MYTHS OF THE LEFT!

 

 Over the better course of eight years, I’ve worked Elections as a Poll Worker.

Though I didn’t work this last Presidential Election, I’ve worked virtually every Primary and Regular Election since 2008. I’ve gone and spent about a 17 hour day making sure that people got to vote and that the process was carried out in accordance to Election laws. I’ve tried to make sure that even if someone was in the wrong polling place we pointed them to where they could vote and if they had a problem we made sure they were able to file an affidavit ballot so that their vote was counted.

I believe it’s important we vote and the sad thing is how many people in this country abstain from this one very important right they have. I’m even frustrated a helluva lot more by people who only can be motivated to get off their ass once every four years to vote for President.

Especially when it’s in Primaries and Local Elections that their single vote carries so much more weight - I’ve worked primaries where we’ve had 12 VOTERS THE ENTIRE DAY!

Seriously, think about that for a second if you will... in a Presidential Election millions of votes are cast but in a primary you can actually be on of 12 voters in a polling place instead of 1 in maybe 500 plus we have on the rolls for our site.

That’s how important it is to get out in those other Elections!

Anyway, I don’t have a problem with Voter ID laws. In a society where you are required to show some form of Photo ID just to get into an office building, showing an ID prior to voting isn’t such a big deal or at least it shouldn’t be and there do need to be reforms because while voter fraud may be low ideally we would like to have no voter fraud at all.

It’s not a valid counter argument that it makes it harder to vote by showing ID - not when ID is such a necessary part of everyday life.

Now, there are people that argue against Voter ID because they feel it’s racially discriminatory. I don’t really find these paternalistic arguments to hold much water and I do find them to be somewhat denigrating overall. So you can imagine my glee when I saw this:

The wonder of smoke and mirrors.

The economy is people. I know that sounds simplistic but let’s put it another way... if you think things are going to get better then you are more likely to spend and if you think things are going to get worse you are more likely to scrimp.

So what does that mean in terms of today?

Presidents are cheerleaders, Reagan for all his faults (and believe me they were many) was one of the nation’s biggest cheerleaders and our nation bought into his bullshit even as he racked up a huge deficit.

I liked President Obama on a level, I think he’s a smart guy (I think he’s a likable guy) and yes, I will confess I did vote for him twice even though I am a Republican and known as deplorable to some. President Obama disappointed me though. Aside from his disengagement in Foreign Policy, he spent a lot more time telling our nation and its institutions that they were bad or oppressive. His stance against the Police in this country was just stupefying. President Obama was a globalist but I don’t believe he readily acknowledged that not everyone plays by our rules and it was to our nation’s detriment.

Trump is a bit of an ass. I will make no bones about that, there are things that pour out of his mouth that indeed are often wondrous to behold but he’s a cheerleader at a time when our nation needs one.

That ‘Make America Great Again’ bs, it’s as easy an identifiable as ‘Hope & Change’ was.

Over the last eight years, things stabilized but they didn’t really get much better, especially for the middle class. The schism between the rich and poor grew and a lot more people who thought of themselves as ‘middle class’ found themselves in a greater struggle to survive.

The unfortunate thing about being President is that you have to take the good with the bad and when you have a big swath of the country that has seen jobs vanish and go overseas or find themselves working several part time jobs just to keep above water they are likely not to think glowingly of you. Add to that when they see you fighting for people who have bypassed the normal channels to arrive in this country and not acknowledging their struggles they are going to get quite angry.

We have this discussion sometimes about illegal immigration, I know some folks like to use the words undocumented immigrant but that’s just a load of horseshit any more than a drug dealer is an undocumented pharmacist. Breaking the law is just that, breaking the law and it doesn’t say you have a lot of respect for the laws of this nation if you bypass the whole immigration process.

I do have personal knowledge on that front of a few people and their stories and truthfully they don’t speak well of our immigration system and how easily it is being gamed.

Yet, these people are GOOD people for the most part. Lazy people don’t go to such lengths to go to another country and set up shop. Contrary to a lot of what is said, these fuckers work their asses off in a lot of instances. I met more than a few of them when I did the census, these are nice people. I don’t want anyone to think different, I interviewed quite a few families that were scared to cooperate with the census BECAUSE THEY KNEW they were breaking the law and they were in the country illegally. And, yes, they had made it a point to start families once they got here knowing full well it would help stabilize their argument for legal residence.

Sorry, but that’s kind of true.

Thing is, I don’t have kids and I certainly don’t appreciate having to pay thousands for other people’s kids especially when the people in question have bought their kids here illegally of are here illegally and decided to have a nice big family. I mean it’s great that the school system where I live decided to have a pre-K program which amounts to taxpayer funded daycare, and it’s great they want to have a dual language program all the way through from k to 12 but you know what, I’m not really feeling the love when it’s hard enough to get by and I’m digging into my pocket to pay for all of this and they’re not.

Working off the books means you’re not PAYING taxes and you know something else? Our nation has this great program that insures all minors get medical care whether their families can afford it or not. Guess who’s paying for that?

If you’re an advocate for these folks I certainly invite you to sponsor a family and take them into your own home. Foot the bill for them. I have no problem if anyone wants to show largesse and be charitable. I think that’s wonderful, but I live in a county that has the highest (or one of the) property taxes in the nation and the income taxes aren’t small either so excuse me if I’m not especially keen on the government digging deeper into my pocket to support people who don’t pay in to the system.

Plus, last time I checked, didn’t we already have a fairly large contingent of poor people all our own? People who need help? Is it fair to them too that a limited social spending budget now gets spread around to more recipients?

Well, let‘s get back to the economy after taking that little bit of a detour...

Economies are driven by this thing called Consumer Confidence. If you as a person are CONFIDENT you spend more, if you spend more businesses do better, if business do better, the economy grows, the economy growing means more jobs because people are buying more stuff, people buying more stuff feeds into itself.

So let‘s look at Trump and this:

Whether you voted for Donald Trump or not, and whether you support him or not, a growing number of Americans are becoming confident that his proposed policies of lower income taxes for individuals and corporations, reduced regulations and renegotiated trade deals will be very positive for the US economy.

Consumer spending accounts for almost 70% of US Gross Domestic Product, and the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is our best indicator of consumers’ willingness to open their wallets and stimulate the economy. Based on the latest reading in the CCI, we would expect a significant boost in consumer spending this holiday season. That remains to be seen, of course.

Wild, huh?

Now it remains to be seen how much this can combat automation but lowering taxes does mean it is likely we can repatriate more of the corporate money that has gone overseas in the last decade plus which can lead to more overall revenue even though the taxation rate will be lowered.

And here’s another little jewel for you folks:

Dow Jones’s data team offers more insight into how Trump stacks up compared with other presidents in their first 30 days in office, a milepost Trump hits on Feb. 19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.02% has returned 4.02% as of Friday’s close, which would make the Dow’s performance in the Trump era’s first month the sixth best in percentage terms behind Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, after his fourth victorious campaign for the presidency, when blue chips climbed by 4.1%.

You can judge a man by his enemies.

I realize there are many people who despise the new President but in the course of their opposition to him they are tacitly validating some truly horrific moves by the different organs of the government. Perhaps you think I am overstating it but if so you should read this article:

None of these allegations has been independently verified. Every one of them came from anonymous sources within the sprawling federal bureaucracies (16 in total) that go by the reassuringly benign euphemism “the intelligence community.” And the flood of leaks to journalists haven't been limited to Russia and the election. Former National Security Agency analyst John Schindler tweeted on Wednesday morning that an anonymous source in the IC told him the time had come to “go nuclear” against the president, who would “die in jail.” Later the same day, a Twitter account maintained by the FBI records division randomly released nearly 400 pages of documents related to an investigation of charges of racial discrimination against Trump properties more than four decades ago.

Let’s put it in this light, if the intelligence arms of our nation can decide to act in this manner then they become the shadow government. They’re not elected and the truth is that action like this can have chilling implications for all of us and our freedoms.

Let us not forget, we know the national security apparatus has shown to be actively going into people’s emails and eavesdropping on phone conversations. That’s actually one of the scariest things to contemplate that our government can be so very intrusive into our digital lives.

In an age where people’s lives are centered around social media the potential for abuse of privacy has taken on new dimensions. I doubt many will be concerned about this but it makes me think about those stories of slowly bringing the water to a boil when cooking a lobster as opposed to tossing it in to an already boiling pot. There is no shock to the system until it is too late.

