A Simple Plan from a Very Stable Genius

Trump admires the Chinese government for how they handled Tiananmen Square.  

Trump has surrounded himself with similar sadists.

Trump does not believe that anyone who disagrees with him is human, let alone an American.  

If you aren't with him, you don't deserve life, let alone civil rights.  He will lie about anything. 

He never pays any bills.

He wants to tank the T-Bill market.

To "renegotiate" the National Debt.

So he's destroying the economy

Basically, the man is doing a Venture Capital "Pump & Dump" maneuver on the whole fucking country.

In the process, he's getting rid of all the deadweight, as he sees it.

He wants to cause food insecurity to the point that there are going to be food riots. 

Once there are food riots, he will blame the rioters.  And declare Martial Law.

He has his hand-picked Secretary of Defense.  Who has promised he will use the full force of the US Military against US civilians in Holy War.  

He is going to have a goddamned purge.  

He will only feed people who offer full loyalty to Trump.  

And if you aren't loyal?  You don't get food.  Your family doesn't get food. 

If you are in any way unable to contribute to his version of your place?  You don't deserve food anyways.

This is what he means by that there is going to be "a little pain."  

But because he doesn't give a shit for the pain of others, this is all acceptable to him

He'll "Make America Great Again" by killing off millions.  And being a better dictator than Putin, Hitler, Stalin, or anyone else.  

IT'S GONNA BE HYUUUUUUGE

Why I believe the government is going to be seeking more scapegoats within a few years, and I'm on the short list.

The Trump Administration is going to begin by rounding up "illegals" on Day 1 they say, and deporting them.  

Let's ignore, for the moment, the horrible inhumanity of this, alone, and look at the effect of this on the economy.  

Such people are the mainstay of agriculture, manufacturing, and the care industries.  All of these industries are going to immediately crater.  Prices for food and what manufactured goods are going to skyrocket.  Care in hospitals is going to get exponentially worse, because nursing aids, without any additional pay, are going to be tasked with janitorial tasks, as well as their current duties.  

This is even before we get to the effects of Trump's promised tariff and consumption tax.  

So, if people are upset about food prices going up, I hope they look back at how cheap food is today.   I really do.  

In short, the promise that Trump and his allies have sold the idiots who voted for them is that by getting rid of the illegals they'll save money (no), they'll open up good jobs for Americans (no), and things will automatically get better (Hell to the Fuck no). 

So, what happens when a regime that rode to power on the backs of a hated minority finds that the effects of their promised pogrOms hasn't had promised effect?  

THEY WILL EXPAND THE POGROMS.  

Next are likely to be women in the workplace, and/or LBGTQA persons.  As someone without a beard, I'm going to be automatically suspect, even if I there weren't breadcrumbs demonstrating that I identify as Ace.  Or maybe we'll go after those people dragging down the economy with their "disabilities."  Here I am with my chronic depression, as documented in several government files.  Finally, we have several key Trump supporters who are absolutely rabid about "Replacement Theory," which rails against secret Jews replacing good WASPS in American society.  And here I am again.  

Don't get me wrong.  I recognize that I'm not going to be the first on the chopping block for the assholes.  But each round of pogroms will make the next round easier - and more necessary, as the mob gets addicted to blood - and the blood fails to fix the fundamental problems that they're trying to distract the mob from.  

If I'm lucky, me and all those AIPAC idiots are going to be shipped off into the blood soaked Gaza strip and told we can build our own quarters there.  I don't believe in luck.  A fifty cent bullet is cheaper still.

And for anyone who wants to claim that the courts can stop any of this?  Remember:  The President can't be held accountable for any of his official actions.  So, if he orders someone to shoot John Q Public on live TV, he can do that.  Under the UCMJ, it wouldn't even be an illegal order - after all, the President isn't accountable for any official action.  

We are so goddamned fucked.  

On November 5 2024 The Citizens of the United States Voted to End Civil Rights for All

 By electing Donald Trump, and endorsing the whole concept of his absolute immunity, the reality is that he can now give orders to anyone for ANYTHING and they'll have Presidential force, and be legal.  By definition.  

The man can shoot whomever he wants, whenever he wants, any time he wants.  

And he can delegate it.  

This is a fucking travesty.  

It will only end in bloodshed.  

I won't live to see the coming civil war.  I'm going to be rounded up.  I'm one of the degenerates who will be either worked to death or simply shot.  At that I'll not be among the first rounded up - I am a veteran, and I am white.  So I'll only be in the second waves.  

But I'm going to die in a camp.  

And my fellow Americans have voted to put me there.  

I hate this.  

The bigoted assholes have won.  

Private Public Partnerships, and Privately Owned Toll Roads

I'm getting ready for my annual Mother's Day roadtrip.   Once again we will be going south to the beautiful North Virginia suburbs.  And that got me thinking about something I'd only recently become aware of as my new GPS unit showed me another way to Escape from The Beltway!TM  (Soon to be a major motion picture event from NeverSail Films)

It's the Dulles Greenway road, or the second half of VA 267.  It is a 12.53 mile long divided highway linking Dulles Airport with Leesburg, Virginia.  It's actually a damned nice road.   Perhaps especially compared to the Beltway and the other roads leading there from the area of Northern Virginia that I visit.  Outside of commuting hours it's a wide open road, 65 MPH speed limit, and scant traffic. It's also a toll road, charging between $4.75 and $5.80 (by my casual understanding of the toll rates.   I may be mistaken on specifics, calling it ~$5.00 a trip is a fair approximation, I believe.) depending upon congestion pricing for two axle vehicles like most Personally Owned Vehicles.  I've paid it before and likely will again, because even after 10 AM I-66 and I-495 are often congested and frustrating to drive.  

Having said that, I hate everything about why this road exists.   

Their website's About page puts their finger precisely upon the reasons this road makes me angry.  

"The Greenway is a leading example of the current trend towards the privatization of public facilities."   

The website is promoting not just their own project, but trying to use it to leverage the idea in people's minds that public-private partnerships, where the private sector takes over some public work is an unequivocal good thing.  They boast of how their road, which was built as a private enterprise, reduces commute and travel times for the people using it by about 50% for the comparable drive.  I don't think there's any way to disagree with that.  

