Jibber Jabber
11/07/21 07:11
I hate reading articles written by liberals who typically have their britches in a bunch over the most ridiculous things. I'm reading an article about Jeff Bezos retiring after leading his company, Amazon, for the last whatever number of years. The writer seems to take issue that Bezos has a net worth north of oodles while his employees are on food stamps and living in abject squalor. I reject this characterization out of hand.
Maybe they would prefer that Bezos share his wealth? How much of his wealth would they allow him to keep if they could decide such things? How successful would Amazon have been had they only been allowed to operate on a shoestring budget dictated by a board of his quarrelsome and impoverished employees? Again, I say, God bless him. He achieved the American dream and did it his way. This is something we need to celebrate.
The guy revolutionized the American shopping experience and, I say, it's all for the better. The mom and pop stores across the plains of our great country may disagree, and, I get it. They just can't compete with the buying power of the big box stores. It's easy to forget that buying things online used to take a week or more to get to your doorstep. Not any more. If my package doesn't show up within 24 hours, I'm checking my tracking app to see where the hold up is. That's a good thing.
The funny part is that Bezos is a darling of the left, so you might think that articles written by lefties about wealth inequality would use his name sparingly, if at all. Maybe they're still annoyed with him because he was resisting and fighting back against efforts to unionize several of his facilities. Unions are parasitic by nature, so I applaud his fighting them at every turn. His employees are free to work elsewhere if they feel that their remuneration is inadequate. That, too, is the American way. If I might quote the Koch brothers, "fuck em."
What's this I hear about a self-styled militia group called "The Rise of the Moors"? Ten members of the self styled militia group were seated in two cars sitting idle on the side of the road in the early hours of the morning over the weekend in the State of Massachusetts when the cops just happened to drive by. The militia members were dressed in fatigues and armed to the teeth with weapons ranging from long guns to handguns and everything in between. There was enough of a perceived threat, according to police reports, that the police shut down the highway, ordered a shelter in place for the nearby homes, and began what turned out to be hours of negotiations before it ended with arrests of all involved.
I don't know that these people ever represented an imminent threat of any kind. The group leader went Livestream on YouTube to make the case that they posed no threat and meant no harm to anyone. Did I mention that they were black? Not that skin color matters, but when you hear the word "militia" these days, you invariably think, thanks to CNN, et al, white supremacists, conservatives, and Trump supporters. That might partly explain why the leftist media has chosen not to cover this story more broadly. It simply doesn't fit well with the narratives they've crafted over months and years of the typical white supremacist militia member.
I think that if they had been allowed to go on their way that we might never have heard the name "The Rise of the Moors." It's also possible that by arresting the lot of them, the cops averted what could have been a disaster in the making. It was the Fourth of July, after all. What were they really planning, if anything? Were they really going to their training camp in Maine? The libertarian in me says carry on as long as you don't pose a threat to anyone. I would also say, don't give the police a reason to suspect you of things by dressing a particular way or doing something like carrying guns in a state that prohibits such things. I know, I know, you should be able to dress as you damn well please. Especially on the Fourth of July, right?
I know it flies in the face of the Ev man's privacy rights, but I do it every chance I get. If he leaves his iPhone lying about, I'll pick it up and back it up. Not while he's around because he would never approve. He's uber paranoid about his privacy, so leaving bread crumbs of his activities anywhere is not something that sits well with him. I'm not even sure that I could convince him that my intentions were aboveboard no matter how hard I tried. Perhaps he'll be more forgiving when the day comes that he loses his phone, and I have what he needs to restore it without having lost anything in the process. It's been a while, but that has already happened once.
The Ev man had a bit of a fender bender yesterday in Stratham. Everyone is okay, so no worries there. He did all the right things regarding any post-impact activities, including calling the local constabulary to report the accident. So far, so good. His car is a bit of a hot mess, so we'll have to see how that turns out. We had it towed to a shop and I'll give them a call this morning to give them the lowdown. If they can salvage the vehicle with all of its warts, then that will be a good thing. It's hard to imagine how the Ev man will survive long term without a vehicle, so we'll need to have a plan B ready to go.
I would say that this is a teaching moment for him, so we'll see how that shakes out. He tells me that he'll be driving more carefully from now on, so maybe he's learned his lesson. Not having a car will be another reminder of what it means not to be ambulatory, and for someone in the Ev man's age range, that might be considered a death sentence. He doesn't exactly live on a bus line, and he's not likely to take a ride on public transportation even if he did. Uber is not in his budget, and he doesn't have that many friends where they can drop what they're doing to take him here and there.