Civil and human rights groups issued denunciations and some cybersecurity experts urged their clients to stop using the popular Yahoo Mail service after a news agency reported Tuesday that the internet service provider had secretly scanned hundreds of millions of clients’ emails at the behest of U.S. intelligence agencies.

 Or, how about this old chestnut:

While you were drinking eggnog on Christmas Eve, the National Security Agency released hundreds of pages of heavily redacted documents detailing instances of improper surveillance on U.S. citizens in the last 12 years. The batch of documents, stretching from the fourth quarter of 2001 to the second quarter of 2013, was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. While some of the information was already publicly known, the reports shed more light on instances in which NSA employees either intentionally or unintentionally violated the law and collected the private data of American citizens.

And let’s remember this before we buy one of those things for the house that talks back to you:

As the Guardian reported, Clapper made clear that the internet of things – the many devices like thermostats, cameras and other appliances that are increasingly connected to the internet – are providing ample opportunity for intelligence agencies to spy on targets, and possibly the masses. And it’s a danger that many consumers who buy these products may be wholly unaware of.

 Fun times folks, fun times. Big brother has arrived.
 

Did I tell you about the time?

That I shot the shit with Spike Lee?

No?

Interesting story...

But first, let’s talk a little about Spike. Being a ‘white guy’ and an ‘eye-talian’ there are times I hate Spike. There are times I think Spike is a little bit of a dick. Thing is, we’re all a little bit of a dick whether or not we’ re black or white.

See being a dick transcends color.

However, even a dick is capable of art. And let me tell you this is art. When I see this it makes me want to cry. It makes me want to cry because it’s so true and it’s so beautiful. This is a short portion of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing which captures a lot of New York before it became Disneyfied. However, I find it to be one of the most beautifully eloquent things I have ever seen on screen:

Roll that one over in your head for a second. Realize too, if we are going to be at peace with one and other we need to understand each other and live together. As much of a Conservative as I may be I grew up poor and I grew up with people of color and they are good fucking people. We can’t act like we are their saviors but rather we need to accept people as equals and there is a big difference. We need to relinquish the past and embrace each other.

Maybe to some people that sounds hollow but it’s not, there are people who have been really important to me and a big part of my life who have suffered. It isn't fair. Yet, it isn't fair either not to stop and really be frank about issues of race and prejudice in this country and how they effect all of us.

We can’t have that discussion at the moment but I hope fervently that one day we will.

Anyway, I was working somewhere where Spike was going to be coming in to do some photo research for a new movie he was working on. It starred Denzel Washington of all people and before he came in we were all told in the office we should remain quiet and mum in his presence. Even though he would be there we were to act as if he was invisible.

It really was a load of bullshit...

Anyway, at the time I was a Yankee fan (I’m sorry I have since seen the light and moved from the dark side to become a Mets fan). Spike came in and he had a Yankee cap on.

I was sitting on the complete opposite side of the room as Spike stood there between the doors of office where they were doing photo research and the copier room looking out with those big ocelot eyes. Spike is not a tall guy but those eyes, you can’t miss them.

Anyway, we had ‘half’ partitions around our desks. I luckily had my back to a window (which looked out on street level and provided a show all its own). I stood up at one point getting ready to pull something from the printer and saw Spike staring over at me with his cap perched atop his head.

He had on a Yankees cap.

Except, it was Cardinal Red.

Now, if you’re a Yankee fan you know there is only one color a Yankee cap should ever be and that’s the ‘royal’ blue that is the Yankee’s signature color.

And of course at the time being a Yankee fan I wasn’t about to let that go so I looked at Spike and plainly said, “And you call yourself a Yankee fan.”

Well, to say that everyone in the room was holding their breathe would be an understatement.

But we wound up talking about the Yankees even as I razzed Spike about the color of his cap.

In essence, he’s a good guy.

Look at that video though when you have the time and really roll it over in your mind because if you can grasp those concepts, there is still hope for the future.

Triumph Tuesday!

Because honestly I cannot get enough of the Insult Comic Dog:

A little reminder about objectification.

So in the minefield that it is dealing with gender issues we come to the topic of the objectification of women. I’m always (how can I put this)... thinking how this is an inordinate amount of bullshit foisted upon men.

Just that statement is bound to get me in trouble but hear me out...

Look no one is saying that being boorish towards a woman is ever okay. That falls under common courtesy and manners though, it’s just a matter of being polite and nothing more.

Objectification, well I hear a lot of clamor about how women don’t want to be objectified but answer me this if you will: which gender spends an incredible amount of money and time trying to change their appearance and if not for some sort of objectification then to what end.

Case in point, I came across this article in the newspaper:

When Hollywood’s most glamorous actresses hit the red carpet at next Sunday’s Oscars, their bods will be made hotter with an arsenal of enhancers, from “chicken cutlet” bra inserts to shapewear. And in some cases, the ladies will be packing another concealed weapon: butt pads.

The caboose boosters are the latest awards-season essential, creating curves back there without the pain, expense and risks of surgery or endless reps in the gym. “Butt pads are a tool for a specific look: they work best to emphasize your body with a very slinky body-hugging gown or pants,” says fashion expert and television personality George Kotsiopoulos.

Think about this if you will, there are all kinds of products to make parts of a women directly associated with sexual attraction better and MORE ATTRACTIVE.

Fuller lips, eyes, bust, tummy flatteners, ass enhancers... REALLY? WHAT EXACTLY IS THE PURPOSE IF NOT TO OBJECTIFY ONESELF AND MAKE ONE MORE ATTRACTIVE?

There are whole industries built up around this and there’s a big difference from merely looking good and taking pride in one’s appearance. Understandably, this is not a zero-sum game and you can’t make a blanket statement that applies to all women but honestly how easy is it to navigate the mixed messages.

Even then, it’s not a question of objectification as much as it is WHO’S DOING THE OBJECTIFYING!

If it’s Brad Pitt... well I’m sure the level of indignity isn’t quite as severe as it may be if the same objectification comes from, let’s say Donald Trump. Mind you I can really understand why but it doesn’t lend validity to the argument about objectification.

Anyway, what do I know. I’m getting older by the second, more stupid every day and undoubtedly will be accused of ‘mansplaining’ because it’s alright in our culture to be a misandrist.

Life changes...

Time proves to ever be the mechanism of self-discovery and I am always grudgingly forced to come to terms with those discoveries. What things are a part of your makeup (those qualities and traits), usually the bad things get more focused with age whether you want them to or not.

Last night I went to a company office party, it was the first one of these things I had gone to in several years. Being a freelancer as I have been for so very long means you are given something of outsider status. Even in the most welcoming of work situations there is still a sense of being a mercenary and not a ‘company’ man.

I’m okay with that even though I’ve very much been wanting to land a staff gig over the last two years but, anyway back to the company holiday soiree - the last one of these things I went to was maybe four or five years ago. At the time I worked for a big company and the entire office was involved and even though an invitation had not been directly extended one of the people I was working with had gotten stuck at the office too and insisted I come along. I was glad I did because the party involved cooking your own meal at a cooking school and overall I have nice memories of the night.

I’m not a big party person though, I don’t know if I ever have been. I don’t find group dynamics to my liking generally and I got slapped in the face with that reality yet again. I was flattered to be invited by the people who own the small company at the client I’m working with. It showed a level of largesse and class to extend the invitation and to be inclusive. That’s nice but again not a party person here.

So I went and we were in a beautiful restaurant with really good food and impossibly slow service. I left after four hours and dessert had yet to be served. Again, while the food was good as the evening got increasingly late, I just couldn’t eat (I’ve come to the realization eating after a certain time of day is very, very bad for me) and I found myself unable to continue.

This actually wound up in the drafts queue quite recently because it dealt with the past holiday season. The thing here is I really was very flattered the client I was working at had the grace to invite me to their holiday party - when you’re a freelancer that can or can’t happen. Sometimes it can go a long way to making you feel very much like an outsider too.

Not that being an outsider is a bad thing, I have to love the attitude of some people on staff who are so miserable they want to lord it over the freelancers but then the flip side is that you are not as entirely beholden as they are to the nuances of the workplace.

So, I did get invited but really, most of the time at work I am not, how shall we say this? Comfortable.

I’m not crazy about open offices or lack of privacy. Unless I’m really comfortable small talk is a real laborious task. I do feel very disconnected and I am very focused on work.

