I received a comment from Angel Abbygrace's Mom in response to the original post. The comment is detailed and it is valued. And I don't want to change a normally personal and friendly blog into a heated discussion in the stress of the last week of an angry and partisan political campaign.
But a response is deserved, and I'll put hers it italics for ease of identification. And unless noted otherwise, I will accept the accuracy of her statements (this is not Fox News, after all, and we are not competing talking heads. She is a friend whom I respect).
And unless otherwise noted I am commenting on her quote, not her conclusions FROM the quote.
As she quoted, From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were “up-classified” to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.
"Chains" are series of emails on the same subject. They can, as we all well know, contain many subjects varying widely as the "chain" goes on. What starts as a chain can be about personal family matters, get into a brief argument about politics and then go right back to family matters.
In this case, I see that there are some numbers that seem to have meaning and some that do not. "110 emails in 52 email chains" sounds like a whole lot. Many people will multiply 110 by 52 and think "about 55,000 emails". No. It is still only 110 out of the original 30,000 emails.
That is "not many".
The numbers of emails that were "sent or received" is deceptive. It is not a crime to receive improperly-marked classified information. If I sent anyone of my friends classified information not properly marked as such, you would not be guilty of anything. *I* might, IF I knew the information was classified.
The question is whether the information in the emails was known to either of us.
From what I understand, most of the emails considered to include classified information fell into 3 categories.
First, there was information not classified at the time but classified at a later date. You are not guilty of handling information that was classified LATER! Such as, if you take a medication today and the Government declares it illegal next month, you can't be charged.
And even with classified information, there is a "lag time". If some agency declares "Fact X" classified today and you refer to it tomorrow before you are told about that, you aren't guilty of anything.
It gets worse. Suppose Agency A declares Fact A classified and Agency B says it isn't? You still aren't guilty because there is reasonable doubt.
Second, classified information has to be properly identified. In the movies, every classified document has a big red "CLASSIFIED" stamped at the top. And maybe they do. But they don't always show up that way in emails. I have seen claims by seemingly objective sources that WHEN a classified email or attachment in an email was sent to Clinton, there was simply a large "C" at the end.
And there are 2 problems with that one. If you only learn the information was classified AFTER you read it, there isn't much you can do to forget it. And a "C" is not the same as a "classified" stamp...
Third, most of the information that is being challenged was "upclassified", meaning it was classified only after recent review by one Federal Agency or another and at a later date than the emails. And if anyone has to choose between classifying information and NOT classifying it, it gets classified.
If my job was classifying documents, I would classify my office softball team schedule rather than make a mistake. Because the is no penalty for over-classifying docoments, but a HUGE one for not when you should have.
Which leads me to my last 2 point, which I will combine. Just because a document is classified doesn't mean it should be. Just how many secrets to you think we have from the Russians and Chinese? I think it was Kissinger who said that the only Nations we can keep secrets from are our Allies. And apparently, we can't even do that anymore.
So I ALMOST question our whole habit of secrecy. The only people who DON'T know US government secrets are the US citizens, LOL!
From AbbyGrace's Mom: "The Top Secret email chains alone should set off alarm bells whether you support or don't support HRC as a candidate. If you had sent or received classified email on your own private server while working in the Government do you think the FBI would have been as lenient to you?"
HRC has about the highest clearance. I don't.
"Also from the director's statement: Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.
"Careless" is not the same as "illegal". If one classified person mentioned classified information to another privately at a party, that is not illegal, but it is careless.
"One other note on classification from the Director: But even if information is not marked “classified” in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it"
At a certain level, probably almost anything could be classified. And you have to be able to talk to people in real time without having staff research every fact for classification status. I suspect that our classified system has gotten way out of anyone's ability to keep within the rules.
I bet I could find half of the US classified information on the internet without trying too hard. I think the whole classified argument is a mountain made from a molehill.
Not that some information shouldn't be classified, but that most shouldn't.
And let me finish by saying again, no harshness, just my best answers to a good comment...
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Saturday, October 29, 2016
More Political Silliness And Illogic
This is partly about "the political games" but also about the illogic and careless language used by the talking heads on TV. And I don't like either side of both issues!
First, the "the political games". The Facts: FBI Director Comey sent a letter to "Congress advising them that more emails were found that might involve their previous committee investigations, as he had promised to do if new information was discovered. No specific information was included, and he noted that the possibilility of misunderstanding.
The basis of concern is that Huma Abedin (wife of Anthony Weiner of sexting shame-fame) is an associate of Clinton and there MIGHT be some Clinton emails not yet discovered. She used a family laptop to send some emails to Clinton. The content has not been made public at this time is not known at this time. Nothing suggesting anything improper has been offerred.
The FBI, after reviewing all the emails on Clinton's server, has found nothing of concern and closed the investigation months ago. A very few emails with classified information were sent TO her without proper notifications. Her replies were lawful; if you don't know received information was classified, YOU are not at fault. The FBI said so.
OK. As far as I can think, if Huma sent Clinton any emails, they are on Clinton's email system and already examined by the FBI. This starts to look like the Kevin Bacon game. Can you connect anyone socially unacceptable to Clinton? LOL!
As far as I can tell now, the letter was addressed TO House Committee Chairman, all Republican of course. I will explain something about the details of Government letter-writing. There is "TO", there is "cc" (courtesy copy), and there is "bcc" (blind courtesy copy) just like on emails.
Only in Government letters, the cc and bcc is not on the original TO letter. The "TO" recipients do not know about the cc and bcc list unless they ask for a file copy of the letter. The cc list does not know about the "bcc" list unless they ask (and the originators admit to it).
So, unless things have changed (and they might have - I've been retired for10 years), the Republican Committee saw only that they had been sent the letter, the Democratic minority leaders saw they had been sent a copy of the letter to the Republican Chairmen, and only Comey and his staff know who got sent a bcc copy (bcc's are usually sent only to internal staff who need to know about such things for media questions and file-keeping.
Is that confusing enough? I spent 30 years in Government and got very used to those kinds of subtleties, LOL! It all makes sense to me! LOL!
Second, the talking heads discussions...
Everyone I heard on MSNBC and CNN got it all WRONG! Clinton mentioned the Comey letter send to the Republican Committee Chairmen. As usual, she was utterly technically correct. The letter was indeed addressed to the Republican Committee Chairmen. She said that with the same accuracy I would in discussing "TO, cc, and bcc". She understands that stuff and speaks of it accurately.
The TV talking heads did not! They said Clinton claimed the letter was sent "only" to the Republicans and casitigatd her for a deception.. The ccs were sent to the ranking Democratic Minority Leaders. But they received cc copies; they were not the original TO recipients.
Meanwhile, Clinton is saying that she would like any available information to be released ASAP, as there is noactual information in Director Comey's letter but there are suggestions. Trump, on the other hand is claiming the non-information in Comey's letter as some proof of guilt
As odd as that might seem in the real world, it matters in Government. Comey very DELIBERATELY and EXPLICITLY sent the official copies of the letter to the Republican Committee chairmen and NOT the official copies to the Democratic Ranking Members. But cc'd them to cover his ass. A true Washington wimpy asshole who needs to be removed...
Conclusion: Comey wished to try to stay out of trouble by playing it both too carefully and too ineptly. Whoever wins the Presidency, he is going to be gone for the crime of political incompetence. He can't claim it was urgent (the FBI had the information 5 weeks ago), and he can't claim any factul reason for presenting the mere statement that the FBI was investigating new information 11 days before an election.
Ex FBI officials have said there is an informal, but previously modern unbroken rule of avoiding all political statements 60 days before an election. That Comey broke that rule says a lot about his intent.
First, the "the political games". The Facts: FBI Director Comey sent a letter to "Congress advising them that more emails were found that might involve their previous committee investigations, as he had promised to do if new information was discovered. No specific information was included, and he noted that the possibilility of misunderstanding.
The basis of concern is that Huma Abedin (wife of Anthony Weiner of sexting shame-fame) is an associate of Clinton and there MIGHT be some Clinton emails not yet discovered. She used a family laptop to send some emails to Clinton. The content has not been made public at this time is not known at this time. Nothing suggesting anything improper has been offerred.
The FBI, after reviewing all the emails on Clinton's server, has found nothing of concern and closed the investigation months ago. A very few emails with classified information were sent TO her without proper notifications. Her replies were lawful; if you don't know received information was classified, YOU are not at fault. The FBI said so.
OK. As far as I can think, if Huma sent Clinton any emails, they are on Clinton's email system and already examined by the FBI. This starts to look like the Kevin Bacon game. Can you connect anyone socially unacceptable to Clinton? LOL!
As far as I can tell now, the letter was addressed TO House Committee Chairman, all Republican of course. I will explain something about the details of Government letter-writing. There is "TO", there is "cc" (courtesy copy), and there is "bcc" (blind courtesy copy) just like on emails.
Only in Government letters, the cc and bcc is not on the original TO letter. The "TO" recipients do not know about the cc and bcc list unless they ask for a file copy of the letter. The cc list does not know about the "bcc" list unless they ask (and the originators admit to it).