It's important that we keep in touch with him at least once a day between now and when we figure out what's going to become of his car. I don't like the idea of him being cooped up in his apartment without a car for even a day. I have a sneaking suspicion that he's ordinarily out and about in his car a lot. That is to say, he probably eats out more often than not for one thing. What twenty-something spends any time at home making himself a meal? He probably uses his microwave more often than his stove, and I'm guessing it is mostly used for leftovers. We all equate having transportation with freedom, however you think of that concept. The Ev man is no different.
I think that the Ev man is a bit overwhelmed and maybe even consumed by what has transpired in the last day or two since the accident. He is literally in uncharted territory here, and that is not a good place for him. It's not about the accident so much as it is the idea that he can't do what he typically does day in and day out now that he doesn't have a car. There is something to be said for continuity, and he considers having a vehicle to be an essential and even integral part of his day-to-day experience. So, we're going to get this figured out, and he will have a vehicle of his own one way or another. The sooner, the better.
How about that Trump presser yesterday? He held a televised press conference around noon time to announce a class-action lawsuit against the tech giants and the ass clowns who run them. How dare they continue to silence the voices of people with whom they disagree? The fact that they work hand-in-hand with the democrats to silence conservative voices to squelch things that they don't want to be aired in public is a disgrace. Today, it's conservative voices. Tomorrow, it could be the voices of the democrats. Rein them in, dammit! It's now or never.
The tech companies are privately held corporations, and they can do as they please, but they are also afforded certain privileges by Congress, which may make a difference if this case ever sees the inside of a courtroom. This case isn't about Trump. It's about the millions of people who have had their voices silenced on subjects ranging everywhere from hydroxychloroquine to election outcomes. When they take the president of the United States off their platform and leave the likes of tyrants and killers like the presidents of China and Iran online, these are decisions that are decidedly political. It's a complicated case but the consequences and potential for change are significant.
I, for one, am happy to see Trump out on the stump speaking up and speaking out on the travesty that is the Biden Administration. We don't hear enough republican voices these days, and that is a problem. Americans who are tired of seeing their country going down the proverbial drain need someone with a megaphone to stand up and speak out against the tyranny of the Biden-istas. It's good to hear someone, anyone, who is willing to grab the nearest megaphone and speak truth to power. Does anyone do it better than Trump?
Nothing says summer here in New England like the sugar and butter variety of corn and watermelon. I was in Tuttle's yesterday and picked up a couple of pieces of corn out of the bin near the cash registers. I pulled back the husks on each of the ears a wee bit just to see if there were any worms I needed to be concerned about and placed the worm-free ears in my basket. I'm not a big corn guy, but the missus is, so I thought she might like a couple of ears to kick off the season. I threw a nice seedless watermelon in my basket for good measure and looked forward to surprising the missus upon my return home.
The Ev man is a big fan of the American chop suey that Tuttle's sells so we picked up a couple of containers. He hasn't been to Tuttle's since his days back in high school, so he was off wandering around while I went looking for specific items. I've not been a fan of the chili that Tuttle's sells, but I buy some here and there if it looks good. I found the chili yesterday to be a step up from their usual chili, so I wish I had bought more. But, it was almost as though they identified the one or two ingredients in their chili that just weren't working, and, voila, we are good to go.
I'm not looking to drop a dime or anything, but the store seems to employ any number of what appear to be Mexicans in their backroom operation. This might well account for the chili recipe falling short of the mark, as it were. Chili is a dish that is both versatile and subject to regional influences. Once you go south of the border, I suspect that all bets are off. If what I'm not liking about the chili they sell has to do with the people making it, and the people making it are not native to our shores, that might help explain what I liked or didn't like about the chili they threw together.
Is anyone else concerned about Biden's plan to send government flacks to every household in our great country to root out those who haven't been vaccinated? It's none of their fucking business who is and who isn't vaccinated. The virus has been on the wane now for a few months, so one has to ask, what the hell is going on? It's an intrusion the likes of which we've never experienced in our country short of rounding up people of Japanese descent during World War 2 and shipping them off to internment camps.
Our shades will be drawn and our "no trespassing" signs will be up across our property if and when they decide to come by for a visit. We may even put the dogs out. There is no mandate to get this vaccine, nor should there be. The mortality rate is infinitesimally low, and the mortality rates for people below the age of 50 are even lower. Did I mention that this is an experimental vaccine? So, I ask again, what the hell is this all about?
