KDaddy’s General Observations: Happy Anniversary!

It’s almost hard to believe that I started blogging on WordPress 13 years ago today. On a sadder note, I learned that my son-in-law had died two years ago today as well.

I’m still upset about that. So upset that I started writing a blog about his passing and… I can’t finish it and it’s still sitting there waiting for me to do so. His death came on the heels of my mother’s death and… damn.

Thirteen years ago, a female friend who was in the swinging lifestyle took to writing about swinging on a site called WordPress and I thought it was seriously cool for a woman to not only write about her experiences, thoughts, and feelings about swinging, but to also put it out there for everyone to read.

She convinced me that I should start a blog, too. Just as she had started out doing, I was writing stuff on the swinger’s forum and my missives were… rocking the boat but in good ways and she had told me, “You need to let everyone know what’s on your mind!”

And… here I am. As I’ve mentioned before, I found blogging to be… therapeutic after my stroke from allowing me to access some memories I had feared were gone forever to working on the fine motor skills necessary to type at a high rate of speed and onto being… somewhat Zen-like and making me focus and not pay much attention to the pain I was trying to also deal with.

Once I started writing about bisexuality – and male bisexuality in particular – I was really off and running and I’m still running and hope to continue running for many more years.

 

KDaddy’s General Observations: 07 May 23

Becoming a computer scientist taught me something important: Data is king. There’s no such thing as too much data and, as such, I very much understand why the many entities on the internet are keen to collect data, like, Amazon, for example, because the data they collect helps them do business.

I just have a problem with the entities that collect data… selling it to other entities, let alone how things like our email address can wind up on the dark web and there’s no hacking involved. Being able to sell the data you collect to other “concerns” is a good way to add to one’s coffers and, in the wrong hands, tends to result it…

A stupid amount of junk and spam. There are days when I can check my email accounts and I have… zero junk, zero spam and then there are the days when I spend quite a bit of time emptying my junk folder and/or tagging something as junk, like, I’m really interested in getting breast implants.

Or sometimes feeling some kind of way because spammers think they can fool me with, say, me winning a new iPhone 13 from TMobile when (a) I already have one and (b) being a TMobile customer, I know that they don’t work like that. Or having a browser open and it’s telling me that my email address has been found in stolen data… and like there’s anything I can do about it short of getting rid of the address and creating a new one and one that, eventually, is going to wind up somewhere I’d prefer it to wind up.

As someone who was a subject matter expert in data security, I am… appalled that some companies don’t take this as seriously as they’re supposed to when it comes to keeping the data they collect from us safe (and not selling it). I recall a moment when, on my job, our user base was complaining about the amount of junk mail and spam hitting their mailboxes and the company’s response was to remind everyone that they should only be using their email for work purposes and, on the one hand, saying that there was nothing they could do about it but, on the other, putting pressure on me and my team to do something about it and more so when some users were stupid enough to open emails that contained viruses and not understanding – as me and my team and our whole global team did – that a single virus could make its way through our systems in minutes and we were ill-equipped to deal with it.

Well, I wasn’t because I wasn’t afraid to have virus cleaning tools in my kit and I wasn’t afraid to use them. I’d catch a little hell for having them since they weren’t approved by the company but I’d get pats on my backside for us avoiding major system catastrophes and like a lot of companies were experiencing. So, we were tasked to find an enterprise level solution to both the spam and virus problem. We tried Norton’s version and, well, it sucked. It was hard to manage from our end of things, i.e., getting timely updates was a bitch and some viruses were still getting through – and it didn’t help that, on our end, our global SMTP servers and software wasn’t all that compatible with Norton and they – Norton – didn’t have an answer for this that we found acceptable.

I found some different software from TrendMicro. I spent a few months digging into their software and found that it was much better and efficient than Norton and, importantly, we wouldn’t have to make a lot of changes to our server software. I wanted it; it was the solution to our spam/virus issue on our side because if our servers caught it and got rid of it before it reached a user – and we didn’t have to do a lot of extra work where keeping it (a) up to date and (b) importantly, getting immediate help if something managed to get past it, like, someone loaded up something from a diskette, got their computer infected and now it’s in the system and the local Norton software… didn’t do shit and didn’t even see it.

The problem was that the company didn’t want to spend the money for this better software. I’d gotten a free copy of the software to run on our test server and demonstrated how much better it was than what we already had. Oh, they were convinced… but they didn’t want to spend the money. Our global team, which had the overall responsibility for everything we were doing, was opposed to the change in security software and I had to demonstrate to them that making this change was worth the expense and stuff like getting it installed on all of the servers my team was responsible for wasn’t going to be a problem or take a lot of time distributing it to our more remote servers, like, um, I wasn’t going to Brazil to install this.

I’d finally convinced them to let me buy the software and run it on our production servers and with the unspoken understanding that if this software didn’t work as advertised – and as I promised it would – that was gonna be my ass. My main argument was, “If you want us to take care of this problem, this is what we need; I’ve showed you what it can do; you all have talked to TrendMicro yourselves and if you’re not convinced that this is the better solution to this problem, I don’t know what else I can tell you.”

