Month: May 2020

So what do I do? I write. Just like every day in November.

I’ve been trying to absorb the stuff going on nationwide the past couple of nights.

There’s a fascinating understory going on; maybe the destructive protests haven’t been locals.

NBC reported this, but it doesn’t fit Chuck Todd’s narrative that everything that’s bad in the world is the result of the guy in the Oval Office, so whatever the AG said is, um, unsupported.

If only there was someone with a reporting staff who could dig in, and find out whether it’s true.

But missing the bigger picture.

Like a single pixel on something spit out by a dot matrix printer. If you focus in on the one point, you can see it, but miss the larger message that you could see just be zooming out a bit. Saw this this morning about a place where I used to work. Well, I worked as a contractor for them, because they, along with the effort to get rid of old people, didn’t want to hire anybody full-time.

What the company there did, and what several other companies are doing, is just hiring contractors. No benefits to pay. No paid time off. The Winter holidays are coming up? Enjoy working less, and making less money.

At least the last place I worked that did that paid Federal holidays. Well, most of them.

A bit more subtle than Chunk.

It’s not as subtle as what the previous administration did with the Russian Collusion story, but it’s similar. I do think Mr. Grenell is actually on top of what’s going to be happening this year.

But the “deep state” was feeding false stories about Russian collusion to the various parts of the media. You know, the ones we’re supposed to trust. Still find that lack of trust dangerous, Chuck?

I’m thinking about this because I’m paying my protectiondoing my Continuing Education for a cert that’s needed to allow me to keep working.

How much could people hide by jamming these incredibly expensive security systems with chaff? Oh, but it came from $trusted_source, so it has to be correct.

But what if it’s not? How much time and money have you wasted trying to solve a problem that isn’t there, was never there, and probably won’t be in the future?

Obligatory uDict definition.

I remember begin a young broadcaster, and being told about needing to “hear the smile in your voice.”

I’m starting to think that that’s probably a part of my issue with this one MS podcast I’ve been listening to. The host just sounds pissed off a lot of the time. The very serious sound effects and bumper music don’t do anything to change that perception.

When he was discussing something about which he was actually excited today, that did come across, and he didn’t sound like such a wokescold.

Speaking of that, I still glimpse at what’s going on with Nextdoor, a.k.a. Twitter for old people. Some of what you get there is illustrative of the Karen attitude so heavily-represented near where I’m living. I mean, we’re no Montgomery County, Maryland, but there’s a lot here.

I’ve long referred to Maryland as “DPRM,” as a nod to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. After more consideration, however, I’m thinking that “MDDR” might be more appropriate; Maryland Deutsche Demokratik Republik might be more appropriate.

The Karens of a place like MoCo would probably like the Stasi’s reporting tools.

Happy eighteenth birthday to my employer.

Trolling around the series of tubes today, and I stumbled across this. Nonono; you need regulations like that, or people will die. For reasons I can’t find, immediately, that’s been floating through my scarred brain the past few weeks.

Also trying to pay attention with some interest into the LP nomination discussion yesterday. My oldest friend asked me what I thought about Vermin Supreme. Que? Well, as far as I know, he’s not out on a boat trying to avoid various authorities.

But, if anything, the longer that things go on with this COVID-19 stuff, the less I confidence I have in government as a rule.

*shrug*

No, that’s not a black helicopter that’s outside my window, it’s just the A/C unit.

In pandemic land.

One of the first things I saw this morning:

The poster’s name is snipped to protect the guilty from his wife, Karen’s, wrath.

One of the local TV stations had this neat infographic on the governors reopening the economy. and the restrictions effect on both disease progression, and domestic product.

Watching it was interesting yes. I’m sure it really spoke to the audience here in the DC region.

But as I thought about it, it occurred to me, government cannot stop commerce.

Even in a maximum security prison, people trade with each other.