There is such a schism between my work personality and how I am normally that one time awhile ago I hired someone to work under me who I knew outside of work. A few months later we were together with a mutual friend and he commented on how dramatically different I was at work and how surprised he had been. As he put it, PJ’s such a mellow guy but at work he’s so serious.

And I am, I take work REALLY seriously. It’s important to me not just to do a job but to do a really GOOD job. So much so it can be exhausting and unfortunately we are in a time when you really can’t be idle at work anymore, downtime is a thing of the past so it’s hard to balance the intensity of it being busy.

I went to the party and admittedly I was uncomfortable. The whole thing was inordinately long... as I said above, it took something like four hours for the entire meal to be served! It wasn’t go, have a drink, some Hors d'oeuvres and then a decent meal followed by more drinks if so inclined.

No this was a painfully slow process and I did leave before the thing was over (and that was close to 10 after getting to the place at 6:30).

Anyway, I think of myself as quiet but that’s my own disconnect and at this party I ran at the mouth (because of the uncomfortable silences) and felt so terribly embarrassed by it I didn’t even want to go back in to work the next day. I didn’t have a THING to drink either! It was just me running at the mouth.

Then I got to thinking about whether or not I like parties and the truth is, I don’t. It’s a bit of sensory overload for me and I don’t find it at all relaxing. Holidays can be that way too although I am enough of a pill I’ve gotten uninvited of late (which is its own double edged sword in and of itself).

I’m thinking now as I am getting to the point in life where I have to stop being unhappy with the way I am and just start accepting it. To that end I will be much more selective how and with who I spend my time. I can do just fine left to my own devices and without Valium or some other such aid to ramp down the internal chaos going on in social situations I can manage a fairly peaceful life.

Some things need to be shared.

So, I’ve gotten to a point in life where I realize that there are things I take for granted. When I say I take them for granted I mean that there is a point of reference I have just because of the number of years that I’ve been around and sometimes I forget that there is a whole world of people who haven't been around as long and some things I think are well known may not be as popular as they once were because of all these people who haven't been around as long and have as great taste as I do (that last part is a joke but jokes like that don’t read well).

Anyway, I just want to share this because if you’re familiar with it, I can bet you likely haven’t heard it recently and if you aren’t familiar with it... this is some of the ‘good stuff:’

Sister bluebird flying high above
Shine your wings forward to the sun
Hide the mysteries of life on your way
Though you've seen them, please don't say a word
What you don't know, I have never heard

Starship trooper, go sailing on by
Catch my soul, catch the very night
Hide the moment from my eager eyes
Though you've seen them, please don't tell a soul
What you can't see, can't be very whole

Speak to me of summer
Long winters longer than time can remember
Setting up of other roads
To travel on in old accustomed ways
I still remember the talks by the water
The proud sons and daughters
That in the knowledge of the land
Spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways

Mother life, hold firmly on to me
Catch my knowledge higher than the day
Lose as much as only you can show
Though you've seen them, please don't say a word
What I don't know, I have never shared

Loneliness is a power that we possess to give or take away forever
All I know can be shown by your acceptance of the fact there shown before you
Take what I say in a different way and it's easy to say that this is all confusion
As I see a new day in me, I can also show if you and you may follow

Speak to me of summer
Long winters longer than time can remember
Setting up of other roads
To travel on in old accustomed ways
I still remember the talks by the water
The proud sons and daughters
That in the knowledge of the land
Spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways

Pejorative update.

Okay... so a day has passed.

I’ve had time to think about the events of yesterday.

These are things I’m willing to concede:

• Peter David is smarter than me.


• Peter David is a better writer than me.


• Peter David reaches a larger audience than me.


• Peter David has many more fans than me.

So, when you look at all those things, what’s in it for me? I mean, when you get right down to it, is there an advantage to dwelling on this? No.

However, while I am willing to concede all of the above. While I am willing to grant there wasn’t intent behind what was written, I tried a little experiment of my own... I’m not right all the time, not even half the time! I wish things were different but I must admit I am a person of great flaws. As such, I call upon other people to see what their reactions and opinions are on a given subject in order to better gauge whether or not there is validity to a stance I have taken.

Example:

TV Show: WISEGUY

Movie: HITMAN

I started this a long time ago, this must have been back in 2008 which was when I lost any respect I had for Peter David.

I’m probably not alone in that as Peter has managed to pick fights throughout his career and so I am in very good company. There is a level of conviction which isn’t as much admirable in David as it is a sign of his stupidity and close mindedness.

Lately, I have peeked in on his blog after not bothering with it for a very long time. The advent of a Trump Presidency has produced a level of shock that is laughable to witness. Once in awhile, someone will pop their head in in the comments section to promote an alternative view of events after which David’s ball licking acolytes will swarm like a nest of angry, ignorant hornets in defense of their Hut messiah.

It’s pretty good for shits and giggles.

Perhaps what is most entertaining is the zero sum game of these morons - the partisan math that puts the world into black and white values instead of shades of gray.

I find I cannot look upon that rigid adherence to any political philosophy and walk away having respect for a person.

On the heels of that, there comes news of this shocking study:

FUTURE OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT

It’s great to see these liberal folks who are so ’progressive‘ and ‘open minded’ to other views to be as repressive as fascists. It’s something that went on throughout the election cycle and something which increases with alarming regularity.

Somewhere along the line, the idea of ‘free’ got confused with ‘popular’ and that portends a big problem in this country. Everyone has a right to their opinion, from idiots like David to Klansmen, just like we have a right to laugh at them all. We need to have a plurality of voices, it’s important for a society if it is to move forward.

It’s a shame to see people think it’s a good idea to shut opposing views down, maybe that has to do with the urge to ‘win’ the argument but it’s an action that ultimately leads to losing.

Anyway, I started this entry originally because of what I found to be a highly offensive and biased remark. I’m not angry about the remark anymore as much as disappointed in the person and have long since gotten over it (time can bring about it’s own rewards in terms of people getting their own comeuppance).

I’m fairly certain has I made some kind of remark about Jewish people, money or bankers, David would have been highly offended too and he would have been right to be offended because it plays into a stupid and offensive stereotype. His being so incredibly dismissive out of hand shows an insensitivity and underlying bigotry in him. It’s not as if the imbecile even apologized as much as it was that I HAD NO RIGHT TO BE OFFENDED BY HIS STATEMENT.

That’s where the rub is. you can take that attitude and put it in a bunch of other contexts and see where it would be a huge problem. Then there was the idea from one of the ball lickers that EVEN SOME OF PETER’S FRIENDS ARE ITALIAN.

Just classic... really, you can’t make up stuff like this.

I put in those strike-throughs when I was finishing this up because I realized they weren’t true.

By the way, this is part (and only a small part) of David’s response back then - truly we are talking about one enlightened individual:

“...And I know plenty of Italians who like Italian jokes, Polish who like Polish jokes, Catholics who like Catholic jokes, etc. That’s because I tend to associate with people who don’t wear their indignation on their sleeves.”

Or people who just figure you can’t take being told you’re an asshole when you so readily embrace the role.

Time to get busy.

In a few short weeks I’m coming up on an awful anniversary, it is a journey (at this point) of some 1966 steps. And even saying that number seems a bit smallish to me but the other number, the smaller simpler number is much more weighty.
You see, in a few short weeks I will be coming up on the eighth anniversary of the blog here.

That’s a bit stunning because 8 years is an awfully huge chunk of my life  - of anyone’s life when you think about it.

It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long.

Even more sobering to me is thinking of the other things I could accomplish as painlessly as it has been writing down my thoughts over the last eight years. I think about all the things I want to do that remain undone and think to myself, “Well, if I had the luxury of time I imagine I could finish that in about eight years.”

Perhaps more disturbing than anything are the things that are still the same about life. There was this line from Buckaroo Banzai it makes me think about, “Remember, no matter where you go, there you are.” And here I am.

Here I am amidst all the chaos and unfinished projects and ideas I’ve had floating around.

Of course, a lot has happened over this period... new friends have come along, some old friends (or maybe not friends) are gone, people have died, beloved pets are no longer with us, women have come and gone, there have been jobs, 

 Actually... in a few short weeks, it will be 13 years since I started the blog!

Admittedly, the last year or two I have been very remiss in writing regularly. It seems in the last year or two I’ve actually let a bunch of creative outlets fall by the wayside very much to my own detriment.

