Monday, October 31, 2016

Airing dirty laundry: Electiongeddon 2016

Okay, I'm coming clean. I've been secretly feeding inside information to Gary Johnson in an effort to undermine Stein. BUT, I've also been feeding Stein info about Johnson, in order to undermine McAfee. Because, I'm playing the odds and running casino bets in every state over who takes which state Trump, or Clinton.

Oh, for fuck's sake, Goddamn everyone else is trying to tamper with the fucking election, I didn't want to be left out.

But - and this is important - where the fuck are Trump's tax returns? Hmm? I mean, Jesus Christ in a Wheelbarrow, we've seen every other damn piece if dirty laundry - why can't Assange, or the FBI, or the Russians, or YamaLlamaGucciDong 1.3 produce the fucking tax returns??



Image result for election tampering




You thought I was kidding about McAfee, didn't you?




Musical Monday - WITCH DOCTOR by Sonic the Hedgehog

This is simply awesome. The song is silly, of course, and has been around forever (okay, since Ross Bagdasarian Sr. performed it in 1958), but the idea that ILuvKnucklesShadow spent - I'm going to guess about a hundred - hours going thru all that Sonic footage (talk about being a Sonic fanatic!) and cutting this together.  That's love for the art form ;-)




I'm familiar with Sonic the Hedgehog, of course, since he totally overran pop culture for a while. (Of course, just skimming the Wikipedia page, I realize by "familiar," I mean "there's this blue cat guy who runs really fast and has a video game, right?" Yeah, I so totally missed the phenomenon that was Sonic the Hedgehog.)

I'm not sure I ever knew there was a television show, and definitely would not have imagined the television show as Sonic in Space or that Sonic might crossover with Dragon Ball Z, you know?  

(Artist unknown. I found it on a site where it 
had already been swiped from somewhere else.)

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Electiongeddon 2016

Because "Electiongeddon" totally needs to be a word, and I said it first.

I mean, what a fucking mess the US elections of 2016 are.

The GOP couldn't field any decent human beings in the primaries, and then got their entire party and platform hijacked by the biggest asshole conman in the world, who is now facing multiple criminal sexual harassment and rape charges, and well as numerous fraud charges, AND he's already announced his plans to burn down the GOP and launch a civil war if NOT named dictator-for-life.

The DNC had their own mess with an Independent hijacking their primaries in order to force their platform go the left (not even "hard left," just "left"!). And then a scandal when their emails got stolen (possibly by a foreign government) and made public and embarrassing as Hell airing the dirty laundry of inside horse-trading. And their nominee is both admired and reviled in equal parts, often by the same people.

And the entire mess has created a massive shake-up of one of the biggest infotainment outlets around - Fox News - as several of their female talking heads have bailed amid scandal of sexual harassment at Fox.

Electiongeddon 2016 has permanently damaged the already screwed up American election process. I mean, we at least used to have a veneer of civility and credulity, but from now on, fuck it all.




Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Sheeple

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't convince the horse the water isn't poisoned when it want's to believe...

Fill in your favorite "XYZ Are all sheeple idiots!"

It doesn't matter. We're all fucking idiots.


Yes, I really do want to know what you think

So, there's a thread, and this guy decides I'm "putting words into his mouth," (actually, I was trolling him with baited questions, because he wasn't saying much of anything, let alone anything informative).

And he remarks "Oh, no, just keep putting words in my mouth, because then you keep winning." (You can see why I was trying to bait him, right?) 

And my response was to explain that it's not about "winning," it's about knowing what other people think, even when I don't agree with them.

Yes, seriously. I'm abnormal that way. It's like a mental disorder that I like to hear what other people think. Well, as long as they can form proper sentences, anyway.

You ever burn time in an echo chamber? It sucks. A lot. I actually do want to know what other people think. Oh, if they're total assholes, or idiots, I'll say so, and probably walk away. If the ideas are really stupid, I'll say that too.

Most times, if the person can form complete sentences, and express ideas that aren't totally insane, then I'll just say "thank you."

I don't need to dominate a conversation to "win." I "win" by learning something new, and learning a new way to view things.  

I - that's me - win by growing.  
What a novel concept, right?



Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Binary Thinking is the American way

Another root problem is that Americans are very binary thinkers - things are right OR wrong, left OR right, black OR white (or more often white OR NOT white).


Similarly, Americans are polarized binary thinkers - look at any thread. It's the "You're with me OR against me!" fallacy (which has been driven deeper by the oligarchs via their persuasive argument and mindwashing machinery at Fox, Breitbart, etc.)