It's still a horrible, horrible idea - and one that I doubt could work outside of geographic and population circumstances similar to those that exist around the Northern Virginia Beltway communities.  Are those circumstances repeated in other parts of the country?  Sure, around select cities.  But as a general case?  Not really.  

This isn't a general solution to congestion problems in the DC area. This is a specific solution for people who work in the DC area and can afford to live in Leesburg.  And, hey, when the road isn't being put to use by their primary market, people like yours truly can benefit from the chance to skip the local road congestion and stop lights.   So what's the problem?

In short, it's the toll, and mindset behind it.  I'm actually living in a state with one of the early modern toll highway systems in the US:  NY and the NY Thruway.  It's a toll road that often on the local level is paralleled by various local access roads that are slower than the Thruway, and have stop lights.  It is unfair to act as though the sole source of revenue for the Thruway is it's tolls, there's also concessions income - and that's not true for the Greenway.  But for both roads (treating the octopus of the NY Thruway as one road for these purposes.) the vast majority of their income comes from tolls.  

According to the 2018 Thruway budget book, in 2017 they collected  $726 million in tolls on the entirety of the nearly 500 mile road.  The Greenway on the other hand in 2017 generated $92 million from toll revenue.  (both figures are approximate.)  I can't seem to find the numbers for trips on both roads at this time, and I really haven't the energy to go hunting.   But what I believe to be important here is this:  An end-to-end toll on the Thruway, defined as Exit 1 in NYC, to Exit 61 at the PA State border is $22.75 cash price.   An end-to-end toll on the Greenway varies but is approximately $5.00.  The cost in toll per mile of road is more interesting:  NY Thruway:  4.5 cents per mile; on shorter haul trips on the thruway such as one might choose while avoiding local access roads the cost per mile seems to go up to abut 5 cents per mile.  On the Greenway?   Using that $5.00 toll figure (which is admittedly inaccurate) the toll cost is 40 cents per mile.  Granted that's covering both the loan debt and some profit for the owner/operator, but it's hard to see how this public private partnership is truly improving things for the population as a whole.  Instead it's creating a little enclave for people who can afford a daily cost of $10 (each way) to save half an hour of time.   

It's an expensive road for the haves, not a road supported for all.  

And we shouldn't look to this as a model for the future.   

Two Letters Made Public

I have come to a watershed moment.

I cannot pretend any longer. 

The GOP cares nothing for decency, civil rights, nor anything else but their power, and that of their patrons.  They are bought and paid for by oligarchs, and wish nothing more than to create in the United States a reprise of all the worst traits of the Persian Gulf states:  Helotry and poverty for the masses, and massive wealth for the privileged few.   They prioritize the profits of investors over the education of students.  They prioritize a narrow religious intolerance over mercy.  And they enshrine sexual abusers as being above the law.

I will no longer vote in any coming election for any candidate aligned with the Republican Party.   Nor will any candidate on the Republican ticket be considered for an off-party vote here in NY state (i.e. Independence, Constitutional Party, or the like.)

In support of that I have sent two letters this morning: 

To the campaign for Dr Maxwell here in my local US House race:

Dear Dr. Maxwell,

I am a veteran.  I am an American.  I am concerned about the direction this nation is taking.   I'm also completely and utterly disgusted by the direction the GOP has chosen these past two years in particular.   

You have made your campaign a quiet endorsement of the policies and behaviors of the blight currently infesting The People's House.    By doing so you have shown me that you believe American Values include:  

• Concentration Camps on the Border
• Removing Children From their Parents - With no Plan and Less Concern for their Reunification
• Attacking Sexual Assault Victims
• Prioritizing Profits Above Civil Rights
• Bankrupting the Federal Government in the Name of Rewarding Wealthy Donors
• Criminalizing Pregnancy Outcomes in Spite of Credible Medical Testimony that no Proof of Wrongdoing Exists
• Placing Artificial Barriers Against Voting for People in Poverty
• Mocking Allied Governments
• Admiring Dictators for their Wontan Use of Extra-Legal Killings as a Sign of Strength

I realize this is going to come as a shock to you, but none of these things are the American Values I signed up to defend when I put my life on the line in the US Navy.   If you wish to claim that while I was in the Navy I saw no risk to my life because I never saw combat, I'd like to remind you of the casualties aboard the USS Dhalgren and the USS Iwo Jima that occurred without any enemy action, either.  Steam plans are inherently dangerous environments, as are ships.  

Your alignment with privilege and the shifting goalposts that Senator Mitch McConnell has chosen to embrace in his goal of remaking the United States into a Persian Gulf style oligarchy is absolutely disgusting to me.   After this week's latest proof that the GOP, the part of Lincoln, no longer has any moral compass but privilege and wealth - I can no longer consider voting for anyone who feels that these are American Values.  

It is my dearest hope that your campaign fails miserable and is part of many campaigns across these United States where the People speak up and tell you and your corporate masters what we think of your vision.   

Wishing you all personal well-being and health, but absolutely no success, I remain:  

Michael D. Taub, formerly MM3(SW)

And then to the author of this lickspittle OP-Ed piece in the local paper:   https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/opinion/guest-column/2018/10/02/can-we-find-common-ground-kavanaugh/1499270002/

Dear Ms. Valeria-Iseman,

I believe that your reduction of the opposition to Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court to simply the conflict between his testimony and Dr. Ford's testimony is an inherently dishonest position.  Your implication that the only reason people have for believing Dr. Ford's testimony is a desire to show solidarity based solely upon gender identity is frankly disgusting.   

Judge Kavanaugh's public record is such that even before Dr. Ford came forward there were many people who had serious questions about his position towards women's rights.   I suspect you and I would disagree sharply about the importance and justice of Roe v. Wade, so let's shelve that particular issue.  Judge Kavanaugh's recent decision to try to bar a refugee from getting an abortion for no reason other than his personal view that abortion is wrong, while the law of the land is defined by Roe v. Wade, however shows a disregard for everything I understand about the law and judicial temperament.  