The moment I installed it on the first server, it started cleaning up stuff; it was scanning user mailboxes and either cleaning up stuff or putting into quarantine. Yeah, some users got pissed off to find emails they weren’t supposed to have being inaccessible or just gone and I got some grief about that but, as I had said, “The software is doing what we need it to do and better than that shitty Norton crap we were running.”

TrendMicro was proactive about putting out notifications about new viruses in the wild and providing patches for them; the amount of spam mail seriously decreased, and I remember feeling some kind of way when the global team was patting themselves on the back for finding and employing a better solution… and when they knew that they weren’t the ones who found this software or fought tooth and nail to get and put into service. The important thing was that we were taking a more serious stance and position on protecting ourselves and keeping our data safe. I felt that given how a lot of our data were worth billions of dollars, the cost for this software was… petty cash. During my arguments, I had asked, “What’s it worth to us to not have this problem and one that a lot of other companies are having?”

At first, it wasn’t worth it and, I think that, today, some companies aren’t doing all they can to protect the data they collect from wherever they’re collecting it because it’s expensive and cuts into IT department budgets. Sure, these days, if a hacker wants into a company’s server, they’re gonna find a way to get in there… but why make it easy for them by employing the least expensive solutions?

And then… selling data to anyone who can afford to buy it. I understand it’s a cash cow for those who sell our data and it’s a practice that I think should be discontinued given how it tends to wind up in… less scrupulous hands. I opt out of much of the “data sharing” I come across because I know that they aren’t just sharing it with themselves; they’re sharing it with their partners and some are still milking the cash cow and selling our data and, perhaps, not being diligent or all that concerned about who they’re selling it to… as long as they’re getting paid for it.

At home, I am very serious about protecting our devices. Spammers and phishers are getting rather clever in their way of conning people to open emails or clicking on links that will get them into some kind of trouble. Like, one day, I got an email from “Microsoft” saying that someone was using my email address and to click on the link to resolve the issue… except, I knew it wasn’t really from Microsoft because my email software shows me the address of the sender and Microsoft’s domain names aren’t “gobbledy gook dot com.” I know how to find the data that’s behind every email and it’ll show me how the email in question went from point A to point B… but I recognize that this is a skill that the average person doesn’t have or even know about and because a lot of email programs today want to make it “user friendly,” well, just my opinion but maybe they shouldn’t use the “email for dummies” approach.

Then again, I know who should be sending me email and who shouldn’t. If I don’t know who sent it – or why they sent it – it and it managed to get past my filters, it goes straight to junk mail and I won’t bother to look at it. I know good and damned well that my McAfee subscription isn’t about to expire… because I don’t use McAfee.

I just kinda wish there was some software that would prevent companies from selling whatever data they collect from me. Yeah, it’s in their possession but it’s still my data and, on the whole, we need to do a better job of protecting our data from those who’d steal it. None of the solutions are “foolproof” because I learned that if someone can create such software, someone else can find a way around it but, historically, companies and other entities are slow to update their software and other protective solutions because, again, it’s expensive and takes away from bottom lines and IT departments are always complaining about not having the best stuff available and having to make do with solutions that… have more holes than a screen.

It’s well known that Russia and China have teams of people whose only job is… to find ways to break into our systems… and a lot of our systems are quite vulnerable to intrusion and data theft and as we’re seeing a lot of these days. At the high level of things, there’s not much I can do about it… but I know how to protect myself at home and that starts by not even looking at mail that we know we shouldn’t be getting. Like, I’m not sure how “FedEx” can have a package for me, and my address has a problem when… I’m not expecting anything from FedEx. I’m sure that no one is using my email address to get into my Facebook account… because I use a different account for that.

Oh, they’re clever… but they can’t fool me. It’s hilarious to see them trying, though, and sad to know that they do fool a lot of people. I’d gotten an email from my mother that wanted me to click this link and it immediately went to junk because… my mother is dead and I’m quite sure she’s not sending me emails. Methinks that one way entities can protect our data is… to stop selling it and I don’t know what it’s going to take to stop this practice. Beef up their security software and just fucking spend the money to get the best stuff available.

 

KDaddy’s General Observations: 04 April 23

The other day, I got into a rather lively conversation with a Facebook friend – and a real friend – about something she wrote about Trump being unfairly persecuted and, well, it got interesting to wind up having a lot of political rhetoric and assumptions – and a couple of accusations – thrown my way and all because I had said:

“No one is above the law.”

Well, now, a couple of Trump supporters chimed in with the expected bullshit of Hillary not being indicted and arrested for what she did as well as other stuff some Democrats did in the past that they didn’t get jacked for and spouting other rhetoric that spoke to Trump not being made an example of and I said that he should be because it sends a message to other politicians that if you break the law, you will face the consequences.

Someone said that I’d found him guilty of the charges. I said that I said no such thing nor did I imply it because everyone, even him, is innocent until proven guilty. I wasn’t surprised that they had nothing to say about the Republican Part and their members in Congress trying to interfere with the process and I asked them if they thought this was okay.

