Category Archives: National

Editorial, National

Three Years and 147 Days

June 15, 2020

Dear President Donald Trump:

I am writing to you today to thank you for the last three-years-and-one-hundred-and-forty-seven-days of your presidency. When you were elected, you promised you would unite the American people together uttering the words, “When America is united, America is totally [sic] unstoppable.” So here we are, Mr. President, three years and 147 days later. I’m so proud as an American to see you have fulfilled your promise to unite us.

Through your divisive words and actions, good Americans from sea to shining sea are uniting. Your great words about Charlottesville, where you declared there were “very fine people, on both sides,” and you were pleading to not rush to judgment. In contrast, how quickly you condemned protesters in Minneapolis without wanting to learn more. Yes, Mr. President, you are uniting the country.

As you tightened the rules of legal immigration in the name of defending America, you placed asylum seekers and those seeking the light of freedom into the textbook definition of concentration camps. They shivered in the cold, unwashed, lacking medical treatment, a place to sleep, and even basic shelter in some cases. They died of preventable diseases, documented beatings and rapes by guards, and murdered at border crossings.

Peoples of the world, trying to escape the specter of violence, government abuses, and crushing poverty, had their children taken from them and placed in inhumane conditions. The same children were misplaced in government bureaucracy and malfeasance while their parents were deported. Yes, Mr. President, thank you for uniting us. The same children remain packed in unfit conditions, exposed to abuse, negligence, and COVID-19.

Your attacks on the free press in words and deeds have made the United States one of the most dangerous places on the planet for reporters and photographers. When faced with overwhelming evidence that the government of Saudi Arabia murdered a reporter from an American newspaper, you only gave it passing mention. Today as I write this, the news agencies that once supported you have grown weary, and cracks are forming. When confronted with their concerns, with their realization that no amount of spin can put you in a favorable light, you attack what was once your allies. Yes, Mr. President, you are uniting us with your actions.

You promised to bring dignity back to the White House and to be the hardest working President in history. For three years and 147 days, we’ve watched you use Twitter for diplomacy, spend your days watching TV, playing golf at taxpayer’s expense, and when faced with a crisis from your beloved people right outside your door, cower in fear in your basement bunker. Yes, Mr. President, you are uniting us.

You promised to control the deficit, balance the budget, and drain the swamp. Yet during a period of economic prosperity that you inherited, your tax cuts didn’t benefit 90% of Americans, enriched the top 10%, and grew our nation’s deficit by 5.2 trillion dollars in just three years 147 days. A debt that our children and our children’s children will inherit with inflation and lost prosperity. Our economy entered recession before the first COVID-19 death was reported on our shores, and you could count the active cases on one hand. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.

Your authoritative and awe-inspiring words found within each of your Twitter broadsides vilified our friends and allies. You insulted our closest neighbors and most significant trading partners in Canada and Mexico. You have brought us to the brink of a cold war with China, left the dictatorial government of North Korea laughing at us, encouraged the Russian state, and left the globe wondering what has happened to American greatness. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.

You claimed that the government has no place in regulating business. So you gutted environmental and wildlife protection, while placing tariffs, also know as price controls, on goods and services. The prices of those goods and services hurt businesses and ordinary Americans alike, removing any benefit from your tax cuts, and not coming close to filling the deficit hole as you promised. The farmers, coal miners, and factory workers you promised to help have been abandoned while foreign nations scammed you for tax breaks.

Your incredible response to the COVID-19 epidemic has exposed to the world that the disease ravaging our nation is not just a virus, but the impotent reaction from your leadership. Emergency rooms became overwhelmed, front-line medical workers died due to a lack of personal protection equipment, your agencies scammed by predatory companies and junk science, and our leaders in science and medicine silenced. One-hundred-and-fifteen-thousand dead Americans from what you declared was a hoax, was just the flu, would magically go away once warmer weather came. As I type this, the southern and southwestern states are being devastated by your hoax. Your playbook of distraction and Twitter diplomacy didn’t work against a virus. The world has learned that we are nothing but a paper tiger, with fragile infrastructure and resources.

Despite all of these missteps toward greatness, your support hasn’t wavered. Your staunchest allies and enablers have stood by you while trying to steer your course. Yet you continue to ignore the Constitution, jurists, leaders, scientists, doctors, and diplomats that have been attempting to save you from yourself. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.

As our nation watched in horror at the street execution of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street, his life squeezed from him as he cried out for his mother, the people became united. You went to your same playbook to divide, vilify, and tweet. As the people you profess to love unprecedently protested outside your door, you built a wall, you hid in a bunker and watched the TV you deny you watch. You threatened to send federal troops against your People, to the disgust and disdain of retired and active-duty generals and admirals. You had peaceful protesters pepper-sprayed and beaten for a photo op at a church. As you spoke of law and order from the White House, a house built by slaves, the nation could hear your state-sanctioned violence against the First Amendment in the background. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.

I want to thank you, President Trump, for the last three years and 147 days. Because of you, your words, and your deeds, I was able to see the hatred and racism that existed right under my nose. I could see what I thought were friends, for what they are. By encouraging the forces that want to destroy this nation, you exposed the great lie that there is equality in the eyes of the law, that the police forces of this nation have just a few bad apples, and make rare, but very public mistakes. I always suspected these were narratives were false, but you provided the proof.