Then there's Judge Kavanaugh's relationship and testimony regarding former Federal Judge Alex Kozinski.   If you have managed to avoid this particular information in your bubble, let me remind you that Alex Kozinski was removed from the bench pending an investigation into his constant disgusting, abusive, and sexually harassing behavior towards his staff in his courtroom.  Including during the time while Brett Kavanaugh was working for the judge.  Among other behaviors Kozinski would ask of his female staff whether this, or that pornographic clip he'd found on the web was titillating to them.   According to Wikipedia at least fifteen women have accused the former judge of this behavior.   In the end, facing a full fledged, and long-overdue, investigation Kozinski chose to resign.  The charges are not proven in a court of law, but neither are they refuted.   I choose to believe that no one would agree to endure the abuse that public accusers like Dr. Ford are traditionally subjected to in the court of public opinion without having endured an unspeakable provocation.   

Now, I grant you that Brett Kavanaugh is not responsible for Kozinski's behavior.  However, he is accused of having been present while Kozinski would confront at least one of his former staff.  Not only did Brett Kavanaugh fail to intercede with his mentor's disgusting behavior, but he later said he never saw the judge behave in any way that was improper.   I could accept that he hadn't recognized the behavior as improper, but once it was being called out for investigation - one would trust a legal scholar of Kavanaugh's stature to be able to reach the standard of 2.8 knowledge:   Can recognize correct answer when given.   In short, Kavanaugh does not come into the recent allegations without stains on his reputation, nor questions about his views of the rights of women as full fledged individuals.   

Then you reduce the current allegations against Kavanaugh to simply those of Dr. Ford.   Which is also not the case.  A total of three women have now come forward.  Each with different stories, but each of the stories fit a picture of a young man so protected by his privilege that he felt no need to accord women whom he had no emotional relationship with the courtesy you provide even to those people coming to the Open Door Mission.   

The FBI investigation was a face-saving sham, and to pretend it could have been anything else is simply a slap in the face for the courage that Dr. Ford showed coming forward.   

Until you and other defenders of Brett Kavanaugh accept that there's more here than one woman's unsubstantiated accusations against your man, I'm afraid there's no common ground to be found. 

Sincerely,

Michael D. Taub.   

May the current plague infesting the White House suffer a mischief.   Preferably involving a heart attack while in a compromising position.

Chris Collins: Idiot or Rational Racist?

A local US Rep from the State of NY, but not my Rep, Chris Collins recently announced his intent to defang the remaining clauses of the NY SAFE Act by pushing through a bill in Congress to establish Federal protections for firearms rights above and beyond those currently defined by the second amendment.

So what, you may ask?  I mean everyone and their uncle knows that the GOP is sucking at the gun manufacturer's lobby and Astroturf organization's (Also known in some circles as the NRA.) tit for years.  Why would it be noteworthy that they'd bring out more legislation to protect their profits at the cost of any attempt to bring regulatory sanity to the issue of personal firearms in the US?

Well, Chris Collins is also a major supporter of OBL.  And as far as I know has yet to condemn the fraudulent and repressive so-called "Presidential Commission on Election Integrity." Now, some context for out of state readers:  The only remaining clauses of the NY SAFE Act with any teeth are those requiring registration of all legally-owned individual firearms with local law enforcement (With the ability for said owners to opt-out of having their data in any searchable database), and tracking purchase of ammunition with that being reported, again, to local law enforcement.  Whether that is a worthwhile use of the time of the various law enforcement departments is beyond the scope of this essay.  Frankly it's a stupid law, and was a stupider law before the courts struck down some of the other "key" clauses.

But it is a duly enacted law, and one that has been modified by the courts to account for current Federal standards for respecting Second Amendment rights.

One could comment about how fucking stupid it is for the GOP to be the champions of State's Rights, except when those rights start pinching the multi-million dollar companies that pay their election war chests, but that would open one up, legitimately, to the fact that as a fairly radical sort, myself, I think that things like SSM and other inviolate civil rights enforced by the Federal government is a good thing, regardless of what fucktards like Mike Pence or Pat McCrory might think.

Instead let's look at the dichotomy between allowing Federal oversight of all voter rolls with an eye towards disenfranching as many poor and minorities as possible - all in the service of the ego of a fucking narcissist's claim that he really won the popular vote, except for those illegal votes, which have yet to be proven to exist - and the idea of protesting the registration in a searchable database of all firearms in a state.  If searchable databases are a bad thing, because they give the government too much power, you'd think that a consistent person would oppose both.

As I said, Chris Collins is a staunch supporter of OBL.  And has said nothing against the Election Integrity Commission.

So he's not consistent.

Now, he could just be a flaming idiot and unconcerned with appearing to have any kind of compass other than "follow the money."  I can't provide evidence against that.

But there's a more compelling theory:  If you assume, for the sake of argument, that he's a classist racist asshole, a lot of things line up.

Protecting the privacy of people owning personal firearms is never going to be a threat to the Federal government.  Even when the Bundy clan had their showdowns, in neither case were the immediate consequences for the Federal government going to involved any kind of far-reaching effect.   I think that that tunnel vision, and inability to think past the next news cycle was an error, but I'm admittedly sometimes taken by a truly Old Testament attitude towards threatening law enforcement.

Protecting the privacy of voters, on the other hand, would be a good way to prevent having so-called self-appointed election monitors coming to various homes and discussing a person's political party choices.  Just to point out one possible use for the data.   Which is a deadly threat to the idea of a fully participating representative democracy.   Gosh, it's almost like Chris Collins supports voter suppression.

And with Kris Kobach involved with this commission, that's exactly what it is intended to do.

There's an uglier side to this, too

By making it impossible to enact any kind of restriction on firearms sales or ownership, or even enforcing any kind of consumer standards for firearms (Did you know that the Consumer Product Safety Act specifically excludes firearms as type of product that can be tracked for safety purposes?) cheap firearms will keep bubbling through the poorest neighborhoods, and keep playing a part in the violence endemic to crushing poverty - which can then be used to excuse draconian policing tactics, and refusing to actually hold police accountable for things like shooting a black man for doing what he was told to do, because the cop in question thought he smelled pot.  

With that kind of simmering violence you can easily manufacture excuses to send in the stormtroopers to promote law and order - and if the peaceful opposition gets caught up in the works, you can either criminalize their presence in the area, or just kill 'em and plant the evidence of their malfeasance later.   It's not like we could afford to risk the safety of our beloved peace officers by actually holding them accountable for killing innocent pregnant women, after all.  (Well, not innocent black pregnant women.  If she's white, maybe that's worth prosecuting.)

In the end a ballot is deadlier than a bullet.   It has more far-ranging effects.  And it can do more to promote change than a bullet can.