Should we be concerned that the Pfizers of the world came up with this vaccine in less than nine months? Or, has this vaccine been in the works for months or years, even before the virus came around? The government just needed the proper rationale for injecting the populace with the so-called vaccine. I know it sounds far-fetched, but I'm at a loss to explain or understand this administration's dogged and seemingly devious determination to get the jab into everyone's arms.
When you hear about specific therapeutics being withheld from the public when they or their loved ones are at death's doorstep with the virus, it's yet another alarm bell going off. And what about all of those fudged numbers in the early days of the breakout when it didn't matter what you died from, the cause of death was always officially recorded as "covid-19." Government officials, like Cuomo from New York, as well as other democrat governors, seemed to know in advance the death and destruction the virus would cause and planned accordingly to, "never let a good crisis go to waste."
We visited Mrs. G yesterday afternoon for a while. I ended up sitting with her at her computer to square away a password issue she was having with one of her sites. She had called them and they said something about her e-mail address being the reason why she was having her troubles. I had her look over my shoulder while I worked it all out and, it had nothing whatsoever to do with her e-mail address. Everything was up to snuff when we got into her account, so we made a couple of adjustments, and she was good to go. We had to go back a forth a few times, but we got er done.
I can imagine that some of the customer service calls that these places receive, especially from older people older with less patience than the average bear, are nothing short of maddening. I know what the two of them discussed, but the problem did not get resolved on the call and that is not my idea of good customer service. I almost feel a little sorry for Mrs. G because she had to make the call in the first place. I suppose you can make the case that the problem started with Mrs. G when she started fiddling with this, that, or the other thing but I'm not privy to those details, so we'll not go down that road.
I also think it's a good thing that Mrs G picked up the phone intending to fix what she perceived to be a problem with accessing one of her accounts online. I admire her fearless approach to solving her problems, and if that means she's going to ring up a customer service representative in a pinch, then that's what she does. I'm sure she asks all the right questions although we all know how things can go sideways in conversations like this especially when you have one of the two parties who is a little flatfooted when it comes to the technology involved.
Call me Mr Insensitive but who the hell cares what happens in Haiti? Why should we care if the president of that country gets assassinated? I have no objections to lending a hand after some naturally occurring disaster like a hurricane or something but that's where I draw the line. Why is the Biden Administration sending anyone down to that shit hole of a country? Let them sort out their own political affairs. It's a dog-eat-dog world down there and political assassinations are nothing more than a garden variety crisis-du-jour. Joey, if you're listening, mind your own fucking business. Maybe you can start by protecting our own borders for a change.
Maybe they would prefer that Bezos share his wealth? How much of his wealth would they allow him to keep if they could decide such things? How successful would Amazon have been had they only been allowed to operate on a shoestring budget dictated by a board of his quarrelsome and impoverished employees? Again, I say, God bless him. He achieved the American dream and did it his way. This is something we need to celebrate.
The guy revolutionized the American shopping experience and, I say, it's all for the better. The mom and pop stores across the plains of our great country may disagree, and, I get it. They just can't compete with the buying power of the big box stores. It's easy to forget that buying things online used to take a week or more to get to your doorstep. Not any more. If my package doesn't show up within 24 hours, I'm checking my tracking app to see where the hold up is. That's a good thing.
The funny part is that Bezos is a darling of the left, so you might think that articles written by lefties about wealth inequality would use his name sparingly, if at all. Maybe they're still annoyed with him because he was resisting and fighting back against efforts to unionize several of his facilities. Unions are parasitic by nature, so I applaud his fighting them at every turn. His employees are free to work elsewhere if they feel that their remuneration is inadequate. That, too, is the American way. If I might quote the Koch brothers, "fuck em."
What's this I hear about a self-styled militia group called "The Rise of the Moors"? Ten members of the self styled militia group were seated in two cars sitting idle on the side of the road in the early hours of the morning over the weekend in the State of Massachusetts when the cops just happened to drive by. The militia members were dressed in fatigues and armed to the teeth with weapons ranging from long guns to handguns and everything in between. There was enough of a perceived threat, according to police reports, that the police shut down the highway, ordered a shelter in place for the nearby homes, and began what turned out to be hours of negotiations before it ended with arrests of all involved.
I don't know that these people ever represented an imminent threat of any kind. The group leader went Livestream on YouTube to make the case that they posed no threat and meant no harm to anyone. Did I mention that they were black? Not that skin color matters, but when you hear the word "militia" these days, you invariably think, thanks to CNN, et al, white supremacists, conservatives, and Trump supporters. That might partly explain why the leftist media has chosen not to cover this story more broadly. It simply doesn't fit well with the narratives they've crafted over months and years of the typical white supremacist militia member.