I’m reading all of this and it’s pretty sad because I still can’t figure out why they think Trump’s vision of America is right and the direction we need to take. I had pointed out to those poor people that this man violated his oath of office because he failed to protect American from domestic enemies and… they had nothing to say about that. I mentioned the investigation into his election tampering in Georgia and instead of speaking to this, more dogma about witch hunts, miscarriage of justice, so on and so forth but is it not a miscarriage of justice when someone is being investigated for crimes… and there are people who are trying to circumvent the system?

Ranting and raving about how corrupt the system is and, um, okay – a lot of political figures have lent their actions to this. I allowed that if President Biden did this, they’d be howling in glee and demanding his removal and arrest and the funny thing about this conversation was my being accused of bias.

How biased is, “Innocent until proven guilty; go have your day in court, and if found guilty, face the consequences but it not guilty, not a problem…”

I’m thinking that if your response to this is to go on a political tirade and dredging up things from the past, you’re not paying attention to the right stuff. I pointed out to them that George Bush lied to Congress about weapons of mass destruction. The UK Prime Minister, at the time, backed George on this one but when the truth came out, the Prime Minister was ousted from office and… nothing was done about the felony George Bush committed. Nothing. No cries for impeachment, no charges of any kind once he left office.

They didn’t have anything to say about that. Politicians – and one person tried to convince me that Trump isn’t a politician – tend to behave like the laws of the land do not apply to them and they can do whatever and, at the worst, get a slap on the hand; I asked them if they were okay with this behavior and… crickets. The one who accused me of bias was told that given the tone of their “rebuttal,” wasn’t their own bias showing? I thought so but, apparently, they didn’t.

Look, I’m a life-long Democrat but this shit going on with Trump isn’t about political parties: It’s about allowing the system to work the way it was designed to work and how insane it is for the Republican members of Congress doing what they can to circumvent the system and, as I read the other day, interfering with the DOJs investigations. Trump supporters insisting that he’s innocent of any wrongdoings when the various media outlets have been having a field day writing about what he’s allegedly done. They say there’s no proof but I’m thinking that grand juries don’t get called up and hand out indictments and there’s no proof or evidence; it’s been documented how he called the governor of Georgia and wanted their election results changed in his favor.

Last I heard, that’s not only illegal but it’s a federal matter. Still, the very scary part of this whole clusterfuck is that by the time it’s all said and done, he just might get away with everything. I asked his fans, “How can you be okay with this?” So, I guess, he’s turned himself in to be arrested and I read something this morning that they might not take a mug shot and… what the fuck? I get arrested, I get printed and mug-shot, and now it’s all about whether or not I can plead not guilty and await trial or I’m going to be stuck there until my trial date comes up. That’s just how it goes… except for the high and mighty, huh?

Still, if he went, that’s what he was supposed to do. He’s not guilty until he’s proven guilty. I told his fanatics that I’m willing to wait and see what happens and my concern that… nothing’s going to happen. It’s already unprecedented that a former POTUS got jacked on criminal charges and, oh, that’s right, charges that, as long as he was president, he couldn’t be charged with which, I thought, was one of the reasons why he did what he did to stay in office but that’s just my opinion. The latest news blurbs are, I’ll say, hinting that the charges against him in New York have been leaked and said there’s 35 charges against him and, okay, how the fuck does that happen when they were sealed?

And all the while, he’s been… rabble rousing about this miscarriage of justice and being unjustly persecuted and I am still wondering how he thinks he can make America great again when he’s strongly pitching bitches about the system that is at the foundation of what America is, namely, liberty and justice for all. A former official in Maryland’s government got jacked for misappropriating fund and getting $250,000 when he left office. He got arrested; he was supposed to show up in court back in March of this year and… he didn’t show. A warrant for his arrest was issued and, somehow, the FBI got involved and either killed this guy or he might have offed himself.

People who knew him were saying that he was innocent and not the kind of person who’d do the things he’d been arrested for and, oh, this guy was a Republican. My thoughts were, first, it’s a shame that he died but if he was truly innocent, why did he not show up in court and wind up in Tennessee? I’m thinking that the better choice was for him to appear in court and let the system work the way it’s designed to work and not be on a morgue slab.

It’s unprecedented that a former POTUS has been indicted in a criminal case; unprecedented that he’s been arrested and processed; it’s going to be even more unprecedented if he’s found guilty of any or all of the charges against him and my fear is that if he’s found guilty, it’s unlikely that he’s going to spend ten seconds in a prison cell; saw a thingy that said that he could wind up at Riker’s Island if found guilty and sentenced to prison time. Yeah, that’s not going to happen; another blurb about him wanting his case moved to Staten Island but these are all ploys lawyers use to keep their client from having to face the music. This is one of those things that should be televised so that we, the people, see the system at work.

The bottom line is that no one is above the law and it sends a very bad message when politicians, regardless of party affiliation, think, feel, or believe that the law does not apply to them and if they break the law, nothing should happen, or they have the political clout and money to make sure that nothing happens. And I fucking do not know why there are people who think this is okay and why this is about politics when, in actuality, it’s not about politics:

It’s about the law. He’s got a lot of legal shit he’s gotta answer for that makes this New York thing seem petty by comparison but is it really petty to bring someone who’s been indicted before the bar of justice? And how can we be okay with anyone who tries to circumvent the system because they think they’re coated in Teflon?