So by standing by while the Federal government chooses to go on an unjustified witch hunt through national voting records, but protesting and trying to stop the state government from trying, however ineffectually, to curb firearms violence by keeping records of firearm ownership, it's pretty clear that whether an idiot or a racist Chris Collins agrees with my judgment about the relative deadliness of bullets and ballots.

And if he can agree to that, it's a lot harder to believe he's an idiot.

Which makes the racist accusation a lot more credible.

So, thank you, Chris Collins, for making explicit your racism and classism.  

One would think that a true student of the Founding Fathers would remember the rallying cry of:  No Taxation Without Representation.   But that would put your party at risk, so...   I understand.  And then we might have more minority presidents.  

Bodycams and Police Integrity

This week had an event happen that just confirmed something that advocates for police reform have been saying for years:  There are dirty cops who will plant evidence on people they want to arrest, and that behavior is tolerated if not abetted by a large number of other officers.  

For anyone living under a rock, the incident I'm referring to is this:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/baltimore-police-video-drugs.html?mcubz=0

The short version if you don't care to view the video and read the accompanying article is that Officer Pinheiro attempted to turn off his bodycam, while he planted some drugs at the scene of an arrest. Then left the scene, tried to turn the bodycam back on, and returned to "find" the drugs.  Obviously the case associated with this incident has been dismissed by the DA's office, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.

There are three officers at the scene and the bodycam clearly shows the two other officers watching while Officer Pinheiro planted the drugs.   Even more distrubing, the DA's office seems perfectly happy to continue to use Officer Pinheiro's testimony in other criminal cases.  At this point the Officer has zero credibility, and I would argue that any officer who worked with him should be viewed with deep suspicion, too.

We can assume one of two things about this incident: Either it was a completely one-off incident and shock, alone, was why the other officers made no protest on the video.  Or it's fucking routine, and they're used to it.

I know which way I'd lean.  

This is why bodycams that record only at the command of the officers in question is such a bad idea.  It's not that I believe that all cops are dirty, I really don't.  I do think that currently most police officers associations are so spineless, they care more about protecting crooks, bullies and rapists in their ranks than they do about protecting and serving the public.  One of the best ways to start restoring some sense of faith in the police of this nation would be to require body cams that start recording as soon as the officer begins his or her shift, and only stops after they return to clock off their shift.

And until police officer's associations, DAs and the (In)Justice Department start taking action in that direction, I'm forced to believe that their priorities lay more with protecting abusers than in serving the public.  

Facebook is a stupid company

Whether you use Facebook or not is up to you, and I won't judge.

I'm sure that social people find it useful and entertaining.   My own experience on the platform was not the best:  I didn't have problems with dealing with abusive people, I just had one or two people I kept in contact with through it, and then there were the stupid Zynga games.   At one point during one of their stupid phases they updated their TOS to suggest they were claiming copyright on anything posted on their pages and I noped out of that so hard, I hadn't been back. This was back around 2007 or so.  Do you remember your passwords from that era?  I sure don't.  (This matters.)

At the time, Facebook only allowed one to deactivate the account.

Today I got a welcome back email from Facebook.

For some reason these idiots thought that a login from a Mac OS computer in fucking Vietnam was completely legit and re-opened my Facebook account.  I guess there's something to be said for following a seemingly legitimate password combination, but FFS how was there no question about a ten year dormant account being reactivated from fucking Vietnam?

And of course, Facebook, being Facebook, still has all the old Hotel California attitudes, and finding out how to secure the account required a password I no longer had any knowledge of.  Fortunately I had recently upgraded my gmail account's password to something umpteen characters long.  So there was no reasonable chance for a hacker to get that.  I did eventually get to reset the password, generated a huge one from my password manager, and told Facebook thank you, no - fuck off forever assholes.

But seriously - ten year dormant account - reactivated from fucking Vietnam?  

Why was that even processed in the first place?

Ex-con being shamed in the press! And Loki approves, for once.

This morning I was looking at various news feeds (as one does) while avoiding the serious news about the latest disaster in the making coming from the psychopath party in Washington and came across the news that the parents of students at a private school in Montreal are somewhat disturbed that an ex-con has been volunteering at the school.

Normally this sort of shit pisses me right the fuck off.  If someone has been released after serving their sentence they shouldn't be automatically stigmatized.  Normally my concern for stigmatization of ex-cons is that it sabotages any attempt at re-integration with society at large, and more often than not there's no reason for such a stigma.

In this case?  If I were one of the parents, I'd be up in arms myself.

Because the ex-con in this case is Karla Homolka.

For anyone who reads this who doesn't know who that might be, she was the partner of a serial killer in Canada in the early 90s.  She was personally and directly involved in the torture, rape, and execution of two teenaged girls, including her then sixteen year old sister.  And because sexism, sensationalism and fucking idiocy (If not outright incompetence.) she was allowed to make a plea deal with the prosecution for her testimony, where she presented herself as an unwilling accomplice to her partner's nefarious schemes.  In exchange for which she got a sentence that seemed appropriate for someone who presented herself as nearly as much a victim as the two deceased girls.

Cue about two years later.   Someone finds a roll of exposed film in the house Homolka had shared with her partner.

Now, it is difficult to properly place context with snapshots - and often there's room for a lot of interpretation between shots.  But when someone's plea bargain testimony included things like claiming she never participated in hurting the girls, and the photos show her doing just that, it's. . a little suggestive that maybe her testimony was less than truthful.

Since her partner had been claiming from day one they'd been equal partners in the killings, and hasn't changed since his trial, the benefit of the doubt in my mind is that he's most likely being truthful about that.

Anyways, for legal reasons (which I tend to approve of, even when they lead to abortions of justice like this case) the Canucks coudln't go against the deal they'd made with her for her testimony, and she was released after serving her term.

She married, had a child, moved out of the country, and then seems to have moved back to Montreal, where at least some of her kids are going to a religious school there.  And where she has been a chaperone on a field trip, and been involved in some classroom activities.  The school claims that they have no way to bar her, but can at the same time say that they've made it policy that she's not to be allowed to be alone with any students.  I am. . . underwhelmed by their judgment.

I'm also rather disturbed that it seems the first that the other parents at this school knew of their celebrity chaperone was after the local press broke the story.