So, unless things have changed (and they might have - I've been retired for10 years), the Republican Committee saw only that they had been sent the letter, the Democratic minority leaders saw they had been sent a copy of the letter to the Republican Chairmen, and only Comey and his staff know who got sent a bcc copy (bcc's are usually sent only to internal staff who need to know about such things for media questions and file-keeping.
Is that confusing enough? I spent 30 years in Government and got very used to those kinds of subtleties, LOL! It all makes sense to me! LOL!
Second, the talking heads discussions...
Everyone I heard on MSNBC and CNN got it all WRONG! Clinton mentioned the Comey letter send to the Republican Committee Chairmen. As usual, she was utterly technically correct. The letter was indeed addressed to the Republican Committee Chairmen. She said that with the same accuracy I would in discussing "TO, cc, and bcc". She understands that stuff and speaks of it accurately.
The TV talking heads did not! They said Clinton claimed the letter was sent "only" to the Republicans and casitigatd her for a deception.. The ccs were sent to the ranking Democratic Minority Leaders. But they received cc copies; they were not the original TO recipients.
Meanwhile, Clinton is saying that she would like any available information to be released ASAP, as there is noactual information in Director Comey's letter but there are suggestions. Trump, on the other hand is claiming the non-information in Comey's letter as some proof of guilt
As odd as that might seem in the real world, it matters in Government. Comey very DELIBERATELY and EXPLICITLY sent the official copies of the letter to the Republican Committee chairmen and NOT the official copies to the Democratic Ranking Members. But cc'd them to cover his ass. A true Washington wimpy asshole who needs to be removed...
Conclusion: Comey wished to try to stay out of trouble by playing it both too carefully and too ineptly. Whoever wins the Presidency, he is going to be gone for the crime of political incompetence. He can't claim it was urgent (the FBI had the information 5 weeks ago), and he can't claim any factul reason for presenting the mere statement that the FBI was investigating new information 11 days before an election.
Ex FBI officials have said there is an informal, but previously modern unbroken rule of avoiding all political statements 60 days before an election. That Comey broke that rule says a lot about his intent.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Scary Movies
Cat blog friend http://www.15andmeowing.com asked about scary movies and I realized I had more to say about one than would fit as a comment.
When 'Alien' came out in 1979, a friend and I went to see it opening night. We stood in line for hours in the rain, and missed the first showing by only 3 people. We thought is was about bad things from an alien's POV. Boy were WE wrong. When the first viewers cane out, they were pale and shaken! I turned to my friend and asked what we had gotten ourselves into?
Neither of us were particularly frightened by monster movies. I'm realistic, and my friend was a cinema buff, so we weren't either really TOO worried. Space aliens were generally silly, and Earthly ones too unlikely.
But as the movie started darkly, and a sense of unease came over us, and we thought about the looks on the faces of the first audience as they came out, we began to worry. When we first saw the queen alien skeleton in the derelict ship, we both said "Oh crap"!
And even then, we weren't prepared for the first egg. How harmful can a newly-hatched creature be? We found out! And it all got worse from there. By the time Ripley was searching for her cat Jonesie, I was watching most of the screen with partially-shielded eyes. The SUSPENSE was what was killing me!
Right up to the end, I wasn't sure who was going to win. The movie had been unique enough that it might well have been the alien left, sending the ship to Earth...
It is the only movie I have ever left with popcorn uneaten! As we left the theater, I turned to the nearest people in line and said "You aren't prepared for this one".
I still have a T-Shirt I had made afterwards that says "Alien" on the front and "Here, Jonesie" on the back. But I have never watched that movie on TV.
The following Alien movies were easier to watch, but not by much. Enough (since I knew Ripley would win) to watch though. My favorite parts of the later movies were when Ripley confronted the Alien Queen using the personal equipment-mover outfit in Alien2, and when she let herself fall into the molten iron pit in Alien3. I cried as she fell holding the newly-irrupting Queen hatchling to her to prevent it escaping.
Tgere was Alien; Resurrection, but if I saw it, I can't recall anything about it.
But I was surprised some years ago by the movie 'Prometheus'. I watched for a few minutes and realized it felt a bit like 'Alien', so I kept watching. I had no idea it was a prequel. As prequels to movie series go, it was much better than most. It involved a superior humanoid species (likely space-faring ancestors to ourselves in some way, 8' tall, built like giant wrestlers, and technologically-advanced) developing dangerous interstellar creatures as weapons. I didn't watch the whole movie (in and out of the room cleaning) but apparently the human heroine is fighting and losing to the humanoid when a cage is damaged and a dangerous captive octopus-like creature gets loose.
Apparently, it was like a dozen strong humans could capture a panther, but one would have a very hard time of it. And even then, it was a close struggle but the humanoid loses. And the octopus-like creature absorbs him - and his DNA. Making the Alien of the original movies...
The heroine escapes the planet in a makeshift spaceship and instead of returning to Earth goes after humonoid race seeking revenge. That last part is a bit weak, but I guess they couldn't have the Earth being warned about the dangerous aliens.
I understand that there is a Prometheus 2 movie in the works which may explain how the Prometheus heroine fights the sperior humanoid race
But I still can't watch "Alien'...
When 'Alien' came out in 1979, a friend and I went to see it opening night. We stood in line for hours in the rain, and missed the first showing by only 3 people. We thought is was about bad things from an alien's POV. Boy were WE wrong. When the first viewers cane out, they were pale and shaken! I turned to my friend and asked what we had gotten ourselves into?
Neither of us were particularly frightened by monster movies. I'm realistic, and my friend was a cinema buff, so we weren't either really TOO worried. Space aliens were generally silly, and Earthly ones too unlikely.
But as the movie started darkly, and a sense of unease came over us, and we thought about the looks on the faces of the first audience as they came out, we began to worry. When we first saw the queen alien skeleton in the derelict ship, we both said "Oh crap"!
And even then, we weren't prepared for the first egg. How harmful can a newly-hatched creature be? We found out! And it all got worse from there. By the time Ripley was searching for her cat Jonesie, I was watching most of the screen with partially-shielded eyes. The SUSPENSE was what was killing me!
Right up to the end, I wasn't sure who was going to win. The movie had been unique enough that it might well have been the alien left, sending the ship to Earth...
It is the only movie I have ever left with popcorn uneaten! As we left the theater, I turned to the nearest people in line and said "You aren't prepared for this one".
I still have a T-Shirt I had made afterwards that says "Alien" on the front and "Here, Jonesie" on the back. But I have never watched that movie on TV.
The following Alien movies were easier to watch, but not by much. Enough (since I knew Ripley would win) to watch though. My favorite parts of the later movies were when Ripley confronted the Alien Queen using the personal equipment-mover outfit in Alien2, and when she let herself fall into the molten iron pit in Alien3. I cried as she fell holding the newly-irrupting Queen hatchling to her to prevent it escaping.
Tgere was Alien; Resurrection, but if I saw it, I can't recall anything about it.
But I was surprised some years ago by the movie 'Prometheus'. I watched for a few minutes and realized it felt a bit like 'Alien', so I kept watching. I had no idea it was a prequel. As prequels to movie series go, it was much better than most. It involved a superior humanoid species (likely space-faring ancestors to ourselves in some way, 8' tall, built like giant wrestlers, and technologically-advanced) developing dangerous interstellar creatures as weapons. I didn't watch the whole movie (in and out of the room cleaning) but apparently the human heroine is fighting and losing to the humanoid when a cage is damaged and a dangerous captive octopus-like creature gets loose.
Apparently, it was like a dozen strong humans could capture a panther, but one would have a very hard time of it. And even then, it was a close struggle but the humanoid loses. And the octopus-like creature absorbs him - and his DNA. Making the Alien of the original movies...
The heroine escapes the planet in a makeshift spaceship and instead of returning to Earth goes after humonoid race seeking revenge. That last part is a bit weak, but I guess they couldn't have the Earth being warned about the dangerous aliens.
I understand that there is a Prometheus 2 movie in the works which may explain how the Prometheus heroine fights the sperior humanoid race
But I still can't watch "Alien'...
Friday, October 21, 2016
US Election
Well, we are down to the final few weeks of the US Presidential election, and quite frankly, I wish it was tomorrow. Or even yesterday. I am SO tired of it I could scream!
At least it seems that the decision is no longer in doubt. We will be referring to "Madame President" for the first time ever here, Democrats will have won a 3rd consecutive term controlling the White House since 1940 when Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected to a 3rd personal consecutive term, and (to steal a phrase from an previous generation) a long national nightmare will be over.
The election results will probably give nominal control of the US Senate to the Democrats by a small majority. It is possible that the House of Representatives will become Democratic , but I'm not expecting it today (but who knows what things will look like in 3 weeks)? Trump and the Republicans have the 3 weeks to make things better or worse.
If the Al Smith Foundation Dinner last night was any clue, it will get worse for the Republicans. As background, the Dinner "is an annual white fundraiser in the United States for Catholic charities supporting needy children, held at theWaldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, on the third Thursday of October. It is organized by the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation in honor of Al Smith the former New York Governor and the first Catholic US Presidential candidate. The dinner is hosted by the Archbishop of New York.
