It’s Saturday

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.

Hitting The Point

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.

Whispering Norovirus In A Crowded Theater

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?

lol y u mad, tho?

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.

Sunday

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.

Be sure to bring your towel!

Towlie would make a good facemask, no?

I was watching the 7p newscast supplement on WUSA. They were interviewing a restaurant owner who was worried about reopening. Her staff would be wearing masks, but the customers wouldn’t.

Let that sink in for a moment.

People eating in a restaurant aren’t wearing masks.

I was kind of going for a corollary to Davy Crockett’s Not Yours To Give. Freedom to live, work, worship, and so on, is also not yours to take.

Again, Saturday

Seems like this is when I’m writing. There’s not a lot to do, really; what can you do?

The news cycle this week has been dizzying. I had Sarah watch one particular commentator’s take on the dismissal of the Flynn case. I don’t agree with the guy on many, nay most, things, but he laid out the disclosures in a pretty straightforward fashion.

It’d be amusing watching the respective approach to what government(s) are doing. Lots and lots of emphasis on what the President is or isn’t doing, and barely any attention to government messed up the testing.


Other stuff I was going to write about:

  1. In a bit of nostalgia, and I’m sure if you look, there’s many links here (which I’m too lazy to expunge), but I decided to see what’s going on over at a place where I used to try to help, AltDaily. Broken Tribune.co redirect. Seeing that does make me a little sad, but that does reinforce the tagline here. If I ventured into the sewer that is Facebook, I’d find more that a few friends who were involved with it.
  2. Speaking of social media sites, I’ve been playing a little with Locals. I also have an account on Minds, but I’m not sure what to do with it. But back to Locals, I’m following four channels at the moment — Dave Rubin, Bridget Phetsay, Andy Ngo, and Michael Malice. I pay varying attention to these four, but I was curious after hearing Bridget’s adoring review (probably with Rubin on her own show). Some of the content looks interesting, but you do have to pay for a lot of it. Same goes for one of Ngo’s efforts, Quilette, and The Fifth Column. My friends over at Mouthy Broadcast also do some things with one of the donation sites where you can see exclusive content. I’ve been avoiding that particular site for a while since they started making editorial decisions on folks’ content. (Sorry for going full RMS-information-needs-to-be-free, but…) On the site, you have to pony up to like/share/comment on posts. I definitely understand it, but I was totally broke for so long, and I’m accustomed to getting free-of-charge content free pretty much forever. Would I start paying for podcasts? I doubt it. Do I buy things from companies that advertise on the pods I listen to? As sure as my ass is in a pair of underwear I heard advertised on one of them.
  3. COVID-19 has delayed my infusion by a week, and I’m getting kind of crabby with as fatigued as I am.
  4. One of the other things I added to my already-full pod queue is Filmphoria. I heard him on with Robbie Bernstein on Run Your Mouth. I think I bought one of the host’s sweatshirts, too. So I had an odd craving for Jiffy Pop popcorn. The stuff that’s in the Smartfood bag has placated me. Sorta.

So, stopping again. Too much rambling. Whatever. It’s what I do.

Wednesday

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.

Sunday Morning Locking Down

Nod to a Drunk History episode where they were talking about the song. Trolling through stories on Fark, while listening to “Run Your Mouth.”

One headline kinda touches on what I was trying to get at yesterday.

Texas is making reopening difficult through incredible regulation.

If I owned a theater in Texas, I’d probably just assume stay closed, rather than having the agents groping people coming in the door.

Of course, if they’re noble civil servants, of course they wouldn’t do anything improper.

so they choice is deal with that nonsense, or just not open on my own accord.

But it’s far better to have the government force me to open or not.

Awesome.

No thank you. Again if it makes me a bad person, I’m okay with that; let people be free.

Saturday Morning

So what’s up?

I’m trying to collect the motivation to watch the Thunderbirds/Blue Angels flyover later this morning.

Because I’m a nerd like that, I did scout out what ways we would need to look out our garage door to see the approach and departure.

Funny how neither the Air Force or the Navy has replaced its aerobatic team’s aircraft with the F-35.

What else….

Stay-at-home.

I’m avoiding Facebook, again, as I’ve written. I have wandered on a few times, mainly to get the URL for the HR Geeks Friday night Jitsi things, but I find myself very much at odds with friends who want to hold people captivehave the lockdowns continue.

I guess my question, after hearing all the arguments, is pretty simple — are you forcing people to stay in because you care about their health, or because you want to control them?

Based on the initial information, I was worried that I’d be at one of the people most at risk from the virus because of my chemically-compromised immune system. I’ve chosen to stay in, away from other people.

But that’s my choice. Yes, Sarah doesn’t want me to go out, or order delivery. I take that guidance because I love her, and respect her opinion. (I know that I’ve put her through all sorts of hell, and she deserves better.) But I really think I should be free to make the wrong choice.

If thinking that I should be free to have that choice makes me a bad person, oh well. I only ask that when your thugs shoot me, please record video of it. I understand that The totes-didn’t-used-to-be-evil streaming company wouldn’t let it be shown, but it’s impossible to erase everything. If somebody wants it, it can be found.

So much for my tagline, I know, but that’s the truth.