Now there's been some talk about how Karla served her time and should be allowed to get on with her life.  Which strikes me as utter bullshit - she got away with conning the Canadian Criminal Courts, but to expect me to believe she's actually demonstrated remorse for her crimes is more than I can stomach.  Even if she had been fully truthful in her testimony, I'd be leery of allowing her access in a school to minors.  Given that I think she pulled one of the greatest cons in criminal history - no fucking way.  

Portland and the GOP

In the wake of the assault on three men who dared to try to restrict a patriot's freedom of speech, the GOP of Portland is talking about using that patriot's friends from the 3% for security at their future events.

Or translated to sanity - the GOP doubles down on hate speech, demonizing political opponents, and advocating for vigilantism.

Quite honestly, this is starting to shape up as Trayvon Martin vs. George Zimmerman, part two.  And I expect the sequel to be just as much a travesty of justice as the original.  The GOP's nationwide. (and racially defined) push to create a right to self-defense in the absence of any reasonable threat, simply the perception of threat is already getting killer cops acquitted.  It got George Zimmerman acquitted.  And it's going to make it possible (perhaps even likely) that Jeremy Joseph Christian will also be acquitted.

(After the Bundy Jr. gang got acquitted my faith in the jury system took a severe blow.)

The fucktards are organized, have several nationally recognized outlets for their insanity and have created echo chambers.  And now we're being told that it's not FAAAIIIR to demonize a group because one nut attacked people when his abusive tirade was challenged.  Because self-defense.

Between this, and the recent election of a fucktard from Montana who feels that he's justified in assaulting journalists - I'm done.  The GOP is no a hate group.  They will not police themselves.  And as such I will not support, vote, or even show any more than the bare modicum of respect the office they hold might deserve.

Yes, it's so much simpler to just demonize bad parents for being bad parents.

My response to a column in my local USAToday network paper this weekend.   The original column, linked here.  

Dear Editor,

I believe that the column your paper chose to run in the March 25 Living section, by Ana Veciana-Suarez, under the headline “Crocodile Tears for Teen After Suicide,” was a deeply flawed piece that should never have been given national attention. 

While I agree with Ana Veciana-Suarez’s thesis that the mother of her piece is clearly trying to make a cash grab in the wake of her personal tragedy, I find it appalling the lengths to which the article goes on about demonizing the woman.   The texts quoted in the piece are justly horrifying.  But the article’s insistence on naming only the woman involved, and none of the other people who had wronged young Naika Venant seems to me to be doing just what the mother claims, recasting her as the sole villain in this piece. 

If this article had been bought, and paid for, by the State of Florida’s DCF it couldn’t have been a better attempt to shift blame away from “the black hole of the system.”  The acceptance that foster care is going to involve rape, and neglect, and that “[Naika’s]  journey through foster care made her even more disrespectful and rebellious, too. Her behavior, however, was an expected result of the great trauma she endured,” is frankly horrifying.  This shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity to pile upon a woman who is herself deeply flawed, but a chance to shine a light upon the often desperate straits that the whole nation’s foster care system is facing – often enough because of inadequate funding and impossible caseloads, as has been highlighted by the investigations locally in the wake of the Brook Stagles case. 

It seems to me to be not merely unfair to send this article out nationally where it is falling into the public’s purview without any context, nor any direct follow-up to be expected, but a dangerous over-simplification – presenting the parent of a child who died while in care of the state’s as the sole named villain of the piece – when anyone who took the time to think about it would realize that the parents of all the children who find themselves in the foster care system are going to be deeply flawed individuals – and excusing failures of the system by blaming them for blatantly predictable failures is going to leave us with a system that isn’t bothering to ask what can it do better, and what resources does it need to meet the real-world demands placed upon it. 

Sincerely,

Michael D. Taub

cc. aveciana@MiamiHerald.com

Power Disparity and Humor

I just saw the new McCafe ad today - it seems to be titled "Enlighten-Mint" and it's got me wondering just how in the hell it got greenlit.

For a look at the ad here's an iTV link.

The short synopsis for this is that a white asshole comes by to a black woman's desk, takes the McCafe drink from her desk, and walks off it it.  And then because for every fifth one the woman buys McDonalds will give her a free one she just accepts this, and goes about replacing her stolen drink.

This wouldn't have been funny if it were two people on an equal power level.  As it is, having a guy of any race taking something from a woman of any race is fucked up.  Especially if the only recourse the woman seems to feel she has available is to replace her stolen drink out of her own resources.  The power levels here are just so fucked up it's really infuriating to see.

As it is having a Caucasian of any gender taking something from an African American of any gender is fucked up.  Especially if the only recourse the African American seems to feel they have available is to replace their stolen drink out of their own resources. The power levels here are just so fucked up it's really infuriating to see.

Combine both those seemingly obvious fucked-up levels into one spectacular shit sandwich and I'm fucking pissed.  Pissed at McDonald's for running this ad. Pissed at the ad agency for thinking it up.  And pissed that we're in a place where no one who noticed how fucked up that ad might be felt safe speaking up against it.

This ad needs to be pulled.

And people who think this is funny, like say, OBL and the Attorney General of the United States, need to get a clue.

P.S.  I've been rather stuck lately with helping out with a family medical emergency.   I'll be posting more regularly, soon.

Alternative Facts

On Friday Our Beloved Leader took the oath of office and was sworn in as the 45th President.

By Sunday we were presented with an official government spokesperson providing demonstrably falsifiable statements as fact, and promising punishment for those outlets that do not go along with the revealed truth of Our Beloved Leader.  We've also been provided with the circus of official spokes people for the administration telling us that we're mean to call someone on telling falsehoods - that they were simply "Alternative Facts."  And that we shouldn't get all upset about these things.

There's been nothing that I've seen or heard, yet, about the promised official crack down on people daring to disagree with Our Beloved Leader, but I won't be surprised when that promise - like so many others that people said he'd never follow-through on - gets fulfilled.  It is what Our Beloved Leader has done to criticism in the past, and exactly how he was talking all through the campaign.  Bullies can change, but usually only when they've been pulled up short by having their bullying tactics blow up in their face.  That a plurality of the electorate was willing to vote for Our Beloved Leader is more than enough, in my opinion, to justify to Our Beloved Leader that his bullying is going to be accepted, tolerated and even embraced.