But 13 years! Wow!

I was still kind of young when I started this damn thing! Where did the time go!

It’s a bit of a reminder, if I’m going to do something with myself... time to get busy! EVERY DAY IS PRECIOUS!

You can’t make this stuff up.

Officials want to make dick street longer.

Cue me laughing like an idiot. I am entirely a juvenile.

Better start showing the President some love.

I won’t spend much time talking about today’s ‘scandal’ which is providing the left with fodder for its latest episode in their parade of hysteria.

Aside from the fact that the Times has admitted to bias when covering the President during the campaign and also that we long ago knew of Paul Manafort’s connections as a lobbyist which led to him being jettisoned from the campaign.

Hopefully facts will be found AND THEN we can come to a determination of what to do or not to do.

The interesting thing about this is on two fronts really:

1) Is the expectation we should declare on Russia?

and

2) Are our own national interests more closely aligned with Russia as a partner against Islamic extremism.

Bear in mind, there was no love lost between Vladimir Putin and Hillary Clinton (Politico has a great article on that front which is worth reading). Is it more likely than not Putin directed cyber attacks against the DNC and the Clinton campaign - certainly.

Unfortunately, it appears that much of what was ‘leaked’ proved to be true leading to the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz from her role as head of the DNC (before going to work on the Clinton campaign) and also Donna Brazile from her job at CNN.

Lost in the mix also is the connection between the Podesta group (run by Clinton confidant John Podesta’s brother Tony) and their ongoing ties to Russia.

But let’s take all that and put it aside for the moment because I want to speak to those opposed to the President at this moment and provide them with information that should give them pause...

While you may not like Trump’s style and I certainly can appreciate how the very boorish and brunt style is offensive for many, Trump has shown himself to be more of a pragmatist than many of the conservative Republicans who have become prominent since the days of Reagan.

So much so that there are things that Unions are happy with and that Democrats should get behind.

But let’s say some people get their wish... through some bizarre series of events Trump gets impeached (remembering Bill Clinton was impeached and remained in office).

The Presidential line of succession should read like your worst nightmare with a series of choices that gets progressively worse the further along the path you go:

It goes like this: Mike Pence-->Paul Ryan-->Orrin Hatch-->Rex Tillerson-->Steve Mnuchin-->James Mattis-->Jeff Sessions.

Seems to me you better be praying for Trump to remain in office and enjoy very good health because any of those people WILL carry out and extremely conservative agenda and it will look far, far worse than anything you can expect from Trump.

This is STILL funny!

So as I was going through and cleaning out the drafts queue and fixing some broken links to previously published entries I came across this again, it’s still REALLY funny:

229 and counting.

So there are only 229 things in my drafts queue... I’m slowly whittling away at that bad boy.

And, I have an idea for something I have wanted to do with the blog for a long time and since I am in a brief pause I hope to get started on it so there will be regular content for awhile.

Maybe I can build traffic up and make blogging interesting once more.

Let’s talk about the budget.

I had this sitting in the drafts queue which I am trying to clean out before making a big jump over (yes it may be blogspot has seen its day). Funny thing is I wrote this sometime back in 2011!

For the people in this country who have been asleep or may have missed it, we are once again in a situation where the American people are being held at gunpoint. You might think I’m overstating the case but once again we find ourselves held hostage by Congress and its inability to do its job.

Congress is a funny place. I don’t know where I heard the phrase before, but I do know I’ve heard the phrase ‘reality distortion field’ used in the past and it appears Congress has a VERY BIG reality distortion field when it comes to the American public, the economy and principles.

Then again, Americans themselves are in denial.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results yet, year after year, election after election, Americans go to the polls and reelect their Representatives and Senators rewarding them for a job poorly done.

You’ve got to love the people who stand on principle saying they won’t vote to raise the debt ceiling but who keep passing legislation that spends and spends and spends. You’ve got to love people who are so dogged, so determined to draw a line in the sand, that they would readily plunge our nation back into recession and in so doing increase the deficit.

The budget control act of 2011 pushed back the nascent recovery and stymied the economy in the hopes it would reflect poorly on the Executive Branch and influence the 2012 elections. The same people who shouted that the President was a traitor were the very same willing to their ‘principles’ before the health of the nation. These were the true traitors.

And what is ironic here is that these are also the people who decry government ‘entitlements.’

Let’s take a second to talk about ‘entitlements’ shall we? Let’s look first though at the entitlements enjoyed by the members of Congress, benefits that most Americans would be glad to enjoy. Cadillac medical that you all too often hear about, a very special staff of doctors at the workplace who you can see at your leisure, long vacations and best of all you even get to decide when and how much your raise is going to be.

The last one is probably the most galling thing about Congress...

Roll that over in your mind for a second if you will. You have a job and you and your fellow co-workers get to decide how big a raise you will get each and every year whether the company (our Nation) is doing well or not.

I don’t know about you but that seems to be very, very wrong to me.

If anything, looking at the performance of Congress over the last batch of years I should think it is well past time they took a pay cut.

Now, just a month or so back there was a small group of Congressmen who did this again. And...

 Wow! A double queue entry. Something I started to write, tried coming back to and then fell short again!

Look, our government is dysfunctional but here’s the thing... our Founding Fathers built that dysfunction into the system. It’s that underlying tension that makes government work.

Mind you, we really can’t say it runs like a smooth machine, firing on all cylinders and taking us down a highway quickly to a bright and prosperous future because that isn’t what it does at all.

Rather, it’s an old engine that misfires from time to time, backfires, runs in fits and starts but does keep running reliably and because it doesn’t run as smoothly as one might hope we never get too far along a road we would rather have not gone down. No, because of those fits and starts we can see where we might’ve made a wrong turn before it is too late.

I don’t have a lot of good things to say about the Tea Party and Congress. Actually I don’t have much of a good thing to say about anybody who parks their ass on the extremes of the right or the left.

Also this idea that there was some kind of point in our nation’s history where things ran smoothly without opposition is a fallacy, it’s merely us looking at the past with rose colored glasses and nothing more.

I’m reading this book at the moment (actually I’m reading several books as well as catching up on comics with some graphic novels). The book I’m reading is The Real Frank Zappa Book.

 

 It’s very. very good and I highly recommend it. It reminds me why I loved Frank Zappa so much but it also reminds me of how smart he was and surprisingly in some ways makes me draw parallels between him and George Carlin.

Zappa was a cynic in many ways and that’s a trait I share to a limited extent. Even though the book was published way back in 1989 (which sounds very strange describing 1989 that way), it still has relevance today.

You know we are very much in the bubble of the present and great movements are happening around us right now. There’s the movement towards globalization which alternately is locked in a battle with tribalism. Tribalism though is taking two forms, one is in the shape of the nation-state and the other is in the form of religion (read Islam).

There is tension as our species struggles between these polar opposites.

At the same time there is a question whether or not capitalism can exist within a modern global society where automation takes hold. We don’t see a lifting of all boats but instead see an increased stratification and a widening chasm between the rich and the poor.

This is not a symbol of the future but a regression towards our past when we were ruled by kings but now our royalty is not based upon bloodlines as much as it is economics.

Can we rise above the reptile part of our brains is the question? Can we move past that hard wired part of the human animal that views those who are different as anything other than enemies? What would help us survive when we lived in caves may destroy us today.

And it IS something that is very much hard wired within us because as much as we may like to elevate ourselves we are at the end of things animals.

Well, I’m just throwing stuff (shit) out there against the wall to see what sticks but when history happens, you don’t know what’s going on until much later when you can look back and put things into context.

There are times I do ramble, you’ll just have to excuse me.

What it’s like to talk to people you love who are brainwashed.

From the queue:

So, The Waitresses had this song called ‘The Smartest Person I Know’

That was in the queue, it’s all I had and I don’t have the slightest idea where the hell I was going to go with it. I just added the YouTube link after the fact.

Actually, I think what I was going to talk about was someone I know who I thought of as worldly who had traveled quite a bit and as time passed while she idled away the years on a cul-de-sac and raised a family she got these sharp edges and became a lot harsher.

I’m really not one to talk... I’m self aware enough to know I indulge in dickdom regularly and also know I have to watch that.

Maybe that’s a consequence of getting older... at least that’s the excuse I want to use even if I’m not kidding anyone.

Anyway, I’ve got my sharp edges too and there’s the old saw about people in glass houses.

So, let’s stop with the cliches and enjoy some more nostalgia...