I think that if they had been allowed to go on their way that we might never have heard the name "The Rise of the Moors." It's also possible that by arresting the lot of them, the cops averted what could have been a disaster in the making. It was the Fourth of July, after all. What were they really planning, if anything? Were they really going to their training camp in Maine? The libertarian in me says carry on as long as you don't pose a threat to anyone. I would also say, don't give the police a reason to suspect you of things by dressing a particular way or doing something like carrying guns in a state that prohibits such things. I know, I know, you should be able to dress as you damn well please. Especially on the Fourth of July, right?
I know it flies in the face of the Ev man's privacy rights, but I do it every chance I get. If he leaves his iPhone lying about, I'll pick it up and back it up. Not while he's around because he would never approve. He's uber paranoid about his privacy, so leaving bread crumbs of his activities anywhere is not something that sits well with him. I'm not even sure that I could convince him that my intentions were aboveboard no matter how hard I tried. Perhaps he'll be more forgiving when the day comes that he loses his phone, and I have what he needs to restore it without having lost anything in the process. It's been a while, but that has already happened once.
The Ev man had a bit of a fender bender yesterday in Stratham. Everyone is okay, so no worries there. He did all the right things regarding any post-impact activities, including calling the local constabulary to report the accident. So far, so good. His car is a bit of a hot mess, so we'll have to see how that turns out. We had it towed to a shop and I'll give them a call this morning to give them the lowdown. If they can salvage the vehicle with all of its warts, then that will be a good thing. It's hard to imagine how the Ev man will survive long term without a vehicle, so we'll need to have a plan B ready to go.
I would say that this is a teaching moment for him, so we'll see how that shakes out. He tells me that he'll be driving more carefully from now on, so maybe he's learned his lesson. Not having a car will be another reminder of what it means not to be ambulatory, and for someone in the Ev man's age range, that might be considered a death sentence. He doesn't exactly live on a bus line, and he's not likely to take a ride on public transportation even if he did. Uber is not in his budget, and he doesn't have that many friends where they can drop what they're doing to take him here and there.
It's important that we keep in touch with him at least once a day between now and when we figure out what's going to become of his car. I don't like the idea of him being cooped up in his apartment without a car for even a day. I have a sneaking suspicion that he's ordinarily out and about in his car a lot. That is to say, he probably eats out more often than not for one thing. What twenty-something spends any time at home making himself a meal? He probably uses his microwave more often than his stove, and I'm guessing it is mostly used for leftovers. We all equate having transportation with freedom, however you think of that concept. The Ev man is no different.
I think that the Ev man is a bit overwhelmed and maybe even consumed by what has transpired in the last day or two since the accident. He is literally in uncharted territory here, and that is not a good place for him. It's not about the accident so much as it is the idea that he can't do what he typically does day in and day out now that he doesn't have a car. There is something to be said for continuity, and he considers having a vehicle to be an essential and even integral part of his day-to-day experience. So, we're going to get this figured out, and he will have a vehicle of his own one way or another. The sooner, the better.
How about that Trump presser yesterday? He held a televised press conference around noon time to announce a class-action lawsuit against the tech giants and the ass clowns who run them. How dare they continue to silence the voices of people with whom they disagree? The fact that they work hand-in-hand with the democrats to silence conservative voices to squelch things that they don't want to be aired in public is a disgrace. Today, it's conservative voices. Tomorrow, it could be the voices of the democrats. Rein them in, dammit! It's now or never.
The tech companies are privately held corporations, and they can do as they please, but they are also afforded certain privileges by Congress, which may make a difference if this case ever sees the inside of a courtroom. This case isn't about Trump. It's about the millions of people who have had their voices silenced on subjects ranging everywhere from hydroxychloroquine to election outcomes. When they take the president of the United States off their platform and leave the likes of tyrants and killers like the presidents of China and Iran online, these are decisions that are decidedly political. It's a complicated case but the consequences and potential for change are significant.
I, for one, am happy to see Trump out on the stump speaking up and speaking out on the travesty that is the Biden Administration. We don't hear enough republican voices these days, and that is a problem. Americans who are tired of seeing their country going down the proverbial drain need someone with a megaphone to stand up and speak out against the tyranny of the Biden-istas. It's good to hear someone, anyone, who is willing to grab the nearest megaphone and speak truth to power. Does anyone do it better than Trump?