So expect to see journalists being charged with crimes for daring to question alternative facts when presented by the administration or Our Beloved Leader directly.

It's a shame that there's no recent example for a model where failing to fall in line with the official (If easily falsifyable) truth were treated as a crime, or worse.

Oh, wait - that was known as Правда.  

Pravda.

In other news: Water is found to be shockingly wet!

In a report released today the Indianapolis Star and USA Today have found a perponderance of sexual abuse directed mostly towards underaged girls in gymnastics, particularly in those facilities associated with the US Gymnastics Team - you know the one that goes to the Olympics and all the international meets.

Why anyone should be surprised at this in the wake of the similar scandal a few years back surrounding figure skating is beyond me.

Young people putting their all into an effort to be the best, under the control of a barely examined cadre of coaches who have the power to stop those dreams on a whim, working for a standard that is always going to be subjective - oh, and with parents, as often as not, who are more invested in having an Olympian as their daughter or son, than the best interests of that individual.

What could possibly go wrong?

FFS.

I'm glad it's been documented, but anyone who is susprised by this shit in the rape culture we live in is too stupid to be expected to remember to breathe.

Can We Stop Acting Surprised when Our Beloved Leader Stoops to Perfectly Expected Levels of Shittiness?

Look. . .

We all saw the same never-ending campaign.

We all heard the lies, the evasions, the misdirections and the promises.

The election went to the candidate who promised attacks on the First Amendment. To the candidate who promised religious and ethnic tests for refugees, immigrants, and of course, people who have lived here almost their whole lives through no fault of their own.  He made sweeping foreign policy statements without any consideration of the possible effects.  He swindles people with fewer resources to protect themselves in the courts, and regrets that any mere millionaire can play golf just because they've fallen into some money.

He has boasted of being so smart he never needs any education on any topic.  As a former Navy Nuke that's fucking frightening - I'm pretty smart, but I've also had it beaten into my head that there are many, many things that I thought I knew that I didn't, because I'd never been educated in the topic.  He not only never examines his presuppositions or prejudices, but revels in them and thinks that proves his brilliance.

He's courted the Religious Right and by choosing Pence for his VP he's as much as promised that there will be massive, coordinated attacks on gay, transexual, and women's rights.  He's shown he's perfectly willing to gut the US education system in favor of furthering the YEC idiocy.  That he not only refused to consider any evidence for Anthropogenic Climate Change, but is now promising to prevent any Federal Agency from gathering data that might sweep back to support that theory.

He's played the rules for thee but not for me card so many times he's gotten it platinum plated, and shows no sign at all that he believes laws apply to him.  He's chosen a candidate for Attorney General who will cheerfully ignore civil rights for over half the population, and I suspect would be perfectly happy with a means test for civil rights.  "Is your net worth greater than $1 million?  Then you have civil rights.  If not? Go fuck yourself for bothering us Real Americans."  He's endorsed revisionist histories of both the recent and distant past.

He's got a twenty plus year record of admiring and then bloviating to the press how he admires strong-arm tactics, and politicians.  He invited foreign espionage agents to attack his opponent.  He continues to admire a world leader who had gutted his own country's Constitution, and is known to have orchestrated the killing of members of his own country's press.

He continued with the Birther nonsense until 2016, with his baseless "I hear someone tell me there's something fishy with Obama's birth certificate," because he's a flaming goddamned racist asshole.  He's incited violence agaisnt Latinx, blacks, and Muslims.  He's legitimized white-supremacists and the KKK.

He is, in shot a total, and complete shit-hole of a person.

And no one not those of us who hate him, nor those of us who voted for him, have any room to pretend he's been anything but that for his whole time in the public eye.

Stop being surprised when the leopard's spots are still in their accustomed place.

Anyone expressing surprise or shock, now, is a fucking idiot, who obviously needs a reminder to inhale on a regular basis.

Why wait for the new year to be Sauron levels of Evil?

If you're in Ohio, you can get the ball rolling by trying to pass a ban on abortion after six goddamned weeks.

Note that in the state next to Ohio they've already criminalized miscarriage and have jailed women on the presumption of having tried a DIY chemical/medical abortion when they've miscarried.  And the governor of Indiana is going to be our next Vice President.

The ACLU is begging John Kasich to veto this vile Ohio bill, but given that Kasich was the fucktard who decided that stopping STD clinics was a perfectly okay response to the Planned Parenthood hoax, I doubt he's going to listen.

It's beginning already.

Civil liberties.   They were nice when we had them, weren't they?

I am ashamed.

My fellow Americans -

What in the fuck were you thinking?  Are we really going back to the days when it's okay to grope women?  To mock minorities?  To claim that someone isn't American because of where their parents or grandparents were born - no matter where they were born themselves?

Do we not care about civil rights?

Do we not care about standing by our promises?

Say goodbye to The Voter Rights Act of 1965, what provisions remain, let alone any chance of replacing the ones the Supreme Court struck down.  Say goodbye to the ACA.  Say goodbye to the Federal Minimum Wage.  Say goodbye to any attempt for a national policy for carbon emissions.  Say goodbye to Net Neutrality.  Say goodbye to Dodd-Frank, any of its provisions.  Say goodbye to civil rights for all.  Say goodbye to Abortion Rights.  Say goodbye to the VA.  Say Hello to more for-profit prisons.  Say Hello to an expanded School to Prison Pipeline.

Say Hello to newer and more prevalent STDs as more and more clinics get shut down.   Say Hello to a new Jim Crow era.  Say Hello to more for-profit prisons.  Say Hello to an expanded School to Prison Pipeline.  Say Hello to faith tests for citizenship.  Say Hello to even more insane ID requirements that still won't let people of color vote.

And especially to those nominally Christian assholes who voted for The Hairpiece:  You have just made a deal with the devil.  You have made it clear that theocracy is all that matters to you, not mercy, not justice, not liberty, nor any other virtue.  I no longer am going to pretend you're not a font of never-ending hate, out to destroy everything and everyone I care about.

Hipsters can ruin anything

I hate ranch dressing.

I think it is vile.

I would just as soon it dropped off the face of the earth - and never use it at home nor when I'm out in restaurants.

So, when I saw that the Washington Post had published an editorial piece claiming that "Ranch dressing is what's wrong with America," I was all over that!  Not only would it be a welcome anodyne to the various feelings generated by this unending electoral season, but a chance to metaphorically join a pitch-fork carrying crowd marching on The Hidden Valley, planning to burn it down?  I'm all over that.