I haven’t heard a peep from my real life Facebook friend and her cronies since I asked them how they can be okay with this. Maybe they think I’m not worth arguing with – and I wasn’t arguing but stating matters of fact – and their response to whatever I said is laced with political bullshit and a couple of harmless jabs at me for having the audacity to challenge their beliefs. They think this man has done nothing wrong and that he’s the right man to be running this country and pointing the finger at Biden for shit that’s going wrong when, in fact, Biden’s been trying to clean up the mess Trump made and left – but you probably can’t get too many Republicans to see this, let alone admit to it.

If your answer to, “How can you/we be okay with this?” is to go on a political rant, I’m thinking that you’re not looking at the thing you should be looking at. I told them that I didn’t give a fuck about Trump one way or the other but I do give a fuck about people like him acting like they’re above the law and we, the people, let them get away with it.

 

KDaddy’s General Observations: 21 March 23

Not really a political rant but Donald Trump needs to go to prison for his crimes and especially for his role in January 6th and attempts to fuck with elections. The other stuff going on are… white collar crimes and the type where there’s no real victim but a crime has been committed just the same; people who commit these crimes tend to… not get punished that harshly or the punishment doesn’t fit the crime all that much.

The problem here is that this man is making noises about running for president again. Being indicted is one thing; being found guilty and sentenced is something else but if this never happens, what does happen is that he becomes a martyr that his “cult” and the whole of the Republican Party can rally behind and keep doing all the crazy shit we’ve been hearing about in the news like making it a crime to be a female impersonator and, all of a sudden, Republicans got religion again and, as I previously wrote, trying to take this country back to the 1950s and the moral values that we did, in fact, move away from because they were outdated and a hinderance to the advancements we obviously made.

You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me. Here’s the other thing: If he doesn’t get his ass handed to him – and like regular people would if committing the crimes he’s being investigated for – then… he gets away with it. All of it. Even if his bid for another run at the White House is “bullshit,” he’s gotten a lot of people riled up and acting like this man has never, ever, done anything wrong and the allegations against him are false and he’s the real victim.

Like hell he is. His bid for the presidency should be shut down and he needs to spend some time in a cell with Bubba but because he’s a former POTUS and has this cult fucking shit up in his name, I fear that he will get a slap on the wrist, a bunch of fines, and… that’s all, folks.

This cannot be allowed. No one is above the law. No one. Except politicians. Let’s see… if I got caught up in a police sting/raid scooping up prostitutes, yeah, that’s a misdemeanor and I’d be subject to a fine, jail time, or both and, socially, that’s a huge black mark upon me. Every day becomes a “walk of shame” for me for getting caught buying pussy when “there are plenty of women who’d give it away for free.”

I’m thinking that if I got caught committing anything that even smelled like voter fraud and election tampering, I’d be in prison already and get there in a hurry. We have seen, however, that those who have lots of money… gets away with a lot of shit that us poorer folks wouldn’t. If I were running for, say, mayor where I live but they dig up the fact that I got arrested – for anything – I won’t be elected because, oh, back in 1979, I got busted for soliciting a prostitute. If I had sexually assaulted a woman, well, I wouldn’t be running for mayor because my ass would already be in prison, right? Right.

No, that never happened but perhaps you see where I’m going with this. I wouldn’t be allowed to get away with shit like this. I would never be able to run for public office, my chances of getting a good paying job would be severely limited and, again, every day becomes a walk of shame and I wouldn’t dare show my face in public and subject myself to stares and people whispering about how fucked up I am as a human being and one who dared to think that I could be a good mayor or some other public official.

We have seen public officials get removed from office from shit they did; we’ve even seen them be barred from running for office. Locally, and a lot of years ago, a County Executive got caught up in an FBI sting that was looking into corruption allegations in the county I live in and caught red-handed, indicted, arrested, and went to prison for a short bid. He got out. Ran for County Executive again. And won. Why? Because what he got busted and jailed for was a white collar and victimless crime even though what he did victimized everyone who lived in the county. Now, he couldn’t run for, say, a federal office but locally? Sure. What he did wasn’t a felony.

But at the highest level, it seems to me that Republicans in Congress are… cockblocking the legal processes being directed at Trump. Last I heard, that’s call obstruction of justice and that’s a felony at the federal level and just like lying to the FBI is. It seems to me that these cockblocking Republicans are forgetting that they have a duty to the American people to not only uphold the Constitution but to defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic and, um, maybe it’s just me but Donald Trump is a domestic enemy but, ah, what you suspect is always one thing and what you can prove in a court of law a very different thing and this asshole has an army of lawyers who are doing everything they can think of to circumvent the legal process and everywhere he’s being investigated, facing indictment, and even facing arrest.

New York City was reported to be circling the wagons because of the pending arrest of Trump for the shit he was indicted for there. I don’t blame them because his cult is going to lose their fucking minds and wreak all sorts of havoc in the Big Apple and making him more of a martyr than he seems to be at this moment. I seriously question the intelligence of those who believe that this man has done no wrong. Innocent until proven guilty it’s hard to prove him guilty when there’s a army of people trying to circumvent that process.