Here’s another Waitresses song (their big hit) and it’s still good:

Finally, even though we’re past it, may I provide you with one of rock’s greatest contributions to holiday tunes by who else but the Waitresses - really this would be on any Christmas compilation mixtape I would make:

Nobody blogs anymore!

What the fuck happened to you people! About the only person who has managed to keep things up is Elayne Riggs... congrats Elanye! You are a pillar, someone who makes the effort and I comment you! I wish Jamelah had your toughness!

You know there are a couple of people I used to read on a regular basis including Warren Ellis but he’s vanished as well!

Even Jamelah doesn’t blog much and I really enjoyed her writing.

Maybe it’s just a question of blogging having had it’s time in the sun and now the people on the internet have moved on to Facebook —> Snapchat —> Twitter —> Instagram.

Just goes to show you how much of a dinosaur you can become in a relatively short period of time.

There are some really stupid people among us.

This is a stark reminder of the reality of the world, a reality that some of the people in this country simply fail to understand but their vanity and naivete threatens all of our safety:

How worried am I about parking?

Answers to the question of street parking in and around Yankee Stadium.

So, I’m posting this because of something that happened recently...

I had to go to a wake and as a result it made more sense to drive in close to the city, park the car on the street, take the subway into work and then take the subway back to the car and go off to where I had to go to rather than making the great schlep north only to have to drive all the way back in again.

And as things would turn out I parked right around Yankee stadium. I didn’t park right next to the stadium, I actually parked a significant distance away (on the other side of the Metro North train tracks) but it seems the city in its great wisdom to generate revenue has changed the parking regulations in the streets of the neighborhoods surrounding The House that George Built.

I would imagine this has something to do with the city deriving some revenue from the parking garages that were built or are being built with the new stadium. You don’t make any money if people park on the street for free as opposed to paying whatever exorbitant amount they hijacking people into paying now.

This also was in the draft queue and it was about the same thing I mentioned (and dragged out of the queue) the other day which was the whole parking thing around Yankee Stadium. Who knows, it's just worrisome to get a ticket in NYC because they try and milk you for every last dime.

Case in point...

So on my last gig the guy I was sitting next to got a ticket on his way to work.

Get this though, he rides a bike in from Dumbo over to the Penn Station area every morning and the Police stopped him on the way in and gave him a ticket.

Apparently he went through two red lights and they raced after him and stopped him to give him a ticket!

This astounds me only because this is the first time I have ever heard of the Police actually enforcing the traffic laws for bicyclists. It's not that I am against them doing it, as a matter of fact if I had my way all you asshole fucking morally superior bicyclists would have to be licensed and pay for insurance if I had my way.

I've been hit by one of these clowns about 15 or 16 years ago when he was riding the wrong way against traffic and ignoring traffic signals. Cost me money, time and a trip to the emergency room but the guy did get arrested (and he got a ticket too) but that was only because I was slyly able to manage to do something that kept him from leaving the scene.

Since I have the Vespa, I don't see why motorcyclists should be compelled to follow traffic laws, cars should be compelled to follow traffic laws but bicyclists get some kind of free reign. I never cease to be amazed at even now after the city has installed all kinds of bicycle lanes all around the city THESE IMBECILES STILL CAN'T USE THE ROAD PROPERLY!

I’ve seen them riding the wrong way in bicycle lanes, riding on the opposite side of the street when there IS a bicycle lane and of course ignoring traffic signals and right of way.

I put the fact that my friend got a ticket to the fact he’s not from New York or even the States originally. He’s from Australia and consequently I think he likely made for an easier target in the sense a New York bicyclist would be riding on the sidewalk to get away from the Police.

That ticket though?

OVER $200!

That’s amazing! It’s the same thing with the tolls too, the city is always looking for ways to dig deeper into people‘s pockets.

Parking tickets are pretty bad too something like $150 plus if it’s in Manhattan. Heaven help y0ou if you do get towed that’s even worse! You run the risk of losing whatever is in the car, plus towing charges and the ticket...

So I imagine that was part of it.

I keep thinking about relocating, the city is just getting too crazy expensive.

Even with more subway/bus/train increases - people, get a raise lately?

Let’s not get too hysterical.

I forwarded this over to Rich Johnston, we’ll see if it winds up on Bleedin Cool or not but the truth is we’ve gone a little too far over the top in our rhetoric these days.

I don’t think people really understand the ramifications of what they are doing, they just want to shock people.

The big problem I have with that is that when something really bad happens, no one will listen because you acted like an idiot over the smallest of things.

I have a problem in that I think people don’t understand....

Donald Trump won because of one reason and one reason only. If you live in a city, you probably didn’t get the memo but a lot of this country has been struggling. Not only have they been struggling, when they’ve turned to the Federal Government for help or answers they really haven’t gotten too much of either.

Now if you’re on the left, you’re thinking... WELL WHY DIDN’T THEY VOTE FOR HILLARY!

See, it’s likely because Hillary was the epitome of the Washington insider. I won’t even go into her piss poor record because if we start to go down that road we could spend hours on just how lackluster Hillary has been in actually delivering on what she promises.

See, even if you live in a city, let’s face facts, the middle class is going away.

This is after 8 years of an Obama Presidency. During that eight years the gap between the rich and the poor has only widened and as much as we would like to blame Congress for that, the truth is Barack Obama was never a man of compromise and consensus. If he was, we wouldn't have had as many Executive Orders as we had, we would’ve had laws instead and laws are a lot harder to sweep away.

Where does that leave us though?

Look, I am a bit of an equal opportunity offender. I’ve been told I’m not a Republican by those who vote lockstep with the party and viewed as far too conservative by those who pull the lever for Democrats. Maybe I’m that rare breed, the independent. Even though I am registered to a specific party, I don’t always vote along party lines.

We don’t do that much in this country unfortunately.

Thing is, you can get as upset as you want about the current administration, you can protest all you want BUT, people will being to tune you out.

And I really don’t think you want them to do that.

I don’t discourage protest against our government because it’s something that keeps out nation alive and growing. What I do find detestable, is blind fealty to a party line in absence of anything else. It’s not smart, it’s short sighted and myopic. It doesn’t help our nation move forward or help the business of the nation get done.

I know I’m in the minority on this but I have to say, when you lose people like me, you lose elections. We are the people who don’t just cast automatic vote and we are the people needed to win any election.

All I am saying at this point, at least for the Democrats, you are doing yourselves more harm than good. You may think you win something but really, the only people you are winning are the people already in your camp, the rest of us just look at all the sturm and drang and it confirms we made the right decision or we shouldn’t support people who don’t ‘get’ us or denigrate our views.

Food for thought.

The reality distortion field.

A few years back I got dragged into something...

So, I was approached by someone who wanted me to work with them on developing a game for the BlackBerry, true story (the woman I was seeing at the time was in on all of this and sarcastically began referring to the person as ‘The King’ so for the purposes of making things clear in our sordid tale I’ll use that sobriquet to refer to the person in question).

And I was flattered and all because The King is a very talented individual who codes like there is no tomorrow so this wasn’t some kind of pie in the sky thing, it was something which had a real possibility of coming to fruition.

But the more I talked to The King the more apparent what The King really needed was a surrogate because the employment contract The King had with The King’s employer laid claim to any software The King wrote and The King’s wife worked for the same company.

Now, I pointed this out and was willing to do it as a favor without being involved but the odd thing was that wasn’t enough The King, no I had to go along on the crazy train with him. I was supposed to be a ‘full partner’ which meant there would be a delegation of work based around areas of expertise but what rapidly became apparent was in The King’s mind this meant The King delegating tasks and having final say in everything.

Again, I pointed out I would be just as happy to be The King’s proxy if that was what The King needed and I didn’t have to be involved if The King was a one man show but that just elicited more noise about ‘partnership.’

Not too long after the whole ride started, this suddenly switched gears and became an iPhone game because The King suddenly got fascinated with the iPhone and wanted to buy one and learn all about the touch screen technology.

Great.

And the train kept moving along, and my name was used to secure some kind of Apple Developers license and I and taken steps to incorporate (laying out cash in the process) and secure domains and the like but through it all nothing I was trying to bring to the table was being in the least acknowledged even though my expertise in those areas was greater and I felt we were missing out (and consequently on a road to failure).

I should also point out that while I had known The King for a long time, my friendship had been primarily with The King’s wife

Now, through all of this unbeknownest to me... 