Very often "I'm not with you" really means "I have a better way to get the same result you want, so quit being obtuse and listen for a minute." But the "You're with me OR against me," means conversation ends, and that benefits the oligarchs, because the peasants are too busy fighting to organize opposition.




Another example - Any one "against Trump" is automatically assumed to be "for Clinton" and a pointless, mindless, emotional tantrum battle begins, and discussion goes out the window.  This is, of course, entirely false, as one can be against both of them.  There are legit reasons to choose None of the Above (although, I agree, 2016 is yet-another terrible year to vote conscience, unless you can convince your Trump-supporting friends to vote Johnson, or Stein, instead).



In the same vein, you get social structures. We've been sold on the false dichotomy that "communism" and "socialism" are bad, nevermind the fact that Social Security, Medicare, Disability benefits, requiring hospitals to treat anyone who walks into the emergency room rather than forcibly letting them die on the street just because they can't pay, etc., etc. are "socialist" ideas.  In the real world, nothing is binary. Get over it.




And last, and most certainly least, the obligatory joke:














Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Obama forgot to take your guns away



That's fucking awesome, is what that is.

Eight years, #ammosexuals, and you still have all your guns (unless you broke some other law), so get your heads out of your ass.

Now, if you're sitting the offended by my use Of The term "ammosexual" ask yourself "Why?" and then realize that's a choice you've made - to group yourself in, because you don't actually know what I mean by the term.

So ask yourself, why do you consider yourself an ammosexual? And then ask yourself again if you really are.


Verify you can VOTE next month!

I'm putting this up here, because this is going to be an issue in November. Try calling NOW to make sure that you are eligible to vote - that you haven't been "accidentally" culled from the registration, or that the rules haven't been changed while you weren't looking, or that your polling place hasn't been closed - whatever - make sure you know that you're actually going to be able to vote, and how to do it in your state!


If you live in other states - please stick in the comments how to verify eligibility in your state.  I'll try to update this page as I get new info - I know there are lots of sites that already list these resources, so it's best practice to get those sites, too.






Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Post #450!

THIS is post #450. And to commemorate this Very Special Occasion - 

"This is an important announcement. This is flight 121 to Los Angeles. If your travel plans today do not include Los Angeles, now would be a perfect time to disembark."





Mass shootings - fuck you deniers

Just so we're clear. If you're one of those "mass shootings are a hoax by the liberal media to take away your guns" people, you can just fuck off and die.  M'kay? Good.



No, seriously.  The tenuous bullshit they come up with to somehow justify some petty little fantasy that people didn't die, and that somehow entire industries and hundreds of people not affiliated with the media, or the government, just decide to post their pictures and stories on Facebook and Twitter - all to perpetuate some hoax?

Five people died at Cascade Mall at the Cascade Mall in Burlington a few weeks ago.  That's in my goddamn backyard!

WTF kind of mental illness is required to produce - AND BELIEVE - something like this??



So, I'll end where I began:  

Just so we're clear. If you're one of those "mass shootings are a hoax by the liberal media to take away our guns" people, you can just fuck off and die! 

M'kay? Good.



Monday, October 10, 2016

Batting 40 000! Whoa!



You guys love me sooooo much!  


view count days
(delta)
days (total) views per day
during the period
posts (delta) posts (total) views per post (total average)
1000 94 94 10.6 85 85 11.8
2000 72 166 13.9 52 137 14.6
3000 34 200 29.4 28 165 18.2
4000 21 221 47.6 16 181 22.1
5000 15 236 66.6 12 193 25.9
6000* 30 266 33.3 17 210 28.6
7000 17 283 58.8 18 228 30.7
8000 34 317 29.4 18 246 32.5
9000 14 331 71.4 10 256 35.2
10 000 18 349 55.5 10 266 37.6
15 000 58 407 86.2 31 297 50.4
20 000 76 483 65.7 32 329 60.8
25 000 82 565 61.0 28 357 70.0
30 000 58 623 86.6 27 384 78.2
40 000 145 768 68.8 62 446 89.7










Decent men don't talk like Trump

Was listening to NPR this morning. One of their Ohio stations had average voters in to be a panel. They've had these people in before.

One woman says "I'm not voting for Trump, because I want my son to have a role model for decent behavior, mature conduct, and how to be a world leader."




The other woman says "I'm still voting for Trump, and the Access Hollywood tape doesn't matter, because that's how men talk." (emphasis mine)

Yep. I think we just let the Trump supporters burn themselves to the ground, and the rest of us try to minimize the collateral damage.

Serendipity: came to write this post and saw the perfect meme.