When I read that NYC was going to arrest him, my first thought was, “Oh, shit…” and not in the surprised sense; no, I was thinking that NYC was wise to prepare for shit to go south. Okay. It’s not like the cops are going to go wherever he is and slap the cuffs on him and bring him in to be processed. Nope. He’ll show up – with all of his lawyers – get processed and… be on his way. He could be considered a flight risk but they probably won’t revoke his passport or make him sit in the pokey until he personally has his day in court. I’d be surprised if he even showed up in court personally but, maybe he will because that will be “good press” for his cult and the Republican Party who both believe he’s done no wrong and should be leading the country again.

I’m thinking that if I did what he did in the Stormy situation, I’d be in prison already. He let someone else spend some time as a guest of the state for something he did. I know about loyalty and all that but, fuck that – I’m not going to prison for something someone else did but if Trump doesn’t know how to do anything else, he knows how to cover his ass and how to wipe any dirt from his hands on someone else who, really, is dumb enough to let him do that to them.

He cannot be allowed to get away with the things we have evidence that he’s done. There are member of Congress cockblocking the attempts to legally prosecute him for, as I said, fiddling while Rome burned and trying to make us believe that he did everything in his power to prevent the overthrow of the government so he could illegally remain in office while trying to invalidate the election results. I don’t know how he gets away with this… but he probably will and still be allowed to run for the office again.

We, as Americans, should be wholly outraged over this. Congress has no business meddling in the Department of Justice’s business and what, exactly, makes them immune against the charge of obstructing justice? And I do not understand why we are willing to make this man a martyr, which I feel is going to happen and I sure as hell don’t understand why there are so many people who believes in him and wants to erase all the progress we’ve made by rolling us back to the moral values of the 1950s.

While he was in office, he damned well knew what he was being investigated for and accused of. The law says that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for… stuff and stuff that doesn’t meet the criteria for impeachment which, by the way, this dude is the only president who’s been impeached – twice. I’m wondering why we’d want someone who made this kind of history back in that office again.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are people I know on Facebook who… has me rethinking some shit about them. They all support the Republican Party and Donald Trump and… why? The ones I really know insist that he had nothing to do with the attempt to overthrow the government and don’t seem to understand that because he did nothing, he had something to do with it and it violated the oath he took. And Congress, who I tend to see as the real enemy in a lot of things, is acting like they’re not sure if he really violated that oath and Trump’s supporters are trying to make us believe that he did everything in his power to prevent what happened from happening.

If you or I did some shit like that, you know, interfering in an official investigation, we’d be in the pokey already on obstruction of justice charges and conspiracy at the least. You and I wouldn’t get away with this… but politicians seem to be able to and if there’s some political reform that must be dealt with, it’s shit like this because the premise of law in this country is that no one is above the law.

We’ll see, won’t we? He was supposed to be arrested today and I’ve not seen where that’s happened yet. Trump-loving Republicans are saying that we have lost our way but what we have lost is… our minds if there are those who support this man and stand ready to make him a martyr or… he gets away with shit.

 

KDaddy’s General Observations: Aaron Rodgers

Okay, the football world was either shocked or tickled pink to hear that last year’s MVP got benched due to violations of the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols. Yep, I was tickled pink because I don’t like the guy even though I do recognize his skills. I read the article that talked about Aaron’s side of this story and, wow, if I didn’t have a good opinion about the guy as a player, his spin on this didn’t help much.

Then again, this whole anti-vaxx thing is… disturbing. A lot of people don’t understand the science behind the vaccine and stubbornly don’t want to know anything about it and if there’s something I know about humans, it’s that they can be scared to death about stuff they don’t understand. I know for myself, I wasn’t in a hurry to be vaccinated, not because I had any fears about the vaccine itself but I know something about both the science and what it takes to get any drug approved and on the market and since they kinda/sorta rushed to get this out – and they had to – well, hmm, there could be some issues but I still got vaccinated because I’m smack dab in the middle of the group that can be highly susceptible to getting the virus and the worse could happen.

I’m not surprised that Aaron is one of those people who thinks that the rules don’t apply to him. One of the things I don’t like about him as a player is he’s arrogant and is of a mind that being the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers is all about him and more so when he fucks up, it’s always someone else’s fault other than his own. Like, there was a rumor that their previous coach had gotten fired because Aaron wanted him gone… then it was revealed that, yep, that’s exactly what happened. I know that when I heard about it, the first thing I thought was why would the Packers organization get rid of a coach who proved he can run a winning team and had, in fact, won a couple of Super Bowls?

Okay, that season, the Packers sucked and that makes me just as happy as it does when the Dallas Cowboys bite the big one. Their dismal season, however and to me, wasn’t about bad coaching as much as it was Aaron having a lot of bad games and, really, just the team as a whole having a “bad hair season.” It’s to be expected if you know anything about football… but Aaron, well, he seems to be of a different mind about things.

On the one hand, I get it. That level of arrogance and just being cocky can be the fuel to drive his ability to play the game and, yeah, shit, as well as he has proven he can. He is very good at what he does and he knows it… but he’s not humble about it and that, for me and a lot of other people, makes him an asshole of the highest order.