The idea is for the 2 major Presidential candidates to engage in self deprecating humor and some gentle digs at their opponent.
Trump failed at that utterly. That's not just my opinion. He received boos and several points when he just made his regular speech at a few points. Commenters said afterwards that they had never heard boos at the event before.
Apparently, Trump does not understand humor at all. He did have a few funny lines, none of which were aimed at himself, and even as delivered fell flat. I suspect several of them would have gotten laughs if delivered by a professional. Sarcasm can be funny, but not when delivered in anger.
Trumps best joke was when he mentioned 'Michelle Obama made a speech and everyone loved it. It was great. My wife, Melania, made the exact same speech and everyone gets on her case.'
The audience loved it. It is probably the best humor about plagiarism ever! But even THEN, it wasn't aimed at himself.
The crowd stayed with Trump while he ticked down a list of what he called "corny" jokes about being a former Democrat and sarcastically calling himself "modest." And they mostly laughed along when he joked about Clinton accidentally bumping into him back stage and saying "pardon me."
"I very politely replied: Let me talk to you about that after I get into office," Trump landed the punchline. Trumps as said previously that Clinton should be in jail for various reasons. Clinton was seen laughing.
His 20 minutes went downhill rapidly after that.
Clinton, on the other hand went straight to herself for humor. "I took a break from my rigorous nap schedule to be here," Clinton told the audience. And "Usually, I charge a lot for speeches like this."
She got in some rather harsh zingers, but they didn't get boos and there were definitely Trump supporters in the audience. Rudy Giuliani was there and was the subject of one Clinton joke. Clinton mentioned the many dignitaries in the audience positively, and then said "and then there is Rudy Giuliani". Ouch!
“Now, many don’t know this,” Clinton continued, “but Rudy actually got his start as a prosecutor going after wealthy New Yorker's who avoided paying taxes. But, as the saying goes, ‘If you can’t beat them, go on Fox News and call them a genius". Giuliani, a Trump surrogate speaker of increasing vicious attacks on Clinton, looked like he had a hot coal up where the sun doesn't shine...
But for the most part, Clinton was making jokes on herself and light digs at Trump, and Trump was his usual mean self. I understand that. People who are internally confident and happy can make jokes about themselves.
Not to say too much about myself in all of this, but I don't find self-humor threatening. I tripped over a cat once while a friend was there, and landed on my hands and knees. My first words were "so this is what it looks like from their point of view".
People like Trump can't laugh at themselves. If one of his staff had written the absolutely funniest self-deprecating joke ever created, Trump would not have used it. It would be against himself, and he can't imagine anyone against him. Because they would simply be "wrong".
My point here, long time in coming, is that Trump can't be President because he lacks the fullness of self-awareness that allows most of us to laugh at ourselves. I had a friend who did the almost slapstick gag of stepping onto a small boat from the pier and fell into the water as the boat moved away.
I laughed my ass off. It was as if you actually saw someone slip on a banana peel. He was livid, angry, enraged... If I had done that myself, I would have keeled over in laughter at myself as I pulled myself onto the boat, and asked if anyone got a picture of it!
Narcissistic megalomaniac bullies cannot laugh at themselves. Most of the rest of us can. At ourselves, and at them...
But basically, all this means that the US Presidential election is decided. Clinton will win; the question is by how much and will she carry the Senate and/or House along with her. For the Democratic party, life looks good for 2 Presidential terms. The interim elections are always iffy. But the gains of the day are sufficient for the day.
I will be glad after election night Nov 8th. No mor3e Trump for a while.
But do you know what is generally annoying? In several places around the US, some people are starting their campaigns for the 2020 Presidential elections...
At least it seems that the decision is no longer in doubt. We will be referring to "Madame President" for the first time ever here, Democrats will have won a 3rd consecutive term controlling the White House since 1940 when Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected to a 3rd personal consecutive term, and (to steal a phrase from an previous generation) a long national nightmare will be over.
The election results will probably give nominal control of the US Senate to the Democrats by a small majority. It is possible that the House of Representatives will become Democratic , but I'm not expecting it today (but who knows what things will look like in 3 weeks)? Trump and the Republicans have the 3 weeks to make things better or worse.
If the Al Smith Foundation Dinner last night was any clue, it will get worse for the Republicans. As background, the Dinner "is an annual white fundraiser in the United States for Catholic charities supporting needy children, held at theWaldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, on the third Thursday of October. It is organized by the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation in honor of Al Smith the former New York Governor and the first Catholic US Presidential candidate. The dinner is hosted by the Archbishop of New York.
The idea is for the 2 major Presidential candidates to engage in self deprecating humor and some gentle digs at their opponent.
Trump failed at that utterly. That's not just my opinion. He received boos and several points when he just made his regular speech at a few points. Commenters said afterwards that they had never heard boos at the event before.
Apparently, Trump does not understand humor at all. He did have a few funny lines, none of which were aimed at himself, and even as delivered fell flat. I suspect several of them would have gotten laughs if delivered by a professional. Sarcasm can be funny, but not when delivered in anger.
Trumps best joke was when he mentioned 'Michelle Obama made a speech and everyone loved it. It was great. My wife, Melania, made the exact same speech and everyone gets on her case.'
The audience loved it. It is probably the best humor about plagiarism ever! But even THEN, it wasn't aimed at himself.
The crowd stayed with Trump while he ticked down a list of what he called "corny" jokes about being a former Democrat and sarcastically calling himself "modest." And they mostly laughed along when he joked about Clinton accidentally bumping into him back stage and saying "pardon me."
"I very politely replied: Let me talk to you about that after I get into office," Trump landed the punchline. Trumps as said previously that Clinton should be in jail for various reasons. Clinton was seen laughing.
His 20 minutes went downhill rapidly after that.
Clinton, on the other hand went straight to herself for humor. "I took a break from my rigorous nap schedule to be here," Clinton told the audience. And "Usually, I charge a lot for speeches like this."
She got in some rather harsh zingers, but they didn't get boos and there were definitely Trump supporters in the audience. Rudy Giuliani was there and was the subject of one Clinton joke. Clinton mentioned the many dignitaries in the audience positively, and then said "and then there is Rudy Giuliani". Ouch!
“Now, many don’t know this,” Clinton continued, “but Rudy actually got his start as a prosecutor going after wealthy New Yorker's who avoided paying taxes. But, as the saying goes, ‘If you can’t beat them, go on Fox News and call them a genius". Giuliani, a Trump surrogate speaker of increasing vicious attacks on Clinton, looked like he had a hot coal up where the sun doesn't shine...
But for the most part, Clinton was making jokes on herself and light digs at Trump, and Trump was his usual mean self. I understand that. People who are internally confident and happy can make jokes about themselves.
Not to say too much about myself in all of this, but I don't find self-humor threatening. I tripped over a cat once while a friend was there, and landed on my hands and knees. My first words were "so this is what it looks like from their point of view".
People like Trump can't laugh at themselves. If one of his staff had written the absolutely funniest self-deprecating joke ever created, Trump would not have used it. It would be against himself, and he can't imagine anyone against him. Because they would simply be "wrong".
My point here, long time in coming, is that Trump can't be President because he lacks the fullness of self-awareness that allows most of us to laugh at ourselves. I had a friend who did the almost slapstick gag of stepping onto a small boat from the pier and fell into the water as the boat moved away.
I laughed my ass off. It was as if you actually saw someone slip on a banana peel. He was livid, angry, enraged... If I had done that myself, I would have keeled over in laughter at myself as I pulled myself onto the boat, and asked if anyone got a picture of it!
Narcissistic megalomaniac bullies cannot laugh at themselves. Most of the rest of us can. At ourselves, and at them...
But basically, all this means that the US Presidential election is decided. Clinton will win; the question is by how much and will she carry the Senate and/or House along with her. For the Democratic party, life looks good for 2 Presidential terms. The interim elections are always iffy. But the gains of the day are sufficient for the day.
I will be glad after election night Nov 8th. No mor3e Trump for a while.
But do you know what is generally annoying? In several places around the US, some people are starting their campaigns for the 2020 Presidential elections...
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Yardwork Again
I wasn't sure I was gong to be doing much yardwork the rest of the year. I usually try to do at least one useful thing each day. Sometimes I don't, but that is the goal anyway.
So when I twisted my right knee in early April, and it was difficult to walk the first couple of weeks, I grudgingly waited for it to heal. I do these sorts of injuries every so often but generally heal quickly enough. I'm used to it. You live on your own, you push yourself to do more than you should sometimes, and there is the occasional time your body says hey ease off on me a bit.
It has happened before. 10 years ago, I casually tossed a rock at a squirrel and strained my rotator cuff and I could barely raise my arm over my shoulder for 4 months! But it healed fine and I kind of expect that.
But this time, April rolled into May, and May into June and eventually September and it was better but not normal. Some projects got delayed. I had planned to repaint the bathrooms and kitchen, but crawling all around washing the walls, putting tape along all the edges and then doing the actual painting seemed too awkward. But it could wait.
I had also planned to use my gas-powered weed-whacker with the steel cutters to eliminate the backyard brush and brambles that sprung up after I had a few trees removed several years ago. That didn't happen.