You have united the American people, Mr. President, in a way that I never thought would be possible three years and 147 days ago. We are joined in historic protest from coast to coast and border to border—six-hundred-and-fifty cities and towns across America, from the biggest to the smallest. From marches measured in the hundreds of thousands to lone vigils of one. All these people, united against the hatred, the fear, and the anger you’ve fomented tweet after hateful tweet. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.

We are united to no longer accept the idea that racism has been resolved in this country, or is just a passing problem. Because of you, the good people of this county who didn’t think these were real issues are now learning that it is deeply rooted in the very things you defend, and rotten to the core.

We see you for what you are, a dotard, barely able to stand on their own, obsessed with what people think of you. A narcissist, staring at their magic mirror, listening only to those who say yes. Outside your bunker, a giant has awoken and been filled with a great resolve to bring about change to our nation. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.

I have watched first hand since May 30 as Black, white, Latino/Latina, Asian, Hispanic, indigenous, native-born, and immigrant have marched in peaceful protest. I have seen first hand the excessive force applied by our militarized police departments using CS and OC gas on peaceful citizens, firing rubber bullets, striking with batons, shocking with Tasers, and preventing peaceful assembly. My eyes have stung, my lungs have burned, and I have personally carried the wounded as I documented the actions you sanctioned.

The violence was so great that our allies in the United Kingdom have voted to stop selling rubber bullets and teargas to the United States. Violence on the people so troubling that even in South Africa, they are marching for the Black lives in our raging and grieving nation. Yes, Mr. President, South Africa looks more enlightened in the eyes of the world than our country because of your words and deeds.

We are once again the United States of America, Mr. President. We are united against you and those who think like you. We are joined together to bring out meaningful change, for full equality, to demand that this nation treat everyone as equals. Equality does not mean that some will get less, nor is that what We the People want. We want the level playing field the American dream promises for all people. We want our minority brothers and sisters in this great race of life to run that race unshackled, unencumbered, and without the oppression of institutional racism. Mr. President, those of us that want this change outnumber those of you who don’t.

You and your supporters are focused on agitators and those who are trying to discredit this movement. I applaud that, Mr. President, because distraction is useful when you are bringing about change. While you shudder in anger watching your TV and spitting out sentence fragments on Twitter, we are using the most potent weapons we have in the American arsenal. We are leveraging our rights. We are using our right to peaceful assembly. We are using our right to freedom of speech. We are using our right to videotape and photograph, and audio record the transgressions of those who are so comfortable with racism and inaction, that they feel they can freely operate in this connected world with impunity. And, Mr. President, we are sharing those videos, pictures, and audio clips, on Twitter for the world to see. We are using your actions to demand change at a local, county, and state level and, on November 3, at the federal level too.

Had you told me, Mr. President, that you would unite our nation in a singular fierce voice demanding change in just three years and 147 days, I would have said it was impossible. I had expected incompetence and hatred, but I never realized how dark your heart is, how you lack a soul, and how deep corruption runs to your core. You made these things mainstream and revealed the ugliness of America hiding in plain sight behind gossamer curtains. Those curtains, Mr. President, have been torn down.

On November 3, 2020, the American people will decide on whether they want to renew The Donald Trump Show for four more seasons. Forty-million unemployed, the numbers without health insurance exploding, institutional racism and violence defended by you, the Constitution defiled, 115,000 dead from COVID-19 and counting, and protests in 650 cities from coast-to-coast.

Thank you, Mr. President, for uniting us and putting America, for the first time in more than a generation, on a path to greatness. We, the people, are screaming in a singular voice, “no more.”

Three-years, and 147 days.

BIPOC, Editorial, National, Shower Thoughts

Our slide into white nationalism takes a dangerous turn towards fascism

1 Comment

Let that image sink in. As a nation, our Democracy is dying. We the People are extinguishing the beacon of freedom that was the United States. Our country is losing our moral high ground on a global scale and our ability to say, “you can’t treat humans like this.” We have become the enemy of ourselves.

The implications of what we have become will echo for decades. You may read this and go, “I’m white, male, Trump-supporting, agree with all of these actions, and it can’t happen to me.”

Study your history. It can happen to you because, through history, people thought the same thing. It is acceptable right up to the point they are in a concentration camp, or slave labor camp, or forced into conscription in an aborted war. There was no one left to go, “what the Hell, stop this!” Or maybe it will be your child, or your spouse, or your parents who will run afoul of the state.

Here are some facts that should keep every American awake. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates as an extra-judicial organization and primarily outside of Constitutional protection.

FACT: Immigration and Customs Enforcement can do enforcement action at will up to 100 miles away from the borders of the United States. That includes waterways and ocean boundaries. Almost 70% of the United States population lives within this area.

FACT: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has set up checkpoints within this 100 miles zone. They are demanding proof of citizenship and operating outside of Constitutional protections.

QUESTION: If you had to prove your citizenship on the spot, can you? What if ICE says your paperwork is fake aka, “your papers are not in order,” and that you need to go to headquarters, errr detention. Think it doesn’t happen? Multiple United States citizens have ended up in ICE detention and held for months, told they have no Constitutional rights while in ICE custody.