And he didn’t do himself any favors by blatantly ignoring the protocols that the NFL established and the players’ association also signed off on. Then his “explanation” for why he dissed the rules, in a weird way, makes sense: He doesn’t have to take the vaccine if he doesn’t want to but the NFL protocols do include what unvaccinated players have to do to be in compliance… and Aaron is of a mind that those rules don’t apply to him which, at least to me, implies that he thinks he’s above the game, too.

That the league is going to hit his wallet hard for this makes me happy since, um, I don’t like the guy all that much but, yeah, any player who blatantly disregards the established protocol should have their bank account lowered… and a lot. There’s some investigation taking place to determine how often and badly Aaron violated the league rules and if it’s proven that he violated the rules a lot, not only will his wallet get hit, he could be suspended. And, on general principle, he should be suspended for repeated violations and more so when the NFL is quick to suspend players for other off or on-field violations of league rules.

Ah, but he’s a superstar quarterback. MVP a few times and has those pretty rings, too. As this started making the rounds in sport media, I got to thinking about the many times on my job where the powers that be laid down the law and that we all had to toe the line and without exception… and the many times I personally thought it was bullshit and, yeah, I ain’t doing that because I don’t have to… and did it anyway because, hmm, I not only liked my job, I needed to keep it and whatever objections I had were minor when compared to the possibility of getting black marks in my personnel folder or summarily dismissed for cause… and the cause being my not complying with the rules as established. Yep, doing my job? About as arrogant as I can manage to be because I know that I am very damned good at what I do and the people I worked for knew it because, if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be working there at all. So, as such, I understand the arrogant and cocky attitude and also understand that this gets… misinterpreted because it’s really about being highly confident in your ability to do whatever it is you do but also understanding that even the best have bad days and, if so, um, it’s usually not management’s fault. You accept the blame for having a bad day at work and just move on and, yeah, even if it is management’s fault that your work day sucked donkey dicks.

You can fuss with me about this but it’s not COVID-19 that scares me the most: It’s the people who aren’t vaccinated that scare me. I understand their resistance… and I don’t. I don’t understand why anyone would want to take the risk of, one, getting infected and, two, passing it on to someone else. No, wait – I do understand it; there are some people who just believe that nothing’s going to happen to them so there’s no need to be vaccinated and, yep, all the people who are scared shitless because they don’t know what’s in the vaccine. Shit, I wanted to know… so I went to the company’s website and read about what’s in the vaccine and the technology used to create it. Was… surprised to learn that the science used to create this vaccine isn’t something new but, you know, being a science nerd myself, I understood the science behind mRNA and that there is no actual COVID virus, alive or dead, in this vaccine. mRNA, simply, “teaches” the body to fight the virus should one be exposed to it – the ‘m’ means “messenger.” It is a kind of gene therapy but not one that fucks with one’s genetic composition other than, again, to teach it that if, after vaccination, if it “sees” the virus, kill the shit out of it.

Okay. People have been vaccinated and still gotten sick. It happens and has happened with other vaccines. Along the same lines of how a woman can take birth control and still get pregnant or you can get a flu shot and still get the flu. Shit still happens since these things aren’t ever 100% effective and it stands to reason that it wouldn’t be since we’re all different and, yeah, sometimes, it’s not gonna work as expected. Shit… I got a pneumonia shot today and, honestly? I didn’t want to even though I know that, quite a few years ago, I somehow managed to get pneumonia and that was pretty fucked up since it took me over a month to get over it but the really bad part was knowing that if you get pneumonia once, you’re very susceptible to getting it again… and I don’t ever want to have to go through that again so, yeah, I got the vaccine even though there’s no real guarantee that I won’t get pneumonia… but there’s a greater chance that I won’t.

Again, I hesitated to get vaccinated because I needed more information and I went to the source to get it. I hear the stuff other people are saying about why they’re not gonna get vaccinated up to and including the possibility that the US Government is using this vaccine scare to implant microchips in everyone so they can track and control people which, according to what religious stuff you believe, ties right into the beginning of the world ending catastrophically. I hear people getting seriously pissy about their right not to be vaccinated and that’s all well and good… but do they have the right to put others at risk?

Apparently, they think they do and so does the future Hall of Famer, Aaron Rodgers, MVP quarterback for the famed Green Bay Packers. I watched the game they played Sunday night… and they lost and badly so which does, in fact, speak to how well they play when Aaron’s under center and being the team’s leader and motivating the offense and defense to give 200% every time they go out there and, as such, I can understand why he’d be unhappy when the team has a bad hair day and like they did last night. He’s not going to be happy about that loss and, for me, it begs the question of whether or not they would have won if this asshole hadn’t gotten benched for violating the league’s COVID-19 protocols. I think they would have, by the way, but since they didn’t, it makes what he’s being accused of even more pointed and in ways that have nothing to do with football and topped off with it being reported that he – and like a lot of other people – are very misinformed about much of what’s going on with this damned virus.