 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

 Wow! This is really, really old!

I know the events happened way, way back in ’08 or ’09 and I must}ve written this a bit after.

The King as I was referring to him in this passage has had an interesting road in the years since. As I had said, my friend is really The King’s wife and he almost succeeded in destroying that friendship but I have to give credit to my friend because she went out of here way to make sure we stayed friends and it wasn’t as if we hadn’t fought over this and had words back and forth after but somehow we are still good friends today.

If you can imagine, I still have not spoken to the King since and have no plans to. This even though my friend has tried to smooth things over and the King himself acts as is nothing happened.

What was interesting however was that all the while this was going on, I was not the only proxy the King was leading along, he managed to rope another rof my friend’s close friend’s in on the whole thing and deep down I have to wonder if it wasn’t a way to isolate his wife - it’s not something I would put past him because he’s someone with serious control issues.

Now after using my friend for his proxy, the King did release three games that promptly went nowhere. The King, he’s a smart guy when it comes to coding and all but when it comes to marketing and understanding the customer he really is clueless. He just figures he’ll build something and because he’s good at what he does everyone will come running.

A little while after the game thing went nowhere, the King came up with his next brilliant idea to get rich. This involved a laser light. He had designed and built a laser light and marketed it but again it hadn’t really gotten the attention he had hoped.

Then, he found out about KickStarter and the real trouble began.

I say real trouble but actually it was something that provided me with endless hours of enjoyment...

See, genius here had this other idea for a different kind of laser lamp similar to the one he had already designed, built and marketed but the hook here was that it would operate on a different frequency and put out a different color light. He wrote glowing copy about how great it was and how different it would be from any other laser light out there and the suckers lined up.

Very quickly, he raised over $500,000! Amazing! So much money in such a short time! Astounding!

Then the problems began...

See, he had promised to actually deliver these doo dads to people for supporting the project and he now had over 7,300 people who had supported the project and were expecting these things. He started the fundraising in March and promised a July delivery date.

Oooopppssss.

Let’s also say that the King DOES NOT like to be questioned or challenged. Seriously, I saw the guy have a meltdown once because my friend bought a paper towel holder and placed it on the counter of their kitchen. Even today I am reminded of this Joan Crawford like moment and it draws guffaws.

Well, the road here began an over year long odyssey for our friend the King that taxed him, his wife, their family because although genius had managed to get rich quick he also put himself in a bad position because his name and the company’s reputation were on the line.

I believe that what was shipped of the doo dads managed to get shipped out in February of the following year a 7 months later than promised and that was even if people got the thing of which quite a few didn’t and were made as hornets about it.

Not that the people that got the thing were any happier because the brilliantly conceived and designed invention by our friend the King managed to work anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours after its receipt after which it broke and became a very expensive piece of shit.

LOL!

Now, when you have over 7,000 people expecting something and you fail to deliver the question becomes how good at you at smoothing things out and diffusing the situation.

The King is not good at these things.

And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

While he may have made some money on the deal, my thought is that he made nowhere near as much as he thought he would once he factored in the expense of making each of the damn things and then fulfillment never mind that incredible amount of aggravation and stress involved for the entire year of this odyssey.

I talked to my friend the other day, genius tried on another crowdfunding website after this fiasco on Kickstarter where he ultimately was forced to close his account. Needless to say given his record on Kickstarter he didn’t make the funding goal for the next project and last I heard although he is working on another ‘great idea.’ It doesn’t appear the money is readily flowing in given his track record.

Into every life some rain must fall.

The March to November.

This is another drafts queue snippet which is interestingly relevant:

A good article on Mother Jones, sometimes it’s what people don’t do or say that speaks volumes about themselves...

Mitt Romney released tax information. Here's what you need to know.

He’s still only released two years’ worth of tax returns. Romney released his 2010 tax return in January. On Friday, he released his 2011 return and a very brief “summary” of the past 20 years’ worth of returns. That summary was missing the kind of detail that would have provided a full picture of Romney’s finances, rather than the incomplete snapshot the campaign has provided to date. Romney’s father, George Romney, released 12 years of returns when he ran for president in 1968.

 Now, let’s put this in the context of our current President and the actions of Mitt Romney...

I was watching a documentary hat just premiered on Showtime, Trumped and in one scene Mitt Romney is complaining about Trump calling him a con man who inherited his wealth and all of it comes across as more than a little ironic.

Still, at this point in time Trump has broken the tradition of candidates for President releasing their tax returns and for all the noise his opponents made you have to wonder if this hasn’t set a new standard?

We are media obsessed in this country and we pick at political candidate the way some people pick at a scab, it’s not healthy and not at all good and I would hazard that it discourages a host of people who would be very good in government from seeking out political office.

Does that mean I somehow have some sympathy for Trump?

Not really, even though I am a supporter. I’m still on a wait and see kind of voyage here.

The other day, I had lunch with a friend of mine (at Eisenberg’s on 5th which is really a good place to go to if you’ve never been).

He’s in a bit of a unique circumstance in that although he is an American citizen and was born here, he grew up mainly in Australia after his parents relocated there when he was very young. He has a wife (who comes from a Cambodian refugee family) and a young daughter and he is genuinely concerned about the advent of a Trump Presidency.

I told him to relax... he will survive.

We’ll all survive actually.

You know, it’s odd in a way but if you really believe in this country, I think you have to recognize that the mechanisms and structure of our nation are set up in such a way to keep truly bad things from happening.

I know there are people who will be very much up in arms and think I am being a little bit of a Pollyana but I think they fail to recognize our nation and its people. We as Americans believe we are good. Think about that if you will for a second, even though we are a nation made up of an amalgam of people from all sorts of backgrounds there is something very much unspoken that all of us hold deep within our hearts as we look at our nation.

We are a nation of centrists and when the pendulum swings too far to one side or the other it always swings back (and if you don’t believe that you should really brush up on your American history).

I told my friend even though he came here after the GW Bush years not to worry because really if the Republicans fuck up badly they will be giving an enormous gift to the Democrats. I still believe that, really and for all the people hyperventilating I can only say you should too.

Which brings me to something else...

The sixties were good in some ways and bad in others but for every person who fells they need to go out and protest, really?

I’d likely take you a lot more seriously if you folks weren’t posting selfies to your Twitter feed or on your Instagram account or to your Facebook page. Somehow, the idea that you need to broadcast the fact that you are some kind of dedicated revolutionary while making note of it on social media so all your friends can see how ‘brave’ you are takes the legs out from your argument and makes you just another attention whore in a nation brimming with them.

Further, if you get so apoplectic over even the smallest of things it means that when something that truly warrants protest comes along people will turn a deaf ear to you because you are viewed in a certain light. In two weeks we have had one protest after another, people I know you‘re upset Hillary didn’t win but really, GET OVER IT. 

Oh and the ‘nasty woman’ thing that has certain quarters up in arms... really? I just want to get this straight, so due to gender people are incapable of being nasty? There hasn’t been a time in your life when you found one of your ‘sisters’ to be nasty and either said to one of your friends or thought to yourself, ‘she‘s a bitch!’ How incredibly disingenuous.

I do like the ‘pussy hats’ though, they look cute. There is something very anime about them.

I’m trying to fathom a whole slew of things I find laughable, the antisemitic thing ascribed to Trump when his son-in-law, daughter and grandchildren are Jewish - that’s remarkable (and I have actually heard people say this to me in earnest).

Anyway... I’m droning on and have lost my way on this one. There’s just so much fodder for political discussions and stupidity on BOTH SIDES and we have almost four full years to pick at it.

Last week I had soul food and went to a wake.

This is actually another one from the drafts queue (and I can’t even tell you when it was started because this isn’t the first time I’ve tried to get it finished):

Doesn’t that seem fitting somehow? These are the kinds of things you just can’t make up.

I had to drive down to someplace where I could park and take the subway into work and then come back later to get in the car and drive over to where the wake was being held. It just didn’t make sense to come all that way into the city, then schlepp all the way back up to where I live only to drive back down to the Bronx again.

So, I thought I’d save myself some trouble and drive into the Bronx, park and just avoid the Manhattan traffic.

But finding a parking space where I wanted to was a bear – I guess I’m not the only one with that idea and I had to drive around and around looking for a spot. Eventually, I wound up by Yankee Stadium. I wasn’t right by the stadium but a bunch of blocks away and up on the pole was a sign that said No Parking Street Cleaning Mon 8:30 - 10:00 am and above that was another sign that said No Parking during Stadium Events Tow Away Zone.

