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High as a kite

Or the big “confederate flag” that was flying along 95 before the Commonwealth took it for roadway expansion.

Mmm. Yeah.

So, I wanted to talk about this.

I waded into the cesspool that is Facebook, and saw that it’d been posted in one of the groups I follow.

My comment?

“Less promisingly, the bill would impose a 5 percent federal tax on cannabis products, rising to 6 percent after two years, 7 percent after three years, and 8 percent after four years.” Glad they got that part in there. Much like what’s happening with many states, the recent push doesn’t actually dismantle the apparatuses assembled in the past century to fight drugs, but just redeploys it to _collect taxes_. The SWAT raids will get worse. I see you’re running a grow operation, there, but the Commissioner of Revenue says you[ve never paid a cent in taxes. We’re going to take all of those plants, along with everything else you’ve got.

The hispter Democrats’ argument is that “decriminalization” fixes the bad parts of the “war on drugs.”

No. No, it doesn’t when you’re doing it to raise tax revenue.

Did you miss the bit about the Stamp Act in school?

Government Doesn’t Work.

Eight

Somehow I missed drafting this prompt, too. I don’t even know.

Fantasy vacation. Where do you go, what do you do, who are you with?

~0/Vacation/All I ever wanted/Vacation/Had to get away/Vacation/Meant to be spent alone/o~

I love that song. But if you listen closely it’s really sad.

As for the prompt, this was actually some of the discussion I was having with my friend, and my wife yesterday — where can you go?

I’m not one to step up to people (meaning, use the implicit thread of physical violence), I just walk away.

I walk away. It’s what I do.

But where can I go to get away, now?

And, in the meantime, are you going to steal all of my shit, even if it means murdering me in the process?

That’s conspiracy talk.

Or, should I say, a claim without evidence.

That’s the media narrative about pretty much everything the President says after he lost the election.

How to be a one-term president?

  1. Select a VP from Indianastan
  2. Hire Bill Barr as your VP

Voila! You’ve locked in one term..

The president lost the election. It was not a “blue wave.”

Control of the Senate is going to be determined by two run-off elections in Georgia. They’re already descending there to make sure “Chuckie the Bolshevik,” as my former boss in radio used to call him, can completely destroy any check on reckless government that the Senate ever was.

*shrug*

Where can I go?

I don’t know.

But what I can do, and am doing, is just walking away.

If you’re a news network who’s reporting things that seem outrageous, then editorializing about a politician’s word, *click*

That’s one place where I can actually leave.

I almost said “sorry,” there, but, no, I’m not sorry.

I’m just not going to give you any of my money.

Not So Easy

That’s tomorrow, and I might have earwormed you.

I make not apology for that.

This morning, in between catching up on podcast episodes sitting in my queue, I’m listening to 90s stuff that’s stuck in my head.

I have a week’s worth of Kennedy on my DVR, but who knows if I’ll get to that today.

But for the 90s plame, that goes to Jewel.

Tomorrow is 1 November. Tomorrow I’ll start my binge writing month.

I was trying to assemble the list of topics I’ve assembled, but I’m too lazy to dig through the draft entries into a single document.

I think I have most of the days covered, with little resampling, or free-writing. If I need to do the latter, it’s there, and I don’t need to plan it.

So I need to figure out what to do for some birthdays next week.

One

Focusing on August. I’ve spent the past two days largely trying to sit through enthralling courses to earn credits to pay my fucking protection for the certification that lets me keep working.

It does make me want to give up. You spend hours upon hours watching people read fucking Power Point slides, then do virtual labs that don’t work more than half the time.

For this, I’ve paid hundreds of dollars.

Why?

There was a story on the news this morning about a deployed USAR officer who was buying a house in MDDR without ever visiting it.

My wife was completely opposed to this.

I kind of am, too, but I can understand the circumstances.

I’ve thought several times about what I might do when I finally decide to take my leave.

Back to Tidewater? But that doesn’t get me away from Governor Hoodor Blackface, and his supporters.

Somewhere else? Yeah, but where?

I’m oddly intrigued lately by the Texas Gulf Coast. I can remember when I was younger looking at maps, etc., and there was one county along the Gulf Coast that was basically one family’s ranch.

That’s kinda neat, but, my reservations were largely related to the lack of connectivity down there.

Now, however, I don’t know. Even though 5G might cause COVID-19, my attitude is kind of “whatever.” (I know, showing my Gen Xness there…) But I’m inside the swamp, now, and I really only leave when I need to go to the doctor.

The ride might be a bit longer, but my life wouldn’t be a lot different. So. Why not?

Other stuff….

Dave Rubin is taking the month of August off from news and social media.

I do have to admit that I have a tinge of jealousy with that, but I can’t ever see myself in a position where I’d be able to do with that.

Information coming in, and thoughts going out, have been part of my existence, really, my entire adult life. Financially, too, it’s never been an option.

I can’t imagine it, and I don’t know how I’d even try to do it.

March, maybe, I should try.