FACT: ICE courts do not roll up into the Judicial branch of the United States government. They are part of the Executive Branch. Yes, that’s right, courts in the United States operate outside of the balance of power, and report directly to the Attorneys General. Run by the Executive Branch, this has created a system that works outside of the Constitution. Judges must meet deportation quotas. There are new rules invented out of thin air, and asylum seekers, even children, have to represent themselves with no translator and no legal council. The appeals process, which provides balance in the Judicial Branch by enabling defendants to argue that laws were violated in making a decision, are little more than kangaroo courts.

FACT: Illegal border crossing and the number of people seeking asylum has skyrocketed under the current administration, the “we must be tough,” polices are not working. Further, the actions taken against the governments of several Latin American countries, obstinately to reduce immigration, has only increased it.

FACT: The seal of decency, the outrage that would typically follow a savage attack on minorities, simply because they were minorities, is gone. The Latino population in the United States is living in fear because of almost three years of exaggerations, lies, and vile hatred directed at them.

All of these actions, all of these systems, this has happened before. Every dollar, the current administration gets, goes to building a private army for the Executive Branch. If fully weaponized, this system could move on almost 70% of the United States population at will. The Executive Branch could detain people into detention camps to disappear among the immigrants, to have cases heard by judges that report to the same branch. Not only are the seeds of dictatorship planted, but they are also growing into a tangled vine. The Legislative Branch is impotent and paralyzed, and leaders like Mitch McConnell are in lockstep alignment with the Executive Branch. You could argue, coherently, that McConnell helped lay the foundation for where we are today.

If you’re not familiar with your history, in Germany, an individual leader didn’t sweep to power illegally. A vote legally made by the Reichstag made him Chancellor. During this era, the political party didn’t openly support or organize violence against minority classes but didn’t do anything to stop it. They used language like “good people on both sides.” The vote by the Reichstag was tainted by the arrest, delay, and detention of politicians that would vote against giving the Chancellor dictatorial powers. However, there weren’t enough votes to stop it. The point becomes only academic.

If you’ve read this far to tell me what an idiot I am, please study your history. The Reichstag fire enabled the mass arrests of Communists, Socialists, trade union leaders, college professors, intellectuals, reporters, editors, and dissenters. Dachau became the first concentration camp for political prisoners. By effectively silencing any opposition by the end of 1933, the ire of the party could then focus on racial minorities, LGBTQ, Romani, the mentally ill, the disabled, Eastern Europeans, and Jews. The Final Solution started in 1942, a full nine years after the first concentration camp opened.

When it came to enforcement of the fascist state, the Gestapo was an organization with roughly 10,000 employees. Yes, you read that right, the secret police in Germany operated with an iron fist with that few people. They used citizens against each other. All it took was to talk ill of the state. But I love Trump! I would never speak evil of him! I am willing to bet that some of the same farmers that threatened USDA officials this week would have said the same thing 18 months ago.

An admission that up to 30% of US farmland couldn’t be planted because of historic flooding, levee collapses, and tariffs would be an admission of things we don’t admit. The farmers are outraged at the USDA because the crop forecast is beyond pure bullshit. The unintended consequence of hiding reality with the doctored USDA crop forecast was a collapse in grain prices. Farmers will get paid less due to the price collapse on a smaller harvest, cutting their profits even more. Enemies of the state – and I’ll repeat it – tariffs are socialism because tariffs represent price controls.

The Executive Branch has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold families, including children, indefinitely in concentration camp conditions. The due process comes from courts that work for the Executive Branch, where judges have quotas to achieve on deportations. You can’t even say that this is acceptable because “well, it is only illegal immigrants.” Multiple American citizens, including children, have been caught up in this system and held for months. They have been held outside of Constitutional protection and in conditions that violate the Constitution.

We are on the precipice of a cliff that history has shown leads us not to greatness, but as a shattered nation.

National, Shower Thoughts, Think About It

I always feel like, somebody’s watching me

A lot of keystrokes have been dedicated to the subject of “is Facebook listening to my conversations?” The general conclusion is a resounding, no to at the worst, highly unlikely. I feel like I need to adjust my tinfoil hat because I’ve had a couple of incidents lately that have me take pause and wonder, is AI listening to my conversations and using it for marketing?

Before I take this leap, let me provide a bit of background. I was, up until two weeks ago, the head of Product Marketing at a company that specializes in providing TV ad attribution to upper and lower funnel KPIs, as well as conversion events, to brands and networks. The ability to go this TV displayed this ad in this household, and then this phone or PC visited this website, or bought this item, or walked into this store, or, well you get the idea, is both very simple and very complex. The capability to do it to the level of an individual is possible. To be 100% clear, my company does not in any way engage in that level of tracking, nor do we use or even accept or process Personally Identifiable Information (PII). We also have a crystal-clear opt-in process. Those that know me, I mean know me, know I would quit tomorrow if I thought for one minute, we were doing something crooked. I’ve been under the hood.

The point of this is, I “understand,” this technology. I understand that between tracking pixels, cookies, UID, MAID, device IDs, and connecting all this data using LiveRamp or Adobe, as two examples, exists. It is completely true that when all your browsing, search, location, and social information is aggregated, even in an “anonymous” way, a very detailed picture of you emerges. A few years ago it was common that if you searched refrigerators online that you would see ads for refrigerators for the next six months – everywhere – even if you already bought a refrigerator. Now it seems that if you even thought about a fridge or said, “Hey honey, I think we need a new refrigerator,” ads appear. It could be as simple as you walked into a Best Buy store, followed by Frys, followed by Sears, and the location data was used to conclude you were looking at appliances. Yes, that simple.

