buying through antiquated and tone-deaf Sears, which is destined to go bankrupt over the next five years.

Alright, Canada!

A Canadian sniper, regrettably but understandably anonymous, made a World record against an ISIS-idiot: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/23/how-canadas-tiny-military-produced-deadly-record-breaking-snipers/

On the one hand, it is surprising, because Canada is not known for its military, but on the other hand, Canada is an awesome country with its act together. I have long believed the United States should study Canada and reproduce its health care system, election system, and probably education and police as well. Canada does things right.

The strongest contrast is between Canada's superb health system and the horrible political football that is our health system, where a poor person just goes to the emergency room when things get bad enough. Our problem is caused by the Republicans. They want to let the poor die, because the poor deserve it, in their view, for being lazy, unlucky, immoral and/or stupid, and evolution needs to occur. Let Mother Nature take her toll and cull out the weak. The Republicans figure, let the poor suffer and die, and that way, there are less of them to worry about, and the ones that survive will work harder to stay alive. The Democrats say, wait a minute, other countries have health care and aren't going broke, why can't we? And healthy poor people tend to be happier and more productive than sick poor people. The question is whether poor people are a resource or a liability. Republicans say liability, so let 'em suffer, let 'em die.

In the end, Republicans don't care about the poor, and Democrats do. The irony is that a lot of poor people vote Republican just because they like that lilly-white Republican brand. It's all about race and tribal identity. Obama was a Negro taking the place of a long line of old white men. It got the racists all up in a lather, and they crawled out of the woodwork, enough for the Republicans to steamroll to victory in D.C.

The greatest irony of all are the religious right, the self-professed "Christians" that support Trump and the Republicans, based upon things like abortion or gays or whatever the current socially conservative brouhaha might be. I really have to call into question their religious scruples in supporting rich old white men letting the poor suffer and die, just so the rich can get richer. Is that would Jesus would do? Eh? I think the liberal churches have it right and are more in tune with Jesus, and if I were ever to go Christian, it would be the real, authentic Christianity, not this faux Christianity of the religious right, with their Biblical literalism. They take religion like lawyers, not like saints. They can't be right.

Sears

Whoever is in charge at Sears is a royal jerk. Sears wants the home internet surfer to become a "member" of some stupid "Sears club" to earn "points" as though we are living in 1970, instead of 2017. Then there are all the "gotchas" like free delivery, until Sears applies automatic discounts to a $440 purchase, bringing it three dollars under the minimum for free delivery, which is $399, resulting in a $69.99 delivery charge. No thank you, Home Depot is one click away. Sears really deserves to go out of business, because their web site is nothing but a time-waster with traps for the unwary.

The Angry Male Shooter

Angry male shooter knows no political party, race, religion or ideology. Left, right, theist, atheist, seems like angry male pops up in the headlines all the time. The only pattern is that the shooter is angry and male. I don't know about any cases of women going crazy and shooting people, although that probably has happened somewhere. Pity that the angry males can't get together and have a shoot-out with each other, instead of bringing down the non-shooters. The angry folk seem to go after those that aren't angry, as if they're jealous of other people's happiness.

It would be interesting to know whether incidents of men going amok have been on the increase or decrease through the centuries, both nationally and worldwide, but I think records are sketchy prior to the advent of computer databases. I suspect that the present time is not much worse than times past. The only thing that may have changed is that guns are easier to get, cheaper and more powerful. That, and news coverage is pervasive--we drown in instant information about every single incident. In the past, things were covered up much more easily. Incidents of men running amok were only reported locally, sometimes only by word of mouth, rather than blared out in the headlines on the Internet. We must not be misled by our Information Age into thinking the situation is worse than it is.

The Little Chipmunk

A middle-aged chipmunk left a pamphlet just for my eyes to see, one of those illustrated palm-sized cartoons that I've seen a thousand times before, explaining how the only key out of Hell's prison is Jesus--that is, the crazed and ignorant Jesus of his abominable cult. I left it on the desk where he had placed it. Faux Christians such as the little chipmunk always resort to passive-aggressiveness to fulfill their petty impulses. A bit of kindness would go a lot further than one of his stupid pamphlets, let me tell you.