A few weeks ago, my right knee suddenly felt much better. Not perfect, but good enough, and I started some minor yard projects and felt ready to do more. I got some work done. Mostly de-clutterring the basement the computer room, and the cat room.
And then I went and did something to the left knee. No idea what I did. It felt like I had banged it against a door frame, but for 2 weeks, I had 2 bad knees. I was worried I was sufferring some serious problem (like Lyme Disease affects your joints, or longer term problems like arthritis).
But I woke up 2 days ago and the left knee was back to normal and the right knee wasn't bad. I could walk around pretty much normal.
So I had found a sealed bag of grass seed in the basement left over from last year . I mowed the front yard grass very short. Today I raked all the loose grass and dumped it where I plan to put a flowerbed island around a large rock and tree in order to smother the grass and weeds and leave some improved soil. Then I spread the grass weeds all around. And then I spent 90 minutes carefully spraying straight down onto the grass to beat the grass seeds onto the soil surface and give them enough water to germinate.
It is a bit late to do that. But I had the seeds and they won't last another year. And we are having a warm spell, so the seeds should germinate if they are still viable. There are 2 bare spots, so I will know if they germinate. At least that is SOMETHING done.
And both knees felt just fine after all that. So that's good.
The next things to do are planting Daffodils in mid November, tilling some dead areas of the flowerbeds, and eliminating weeds in the paths between the framed veggie beds.
Are you familiar with those long strips of brown paper used as packing material? I've been saving the longest strips for several years. The stuff comes all twisted and crinkled, but I untwist it and lay in on the basement floor and use a push broom to flatten it out. That works very well. Then I fold it up in 4' lengths and put a piece of plywood on it to flatten it further and keep it out of the way. I have several hundred linear feet of it now.
It seems like great stuff to put between the framed beds, on top of weedy dead sections of the flowerbeds, and on top of all the Spring bulbs to smother weeds (with shredded bark on top). It will probably decompose by Spring, and in not, it will certainly be easy to pull up at planting time.
It may not kill all the weeds, but it sure won't do them any good. I am reminded of a W C Fields vaudeville joke where he says he swallowed a few moths and said he swallowed a couple of mothballs to get rid of them. The sidekick asks if it did any good. Fields says "well it sure couldn't have helped them any". (Do not do this at home, mothballs are toxic).
My point is that the brown paper cover is worth trying. If it works, GREAT! If not, it is easy to remove and will make good compostable material after 5 months exposure to rain and melting snow all Winter and early Spring.
Gardeners might object that covers the soil gives voles safe space to run around under. I did cover part of my flowerbeds with black plastic 10 years ago, and they did love it. They ate every tulip bulb, safe from predators. But this time, there won't be anything for them to eat. Well, the weeds, and if they want to eat the roots of those, they are not welcome, I encourage them. Otherwise, they don't touch Daffodils or Daylilies (toxic to mammals), the Tulips and Hyacinths are in wire cages they can't get into, and the seeds from the birdfeeder will be on top of the paper where they waill actually have trouble getting to the spilled seeds. EVIL LOL!
So I am getting into the yardwork late, but not impossibly late. The last project, which is to plant specimen trees that won't grow tall enough to shade my garden and flowerbeds is still in reach. By "specimen trees", I mean Korean Dogwoods, Sourwoods, Wisteria shrubs, and Star Magnolias. Those will shade out the brush and brambles like the taller trees used to do, but not cause shade problems across the yard.
I will surround the new trees with used carpeting. That has really worked well for me over the years. Rain soaks right through, but weeds won't grow up through it. And it it is usually free. Just look for some place being renovated and ask for the old carpet. They will usually just give it away.
OK, I'm off to buy some specimen tree saplings...
Back, I ordered 3 Sourwood trees and 2 Korean Dogwoods. Sourwood trees are great in Fall. They have small grapelike clusters of yellow berries and burgundy leaves and grow to about 25'. The Korean Dogwoods are great in Springs, don't have the same disease problems as American Dogwoods, and spread sideways. I have one on the shady side of the house that has been happily existing for 25 years at 20 feet, and I will take some tip cuttings next June. It has pink flowers. The dogwoods I ordered have white flowers, so that will make a nice change.
I also filled in all the screw and nail holes in the main bathroom a week ago
So when I twisted my right knee in early April, and it was difficult to walk the first couple of weeks, I grudgingly waited for it to heal. I do these sorts of injuries every so often but generally heal quickly enough. I'm used to it. You live on your own, you push yourself to do more than you should sometimes, and there is the occasional time your body says hey ease off on me a bit.
It has happened before. 10 years ago, I casually tossed a rock at a squirrel and strained my rotator cuff and I could barely raise my arm over my shoulder for 4 months! But it healed fine and I kind of expect that.
But this time, April rolled into May, and May into June and eventually September and it was better but not normal. Some projects got delayed. I had planned to repaint the bathrooms and kitchen, but crawling all around washing the walls, putting tape along all the edges and then doing the actual painting seemed too awkward. But it could wait.
I had also planned to use my gas-powered weed-whacker with the steel cutters to eliminate the backyard brush and brambles that sprung up after I had a few trees removed several years ago. That didn't happen.
A few weeks ago, my right knee suddenly felt much better. Not perfect, but good enough, and I started some minor yard projects and felt ready to do more. I got some work done. Mostly de-clutterring the basement the computer room, and the cat room.
And then I went and did something to the left knee. No idea what I did. It felt like I had banged it against a door frame, but for 2 weeks, I had 2 bad knees. I was worried I was sufferring some serious problem (like Lyme Disease affects your joints, or longer term problems like arthritis).
But I woke up 2 days ago and the left knee was back to normal and the right knee wasn't bad. I could walk around pretty much normal.
So I had found a sealed bag of grass seed in the basement left over from last year . I mowed the front yard grass very short. Today I raked all the loose grass and dumped it where I plan to put a flowerbed island around a large rock and tree in order to smother the grass and weeds and leave some improved soil. Then I spread the grass weeds all around. And then I spent 90 minutes carefully spraying straight down onto the grass to beat the grass seeds onto the soil surface and give them enough water to germinate.
It is a bit late to do that. But I had the seeds and they won't last another year. And we are having a warm spell, so the seeds should germinate if they are still viable. There are 2 bare spots, so I will know if they germinate. At least that is SOMETHING done.
And both knees felt just fine after all that. So that's good.
The next things to do are planting Daffodils in mid November, tilling some dead areas of the flowerbeds, and eliminating weeds in the paths between the framed veggie beds.
Are you familiar with those long strips of brown paper used as packing material? I've been saving the longest strips for several years. The stuff comes all twisted and crinkled, but I untwist it and lay in on the basement floor and use a push broom to flatten it out. That works very well. Then I fold it up in 4' lengths and put a piece of plywood on it to flatten it further and keep it out of the way. I have several hundred linear feet of it now.
It seems like great stuff to put between the framed beds, on top of weedy dead sections of the flowerbeds, and on top of all the Spring bulbs to smother weeds (with shredded bark on top). It will probably decompose by Spring, and in not, it will certainly be easy to pull up at planting time.
It may not kill all the weeds, but it sure won't do them any good. I am reminded of a W C Fields vaudeville joke where he says he swallowed a few moths and said he swallowed a couple of mothballs to get rid of them. The sidekick asks if it did any good. Fields says "well it sure couldn't have helped them any". (Do not do this at home, mothballs are toxic).
My point is that the brown paper cover is worth trying. If it works, GREAT! If not, it is easy to remove and will make good compostable material after 5 months exposure to rain and melting snow all Winter and early Spring.
Gardeners might object that covers the soil gives voles safe space to run around under. I did cover part of my flowerbeds with black plastic 10 years ago, and they did love it. They ate every tulip bulb, safe from predators. But this time, there won't be anything for them to eat. Well, the weeds, and if they want to eat the roots of those, they are not welcome, I encourage them. Otherwise, they don't touch Daffodils or Daylilies (toxic to mammals), the Tulips and Hyacinths are in wire cages they can't get into, and the seeds from the birdfeeder will be on top of the paper where they waill actually have trouble getting to the spilled seeds. EVIL LOL!
So I am getting into the yardwork late, but not impossibly late. The last project, which is to plant specimen trees that won't grow tall enough to shade my garden and flowerbeds is still in reach. By "specimen trees", I mean Korean Dogwoods, Sourwoods, Wisteria shrubs, and Star Magnolias. Those will shade out the brush and brambles like the taller trees used to do, but not cause shade problems across the yard.
I will surround the new trees with used carpeting. That has really worked well for me over the years. Rain soaks right through, but weeds won't grow up through it. And it it is usually free. Just look for some place being renovated and ask for the old carpet. They will usually just give it away.
OK, I'm off to buy some specimen tree saplings...
Back, I ordered 3 Sourwood trees and 2 Korean Dogwoods. Sourwood trees are great in Fall. They have small grapelike clusters of yellow berries and burgundy leaves and grow to about 25'. The Korean Dogwoods are great in Springs, don't have the same disease problems as American Dogwoods, and spread sideways. I have one on the shady side of the house that has been happily existing for 25 years at 20 feet, and I will take some tip cuttings next June. It has pink flowers. The dogwoods I ordered have white flowers, so that will make a nice change.