Back to my tinfoil hat. Case study number one.

About a month ago at work, we were talking about printers and high-quality printers for photo production or other work. I had mentioned that years ago, I had owned a Minolta color laser printer that created amazing quality prints for years. That I had it until the drum had worn out, and the cost was prohibitive for replacement, so I got rid of it.

That same day, on Facebook, I was served an ad for Minolta color laser printer cartridges. I haven’t looked at replacement printers in a year. I certainly didn’t search for anything. I have gone into some office supply stores but not outside of my usual patterns. I hadn’t made any Amazon purchases related to Minolta anything, or anywhere else for that matter. I hadn’t even thought or dreamed about my Minolta printer, that I got rid of 7 years ago after five years of service. There it was, an ad for Minolta laser printer cartridges in my Facebook feed. I honestly went, “meh,” because I understand the technology for ad optimization.

Case study number two.

Today I was driving my daughter around to pick up a prescription. I told her about the massaging seats in my somewhat, new to us, car as we were traveling. I told her where the button was to turn it on and how it feels good on the back. She found the button and described it as like a cat kneading you and that it felt good. Her prescriptions were not back pain related; I have done no searches about back pain, or sciatica, or any other type of back-related pain. I did have an MRI on my shoulder about six weeks ago, but no ads were shown to me for pain management, back issues, or any other issue related to the back. I have done no searches about back or back-related problems. I haven’t been to a chiropractor or any other place where location data could go, hey, maybe we should show him this. So I get home and well, look for yourself.

Things that make you go, “Hmmmmm.” I have a conversation with my daughter about the massaging seats in my car and this is one of the first ads I see on Facebook after.

So now color me very skeptical, because leveraging what I know, it is getting harder for me to believe that Samsung, or Apple, or Facebook, or Google, or Amazon, or someone is not listening to my conversations and showing me ads related to those conversations. Case study one I can write off to bizarre coincidence. This second one makes it harder for me to accept that there is something deeper going on. Neural nets, artificial intelligence, and remarketing algorithms are good (well, in reality, they are pretty flawed, but they are getting better), but they are nowhere near that good.

Excuse me; I need to tighten my tinfoil hat.

BIPOC, Editorial, National, Think About It

Doubling down on a failed policy

How the United States continues to fail to force a change in Cuba

Consider this interesting fact. Fidel Castro was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008 and died in 2016. He outlived Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. The CIA attempted to assassinate Castro no less than seven times during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, with Castro claiming there were 25 failed attempts on his life. That doesn’t even count the numerous times during Castro’s youth he needed to flee Cuba because someone wanted him dead.

Fidel Castro

During this long road, the United States first backed the Fulgencio Batista government, growing further dissatisfied with his heavy-handed, dictatorial style. Batista was a monster that employed military action, extrajudicial execution, torture, and wholesale slaughter of villages to maintain power. As his grip on Cuba loosened, the CIA felt they could win favor with Castro, who they viewed as a socialist they could easily control, versus other potential Marxist leaders.

If you’re not familiar with the story, Castro was a Marxist to the core and hid his intentions well to the Cuban people, his CIA handlers, and his contemporaries. In 1959, sensing that Batista could no longer hold power and fearful it would fall into pro-Soviet hands, the United States government informed Batista they were cutting off military support to his government. Castro marched from Santiago to Havana, and later that year formed a provisional government. Castro then ruled as a bloody dictator exporting Marxist rebellion and guerilla warfare across Latin America, South American, and Africa.

With the rise of Castro to power, he aligned the island nation with the Soviet Union, which built ICBM missile installations just 90 miles from the US mainland. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the utter brink, with only Russian Commander Vasily Arkhipov refusing to agree with his political officer and the commander of Russian sub B-59  to fire a nuclear warhead armed torpedo at the US naval forces on the surface. The sub, under depth charge attack, was not aware that only training depth charges were used as an attempt to force the ship to surface. As luck would have it for future generations, B-59 was the only Russian submarine in the theater that required three officers to agree to release nuclear weapons – all other subs just needed two.

The Cuban people have suffered under Castro in many ways. With the 1991 Soviet Union collapse, the belief was that the Castro problem would solve itself. Instead, Cuba continued largely alone in the world, isolated just a little less than North Korea. The two key metrics where Castro’s legacy can have any bright lights shone, beyond his amazing ability to survive a world who wanted him dead, is literacy and healthcare. Cuba enjoys one of the most literate populations on the planet, and despite being cut off from most equipment and pharmaceuticals from the United States, has one of the better healthcare systems on the earth. However, the legacy of the healthcare system belongs more to Che Guevera, who didn’t survive the CIA’s desire to see him dead.

Havana, Cuba – land of cigars

It’s easy to lay all this blame at the feet of Castro, Marxism-Leninism, and his bloody regime. Castro was a dictator that committed atrocities against his people and other peoples around the world. You should also never forget that the CIA also trained him, armed him, backed him, and characters such as Frank Sturgis were heavily involved with his movement before his rise to power in 1959. The United States modern meddling in Latin American and South American affairs goes back to the 19th century. From the false flag Spanish-American war of 1898, the formation of Banana Republics in Guatemala and Honduras at the start of the 20th century, the Cold War machinations from Dominica to Peru to Nicaragua, the war on drugs in Columbia, the backing of Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti, and more.