Sunday, October 9, 2016

Sorting out the Presidential Candidates 2016

Figuring out what any given candidate stands for is always a crapshoot.  

Especially with career public servants like Clinton, who  - over the course of 30 years - have been involved in so much legislation, and so many speeches, during the changing times, when social norms were different, when supporting an event turned out years later to have been a total ruse (*cough* Iraq *cough*), etc., etc.

And then you just get sociopaths like Trump, for whom words have neither meaning nor permanence, so he'll deny - on video - ever having said something he just said an hour before - and there's video - and he's in the same damn building, because the first 2016 Presidential Debate just ended, and he hasn't made it out of the building yet. Trump is the biggest flip-flopper never to have held any public office.

So, we turn to various sources, and in this case, it's Blue Virginia - "The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective." Some people will say "Democrats are Progressive anymore," and that's a different argument entirely.

Meanwhile, decide what you value, and try to figure out if your candidate supports that - even a little bit.  Some of these are brain-dead obvious, like "your employer can't fire you for taking time off for your child birth," while others are more vague, like "what the crap does 'gun control' mean, anyway?"  (I like to think it means keeping guns away from children, idiots and careless fools, but some people think kids with guns is fine.)



Ultimately, I'm hoping Trump supporters wake up and smell the bullshit, and that real conservatives vote for Johnson.

I'm voting for neither Johnson, nor Trump.

And, yes, that site was put together by lefties, so they excluded Stein, because she would not have provided such dramatic contrast (because she and Clinton are actually very similar on most issues), although she still has her own issues, and controversies, apparently particularly regarding science, which is kind of weird for a medical doctor. The bigger reason is that Stein appeals to liberals and progressives, and - while liberals want Johnson to cripple Trump, they don't want Stein to cripple Clinton (for obvious reasons, not the least of which is preventing President Trump).

Meanwhile, go verify you can vote, and get as much accurate and reliable information as you can.


Saturday, October 8, 2016

President 2016 - Clinton, Stein and Me

So, VoteSmart has a really cool widget - VoteEasy - to help you decide which US 2016 Presidential Candidate most shares your values, and might best represent you in the White House for the next four years. (You can also use it for the Federal Congressional races, which is a cool bonus.)

This widget doesn't ask anything stupid like "which candidate do you like," or "what is your favorite color," or even "what is the airspeed of an unladen swallow," so it eliminates basic confirmation bias.  Instead, it asks "What is your stance on abortion, and how important is it to you?" 

They also give you information on how they got their results, so you can decide if you agree with them or not.  I expect a lot of angry people will tell them they're full of shit, and "they have the typical liberal/conservative/egghead/fuckwad bias."  Whatever; people are stupid.  It's one of those years where everyone says the other guy is full of shit, and stops listening

Here are my results:

My VoteEasy Results

Like has been said many times - by me and others - Stein and Clinton have very similar positions.  The difference is that Clinton has spent 20 years preparing to be able to hold the most powerful job in the world, and has her shit together, while Stein has been running a boutique political party that slightly more than no one had heard of before Bernie Sanders didn't get the DNC nomination (the reasons he didn't aren't part of this post, so try to focus).

Anyway, go check out the VoteEasy widget and decide who you really want to have as President, based on voting record and rhetoric, and anything else the VoteSmart people can find that demonstrates where the candidates really stand. They update their database regularly, so you can check back regularly to see if your candidate has flip-flopped this week, changing the results. (Or, Hell, maybe you flip-flop, because, you know - Obamacare.)

Especially tell your "conservative" friends to do this thing. I expect many of them will discover Johnson is less of an asshole than Trump, and that's a good thing.




Thursday, October 6, 2016

Coping with root cause

I was just thinking "people are so pissing me off today," then I realized "No, people are disappointing me today."

Same difference, but now I know the root problem, I can adjust for it and just stop giving a fuck.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Be careful of "poll watchers" on election day






The "poll watcher" issue is real and serious, and is - sadly - a legit (and immoral and unethical) mechanism of voter suppression and voter intimidation.

This meme really does contain contact info for the Pittsburgh FBI office.
3311 East Carson Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
(412) 432-4000

Hey, voter suppression assholes! Suck on that!





One Million G+ Views

OMG! Check it out! It totally happened while I was cybernating, so I missed it, but wheee!!




Now, if only that actually meant a damn thing ;-)



Tuesday, October 4, 2016

May all suicide bombers die fruitlessly and uselessly.



Note, that I chose "suicide bombers" deliberately, since fuckwads can come in any flavor, any race, religion or tactless clothing.