Then I read the article.

And now I'm wanting to go out and buy some ranch dressing just to delivery an appropriately milk-fat battered invitation for that piece's author to go to Hell.  

I'm going to begin by pointing out the correction note at the bottom of the article.  Once you read that you suddenly understand why the article admits that ranch dressing was invented in California at a humbug dude style restaurant, and then blames it for being too mid-Western to be good food.  That's because the writer managed to fuck up his research because he was sure that the imagined mid-Western link had to be there - and that should have been sufficient to damn the Satan's smegma that is Ranch Dressing in the eyes of any right-thinking person, anywhere.

Yanno what else comes out of the mid-West?  Corn, wheat, and hushpuppies.  So do the Cubs!  Just because something hails from the mid-West is only a damning criticism if you happen to be a NY or Californian hipster.  Or a member of said coastal elites.  (Hmm.... I wonder if there's an a correlation there?)

Then let's consider what ranch dressing really is:  Our friend the hipster idiot thinks that ranch dressing is primarily made from buttermilk, and that is the source of it's astonishingly high fat content.  Hidden Valley's own labels places a single 30 g serving as having 15 g of fat.  (Which if you're wondering really is an astonishingly high fat content for anything.)  But buttermilk has a fat content of about 2 g per cup - or 246 g serving.  There is no way you're getting that fat content from buttermilk - of course since I'm not a hipster idiot, I can do some basic research.

Here's a secret for everyone following at home:   Ranch dressing is flavored or seasoned with buttermilk, but the majority component for the used semen that Americans seem dedicated to putting on everything is actually a fat emulsion, like mayonnaise.  (Or as the Military's commissary chain called it while I was active duty:  Salad Dressing, Type II)  Since we're going to try to stick to at least some facts in this piece let's consider what mayonnaise is:  usually it's some oil (vegetable, or olive) mixed with raw egg, and some lemon juice, and salt to taste.  No kidding it's a high in fat food, but the milk products in ranch dressing are not the problem with ranch dressing.

Then our beloved idiot feels the need to castigate ranch dressing for tasting like half-rotted milk.

Buttermilk is a fermented food.  Get it right, bozo!  It's a fully rotted product!   It's just that sometimes when things are rotted, they taste awesome.   (Other fermented foods that are awesome include sauerkraut, cheese, garum, and thousand year eggs.*)

Complaining about something tasting like what it's been flavored with is fucking bizarre.  And if you don't like cheese, I don't care what else you might want to say about food - we're not even int he same galaxy.  There may be some Venn Diagram overlap in our food preferences, but there's no real alignment in our tastes of views.   It's just a coincidence.

Then he gets onto this utterly contra-factual complaint about ranch dressing being primarily a means of getting milkfat into people's gobs.  Which if you'll remember the little lesson I offered earlier, is a bit of a stretch.  I figure what animal product is in ranch dressing is most likely to be overwhelmingly chicken, from the eggs used in the mayonnaise base, than any milkfat from the buttermilk added for flavoring.   Certainly there's going to be more egg fat than milk fat in any given sampling of ranch dressing.

Now, the environmental impact of dairy and meat farming is something I can't argue with - from a simple energy efficiency perspective that should be obvious:  a biological system is doing very well to be able to harness 20-30% of the available chemical energy in the food it consumes.  And when we eat meat, in particular, because we're not hyenas and only care about some parts of the carcass, that efficiency gets even worse.  I've seen some figures that say for every pound of beef consumed something like the equivalent of ten pounds of grain was fed to the cow to produce it.  That 10% figure may be off, but I'm sure it's good within +5%/-2%.  So in a food scarce world that explains why a number of sane and sensible people think that we do eat too much meat, and meat byproducts.
(There are some other things to consider besides that bare bones analysis, but that's beyond the scope of this rant.)

To make the claim that ranch dressing's need for buttermilk is going to affect the scope of dairy or meat farming taking place is blatantly absurd.  It's probably got a bigger effect on poultry production, but I'd think even there that less than 1% of the eggs produced in our nation are destined to be ruined by conversion to that curdles serum that is ranch dressing.  

Let's go back to the only point that should matter:  If you think ranch dressing tastes good you're wrong and bad and evil, and you need to try other things.

But not because of milkfat or anti-flyover state snobbery.  Just remember: it's Satan's smegma and it doesn't taste good.   If you must have a creamy dressing on your salad greens go with Caesar dressing - it's got fermented fish in it!   Yum!  

Delivery Driver Gets Robbed - Then Gets Shafted

Let's take a moment from our current unending electoral fears and pomp to consider this story out of Michigan where a pizza delivery driver is informed, after being robbed at gun point, he has to repay some of the money he lost to the store.  If you think that sounds fucked up, don't worry the store and the company has a policy that makes it all make sense:  The driver's not supposed to leave the store, ever, with more than $20 in cash on his person.  So anything more than that the driver might have is supposed to be locked into the driver's personal locker at the store.

If you're not rolling your eyes, yet, you're suffering from a case of privilege and ignorance.  You also probably believe that the laws forbidden contact between strippers and customers are obeyed; that HazMat workers always wear proper protective gear; and that people turn off their cell phones at the gas pump, too.

Here's a clue for all you find people swimming in ignorance:  The majority of strip clubs work very hard to make sure that their dancers know they're expected to be available to their customers, without letting them get caught violating the law; Hazmat workers can get very blase about what they consider to be low-level risks; most people with a modicum of knowledge recognize that the spark hazard from a cell phone is so far below reasonable probability that obeying those stupid signs and laws to turn off the cell phone is a waste of time for no material improvement in safety.  (Now, making sure to take steps to avoid static discharge - those make a good deal of sense.)  And pizza delivery drivers are screwed so many ways by their management it's not funny.

First off, most places only offer drivers minimum wage - or less.  Because you can argue that the driver is in a tipped position, the management can shuck off their labor costs onto the consumer.  Of course to be a delivery driver - you need access to a car - which is gas and mileage for wear and tear on the vehicle.  The pizza shop ain't paying for that shit - that's the driver's problem.  So, that's coming out of the minimum wage the driver is supposedly making.   And remember - the driver isn't even likely to be getting minimum wage in the first place.  Tips are where the delivery driver makes or breaks it on these nights.