Kathy Griffin

I remain dismayed with my favorite comedian, Kathy Griffin, because her stunt posing with the head of Trump was bad in every conceivable way. There is no possible way to defend the thing.

The trouble with Kathy Griffin is she went out of her comfort zone. She is best on her feet, alone, in front of a live audience. She fell into one of the oldest traps there is. The person she tried to poke fun at, Trump, she made into a victim, and for once Trump actually got sympathy from the left. She alienated her best fans. I have to wonder whether she has gone completely bonkers due to these fad diets she keeps taking to strive after a 20-something appearance in a 50-something body. She has a good look, but it's a struggle, because she's gotten quite old now and she's not at all comfortable with being old and is scared to death of being sidelined by younger, more attractive comedians, both male and female. Her fear and her mental befuddlement due to the diet pills is what resulted in lack of judgment. But her star will diminish now. I hope she goes back to live performances.

Almost Like Magic

Reflecting upon the world-currents that caused me the most grief, I can identify three, over the course of my life.

One: the Soviet Union. When I was a boy, we all expected to be blown up in nuclear war. That was the norm. Not only would mankind be reduced by death and radiation to half-breed mutants, but the world would become largely uninhabitable. I thought about this and prayed about it, too. Now the Soviet Union is gone, and for a while it looked as though things would be hunky-dory in that neck of the woods, but then Putin came along. Evil has a way of reinventing itself. H. Sapiens remains upon the brink. Future generations must cope with the possibility of annihilation.

Two: homosexuality. Again, when I Was a boy, I reckoned I should kill myself, because I was the only one in the world that way. That was real and that was an almost-was. Maybe in an alternative Universe, I'm not around anymore. But in this Universe, I have a strong survival instinct that outweighs the social anxiety. I brooded over this many a night and longed for a world that was different. What surprised me is that the West changed. Not the savage parts of the world, but the civilized, good and Christian West. Now, I can actually talk to priests, police officers, politicians, teachers, and neighbors about my husband. There is no need to hide. Secrets are unnecessary. That, to me, is amazing, and a miracle really, and I wonder whether it is some kind of collective white magic at work. I never expected all of this to transpire in my own lifetime. The speed with which change occurred is what surprises me. Our race, and by that I mean H. Sapiens, is awakening from a long nightmare of ignorance.

Three: marijuana. When I was a teenager, this plant was considered a heinous crime, due to hysterical propaganda that millions of people really believed. It is hard for people today to fathom the power of the Great American Drug War, which focused almost exclusively against marijuana. There are a lot of good people that were put into prison just because of that plant, but millions more were kicked out of school, fired, lost custody of their children, or other things, all because of a plant that is gentler than liquor. I was evangelical for the truth and had no patience with the lies. I told everyone I knew what I perceived to be the reality. Due to the efforts of many, marijuana is legal in some states and sold in retail stores. I never expected that to happen in my day. The lies that were manufactured to keep it illegal have lost their potency, and H. Sapiens is awakening to the wonderful and hopeful Truth. Even in my lifetime, it is possible marijuana will be legal in all of the West and that it will replace, to a large extent, that vile substance, the curse of our race, the product of Death, alcohol.

I think that each of us can perceive trends and racial thoughts that are shared by many and that is why it is possible to make predictions about the future of our civilization.

Laziness Vs. Dishonesty

The bottom line for me is Trump reeks of Corruption. It is obvious to anyone with eyes that see. Trump just comes right out and reveals his nature. He doesn't even try very hard to hide it. That is a sign of laziness. Which is worse, the dishonesty or the laziness? That depends on the situation.

There are many who see that Trump is Corrupt, and then rationalize that "everyone is corrupt, so what does it matter, and Trump says the things I believe, so he is all right." This is not surprising. It is to be expected. Selfishness is common, base, whereas Ethics is a real stretch for H. Sapiens, a recent innovation that we are gradually adopting.

Trump's Corruption

James Comey's testimony is damning of Trump, painting a picture of a vain, corrupt buffoon--exactly the person Trump appears. Comey's words have the ring of truth about them.