I also filled in all the screw and nail holes in the main bathroom a week ago
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Odd Connections
Last night, I was thinking about a couple of songs that run through my head. One is "Maria" from West Side Story. I had read that the central syllable was a "dishordant" note. So I brought it up to hear.
Apparently, I don't know music. It sounded fine to me. But the lovely sweet song 'Maria' was followed by 'America', a joyful contratemps song where the boys expressed having to fight there way into NYC society and the girls expressed how much better life was for them even in the slums.
And I thought of the current times, where things are so much better for their children, but not yet equal for all.
And then I thought of the current election.
Where some people do not want "others" to join in our grand US adventure. Where some are afraid of change and "others".
I was an "other" once, or at least my ancestors were. Everyone here is "other" except Native Americans. My English and French forced their way here and decided THEY were the new native people. When Germans came here later, my ancestors decided "they" were too strange and didn't belong.
A few generations later, when the Germans were part of the culture, the Irish came, and they were treated like dirt. But they became part of the culture. Do even the most fanatical "nativists" now think Germans and Irish people living here aren't part of "us"?
Then the Italians and Eastern Europeans came. They moved into the slums and worked their way out of them. After couple of generations, they lost their language (but added some to ours) . Can you tell who of us it from those places anymore?
And other people came here. Chinese who built the railroads, Russians fleeing the Czarist monarchies and the Soviets, Jews, fleeing from everywhere, and people from all over.
Can you tell who's ancestor was Russian or Polish now? I can't and it doesn't matter. My BI is half Korean and one of the finest people I ever met. I can't guess at the ancestry of my youngest sister's life partner,.
I might be surprised at my own. I bet I come from all over Europe and given my maternal Canadian French ancestry, there might well be some Native American there too. It doesn't matter! I'm proud of everyone in my past and present.
So there is this loudmouthed, boastful, lying, deceitful, cheating, groping, hate-filled nativist asshole demanding MY vote, as an American, to keep other hard-working people out of this country.
This country, where people dream of a better life not for themselves but for their children, this land where the best and the hardest-working people come to work and prosper, this land where we have a statue holding a shining beacon to the world saying all you who are willing to try your best, "come here, come here, our golden light shine bright", join us, become one of us, make our land a better place...
And this demogogue, this would be dictator, who feeds on fear says NO! Stay away, leave us alone, we don't want new people and new ideas, DARES to want to become our President.
There are always frightened people fearing for their routine life, afraid of "others". They forget that their grandparents or great-grandparents were "others" once. They forget what makes us strong.
We grow and thrive in diversity. New thoughts match to old habits, and better things come from that. New ideas lead to new ways, new thoughts, new discoveries; a continuing change, a look toward the future.
The German Chancellor Bismark once said that America is fortunate to have friendly neighbors North and South, and oceans East and West. But he only saw a part of it. The people matter more.
In 1860, before our massive Civil War, people said "the United States "are"; after it, they said "the United States "is". That was a profound difference. The war was fought between some States against the Government. When it was over, there was a Nation.
And it was a "Nation" for the first time. Nebraska farmoys and Massachussets fisherman boys met for the first time. Alabama cotton growers and Virginia tobacco boys met for the first time. None had ever had a sense on the whole place as a "nation" before. By the end of the Civil War, they did.
And now we have the party of Abraham Lincoln and General Grant living in the South in fear.
Shame, I say SHAME on you Republicans for claiming Lincoln as your birthright and denying his ideals!
Nations come and Nations go. All that is required is the failure to to keep striving toward democracy. Let the first little dictator in, and others will follow One just a little worse than the last. Like a frog in a heating pan.
The time to act is not the next election; the time to act is NOW. We have to choose the President who will keep to the ideals of Democracy, not the one who says "trust me I will figure it all out myself and tell you what to think"...
That is how democracy ends, in dibs and drabs,
Apparently, I don't know music. It sounded fine to me. But the lovely sweet song 'Maria' was followed by 'America', a joyful contratemps song where the boys expressed having to fight there way into NYC society and the girls expressed how much better life was for them even in the slums.
And I thought of the current times, where things are so much better for their children, but not yet equal for all.
And then I thought of the current election.
Where some people do not want "others" to join in our grand US adventure. Where some are afraid of change and "others".
I was an "other" once, or at least my ancestors were. Everyone here is "other" except Native Americans. My English and French forced their way here and decided THEY were the new native people. When Germans came here later, my ancestors decided "they" were too strange and didn't belong.
A few generations later, when the Germans were part of the culture, the Irish came, and they were treated like dirt. But they became part of the culture. Do even the most fanatical "nativists" now think Germans and Irish people living here aren't part of "us"?
Then the Italians and Eastern Europeans came. They moved into the slums and worked their way out of them. After couple of generations, they lost their language (but added some to ours) . Can you tell who of us it from those places anymore?
And other people came here. Chinese who built the railroads, Russians fleeing the Czarist monarchies and the Soviets, Jews, fleeing from everywhere, and people from all over.
Can you tell who's ancestor was Russian or Polish now? I can't and it doesn't matter. My BI is half Korean and one of the finest people I ever met. I can't guess at the ancestry of my youngest sister's life partner,.
I might be surprised at my own. I bet I come from all over Europe and given my maternal Canadian French ancestry, there might well be some Native American there too. It doesn't matter! I'm proud of everyone in my past and present.
So there is this loudmouthed, boastful, lying, deceitful, cheating, groping, hate-filled nativist asshole demanding MY vote, as an American, to keep other hard-working people out of this country.
This country, where people dream of a better life not for themselves but for their children, this land where the best and the hardest-working people come to work and prosper, this land where we have a statue holding a shining beacon to the world saying all you who are willing to try your best, "come here, come here, our golden light shine bright", join us, become one of us, make our land a better place...
And this demogogue, this would be dictator, who feeds on fear says NO! Stay away, leave us alone, we don't want new people and new ideas, DARES to want to become our President.
There are always frightened people fearing for their routine life, afraid of "others". They forget that their grandparents or great-grandparents were "others" once. They forget what makes us strong.
We grow and thrive in diversity. New thoughts match to old habits, and better things come from that. New ideas lead to new ways, new thoughts, new discoveries; a continuing change, a look toward the future.
The German Chancellor Bismark once said that America is fortunate to have friendly neighbors North and South, and oceans East and West. But he only saw a part of it. The people matter more.
In 1860, before our massive Civil War, people said "the United States "are"; after it, they said "the United States "is". That was a profound difference. The war was fought between some States against the Government. When it was over, there was a Nation.
And it was a "Nation" for the first time. Nebraska farmoys and Massachussets fisherman boys met for the first time. Alabama cotton growers and Virginia tobacco boys met for the first time. None had ever had a sense on the whole place as a "nation" before. By the end of the Civil War, they did.
And now we have the party of Abraham Lincoln and General Grant living in the South in fear.
Shame, I say SHAME on you Republicans for claiming Lincoln as your birthright and denying his ideals!
Nations come and Nations go. All that is required is the failure to to keep striving toward democracy. Let the first little dictator in, and others will follow One just a little worse than the last. Like a frog in a heating pan.
The time to act is not the next election; the time to act is NOW. We have to choose the President who will keep to the ideals of Democracy, not the one who says "trust me I will figure it all out myself and tell you what to think"...
That is how democracy ends, in dibs and drabs,
OUCH!
I messed up my right knee in April. It still bothers me. But I know what caused it.
Last night. I did something that messed up my left knee. It is as if I hit it on a door frame. But I didn't. Can't think of anything I did to cause it. Damn...
I guess I'm going to have to see a doctor... I used to just heal in a week from these sorts of problems. But not any more. Getting old is really annoying.
Last night. I did something that messed up my left knee. It is as if I hit it on a door frame. But I didn't. Can't think of anything I did to cause it. Damn...
I guess I'm going to have to see a doctor... I used to just heal in a week from these sorts of problems. But not any more. Getting old is really annoying.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Angry Voters
I have been hard on Donald Trump (and rightly so). But I haven't discussed his supporters much.
I sort of understand them. They are angry. They are desperate. They aren't living the life their parents enjoyed.
In a general sense, we all know that some people succeed in life better than others. And the others don't. The reasons are not my point here. My point is that they know the world is somehow passing them by, they are not succeeding, and they are angry. There are few emotions stronger than anger.
Hate is usually directed, anger is diffuse.
Trump has activated the angry people. He wouldn't have gotten the Republican nomination for President if anger and fear wasn't a real thing in significant part of the population.
I do not fear Trump. He will go down into crushing defeat on Election Day. It is the angry people who concern me. Their anger is justified. They used to have decent-paying jobs putting headlights on cars, collecting coins from parking meters, loading luggage on airplanes, etc. There used to be jobs you could just learn to DO without having to work on a computer, make decisions, or attend meetings and argue with people. Some people are just not good at those things. And they have fewer places to do work now.