The more deliveries a driver can make per trip, the better it is for him.  He doesn't give a shit about how cold your pizza gets (to be fair, why should he?  The store sure as hell doesn't care, either.) nor how many more pies are waiting to go out.  The less back and forth driving he can do, the more real money he'll make over his necessary overhead.  And going out with more than one order and only $20 means that if both parties need to make change from $20 bills, the driver is stuck come the second stop.  In practice most drivers I've known want to have $20 in smaller bills per delivery on their route, when they leave the store.  Just so they don't get caught in a position of being unable to make change for their customers.

Also going to the more deliveries thing - no matter how little time it takes to drop cash into that locker, it's going to be a time suck.  It might be only a minute, but I suspect there's going to be logging involved, and other paperwork crap, too - all of which deducts from the time the driver can actually be doing something that makes them enough money for this evening at the store to be anything more than wasted time.

Let's not forget that drivers are going to be fired for taking too long on their rounds, for letting pies sit too long before taken out on delivery, or if the customer has any complaint about the experience.  The driver has zero incentive, to spend time on anything but deliveries as long as there's something close to ready to go out.

Then there's the effect of the ubiquitous delivery fee:  consumers see that, and assume it's going to the driver, so they don't need to tip.  Which is so many kinds of fucked up I don't care to get into it.  Look up, online, some of the complaints pizza drivers have about delivery fees if you want to see how it works out in practice.  The effect that matters here is that the chain is perfectly willing to impose a fee on the consumer knowing it will harm their tipped employee, with no benefit accruing to said employee.

Finally pizza drivers get targeted for robberies all the fucking time.

As long as the injuries aren't too horrific, they rarely make the news.  But this story's blase, if a driver feels a delivery to be unsafe they can tell the manager is just so much unadulterated bullshit.  The company in this case is washing its hands of any obligation to the driver, and then getting shocked when the drivers try to maximize their own efficiency for their personal benefit.

I am not moved by this story's reporting, nor do I find the store's position very sympathetic.

And please remember to tip your drivers when you order delivery.

Smart Dogs

My dog Bear is a relatively smart dog.

This is, unfortunately, making his life more complicated.

The best example of this, that I can think of, is that he has discovered a very frustrating and annoying triangle of danger and doom in my living room.

Now, to many people this will sound like proof of my dog's stupidity.  The problem is that they'd be judging based upon human standards.  And my human standards, my dog's perception and reasoning is deeply flawed.  But I's argue that his behavior is showing some very intelligent strategies for defining problems, and trying to work out solutions for them.  For a dog.

You can judge an animal's intelligence against two general standards.  The first standard is going to be the human scale of sentience and problem-solving that we use to justify our mastery of the animal kingdom.  The second scale is the scale of relative intelligence within a species - that is, how an individual animal reacts or 'thinks' compared to others of its species (or family, or even genera, if they're closely related). This comparative scale is also sometimes used to prove that, say, crows are smarter than mice, or other such wide comparisons - but I find those to be inherently dissatisfying, and of questionable validity.

Bear has identified a problem when we're playing with his toys in the house.  If I throw them from the couch to the other side of the house, he'll often stumble when he's running back to the couch and jumping back up on for the next round of the game.  Bear has correctly noticed that this only seems to happen in a single general area of the floor - it's what I've laughingly called The Family Room Triangle - a triangle bounded by the two ends of the archway between the dining room and the family room, and the front of the couch.  When he's running through that area he stumbles far, far more often than anywhere else in the house - especially if he's carrying a toy in his mouth.

So, to avoid this hazard he will, when coming back with his toy, skirt around the edges of this triangle, cautiously, and carefully stepping until he's close enough to the couch to leap up onto it.  This has significantly improved his rate of successfully reaching the couch without stumbling, but it's not perfect.   So he's recently added a new curlicue:  he's going first into his crate, then coming out to the couch.  So far this new strategy for dealing with the perfidity of The Family Room Triangle has been successful.

So Bear's identified a hazard:  The Family Room Triangle; he's clearly worked out a theoretical framework for how the hazard works:  There's just something in that particular area that likes to trip him!  And now he's taken actions to minimize his exposure to the risks inherent within The Family Room Triangle.  And, as I said, those actions do work within the framework of what he's considered.

All in all, a very intelligent response from a dog.  But it's still a dog's solution, based on several flawed understandings of the issues involved.

There are two factors that have escaped Bear's consideration when facing the problem of the evil force that's tripping him when he plays with me on the couch:  friction and transient obstacles.

Friction comes into play because I have laminate flooring on the first floor in my house.  Dogs and laminate flooring do not always get along.   He'll skid on it, especially when chasing balls outbound from the couch, and can adjust for that, because the skidding happens every time he reaches sufficient speed.  It's not a variable hazard, and so the rules for dealing with it are pretty easy.  Coming back from retrieving his toy, however, he's moving at a slower pace and only really risks overcoming the coefficient of friction between his foot pads and the floor, i.e. slipping, when he's making the last leap up onto the couch and using more force than he does while trotting back with his toy.  That's one major cause for his slips.

The other cause is, well, Bear's a dog.  And spoiled.  He's got several toys, and since they're all large and relatively easy to spot, I don't insist that they get put away regularly.  Bear has a distinct tendency to leave his toys where they lie when he decides that play time is over.  Because of the simple frequency of traffic through The Family Room Triangle, many of his toys come to rest in that area.  And Bear has a dog's rather sanguine attitude towards blunt hazards, particularly familiar blunt hazards:  I'll just walk through them because even if I bump against them, they're not going to poke out an eye.  But that ignores that when his feet land, or more properly attempt to land, on his toys, they do not give purchase for his feet, and he often stumbles.  i.e.  the transient hazards trip him up.

But he doesn't recognize them as part of the problem for The Family Room Triangle - even when none of his toys are lying within that area he's still playing it safe by skirting the edge.  And so, with the best of intentions, and with the most determined reasoning available to him, my dog is making himself look pretty ridiculous - because he's a smart dog.  (And before people try telling me that he's not so smart, ask yourselves how many children you may know who would find Bear's treatment of the challenge before him to be a perfectly appropriate model for them to follow, rather than worrying about cleaning up their own play space?)

YouTube video demonstrating some of this behavior.