And I sit back and take notice of this… and shake my head. People are seeing the push to be vaccinated as a violation of their rights and it really does make me ask, even rhetorically, why this is “more important” than the very real possibility of getting the virus and either getting horribly sick or dying and, yeah, passing it along to everyone you might come in contact with since some of this people won’t even wear a mask.

As far as Aaron’s punishment for violating league rules, I hope they hit his wallet real hard and I do hope they suspend him, not because I can’t stand the guy – and I can’t – but he’s gotta be made to understand that the protocols apply to everyone on every team and he’s not above those protocols. The team will likely get slapped with some heavy fines and other things like draft choices; the latest thing I read talked about other teams being fined as much as $500,000 for violations and while that might be a drop in the bucket for a professional football team, whew, that’s a lot of money… but there’s no amount of money that can justify putting yourself and other people at risk just because you don’t want to take the vaccine and more so when the reason why you won’t do it is due to misinformation.

I got the vaccine. All I got out of it was stuck in the arm and having to deal with a sore and stiff arm. Better safe than sorry. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and I didn’t get it. Not even of a mind to put my lady at risk because I’m being stubborn or even stupid about not getting the vaccine; that’s just heinously reprehensible as far as I’m concerned and, yeah, it plucks my nerve to see a guy who a lot of people admire and look up to getting himself and his team in trouble… and all because he believes he has justifiable reasons for the rules not applying to him.

Way to set a good example, Aaron. Way to not let your celebrity lend itself to encouraging people to get vaccinated because shit usually happens when you don’t believe it will. No wonder so many fans of the game see you as an arrogant asshole despite your mastery of the game and, yeah, in part, why your team took an “L” last night because you should have been doing your goddamned job but chose to wind up not doing it because you think you didn’t have to abide by the rules and it doesn’t say much about whatever you think about your teammates and the other members of the Packers organization by taking the risk of infecting them… and you might have done so already. One of his game checks comes to $66,900 – that’s more money than a lot of people make in a year. I’d love it if the league not only garnished his game checks, they suspend him without pay even to make an example out of him.

He has the right to not get vaccinated… but he’s not so large and in charge that he has the right to violate the league rules with impunity. But, alas, because he’s Aaron Rodgers, he won’t get bitch-slapped like a lesser player might be…

 

Kdaddy’s General Observations: It’s Electric!

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff about electric vehicles. Been seeing an increase of commercials on TV touting them and they’re becoming quite the thing and more so when there’s a lot of focus on climate change and one of the many things we’re trying to do about this.

According to an article I just read, electric vehicles are going to be one of those landmark game-changers that will have a major impact all over the world as countries are approaching governmental mandates that must be met in the next 19-20 years. It’s going to impact jobs and many other employment sectors but the thing that has me feeling a bit uptight is where is the electricity gonna come from to charge these new vehicles?

I’ve been reading books that “feature” electric vehicles and even driverless transports; in one book, the main character was hustling to get somewhere in his electric vehicle and it was mentioned that the road surface itself used a form of inductive charging and not all that different from when I put my iPhone on its charging pad… and I thought, “Hmm… that’s interesting!” Another book I read had locals looking at the main character like he was some kind of weirdo because he was driving a car with – gasp – an internal combustion engine and the general thought was that the main character was one of monetary influence since the reliance on fossil fuels had long since gone by the wayside. Not exactly illegal but as strange as it might be to see a horse and buggy on today’s interstate highways.

One commercial was touting the features of a company’s new electric vehicle and showing someone at a charging station, all smiles; another – and with the same woman, I think – was being “shady” by accepting a gas card from her parents when, apparently, her card didn’t really need it. More hybrid than all-electric but, still. An article I read the other day was talking about the cost of “fuel” for both gas-powered engines and electric ones and, wow, the numbers say that it costs more to charge an electric car than it does a gas-powered car over a specific distance as well as pointing out a lack of commercial charging stations, the fees that might be charged to use one and, of course, what charges would be involved for residential charging stations and, apparently, there are two types of residential stations and that got my attention because one of the things I think about regarding this is that I live in an apartment complex so if I were to own an electric vehicle – and they cost more than the “average” mid-sized car – um, where the hell am I gonna plug it in? The article talking about costs also mentioned that it’s recommended that some of these new cars coming out not be charged beyond 80% of its capacity and that it could, in some situations, take up to 20 hours to recharge one of these electric puppies.

Yet another article made mention that electric vehicles have a lower “miles per gallon” rating than similarly sized gas-powered cars and, again, that you can find a gas station almost anywhere… but not commercial charging stations all that much. That same article pointed out that electric vehicles cost a lot more than the gas-powered vehicles they will be replacing. Today’s article talked about the lack of parts needed in the electric powertrain versus the gas-fueled powertrain – something like 17 parts for the electric and well over 400 for gasoline engines/transmissions. That means less servicing and probably repairs which is going to have a major impact on places that service cars and the people trained to fix them. They did say that there will continue to be a need for someone to change tires and windshield wipers, though.