And I understand because in the 1st 10 years of my adult life, I had cruddy jobs too. I pushed a lawn mower in the hot sun for 2 Summers on an Army Base. I spent 2 Summers pumping gas at a full service station where the owner dipped his sticky fingers into the till and charged us workers for the "losses".
I worked at minimum wage in several department stores while the rent went up faster than my wages. I even got to where I was in charge of a 1/4 of the department store and my hourly pay was 25 cents above minimum wage. And the store managers cheated us every chance they could get because every dime they took out of our pocket went into theirs!
But I took a competitive exam for Government work and scored 100% in 5 categories of jobs. That was because *I* spent my time in high school studying while "other" kids were goofing off. I learned "stuff". I practiced general skills. I did well. I was promoted regularly. I retired well.
But not much better than the middle class in the US did in the 50s and 60s. The high point of the US economy was when unions were strong (but not overly strong), when the percentage of the total wealth held by the top 1% was low, and when a college education for children was withing reach of most middle class families.
There was a chart in Scientific American magazine a month ago that showed the percentage of national wealth held by the top 1% of Americans.
In the 1920s, it rose to 20%. At the end of The Great Depression, it was down to 15%, and the end of WWII, it was down to 10%.
In 1970, it was down to 8%. After the Republican Tax Reform act of 1986, it rose rather suddenly to 16%, and after the 2000 Bush Administration, it went back up to 18%. That is wrong. The trickle down theory of wealth only means every one below the top 1% gets peed on.
The Republicans are doing it very very wrong, in pay to their super-rich supporters. But the Democrats are doing things a whole lot better.
What we need is a Centrist-Union party dedicated to recreating the middle class. No industrialized nation can survive without a strong middle class. That is what makes democracy work.
Democracy works best when the poor have a path up, the middle class has some basic stability in life, and the rich are accepting a lower level than "outrageously fabulous".
I'll give a sports example...
Say you are a farmkid in Kansas and you have a choice between driving a tractor around cornfields for $20K a year vs earning $100K a year catching balls in the outfield. Of course you would take the $100K. But is it worth $50M. No, you would do it for $100K. It is idiodically super-rich people playing their own game, competing with each other.
If they weren't, the seats would cost $10 and they would all still make a fine profit. THat's what a generally middle-class world would look like...
I sort of understand them. They are angry. They are desperate. They aren't living the life their parents enjoyed.
In a general sense, we all know that some people succeed in life better than others. And the others don't. The reasons are not my point here. My point is that they know the world is somehow passing them by, they are not succeeding, and they are angry. There are few emotions stronger than anger.
Hate is usually directed, anger is diffuse.
Trump has activated the angry people. He wouldn't have gotten the Republican nomination for President if anger and fear wasn't a real thing in significant part of the population.
I do not fear Trump. He will go down into crushing defeat on Election Day. It is the angry people who concern me. Their anger is justified. They used to have decent-paying jobs putting headlights on cars, collecting coins from parking meters, loading luggage on airplanes, etc. There used to be jobs you could just learn to DO without having to work on a computer, make decisions, or attend meetings and argue with people. Some people are just not good at those things. And they have fewer places to do work now.
And I understand because in the 1st 10 years of my adult life, I had cruddy jobs too. I pushed a lawn mower in the hot sun for 2 Summers on an Army Base. I spent 2 Summers pumping gas at a full service station where the owner dipped his sticky fingers into the till and charged us workers for the "losses".
I worked at minimum wage in several department stores while the rent went up faster than my wages. I even got to where I was in charge of a 1/4 of the department store and my hourly pay was 25 cents above minimum wage. And the store managers cheated us every chance they could get because every dime they took out of our pocket went into theirs!
But I took a competitive exam for Government work and scored 100% in 5 categories of jobs. That was because *I* spent my time in high school studying while "other" kids were goofing off. I learned "stuff". I practiced general skills. I did well. I was promoted regularly. I retired well.
But not much better than the middle class in the US did in the 50s and 60s. The high point of the US economy was when unions were strong (but not overly strong), when the percentage of the total wealth held by the top 1% was low, and when a college education for children was withing reach of most middle class families.
There was a chart in Scientific American magazine a month ago that showed the percentage of national wealth held by the top 1% of Americans.
In the 1920s, it rose to 20%. At the end of The Great Depression, it was down to 15%, and the end of WWII, it was down to 10%.
In 1970, it was down to 8%. After the Republican Tax Reform act of 1986, it rose rather suddenly to 16%, and after the 2000 Bush Administration, it went back up to 18%. That is wrong. The trickle down theory of wealth only means every one below the top 1% gets peed on.
The Republicans are doing it very very wrong, in pay to their super-rich supporters. But the Democrats are doing things a whole lot better.
What we need is a Centrist-Union party dedicated to recreating the middle class. No industrialized nation can survive without a strong middle class. That is what makes democracy work.
Democracy works best when the poor have a path up, the middle class has some basic stability in life, and the rich are accepting a lower level than "outrageously fabulous".
I'll give a sports example...
Say you are a farmkid in Kansas and you have a choice between driving a tractor around cornfields for $20K a year vs earning $100K a year catching balls in the outfield. Of course you would take the $100K. But is it worth $50M. No, you would do it for $100K. It is idiodically super-rich people playing their own game, competing with each other.
If they weren't, the seats would cost $10 and they would all still make a fine profit. THat's what a generally middle-class world would look like...
Monday, October 10, 2016
Annoying Commercials
I have a love/hate relationship with TV commercials. I love humorous ones and hate annoying ones. Dad used to mute commercials, but I always found the deafening silence more annoying than the commercial themselves. So I grew pretty immune to them.
That doesn't mean I didn't hear what they said. The mind just filters out the brand names And sometimes there is a new product that will actually draw my interest in the general product. Then I research similar products that do the same work better. Then I sometimes find stuff that really works.
And they have learned a couple of new tricks this year. In the first, they repeat the same commercial the 1st and 3rd time in a single station break. In the second, they have the same commercial played on related channels at the same time. So if you are watching the Science channel and an annoying commercial comes and you switch to the History channel, you are likely to see the same commercial.
But, my favorite disliked commercials...
1. Some allergy medication that says their competitor treats 1 problem and they treat 6 AND 6 IS GREATER THAN 1. Was 6 being greater than 1 supposed to be a revelation to me?
2. A car insurance company that criticizes a competitor for telling a customer they should have bought "full replacement insurance" and says the customer should have researched that company better. And then offers to sell you "full replacement insurance". Just like they criticized the competitor for doing.
3. I'll name names for this one. For several years, Comcast has been comparing its cable service speed to Verizons DSL service saying "we are 5x faster". I don't know if you remember what DSL is, but it stands for "Digital Subscriber Service". DSL is about 40 years old technology. It worked over old twisted copper wire telephone lines that were basically cleaned of static so that 9600 kbs could be transmitted over old-fashioned telephone lines.
Its like comparing a 1940s Oldsmobile car to a 2016 Mercedes Benz in terms of spped, safety, and features. And you only know Comcast is comparing their current service to DSL if you listen the the fast-talk and the very end on the commercial.
4. All the car insurance companies who claim to have better rates than the others... Every insurance company has slightly different rates for coverage and cost. Everyone has SOME combination where they are cheaper than the others. They can all prove they are better than the others at SOME specific coverage even if that coverage combination is so limited and bizarre that almost no one would choose it.
5. Another one I dislike is a medication that says ours can start working in 30 minutes while out competitor's can take up to 24 hours. I get such a kick out of that. From what little I can discover, they are the same chemical. Medication tests show a range of response times to the medications. For the same medication, some people respond very quickly and some respond very slowly.
So a particular medication may work very quickly on some people and very slowly on others. There are many causes for that, but don't worry about that. What Company "A is saying is that SOME test subjects self-reported an effect in 30 minutes. And that SOME of Company X's test subjects reported irt took 24 hours. What they are NOT telling you (because they don't have to" as that some of THEIR test subjects took 24 hours to respond and some of the Competitor test subjects took only 30 minutes.
In other words, they were identical. One company took the absolute lowest response time and compared it to the other company's longest response time.
-----------------------
It can be hard to stay ahead of the advertizing.
Rule 1 is to look for hidden insults. Advertisers assume everyone is stupid and gullible. "6 is greater than 1" is the best example I have seen of that in many years.
Rule 2 is to think about the assumptions. Is a car showing it being driven at 120 mph better than a car being driven at 60? How often do you drive at 120?
Rule 3 is to read the fine print at the bottom of the screen at the end of the commercial. Puse it or record it. That's were ALL the truth is.
Rule 4 is to turn off the sound and look at the commercial without the expensive talented narrator.
Rule 5 is to do the opposite. Close your eyes and listen to the narrator. Sometimes what he or she says doesn't actually make much sense.
Rule 6 is to apply some basic knowledge. All through history, people have claimed benefits from and sold common or bizarre substances. Most people are basically honest. They have to be to keep the respect of family and friends and neighbors. Salesmen don't!
If anyone says "Scientists (or Doctors) Don't Want You To Know This", that's because the claim IS NOT TRUE. Wearing copper bracelets or moving "special" magnets over your joints does not work. Otherwise, doctors would be doing that! Any doctor who could show by patient recovery that some odd idea worked would become FAMOUS.