If there is anything, we could learn from the Cold War, which the United States won without turning the planet into a radioactive cinder, the easiest way to collapse a Marxist-Leninist government is to export United States decadence to those nations. During the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Romania was the last hold out under the monstrous hand of Nicolae Ceausescu. The Romanian people were permitted the guilty pleasure of watching, “Hotel Dallas,” on TV. Ceausescu believed that the people would scoff at the decadent lives within the United States and galvanize his power. His plan backfired, horribly. Instead, the Romanian people went, “holy mother fucking ass crackers, that is how people live in the west? I want that for me too!” The people revolted, Ceausescu was eventually arrested and executed.

The cracks within Soviet power were sped along by western music, Levi jeans, McDonald’s burgers, and many other consumer-oriented products that made the Soviet population go, “I want that too!” From Bush legs to foreign aid, the United States worked carefully to move Russia to a more open form of government – until Bush (43) and Pooty-poot, but that’s another story.

When it comes to Cuba, the United States continues to follow a policy that has failed to make a meaningful regime change in 60 years. Isolation does not cause regime change; instead, it hardens the resolve of both leadership and the people. We’ve seen this over and over again. It came as no surprise after the Trump Administration came into power that the start of normalizing relations with Cuba took a U-turn. Today the Trump Administration announced that effective immediately, no more cruise ships or group tours will be allowed to Cuba. The policy is stunningly short-sighted and only serves to appease a single county in South Florida, which is becoming decidedly bluer with each passing year anyway.

The Carnival Paradise will have to find new ports of call now that Cuba is off the list

The US border is seeing an overwhelming number of asylum seekers moving through Mexico to get to the United States. This spike has happened hand-in-hand with the United States cutting off aid to Latin America and Nicaragua falling into a state of near Civil War. Hammer meet nail, nail meet hammer. The black and gray markets in Cuba have operated for decades, many in plain sight, enabling the Cuban people to scrape together a slightly better life. Hotels and sit-down restaurants are scant for travelers, with Cuba instead enjoying their version of Airbnb. A bustling economy, off the books but in plain sight. Naturally reducing the ability of the Cuban people to enjoy the rewards of capitalism will surely help them see the benefits of capitalism.

Donald Trump turns 73 years old this month. It seems likely he will live into his 90s unless his penchant for fast food finally catches up with him. I suspect that without another u-turn in US foreign policy, Cuba will still be an isolated semi-Communist island 90 miles from the United States. Or, it will enjoy the benefits of normalized trade, tourism, and resources with a powerful Chinese-Russian alliance, where once again we’ll be looking at hostile military installations just a short hop from the lower-48. The best way to end the stain of Castro’s grip on Cuba, is to normalize relations and trade.

Think about it.

Malcontent, out.

National

Man drives to Arby’s and orders food – with a .483 BAC

This guy is a total moron but I also have to stand up and salute you, sir! You have taken alcoholism and the horror of addiction to a whole new level.

We’ve all had it, whether it be in college, or in our 20 somethings, maybe even into our 30s. You drink, you get drunk, you get the munchies, you eat food, you throw up.

A blood alcohol level of .08 is legally drunk in all 50 states (and Washington D.C. – technically it is .05 in Utah but I digress). By .15 you’re seriously impaired. For most humans, .30 is pass out drunk and nearing a medical crisis. How about .483? Your blood is just under 1/2 percent alcohol! You are a walking talking Bartles and James wine cooler from 1986 – vampire flavor.

Not only did Michael Kennett of Poseyville, Indiana, DRIVE to Arby’s with a BAC of .483, but he also walked in, ordered food, and ate some of it before passing out at the table. Additionally, the only thing he apparently hit while driving there was the curb.

.483 would kill most people, but if you drink enough, you become a functioning drunk at this level.

This story has it all, moronic, amazing, and sad. What Mr. Kennett needs is clinical help, to have his car keys taken away, and an Arby’s beef and cheddar with a large order of potato cakes.

Malcontent, out.

BIPOC, National, Stupid Human Tricks

About that drink last night

In the era of #metoo it is a sad state of affairs where some men need to be reminded that committing sexual assault, battery and rape isn’t acceptable. I realize it falls into the category of, “things that should go without saying,” but this is the world we live in. I hope that we can advance into a better society for the sake of my daughter and the generation she will bring, but I digress.

It appears that in the United Kingdom, not everyone has gotten the memo. Case in point, Danny, met a lovely young 20-year old lass in a British bar and bought her a drink (or two – that part isn’t clear). Chlo felt comfortable enough to share her phone number, but alas, Danny didn’t get to put his bangers into the mashed.

https://twitter.com/chlojmatthews8/status/1134772635173314560

The next day Chlo got a text from dear Danny. Oh no, not a, “oh it was so nice to meet you and I’d like to go out on a date,” text (how old fashioned of me). No, it seems Danny was upset that Chlo didn’t pay him back with her body, so he demanded payment in an online transfer for the drinks – because they didn’t smash.

Well, Chlo did what any other Millenial would do in this situation – shared the text exchange on Twitter for all of us to enjoy. Oh Danny, you stupid sod, you clearly haven’t gotten the memo.

Danny, you’re a moron. Chlo? Watch who you give your number out to and don’t be deterred, not every man is a tool.