The inherent vagueness of the sign had me on edge all day...

And because I was on edge, I made a series of phone calls to find out the specifics of that very ordinance. See, there was a Yankee game that evening – definitely what would be termed a Stadium Event

 Well, I managed to get back to my car early enough where the ordinance didn't matter or maybe it simply didn't apply where I parked. It's strange really because now that there is a new Yankee Stadium and a mall replacing the jail that was once there in that neighborhood the character of the entire neighborhood has changed.

Me, I'm actually a bit annoyed that they have a Metro North station there now because

1) It adds another stop anytime I get stuck taking a local (and this is an already long ride considering where I am on the line)

and

2) I have to be acutely aware of the Yankees home schedule now if I'm in the city at work or otherwise because trains now stop at the Stadium after Yankee games and Yankee’s fans are nothing if not especially annoying lushes who manage to get properly tanked at Yankee games making for a truly unpleasant ride at the end of a long day.

If I was still a Yankee fan I might marvel at the convenience but now it’s just another annoyance in life.

The soul food place was okay... not bad, not good but okay. I’ve been known to check out a few weird places if the food is good. Good food is something I’m always on the hunt for and especially good restaurants with cheap eats.

The gig I’ve just wound up is located near a really terrific African Place over in the Penn Station area (or north Chelsea - the neighborhood is a bit between) and I find myself returning every now and again.

This Soul Food place had decent food but it wasn’t the kind of place you’d make a special trip for however if you are in the area for a Yankee game I would advise you to check it out: Sam’s Soul Food and Bar

Then as far as the wake went - it was a wake. You go to these things for a reason. I am reminded of something I read and heard awhile back. It’s a bit old now (from 2005 - time goes so fast!) but really worth a listen. Basically it explains WHY you should pay your respects (whether it be a wake or funeral). I know we live in a ‘me’ centered culture but everyone should take a listen:

Always Go To The Funeral.

Peter David just continues to prove how stupid he is.

Every once in a blue moon I head over to Peter David’s boards when I need a good laugh. While I have in the past enjoyed Peter’s work (some not all of it) I cannot say much good about the man himself. Mind you, I only have had experience from afar and none of us is a zero sum game or as black and white as our detractors would paint us but I had my fill almost a decade back when David flippantly made an offensive anti-Italian remark and then compounded the insult by dismissing the slur out of hand.

I’ve spoken about things along these lines before, apparently it’s quite alright to perpetuate stereotypes against particular groups in our society, it’s not at all surprising when I see Rudolph Giuliani called Mussolini for talking about changing the law to allow a third mayoral term in the aftermath of 9/11 but hear nary a peep when Michael Bloomberg DOES just that to further his own elitist ends.

It’s a double standard that I just smile sardonically whenever I see it occur and make a mental note of the person doing it. Mind you, I’m not fully Italian but my surname does mean people make quite a few assumptions about me. As I’ve gotten older I don’t feel the sting quite the same way just thinking the people in questions are a-holes.

Anyway, I digress back to more David stupidity...

There was a post recently entitled: ‘Can senators be prosecuted over the ACA for murder?’

I don’t link to his site because I won’t give him the traffic and you can do the work yourself but just the statement is indicative of the depths of David’s ignorance and is somewhat emblematic of the shrill rhetoric spewed by the left.

I’m actually a fan of the ACA, I think it is one of the outgoing President’s real achievements over the two terms he was in the White House. However, it was a law with very serious problems built into it and it’s not as if anyone was unaware of those problems.

I’ll give Barack Obama an incredible amount of credit on this one and I’ll also give him a lot of credit for his counter to the spew being flung at him from the right. The President plainly said that if Congress can come up with a law that addresses the issue of health care reform in this country better than the ACA he will be the first one to sing its praises from the highest mountaintop.

GOOD FOR HIM.

Seriously, aside from the panic that has set in by some it’s one thing to give something to people BUT it’s entirely a different thing to TAKE IT AWAY. There are very real consequences for any politician or political party that does that and if the Republicans, the right or the Tea Party thinks they are going to have an easy go of things they should rethink that.

One thing... for all the noise about Trump, Trump is not stupid. I know that flies in the face of what some people would have you believe but did you think he’s beat Hillary? Trump also has very clearly said in the past the United States should have a single payer system.

THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND.

If you do some searching on YouTube and you look back at Trump appearing on Oprah and being interviewed even a decade before that what you come away with is that his outlooks and attitudes have changed very little over his lifetime. You would likely have a hard time distinguishing Trump of today from Trump of decades ago and that was a Donald Trump who was a Democrat.

What does that mean?

Well, for one thing Trump is not as close to a Tea Party Republican as he might be more in line with the Blue Dog Democrats. Trump does not want the ACA to be blown up, it would wind up being too costly to him politically and we have already seen where he has absolutely no problem calling out Congress even before he has taken office,

I watched Paul Ryan on CNN and he worries me far more than Trump (and should worry you too if you are a Democrat). Ryan wants to walk away from the ACA but what he and his fellow members of Congress are going to find is that dismantling the ACA is a bit like playing Jenga, only so many planks can be removed before everything comes crashing down and you lose the game.

Let’s get back to PD’s idiocy though for the moment - THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF MEDICAL COVERAGE WRITTEN INTO OUR CONSTITUTION.

That’s it, plain and simple. Making a statement such as ‘Senators being prosecuted for murder’ is just another stupid inflammatory statement in a parade of such statements to come from the addled brain of David. It’s something that doesn’t move things along it just polarizes matters further.

It’s not as if I really think the Senate cares too much about us either, you are after all talking about a millionaires club.

Oh, didn’t you know?

Just look here, and here, and here, and here.

Yet, we have perpetuated a political class in this country and so this is what we get. Good luck prosecuting a millionaire for murder especially if it is for the reach of passing legislation that retracts earlier law.

Right now I would be more concerned about the BS flying around about HSAs (Health Savings Accounts) which is being proposed as a replacement for mandatory participation. What is that? You aren’t familiar with the HSA? Well if you want to know more about HSAs, look here: A brief overview of the major flaws with health savings accounts.

Between that and the lie of the high risk pools more than ever people need to stop with histrionics and be able to clearly identify the lies in the rhetoric and shoot them down accordingly.

Pick your battles wisely.

In the meantime, the ACA is going through what one only hopes are growing pains. I cited before if you were nervous about the Republican control in Washington you need worry for a short time only. If the Republicans can’t get this right, you can guarantee Democratic control in 2018. There’s a hope Trump will not readily buy in to Ryan’s BS.

I just have to remember this moment and think to myself how many votes are there to be lost if they can’t get this right:

Chicken Little run quick and get Goosey Lucy (or the story about the left and how Hillary lost).

Hi there,

We haven't talked in awhile. How's things by you?

Well, let's face facts... if you’re a Democrat or part of the liberal left in this country you are worried the sky is falling. I actually read a few blogs I used to follow and saw the sturm and drang, I laughed at it, but I read it.

Now, admittedly I haven't spent time blogging during the election but I had found myself engaged elsewhere online with trolls and I had been doing my level best to beat back the trolls but the rub here is the trolls were on the left.

Something I’ve come to realize recently is this... the left in our country are not different than the folks who bought us communism and repressive regimes in Russia and China. The reason I say this is because I have example after example of it in front of me throughout the election cycle this year.

When it came to beating up people for expressing their political views or actively exercising their right to congregate it was the left who did it. It didn’t happen once or twice, it happened repeatedly throughout the campaign. The great thing about it was how the left wanted to turn it around and make it about Trump though which I had to say was an amazing thing to witness.

But it happened.

Then there was the things that came out about the DNC and various news organizations working hand in hand with the HRC campaign. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed by that too.

Now, I’m a Republican but surprisingly enough I can’t say I’ve ever been one to vote lockstep with the party. I don’t believe in just flipping all the switches down the line or filling in all the circles. I do some research and then I go to the polls and vote on who I believe will do a better job. Maybe that makes me more of an independent in that regard. I do know at different times in my life I’ve had Republican friends say I was no Republican (I apparently was a Democrat in their eyes) and equally I’ve had Democratic friends curse me as being a staunch Conservative so at the end of the day maybe I’m a Contrarian or just an Equal Opportunity Offender.