But do I even really want to?

No news check today. Some of my friends online dropped a link to a different news site, HNN.

One of the stories I saw yesterday was of interest. I’d seen something on Dark Tourist on Netflix where they were trying to get inside there not terribly long ago.

Cypress is a UN success story, if there ever was one….

Lookback time.

Blonde – 8/1/2001

I am. Or I’m getting there again. My hair is bleaching out. Maybe it’s going gray.

Nope. I shouldn’t get so lucky.

I had a lot more hair back then.

If I let it grow, it’d still not be gray. If there’s a natural hair color, it grows out of my head. Except gray. I figured that’d happen at some point.

But I also figured I’d be able to grow a beard by the time I was 40, too. My odd genetics don’t permit it. Let’s just say that I’m a lot more American Indian than Elizabeth Warren.

I can’t help myself sometimes.

My hair is pretty dark these days. That might be somewhat due to my pretty much constant indoor existence.

My mother found a picture recently while she was cleaning out her house of my dad, my brother, and I.

I probably would have been about five years old. Long, straight blonde hair. My little brother with very curly blonde hair.

And my dad looking very much like me as an adult.

Time to wrap it up for the day.

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.

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.

Sunday Night

Up late doing work. It happens. I did get a little teed-off about one of these tell-everybody-you-can-think-of emails from one of the other techs.

He said I was ignoring text messages.

Were you sending them to my old number?

Oh.

But an officious email to everybody will cover up for the problem existing between the keyboard and chair, no? PEBKAC.

Otherwise, I’ve been abusing myself by watching Chuck Todd, and, on one of his gusts’ recommendations, NextDoor.

MSNBC might well be a bigger danger to society than a politician who decries “fake news,” Upchuck.

This is somebody who’s been saying that people who don’t trust people like him are dangerous. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Because I’m a bit of a masochist, I have been trying to watch his show lately. One of his guests, the just-as-Republican-as-Bill-Weld David Brooks, mentioned Nextdoor.

Later in the afternoon, I got an email message talking about how MSNBC and change.org were working on a petition to get everyone a COVID-19 test.

Really? Seriously?

Then these old, rich, white folks were telling me exactly how I should handle the situation. No, that’s okay. I’ll let my docs at Georgetown to dictate.

Sorry if that makes me dangerous, Upchuck.

Turn Your Head and Cough

But make sure it’s into your shoulder.

I’ve been listening to podcasts about CoronavirusCOVID-19.

Obviously, this is of particular concern to me as someone with a chemically-suppressed immune system.

But at the same time, I can’t get too wound up about it, really.

I was happy to see that Wall Street had pretty much the same reaction I had to President Trump’s news conference yesterday.

I guess my question is whether the sort of cooperation among private companies would happen under a government-run system.

I’m more than a little skeptical.

One of the things I did notice about the news conference, however, was the push to do things like provide paid leave to people who really now get no benefits from their jobs.

For a long stretch, there, I had no PTO. None. Not even paid Federal holidays. Nothing.

But that’s what people had voted for.

Registering Dissent

Much as I appreciate Katherine Mangu-Ward’s argument against voting, I did go vote in the Virginia Democratic Primary this afternoon.

Why?

Because some of the candidates, two in particular, were so terribly awful I felt the need to try to contribute to their early departure.

I won’t name specifics, but I will say, “New England.”

It does, however, feed into my still-alive idea of “You Can Leave.“

Two of the leading candidates, again, “New England,’ want to stop that.

Don’t like the things Google is doing with its search algorhythms?

You can leave.

But the politicians have a problem with that.

That freedom is the thing that candidates are trying to end.

I’m not.

That might well make me a bad person.

But I don’t care.

Bad News Repruhshent

I am back in Tidewater, visiting my recuperating mother, and my grandfather who came up to visit.

It is strange being here, certainly.

I’m also prepping for Shmoocon next weekend, and tying up loose ends from yet another rebuild on this server.

I can’t find a lot of what I wrote between 2015 and 2o18.

I have SQL dumps that I can pick through, but I really haven’t had the energy or patience to do it.

I am still trying, too, to really pull out everything I’d put in for a job search during my periods of unemployment.

I really do love where I work, now. I wish I was healthier so I could move off on to something they’re doing that’s different than what I’ve done since 2005.

I got distracted just now by a friend on Facebook appealing to the usual sources for fact-checking before posting of stories.

Um. Okay. So only check facts from sites that are biased as hell before you share something. Perhaps SPLC should have been on that list.

It did distract me from something else I wanted to talk about the Apple backup story.

At first, I was disturbed by this, what with AG Barr’s misguided attempts to have backdoors engineered into encryption.

That, of course, was a bit of a knee-jerk response. I’d missed the part about these backup sets being store on an iCloud Drive.

Wanna keep shit suparsekret? Encrypt it yourself, and store it on physical media under your control.

Yes, that Apple made the decision after FBI pressure bothers me, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is technically-possible to keep whatever it is you have from prying eyes, government or otherwise.