Nothing says summer here in New England like the sugar and butter variety of corn and watermelon. I was in Tuttle's yesterday and picked up a couple of pieces of corn out of the bin near the cash registers. I pulled back the husks on each of the ears a wee bit just to see if there were any worms I needed to be concerned about and placed the worm-free ears in my basket. I'm not a big corn guy, but the missus is, so I thought she might like a couple of ears to kick off the season. I threw a nice seedless watermelon in my basket for good measure and looked forward to surprising the missus upon my return home.
The Ev man is a big fan of the American chop suey that Tuttle's sells so we picked up a couple of containers. He hasn't been to Tuttle's since his days back in high school, so he was off wandering around while I went looking for specific items. I've not been a fan of the chili that Tuttle's sells, but I buy some here and there if it looks good. I found the chili yesterday to be a step up from their usual chili, so I wish I had bought more. But, it was almost as though they identified the one or two ingredients in their chili that just weren't working, and, voila, we are good to go.
I'm not looking to drop a dime or anything, but the store seems to employ any number of what appear to be Mexicans in their backroom operation. This might well account for the chili recipe falling short of the mark, as it were. Chili is a dish that is both versatile and subject to regional influences. Once you go south of the border, I suspect that all bets are off. If what I'm not liking about the chili they sell has to do with the people making it, and the people making it are not native to our shores, that might help explain what I liked or didn't like about the chili they threw together.
Is anyone else concerned about Biden's plan to send government flacks to every household in our great country to root out those who haven't been vaccinated? It's none of their fucking business who is and who isn't vaccinated. The virus has been on the wane now for a few months, so one has to ask, what the hell is going on? It's an intrusion the likes of which we've never experienced in our country short of rounding up people of Japanese descent during World War 2 and shipping them off to internment camps.
Our shades will be drawn and our "no trespassing" signs will be up across our property if and when they decide to come by for a visit. We may even put the dogs out. There is no mandate to get this vaccine, nor should there be. The mortality rate is infinitesimally low, and the mortality rates for people below the age of 50 are even lower. Did I mention that this is an experimental vaccine? So, I ask again, what the hell is this all about?
Should we be concerned that the Pfizers of the world came up with this vaccine in less than nine months? Or, has this vaccine been in the works for months or years, even before the virus came around? The government just needed the proper rationale for injecting the populace with the so-called vaccine. I know it sounds far-fetched, but I'm at a loss to explain or understand this administration's dogged and seemingly devious determination to get the jab into everyone's arms.
When you hear about specific therapeutics being withheld from the public when they or their loved ones are at death's doorstep with the virus, it's yet another alarm bell going off. And what about all of those fudged numbers in the early days of the breakout when it didn't matter what you died from, the cause of death was always officially recorded as "covid-19." Government officials, like Cuomo from New York, as well as other democrat governors, seemed to know in advance the death and destruction the virus would cause and planned accordingly to, "never let a good crisis go to waste."
We visited Mrs. G yesterday afternoon for a while. I ended up sitting with her at her computer to square away a password issue she was having with one of her sites. She had called them and they said something about her e-mail address being the reason why she was having her troubles. I had her look over my shoulder while I worked it all out and, it had nothing whatsoever to do with her e-mail address. Everything was up to snuff when we got into her account, so we made a couple of adjustments, and she was good to go. We had to go back a forth a few times, but we got er done.
I can imagine that some of the customer service calls that these places receive, especially from older people older with less patience than the average bear, are nothing short of maddening. I know what the two of them discussed, but the problem did not get resolved on the call and that is not my idea of good customer service. I almost feel a little sorry for Mrs. G because she had to make the call in the first place. I suppose you can make the case that the problem started with Mrs. G when she started fiddling with this, that, or the other thing but I'm not privy to those details, so we'll not go down that road.
I also think it's a good thing that Mrs G picked up the phone intending to fix what she perceived to be a problem with accessing one of her accounts online. I admire her fearless approach to solving her problems, and if that means she's going to ring up a customer service representative in a pinch, then that's what she does. I'm sure she asks all the right questions although we all know how things can go sideways in conversations like this especially when you have one of the two parties who is a little flatfooted when it comes to the technology involved.
Call me Mr Insensitive but who the hell cares what happens in Haiti? Why should we care if the president of that country gets assassinated? I have no objections to lending a hand after some naturally occurring disaster like a hurricane or something but that's where I draw the line. Why is the Biden Administration sending anyone down to that shit hole of a country? Let them sort out their own political affairs. It's a dog-eat-dog world down there and political assassinations are nothing more than a garden variety crisis-du-jour. Joey, if you're listening, mind your own fucking business. Maybe you can start by protecting our own borders for a change.