Editorial, National, Shower Thoughts

Kevin Hassett leaving the White House

The Golfer-in-Chief’s top economic adviser is leaving the White House, per a tweet, with Twitter being the preferred communication tool for the most powerful nation in the world. The departure is very significant given the announcement of socialistic price controls tariffs on Mexico that will begin on June 10, and the widest inversion of the yield curve since 2007 on Friday.

Yield curve inversions have been a gold standard indicator of a looming recession in the last seven downturns. The yield curve has inverted three times since late 2018, with the latest and most dramatic inversion happening last week. A yield curve inversion is when long-term interest rates fall below short-term interest rates on bonds. Normally the yield on bonds should be better long term. The inversion happens when investors believe that the credit markets will get tighter, thus lowering returns on long term bonds.

Michael Schumacher, managing director and global head of rate strategy at Wells Fargo Securities stated on Friday that there was no need to be alarmed, and the inversion is no longer the gold standard of a looming recession. He did, however, in his next breath, he advise that investors should take a conservative stance.

It isn’t lost on the Malcontent on the timing of the departure, a weekend announcement via tweet, and the typical, “thank you for your amazing service,” praise. If prior experience is a good predictor of the future, it won’t be long before Kevin Hassett is low energy, stupid, and the worst economist on the planet.

The grim reality is if the taxes that get passed on to ordinary consumers tariffs imposed on China and Mexico are allowed to play out to their 25% maximum, it will have a significant impact on the US and global economies. With interest rates still low, and dear leader recently demanding they should be cut now to drive more growth, the fed has only a little runway to adjust rates to stimulate a stalled out economy before the fed rate goes back to zero. In an economic downturn the most powerful dial the federal reserve has is to lower rates, that and print more money with an IOU.

To an outside observer, it isn’t a big leap to speculate that Hassett disagreed with policy and was pushed out of the White House. Only the best people, you’ll see, only the greatest minds.

Oy.

Malcontent, out.

BIPOC, Editorial, National, Shower Thoughts

No, we aren’t better than this

I wanted to start this with the statement, “we are better than this,” but alas, we are not. At the El Paso Del Norte Border Patrol processing facility, 900 or more human beings have been stuffed into holding cells designed for 125 people. Regardless of if you want to call them non-resident aliens, refugees, asylum seekers, illegal aliens, criminals, or scum of the earth, they are human beings. They bleed red blood cells; they have frontal lobes, are bipedal, their liver is the lower right, they have two kidneys (mostly), two eyes, two ears, a mouth, they even have an anus.

The conditions are so bad that there is no space to sit or lie down. Some of the detainees (let’s call them detainees) end up standing on the open toilets to get some extra space from the overcrowding. But wait, there is more. Sixty-six percent of the detainees held have been in holding for more than 72 hours – that violates U.S. law.  Four percent have been held for two or more weeks, which spits on U.S. law. Who reported and documented this overcrowding? Fake news? The liberal left? George Soros? Russian trolls? No, it is documented by the Department of Homeland Security – our government – We the People.

This treatment of detainees isn’t the first time in our history as a country where we have treated human beings worse than farm animals. Let us remember, “free range” chickens are all the rage these days, and the people in these holding cells are packed like chickens in factory farms. Human beings are being treated by We the People worse than farm animals in an industrial setting. Sleep well tonight with that thought running through your head.

During the Gulf War, there was the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners of war. During World War II there was internment of Japanese nationals while members of the German-American Bund got a free pass. Those German-Americans were white, but those sneaky Japanese, well they were brown and easy to spot.

Both sides of the United States Civil War committed atrocities to prisoners of war, with the Confederacy providing particularly horrific treatment to Union prisoners. Then there were the indigenous peoples of North America, stuffed onto reservations with no resources; their children were taken away for cultural education, all under the banner of manifest destiny. If we go even further back, there was the gathering up of indigenous people living in New England praying towns and abandoned on Deer Island in Boston Harbor with no food, water, clothing or shelter. Over 300 froze to death in the name of colonial security.

The sad reality is, we’re not better than this. We as a nation have a long history of, “you look and act differently from me, so you must be bad.”

Ya, if you’re so smart, if they immigrated here legal as a real law-abiding person would, this wouldn’t be happening. These are mostly families, in the same watchdog report from Homeland Security, who are fleeing oppression, drug dealers, and dictators seeking asylum. United States policy helped put the leadership in place in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. That is a whole different topic for another time – our amazing foreign policy that does a tremendous job of putting brutal dictators and feckless cowards into power all around the world.

The number of Mexican illegal aliens has been declining in the United States for years when you look at government numbers. The point of declining numbers of Mexican illegal aliens was a subject of an entire South Park episode in 2011. Up to 2018, the number of detained illegal aliens has been at near historic lows, and that carried through the entire Obama Administration. By the numbers, it sure looks like the crisis at the border is being manufactured to drive a narrative. Further, I say back to you, “Even if these were armed invaders in a conflict, their treatment would violate the Geneva Convention.”

“Ya, so what.”

So what? Look what happened to our prisoners of war in Vietnam when the United States refused to issue a formal declaration of war against North Vietnam. They were treated like – criminals. The brutality of Hanoi Hilton and other prison camps, and the hundreds of POWs that, ehem, “disappeared,” in custody that we don’t seem to be looking that hard for anymore. If you don’t think our treatment of foreign nationals has an impact on United States citizens in foreign custody, think again.