Rule 7 is that "If it seems to be too good to be true, then it isn't true". Ideas that are good generally don't need much advertising. There isn't a lot of business advertising telling you to eat more fruits and vegetables. There ARE a lot telling you to eat more Toaster Sugar Blasts and Chocolate-Frosted Sugar-Bomb cereal. Because YOU KNOW that fresh fruits and vegetables and "some" meat is good for you and eating a pound of sugar a day isn't and they have to work hard to convince you to buy their sugar/fat products.
And since the sugar/fat foods, copper bracelets, magnets, etc, etc, etc are their only way to make a fortune, they try it. And when it works, they are gleeful. They think it is sure better than having a REAL job...
That doesn't mean I didn't hear what they said. The mind just filters out the brand names And sometimes there is a new product that will actually draw my interest in the general product. Then I research similar products that do the same work better. Then I sometimes find stuff that really works.
And they have learned a couple of new tricks this year. In the first, they repeat the same commercial the 1st and 3rd time in a single station break. In the second, they have the same commercial played on related channels at the same time. So if you are watching the Science channel and an annoying commercial comes and you switch to the History channel, you are likely to see the same commercial.
But, my favorite disliked commercials...
1. Some allergy medication that says their competitor treats 1 problem and they treat 6 AND 6 IS GREATER THAN 1. Was 6 being greater than 1 supposed to be a revelation to me?
2. A car insurance company that criticizes a competitor for telling a customer they should have bought "full replacement insurance" and says the customer should have researched that company better. And then offers to sell you "full replacement insurance". Just like they criticized the competitor for doing.
3. I'll name names for this one. For several years, Comcast has been comparing its cable service speed to Verizons DSL service saying "we are 5x faster". I don't know if you remember what DSL is, but it stands for "Digital Subscriber Service". DSL is about 40 years old technology. It worked over old twisted copper wire telephone lines that were basically cleaned of static so that 9600 kbs could be transmitted over old-fashioned telephone lines.
Its like comparing a 1940s Oldsmobile car to a 2016 Mercedes Benz in terms of spped, safety, and features. And you only know Comcast is comparing their current service to DSL if you listen the the fast-talk and the very end on the commercial.
4. All the car insurance companies who claim to have better rates than the others... Every insurance company has slightly different rates for coverage and cost. Everyone has SOME combination where they are cheaper than the others. They can all prove they are better than the others at SOME specific coverage even if that coverage combination is so limited and bizarre that almost no one would choose it.
5. Another one I dislike is a medication that says ours can start working in 30 minutes while out competitor's can take up to 24 hours. I get such a kick out of that. From what little I can discover, they are the same chemical. Medication tests show a range of response times to the medications. For the same medication, some people respond very quickly and some respond very slowly.
So a particular medication may work very quickly on some people and very slowly on others. There are many causes for that, but don't worry about that. What Company "A is saying is that SOME test subjects self-reported an effect in 30 minutes. And that SOME of Company X's test subjects reported irt took 24 hours. What they are NOT telling you (because they don't have to" as that some of THEIR test subjects took 24 hours to respond and some of the Competitor test subjects took only 30 minutes.
In other words, they were identical. One company took the absolute lowest response time and compared it to the other company's longest response time.
-----------------------
It can be hard to stay ahead of the advertizing.
Rule 1 is to look for hidden insults. Advertisers assume everyone is stupid and gullible. "6 is greater than 1" is the best example I have seen of that in many years.
Rule 2 is to think about the assumptions. Is a car showing it being driven at 120 mph better than a car being driven at 60? How often do you drive at 120?
Rule 3 is to read the fine print at the bottom of the screen at the end of the commercial. Puse it or record it. That's were ALL the truth is.
Rule 4 is to turn off the sound and look at the commercial without the expensive talented narrator.
Rule 5 is to do the opposite. Close your eyes and listen to the narrator. Sometimes what he or she says doesn't actually make much sense.
Rule 6 is to apply some basic knowledge. All through history, people have claimed benefits from and sold common or bizarre substances. Most people are basically honest. They have to be to keep the respect of family and friends and neighbors. Salesmen don't!
If anyone says "Scientists (or Doctors) Don't Want You To Know This", that's because the claim IS NOT TRUE. Wearing copper bracelets or moving "special" magnets over your joints does not work. Otherwise, doctors would be doing that! Any doctor who could show by patient recovery that some odd idea worked would become FAMOUS.
Rule 7 is that "If it seems to be too good to be true, then it isn't true". Ideas that are good generally don't need much advertising. There isn't a lot of business advertising telling you to eat more fruits and vegetables. There ARE a lot telling you to eat more Toaster Sugar Blasts and Chocolate-Frosted Sugar-Bomb cereal. Because YOU KNOW that fresh fruits and vegetables and "some" meat is good for you and eating a pound of sugar a day isn't and they have to work hard to convince you to buy their sugar/fat products.
And since the sugar/fat foods, copper bracelets, magnets, etc, etc, etc are their only way to make a fortune, they try it. And when it works, they are gleeful. They think it is sure better than having a REAL job...
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Trump's Commennts About Women
I am posting this Saturday evening, before any new news about the Presidential debate or further news discussion about Trump's comments about how he views or has treated women comes out.
So this is general. You know I don't like Trump. He lies. He lies about what he said years ago and he lies about what he said yesterday. There is nearly no position that Trump has ever claimed that he has not denied afterwards.
My point here is not to list them. Professional journalists and fact-checkers have done that before and found/proved him to be a pathological liar about almost everything. That is what he is. You can accept him for that or deny it, but he is that so frequently proven.
My concern today is the video of his comments about women. Trump was politically-fatally damaged by the video. Trump will never be a President of the US.
What I want to discuss is his justification for the comments. His claim was they were locker room comments. I've been in locker rooms. I played soccer in high school and that was a rough bunch. And we often shared locker room time with the football players and they tend toward crudeness. Comments about cheerleaders, comments about fans in the stands. Never in any locker room did I hear statements like Trump made.
In college, I tried rugby for a few months, and never did I hear such comments there.
And let me try to explain it. In the locker room, some guys talked about expectations of having sex with their girlfriends. Some talked about about going out to a local bar and trying to hook up with "fangirls".
Those were mostly established monogomous relationships or just plain fantasies. There is a difference!
That isn't what Trump was talking about. He was talking about outright predatory sexual assault, he was talking about using a position of power and influence to get unwilling sex, he was talking about taking advantage of fear of retribution and career destruction to have sex with women. He wasn't talking about vague "desires". He was talking about actual factual experiences in his life and the expectation that they would continue. That is a VERY different thing.
The terms "creep, "vile", and "predator", come to mind.
His apologies are insipid, deceitful, and vapid! His first response was "I apologize if anyone was offended". Now THAT is a standard political trick. He isn't apologizing for what he SAID or DID, he is expressing some vague regret that OTHERS were upset by what he said or did which he considers perfectly OK. In other words " You are an overly-sensitive, politically-correct annoying twit who doesn't understand reality". That isn't an apology; that's an insult.
An apology is a clear unambiguous statement that you were wrong by all social standards, that you wish you had never said or done the thing, and that it was a strange inexplicable action that was totally out of character. Allowable reasons are things like utterly mis-speaking, medication effects, typos on your notes, etc.
When you say you can get away with things like that when you are famous, you can't even apologize at all. It is just "who you are"! And that IS who he IS!
So, Trump is no longer viable as President of the US in any consideration. That is simply an "absolute". I don't care what any supporter thinks of his general political views, I don't care what his supporters think of his list of Supreme Court nominees, I don't even care if he COULD improve the economy (which he wouldn't). That no longer matters.
Donald Trump must NOT ever be President of the US...
So this is general. You know I don't like Trump. He lies. He lies about what he said years ago and he lies about what he said yesterday. There is nearly no position that Trump has ever claimed that he has not denied afterwards.
My point here is not to list them. Professional journalists and fact-checkers have done that before and found/proved him to be a pathological liar about almost everything. That is what he is. You can accept him for that or deny it, but he is that so frequently proven.
My concern today is the video of his comments about women. Trump was politically-fatally damaged by the video. Trump will never be a President of the US.
What I want to discuss is his justification for the comments. His claim was they were locker room comments. I've been in locker rooms. I played soccer in high school and that was a rough bunch. And we often shared locker room time with the football players and they tend toward crudeness. Comments about cheerleaders, comments about fans in the stands. Never in any locker room did I hear statements like Trump made.
In college, I tried rugby for a few months, and never did I hear such comments there.
And let me try to explain it. In the locker room, some guys talked about expectations of having sex with their girlfriends. Some talked about about going out to a local bar and trying to hook up with "fangirls".
Those were mostly established monogomous relationships or just plain fantasies. There is a difference!
That isn't what Trump was talking about. He was talking about outright predatory sexual assault, he was talking about using a position of power and influence to get unwilling sex, he was talking about taking advantage of fear of retribution and career destruction to have sex with women. He wasn't talking about vague "desires". He was talking about actual factual experiences in his life and the expectation that they would continue. That is a VERY different thing.
The terms "creep, "vile", and "predator", come to mind.