The reason I say that was if you asked me in early 2015, I actually was thinking of voting for Clinton (seriously) but the more I remembered back on things, the more I examined her record, the more the stink around her wafted back up into my nostrils again, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

And folks... I don’t care if she would’ve been the first woman President. I have no problem with that as long as it isn’t Hillary.

Living in New York, I’ve had my fair share with Hillary and truthfully as a Senator she wasn’t all that great. She made a lot of promises and she didn’t follow through on them. If you want to know the truth, the truth is Chuck Schumer did all the heavy lifting, not Hillary. As a matter of fact if you go back and look at her record in the Senate, only three bills she introduced ever actually made it into law (and those that did are very telling about her effectiveness as a legislator),

See, I understand in the Clinton’s mind the thought was to follow the path of Bobby Kennedy and trace that arc all the way back to the White House. I mean that was very clearly the thinking.

However, Clinton managed to come up short.

Maybe because many of the great things Hillary took credit for were actually the initiatives of others (SCHIP comes to mind as do others). It’s not a crime to talk up things you’ve done and every politician is guilty of it but at the same time when combined with the inability to acknowledge fault it simply doesn’t make things prettier. I’m a little bit of a wonk when it comes to Foreign Affairs and aside from logging frequent flier miles, HRC’s tenure at State was a disaster. Frankly, the outgoing President gets very poor marks when it comes to Foreign Policy but that isn’t surprising.

Also I have to say this too... we are a fairly large and diverse nation in terms of population. Frankly, I can’t see why out of the 32 years from 1988 to 2020 the President should be a member of one of two families for 24 of those years. Something’s very WRONG with our country if that’s the case.

I mean, obviously there are lots of things wrong with our country, starting with having a ‘political’ class to begin with, I don’t believe our nation was built around the premise that people would spend their entire lives in Washington (Joe Biden - 43 YEARS!). It’s just wrong and it leads to a disconnect with what is happening with the country because there is no question that what goes on within the beltway is very insular.

This is a fairly recent snippet maybe made more relevant by the inauguration happening in a few days. I know a lot of people that are worried, on some level I’m a little worried too but we’ll survive, we always do.

I wish more people would recognize that, maybe more would get done by government but it seems people get caught up in trying to characterize anyone who disagrees with them as a maniac. I’m guilty of that myself at times so it’s not as if I have clean hands.

I told someone the other day if you are fearful don’t be afraid because if Trump does an absolutely horrible job in two short years you will have yourself a Democratic House and Senate. It’s the way it works we course correct and swing back to the middle.

I don’t know if Trump is married to rigid positions the way people think. He was until recently a Democrat and he has at times talked about the nation being better of with a single payer system. We’ll just have to see but again everyone... take a deep breath. We will survive, we will be safe, nothing like what people are in histrionics about over on CNBC is going to happen so just calm down.

Really.

Fat man / thin skin.

In an effort to do the blog equivalent of a good dump, I‘ve been clearing out my drafts queue of which there is a considerable amount of material (read spew). Some of which makes for entertaining reading some of which doesn’t but at least it will have been flushed.

In this instance, we have a story about a person who came in and out of my orbit several times through the years. After awhile, you just stop giving people chances. It comes down to the simple fact that life is too short to waste your time being around certain people, they are black holes with an emphasis on the suck.

Here are a couple of things that happened (might be a decade ago now maybe a little less). In most instances I started these entries and just couldn’t be bothered wasting more time and energy on them. They say good living is the best revenge and while my life is far from perfect I do know I’m in much better shape than the guy in question. Last I heard his talent led him to the late in life career of museum guard (which is essentially a security guard around art) - ouch.

entry 1

Ask and you shall receive:

Pussy says what?

if you want to engage me, do it face to face,like a man...don't be a little cunt and hide behind your blog...

Generally, I ignore blowhards but every once in awhile you run across someone with a big mouth who confuses the fact that you walk away with fear. In those instances, it is necessary to make sure (I stopped there but likely was thinking about during one earlier phase in life I would have dealt with this very quickly and very directly).

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entry 2

....i could go over your letter point for point....but you see it don't matter....after the linda incident i avoided you for about 10 years....when you contacted me i got back together with great trepidation....you see i never fully TRUSTED you....getting back to the definition of friends....i have never slept with any friends ex....only scumbags do things like that.....you my boy,are your FATHERS son!....yep...its GENETIC.....the apple doesnt fall far from the tree....remember last time is was 10 years that we didnt speak?....now its permanent....have a good life...b

I posted the comment above because it wasn’t the first time I’ve gotten this kind of an email from this person.

This must be what it’s like to have a stalker.

Whatever homo-erotic fixation must be going on, I can’t speak to. This person is obsessed and unfortunately this just shows once again how badly in need of help the person is.

Also, of note is the fact that the person in question talks about confronting people but doesn’t sign their name to their comments.
 

Anonymous said... maybe my air conditioner didn't work...but you'll ALWAYS be a SHITTY ARTIST because your mother was n't around,and your prick father didn't pay for your artschool....now you're just a MIDDLE of the road production artist who CAN"T draw...by the way, i saw your bowling pictures...have you looked in the mirror lately?....youre starting to look like luciano pavoratti....STOP EATING YOU FAT FUCK!!!...also,pay your taxes...10 years is long enough...if you want to engage me, do it face to face,like a man...don't be a little cunt and hide behind your blog...

Well, that’s two and you can see where I lifted the other passage from. So, the guy who wrote me this talking about weight was so incredibly fat (over 300 lbs) that he underwent bariatric surgery. I mean seriously, the guy simply could not control himself when it came to stuffing his fat face and he had to go under the knife. Even then as I had heard through the grapevine the surgery didn’t entirely take.

Reading the things he wrote though makes me laugh even harder now than it did back then, it’s just so loony. I wasn’t the only person he managed to send out one of these emails to. He did this to some professional contacts as well and it led to him not getting too much work ultimately (hence the security guard gig).

I can’t say I ever compared my drawing to his or even felt there was a competition truth be told. I was never entirely crazy about his work for the most part. He was lazy and it showed. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the capacity to do better work or get better he just got to a point and stopped.

I’d point you to his art but why bother?

His style of writing (and his use of ellipses) is so distinctive (and grammatically wrong) it’s incredibly easy to identify him if you’ve ever run across him over the years.

 The air conditioner comment? That’s in reference to how he lost his gig at Marvel where he pencilled a few books decades ago. He got called in for an editorial firing squad that was mainly a CYA meeting for the editor in question. The editor had seen thumbnails on the book but it was only after it hit the stands (and the EiC saw it) that there were problems. The house style in those days was a very standard six panel page unless you were a name artist (and had some freedom to do what you want). This guy went in and made excuses.

—————————— * ——————————

entry 3

Fat man, thin skinned.

Last week I posted an email here. It was something I found truly funny. Unfortunately, someone got blamed for forwarding it to me even though they had nothing to do with it. What’s even more interesting is the notorious gossip who sent out the thing lives in a fantasy land where the flow of information travels one way.

How did our sender discover this?

Well, the the person was done in by their own failings, in this case it was nosiness and a proclivity to foster and distribute gossip which served up a healthy smack across the nose with a newspaper like a dog who misbehaves.

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entry 4

Putting an end to blowhards.

Hacky Mailman sat in the closet he called an office and stroked another one out to the big breasted picture displayed on his computer screen. His wife slept soundly in the next room while he ministered to his lurid needs. Being unemployed meant he could indulge himself in the wee hours of the morning while normal society slumbered from the day’s chores.

—————————— * —————————— 

Ultimately the one person who treated this fool kindly got burned in the end too. Just the same way I did after which he commiserated with me about it. Thing is, this person who was at the time in his late eighties was on the receiving end of the threat of physical violence from our cowardly fat friend (who was in his mid fifties). It takes a special kind of courage for a man in his fifties to tell a man in his eighties that ‘he could take him,’ saying the words with the kind of venom to let the man know it was not an idle threat.

The funny thing here is, I’m pretty certain the eighty year old in question would’ve mopped the floor up with the spineless turd. The eighty year old being a former boxer with hands like clubs would have made short work but more than anything it was the animosity in response to someone he had shown such kindness to that was a complete disappointment.

Again, I haven’t seen this imbecile in at least a decade and life is certainly better for it. I sleep soundly at night too now knowing all those paintings are safe as he tells people to move away from them each and every day (LOL).