On the other hand, it is easy to make a snap judgment and go all Godwin Law, but our brutal history and treatment of detainees stand up as an exhibit that when it comes to We the People, this is who we are. In 2019 in the United States of America, detainees are crammed together for days in dirty clothes, no bedding, no room to lie down, limited access to facilities, not enough breathing space, and no privacy. If one person arrives with influenza, chicken pox, scabies, or norovirus, it spreads like wildfire in the close contact.

We haven’t been better than this. Maybe it’s time we stand up and say, “enough.”

Think about it.

Malcontent, out.

Editorial, National, Think About It

Industrial bleach in the misinformation age

In our era of misinformation, where we seem to be going backward, it is easy to laugh. It is easy to be amused by flat earthers, and their disastrous international conference where they proved the earth was round (whoops), or to gain pleasure in the irony of antivax leaders ending up in the hospital to get treatment for the disease they said was of no consequence. We can shake our heads at those who believe the lizard people run the planet (this is a real thing) and exhibit outrage at Alex Jones for insisting that the Sandy Hook shooting was a false flag to take away our guns (under a lawsuit, he now claims he was insane when he said it). The problem is, this era of misinformation has real consequences.

When the Internet became mainstream in the mid-90s, and the browser wars of Netscape versus Microsoft was detailed in the news and on people’s minds, there was a belief the world would become a better place. By giving everyone on the planet access to their own Guttenberg printing press, the ability to share knowledge and grow would bring an era of better understanding, faster research, and the democratization of knowledge. We would understand each other better, discover we aren’t so different, lift the undereducated, and there would be greater equality.

Something awful and sinister has happened on the way to global enlightenment. The part that so many missed is that anyone has access to a Guttenberg printing press, meaning any idiot with a conspiracy theory, or any entity that wants to push misinformation can do so with near impunity. Combine that with two-and-a-half generations that don’t give a crap about online personal privacy, the vast amount of third-party data available on us, and the willingness and desire to sell that data to anyone with cash – it is a recipe for disaster.

Russia state news to the living rooms of America

Today we have the Putin News Network (RT) pushing that 5G will kill you. Why? Because Russia and China are behind in deploying 5G and they want to slow down the roll out in the west to catch up. You have the Austrian government in collapse. You have an ongoing and near-forgotten civil war (of sorts) in Ukraine. You have the UK in complete chaos over Brexit, and then we have our shit show in the United States with interference in the 2016 election – but at least there wasn’t any collusion so let’s not figure out how deep the interference was. We have measle epidemics when we shouldn’t have any, and growing cases of whooping cough. Oh, and we have 12 million Americans who believe that lizard people run the planet. I refuse to link to these things and add to the legitimacy storm, look it up yourself.

How bad is it? There are multiple Guttenberg printing presses, some on social media platforms which should have a moral obligation to stop misinformation, advocating the use of industrial bleach to cure autism. Parents are forcing their children to drink it, bathe in it, and have enemas with it. Is the image of a two-year-old being forced to drink industrial bleach as a cure for autism amusing? It’s horrifying. I want to punch Jenny McCarthy in her face, but in the age of everyone gets a Guttenberg printing press, she knows more than doctors and researchers. No, she doesn’t advocate bleach as a cure, but she advocated that vaccinations cause autism and some of these parents forcing industrial bleach on their children. Desperate parents following the false belief that industrial bleach will flush the heavy metals out of their children, and cure the disease.

I certainly am not advocating, as much as it may seem, to twist the First Amendment and allow free speech for only things scientifically proven. I see this as a crisis of our time and the rapid rise of misinformation. Ironically, the Internet has made us more tribal. It is easier for me to find a group of people that believe what I believe, alternative views are damned. So I can sit in my echo chamber and go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole until I believe Sandy Hook was a false flag. I can be in my world until I believe that Obama is the anti-Christ who wants to create a gay Muslim state in Texas, or until I believe that pouring industrial bleach down a helpless child’s throat, will “cure” them of disease. If anything, the horror I find is parents would rather do something that could kill their child then accept that they will be different.

Yes, people believed Jade Helm as a front to turn Texas into a gay Muslim state run by Obama

I firmly believe that Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a list of others have a moral obligation to fight the spread of misinformation. I believe the intelligence communities of nations must protect their citizens from outside false information and propaganda. I think all of us would do better if we left our echo chambers and listened to other voices, and I think we would be more willing to listen if the voices weren’t so shrill. How do we do it without crushing free speech? That is a question we need to answer quickly. To quote from the movie Men In Black, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals, and you know it.”

We need to stop the people who are manipulating the dumb, panicky animals because the alternative is nationalism, disease, and anti-science. I continue to wonder if 500 years from now people will look back, and consider early 21st-century society as living deep in a Dark Age.

Please think about it.

Malcontent, out.

Editorial, National, Think About It

The east coast vs west coast politics of the street

TL;DR

1) NYC doesn’t live up to its reputation as heartless, dangerous, and dirty
2) Homelessness is in the darker corners of the city
3) Seattle’s live and let live policies and lack of law enforcement has created a different environment
4) NYC doesn’t have human feces, used needles, stolen bike parts, and middens lining the streets and sidewalks
5) What Seattle is doing is not working
6) We need a leadership change in King County/Seattle
7) Think about it

I am trying not to turn this into a shower thoughts blog with so much awfulness that continues to happen – so I will try to behave.