His apologies are insipid, deceitful, and vapid! His first response was "I apologize if anyone was offended". Now THAT is a standard political trick. He isn't apologizing for what he SAID or DID, he is expressing some vague regret that OTHERS were upset by what he said or did which he considers perfectly OK. In other words " You are an overly-sensitive, politically-correct annoying twit who doesn't understand reality". That isn't an apology; that's an insult.
An apology is a clear unambiguous statement that you were wrong by all social standards, that you wish you had never said or done the thing, and that it was a strange inexplicable action that was totally out of character. Allowable reasons are things like utterly mis-speaking, medication effects, typos on your notes, etc.
When you say you can get away with things like that when you are famous, you can't even apologize at all. It is just "who you are"! And that IS who he IS!
So, Trump is no longer viable as President of the US in any consideration. That is simply an "absolute". I don't care what any supporter thinks of his general political views, I don't care what his supporters think of his list of Supreme Court nominees, I don't even care if he COULD improve the economy (which he wouldn't). That no longer matters.
Donald Trump must NOT ever be President of the US...
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Recent Posts and Comments
First, thank you to everyone who commented about my recent house searches. The comments all made good sense (and they were easy to agree with since I was coming to that understanding myself). I have MUCH to like about my current house and LESS than I imagined to dislike. After enough years, you have everything where you want it. Minor problems seem larger than they really are. Sometimes it seems easier to escape them than just fix them.
I argue with myself about many things. I see both sides of issues and that can really make decision-making difficult. I've had friends for whom any question gave them an immediate answer which they acted upon with no further concerns. Personally, I thought they tended to make bad decisions sometimes, but at least they were never tortured by doubt.
But thinking too much about everything can lead to "analysis-paralysis" and that can be just as big a problem. You get to a close decision and you are STUCK in between. I recently saw a TV ad that used the term "FOBO" (Fear Of Better Options). I get that.
2 years ago, I looked at houses with County water and sewage and cable and large open yards with sunlight for gardening. Last year, I looked at rural lots of converted farmland that I could build a new home on. Starting from scratch in the yard and a new house that would outlast me seemed good. But all the lots I could find were surrounded by working farmland with overpowering fertilizer smells and I never found the open house structure I could afford (like 100'x50' for one-level living and a workshop attached and a garage. This year, I looked at large Ramblers about the size of my current size over a large open basement large enough for my woodworking equipment, and had a 2 car garage (one car, one boat).
The good house was on a lawn dome that fell off into ravines in back and the large side, the house with the good yard had crumbling foundations and obvious water problems in the basement, and the last one had a good yard but was smaller than my current house and, even filtered and softened, the water tasted bad. And was $150,000 more than my house is estimated
So I have decided to remain here for a while. Perhaps in a few years County water and sewage will be installed in more rural areas, the cable companies will expand, solar panels will become cheaper and more efficient, etc. But that time is not now.
There isn't a whole lot I can do about my lack of gardening sunlight, though some ideas occur to me. Putting up silver-painted sheet metal on the shady side would reflect a fair amount of sunlight back into the garden, for example.
There isn't much I can do about the trees. They are tall and narrow. It's not the overhanging branches; it is their sheer height. And it has been years since I asked about removing them. Perhaps paying to have them professionally removed and replacing them with flowering trees like dogwoods would work. I'll at least ask again.
And if that doesn't work, I do have the right to cut out all roots invading my soil. Since they are so close to the property line, that might kill them. And THEN I can offer them lower growing flowering trees that won't cause me problems. From the shade angles, all I need is that trees be not more than 20' high. The current ones are 50 to 75'.
As far as the house itself goes, most of the things that bother me are fixable through my own or contractor efforts. The basement bathroom I installed myself 20 years ago was a mistake, but it can also be removed. I've never used it except for storage. It goes back to when I paneled 3/4 of the basement and carpeted the area thinking I would have parties. I didn't throw parties and tore out the carpet in favor of a wood-working area, but the bathroom remains as dead space. The ancient refrigerator can go, in favor of a medium chest freezer in the cat room upstairs.
I have 3 rooms with original 30 year old carpeting. The master bedroom carpet is still oddly good (it gets so little use), but the other 2 are trashable and I'm thinking linoleum for the computer room (getting rid of the annoying chair mats) and tight pile carpet for the cat room).
I have new shingles on the roof, a new deck, new siding, and I have raised the front lawn to solve drainage problems. The asphalt driveway is deteriorating gradually; that can be removed and replaced with concrete.
My 25 year old perennial beds have less in them than my pictures show these days (which is why you have been seeing more pictures of potted deck plants this year). I can dig up the good plants, rototill the areas, replant the good ones and add more. But that is what I would be doing in a new place anyway, and with greater effort.
I could go on, but you get the idea. I was desiring to escape redoing and fixing things and just starting over. Starting over is neat and clean. Summer's Mom mentioned that HER passion was big beautiful houses and those are what she wants to spend her time and effort on. I when I lie in bed at night, thinking about what's not perfect about my house, my thoughts are on doing work to make it better.
I have reasons to want to move, but less than I thought a month ago. I'm staying. And if you are the kind of person who remembers things like this and I mention moving again next year, remind me about the past 3 years of searches. LOL!
I argue with myself about many things. I see both sides of issues and that can really make decision-making difficult. I've had friends for whom any question gave them an immediate answer which they acted upon with no further concerns. Personally, I thought they tended to make bad decisions sometimes, but at least they were never tortured by doubt.
But thinking too much about everything can lead to "analysis-paralysis" and that can be just as big a problem. You get to a close decision and you are STUCK in between. I recently saw a TV ad that used the term "FOBO" (Fear Of Better Options). I get that.
2 years ago, I looked at houses with County water and sewage and cable and large open yards with sunlight for gardening. Last year, I looked at rural lots of converted farmland that I could build a new home on. Starting from scratch in the yard and a new house that would outlast me seemed good. But all the lots I could find were surrounded by working farmland with overpowering fertilizer smells and I never found the open house structure I could afford (like 100'x50' for one-level living and a workshop attached and a garage. This year, I looked at large Ramblers about the size of my current size over a large open basement large enough for my woodworking equipment, and had a 2 car garage (one car, one boat).
The good house was on a lawn dome that fell off into ravines in back and the large side, the house with the good yard had crumbling foundations and obvious water problems in the basement, and the last one had a good yard but was smaller than my current house and, even filtered and softened, the water tasted bad. And was $150,000 more than my house is estimated
So I have decided to remain here for a while. Perhaps in a few years County water and sewage will be installed in more rural areas, the cable companies will expand, solar panels will become cheaper and more efficient, etc. But that time is not now.
There isn't a whole lot I can do about my lack of gardening sunlight, though some ideas occur to me. Putting up silver-painted sheet metal on the shady side would reflect a fair amount of sunlight back into the garden, for example.
There isn't much I can do about the trees. They are tall and narrow. It's not the overhanging branches; it is their sheer height. And it has been years since I asked about removing them. Perhaps paying to have them professionally removed and replacing them with flowering trees like dogwoods would work. I'll at least ask again.
And if that doesn't work, I do have the right to cut out all roots invading my soil. Since they are so close to the property line, that might kill them. And THEN I can offer them lower growing flowering trees that won't cause me problems. From the shade angles, all I need is that trees be not more than 20' high. The current ones are 50 to 75'.
As far as the house itself goes, most of the things that bother me are fixable through my own or contractor efforts. The basement bathroom I installed myself 20 years ago was a mistake, but it can also be removed. I've never used it except for storage. It goes back to when I paneled 3/4 of the basement and carpeted the area thinking I would have parties. I didn't throw parties and tore out the carpet in favor of a wood-working area, but the bathroom remains as dead space. The ancient refrigerator can go, in favor of a medium chest freezer in the cat room upstairs.
I have 3 rooms with original 30 year old carpeting. The master bedroom carpet is still oddly good (it gets so little use), but the other 2 are trashable and I'm thinking linoleum for the computer room (getting rid of the annoying chair mats) and tight pile carpet for the cat room).
I have new shingles on the roof, a new deck, new siding, and I have raised the front lawn to solve drainage problems. The asphalt driveway is deteriorating gradually; that can be removed and replaced with concrete.
My 25 year old perennial beds have less in them than my pictures show these days (which is why you have been seeing more pictures of potted deck plants this year). I can dig up the good plants, rototill the areas, replant the good ones and add more. But that is what I would be doing in a new place anyway, and with greater effort.
I could go on, but you get the idea. I was desiring to escape redoing and fixing things and just starting over. Starting over is neat and clean. Summer's Mom mentioned that HER passion was big beautiful houses and those are what she wants to spend her time and effort on. I when I lie in bed at night, thinking about what's not perfect about my house, my thoughts are on doing work to make it better.
I have reasons to want to move, but less than I thought a month ago. I'm staying. And if you are the kind of person who remembers things like this and I mention moving again next year, remind me about the past 3 years of searches. LOL!
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Daffodils, Trash, And Old Electronics
I finally got about 3/4 of the daffodils planted. I have a front yard island bed surrounding the Saucer Magnolia tree and a 3' boulder ...