I’m in NYC for part of the week, and the Malcontentment Happy Hour will be on the road, relatively low production, and shot from California. So stay tuned for that. I’ve observed some things and have had these thoughts rolling around my head since my last business trip.

On my last trip, I asked the question – where should I jog after dark? The response was, “on Manhattan? Anywhere you want.” I was quite surprised by this response. I’ve jogged or walked from my hotel in NoMad to 78th heading north, past Soho to the south, through Greenwich Village, Times Square, large parts of Central Park, Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, Korea Town, Garment District, Alphabet City, and tomorrow I’ll add Tribeca to the route. I can’t say I’ve been to every inch of Manhattan, but I’ve covered a lot of asphalt and concrete. I’ve run after dark and in the early morning hours on empty streets, and I’ve run through congestion and crowds during the evening commute. I’ve run through commercial districts, empty urban canyons of finance and commerce, and past old apartment buildings and brownstones.

Several things stand out to me. First, I have never felt unsafe. I have never had the hair stand on the back of my neck, keep an eye on that person, unsafe. Next, I’ve never seen a used needle on the sidewalk, or in a restroom, or anywhere — not one. I’ve never had to dodge human waste or animal waste for that matter. Police presence is high; there is the perception that the police are everywhere or just a moment away.

On Sunday as I was running in the Madison Park area in the early morning hours, I was surprised at the lack of homelessness. That isn’t to say there isn’t any homeless in Manhattan. That would be a Huckabee-Sanders grade falsehood. I see the homeless and their cardboard encampments under the scaffolding and corners of buildings. As I ran up one street I could see in the distance the top of tents; white tops lined up in an empty lot. Ah-ha! Here is a homeless encampment. But it wasn’t one. It was an outdoor antique market that sets up in the lot every Sunday. It was then it struck me like a hammer. Seattle is one screwed up the city.

New York City has plenty of homeless in it, and they have more places to hide in the darkest corners. In the subway tunnels among the fumes, the damp, and the rats, the homeless call the edges of the tunnels and abandoned lines home. They are there. I have seen an Asian man who looks far beyond his years sitting on 6th on the same piece of cardboard for the last two days. His head slumped down, barely awake and aware. He looks and acts like an opioid addict. It is there, and you don’t have to squint to find it.

But I had this realization in my brain where I have been conditioned to watch for large tent encampments and/or derlict RVs and that I now have to be more aware. More aware for human waste on the sidewalk, needles lurking on the edges, or disturbed individuals lurking in the corners. I see the top of tents in a city, I immedidately assume homeless encampment. Again, I am not saying that New York and the boroughs don’t have them, I have yet to stumble on one. But one doesn’t have to move that far from Pike Place Market, or Pioneer Square, or Capitol Hill, or other tourist meccas in Seattle to find tent encampments and the piles of trash, stolen Lime bike parts, human waste and needles. So many needles – and it makes me sad for my adopted home.

On that same Sunday, there was another man just outside of a pharmacy talking loudly. Homeless and mentally ill, an old man, a Brooklyn Jew was talking to him. Trust me, one, I’m Jewish so I can stereotype, two this old man was a walking stereotype with the accent alone. He knew the homeless man’s name; he knew he took medication; he asked him if he was still taking his meds. He wished him well. The homeless man continued to talk loudly about Jesus and how he’ll care for him. Here was compassion, and patience, and grace, in a city that most believe lacks all of the above. Maybe the moment was well timed, but in Seattle I find that because the city and county leadership is doing what seems like all the wrong things, the good will is erroding all around us.

The policies of Rudy Guilliani tested Constitutional boundaries – I won’t drift into shower thoughts with my view on Guillani, it isn’t as blunt as you may think. The harsh reality is the crackdown he implemented and the policies of near-zero tolerance on any crime no matter how petty has had a positive impact. New York’s crime rate is at and has been at historical lows. The city doesn’t tolerate BS is the most simple way to put it. Remember, this is a city largely filled with liberals with a liberal mayor and a liberal governor, but has a very centrist policy on law enforcement. It sure isn’t perfect, Riker’s Island and the Tombs are finally going to be closed, an ill-managed, under-funded, horror of constitutional violations.

The stark contrast to Seattle and the city’s problems is impossible not to notice. Seattle seems to believe that compassion is live and let live. That and resistance to any program perceived to be big government or might infringe on perceived rights. I can’t let this thought go. Would I jog through Pioneer Square at 11 PM? Or at 6:30 AM on a Sunday? How about Belltown on a random drizzly Monday at 9 PM? I’m not saying that New York is crimeless, and maybe I’m being blissfully ignorant and pushing my luck on being mugged or worse. Hell, I’ve been harassed by teenagers on Lake Washington Blvd. jogging at night (keep it classy Kirkland) – and more than once. Caught with 3 grams of fentanyl? In Seattle you walk. Literally. Let that sink in. 18% of cases referenced by police to the prosecutors office go to prosecution. Let that sink in.

What I do know is the city where I live is a hot steaming mess of used needles, human waste, and tent encampments. The problems are getting worse, not better. In some ways, Seattle is still cleaner than New York. It’s hard to explain but New York has many rough edges to it. I just believe more and more that our elected officials in Seattle and King County have let us down and it is time for a change. What we’re doing for homeless and poverty? It isn’t working. New York, on the surface at least, seems to have built a better mousetrap.