Yet another article talked about the current infrastructure for electricity delivery and spoke to the grid, as it stands today, being inadequate to handle residential car charging and, yep, again, how much it might cost per kilowatt hour. I thought that stuff like this explained the premise of hybrid cars when you try to put all of this information together because having an electric car is going to help the environment a lot but could be an expensive “paperweight” if you’re not able to drive them all that much and because you can’t be sure – at this point – that you can find a charging station or have one installed where you live and like everything that runs on batteries, no electricity, no power.

Driving around here, I’ve yet to see a commercial charging station although I’d suppose that the many gas stations in the area could include them but makes me wonder what that would do to the price of using one, let alone what kind of strain it would put on our local grid that hasn’t been all that reliable; that by itself isn’t “something new” given how shitty the grid’s infrastructure has been reported to be along with rising costs per kilowatt hour just to keep the lights on in your home.

Cityman works for a concern whose focus is on sustainable clean energy like solar power as well as updating the current power delivery infrastructure and utility companies to provide that clean, sustainable energy at reasonable and affordable prices. We talk about this topic at times and where electric cars and trucks are concerned and what it’s costing people to own them and what utility companies are doing to push back against these necessary changes while doing everything they can to keep their fingers in the electric pie as homes and businesses are going all solar and removing themselves from the existing grid; why buy power from the local electric company when you can, essentially, be your own power company?

He’s very knowledgeable about this but I like to ask him about stuff from a consumer’s point of view, like, what would owning an electric car do to make my electric bill bigger than it already is. I agree with him that solar and wind power generation is the way to go and I understand that he’s looking at a much bigger picture than, as a consumer, I’d be looking at; solar and wind power ain’t gonna help much if/when electric utilities are going to charge more to provide and deliver cleaner and more sustainable power and now it comes down to that thing where having electrically powered vehicles will be good for the environment… but maybe not so much for one’s bank account.

I dunno. This is one of those things where science fiction is becoming science fact. Again, I’ve read so many books where electrically powered vehicles were the preferred method of transportation. I don’t recall authors ever really mentioning having to recharge those vehicles or anyone worrying about being low on charge. Quiet, efficient, and environmentally friendly and some even with a tiny – read microscopic – nuclear power source that makes having to put a vehicle on a charger a non-issue. I remember reading a lot of those books and thinking, yeah, that ain’t gonna happen any time soon… and now it’s happening. Not even close to the stuff I’ve been reading for decades but close enough for government work where we get away from our great reliance on fossil fuel sources and because we really do need to do this to address the climate issues. But just as I tend to do when talking about this stuff with Cityman, I wonder what it’s gonna cost and, for now, the price is pretty high… but all new technology tends to be pricey and sometimes prohibitively so.

I guess we’ll see how all of this eventually shakes out…

 

KDaddy’s General Observations: Dear WordPress…

I do not like what you’ve done to the PC version’s desktop.

 

KDaddy’s General Observations: The Dallas Cowboys

I am a fan of the NFL and there are a few teams that I like and they’re “my team” like the Miami Dolphins to name one. Like a lot of people, I’m not and never have been a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and their arrogant position that they are “America’s Team.”

Having said that – and being honest – you just had to acknowledge that the way they’d execute on both side of the ball was damned good and they won a lot… which make one not like them. So I recognized the workmanship the team displayed… and I still don’t like them and ever will. Sunday, they played the team that used to be the Washington Redskins and when these two division rivals meet, it’s usually epic because they just don’t like each other… or anyone else in the NFC East.

These four teams play each other and you can expect carnage and it makes for exciting football… but that hit on Andy Dalton was pretty shitty but, honestly, not unexpected. But that’s not really got me to write about this: It’s something I did yesterday that I’ve never done before and that was to pay attention to the Shannon and Skip show because Skip, a ride and die Cowboys fan from way back had some pretty harsh shit to day about that game and America’s Team.

Okay. My beloved Dolphins haven’t done well over the years and since they won back to back Superbowls and their only real and remaining claim to fame is that they’re still the only team to go totally undefeated. I’ve heard and, yep, even said some things about their fall from grace and glory… but to hear Skip talking at length about his beloved Cowboys? It was painful to listen to… because he was right about everything he was saying and my “prejudice” against the team had nothing to do with it.

They haven’t made the playoffs in years and despite having some very good players and, let’s say, questionable coaching decisions. They made what even I thought was a good decision to bring in Mike McCarthy who Green Bay inexplicably sent packing. I knew – and as those close to me who are rabid – uh, faithful Cowboys fans also knew was that this coaching change was gonna work even though some retooling would be necessary – but they had the players with the skill to make it work.

And it wasn’t working. Then Dak Prescott, who got franchise tagged, suffered a horrific season ending injury trying to put the offense on its shoulders and get them to playing the kind of football they knew how to play. Enter Andy Dalton, an off-season acquisition that even some Cowboys fans questioned but it just makes sense for any team to,have their starter as well as an experienced backup and in case of what happened to Dak.

Then, during the middle of yet another poorly played game, Dalton suffers a “dirty” hit and gets knocked out of the game and both Skip and Shannon were wondering why the Cowboys did nothing. Skip said that they gave up; not just for that game but for the rest of the season. Now, you’d think that my not being a fan of that team, it would make me “happy” to see America’s Team falling flat on their faces and along with the other teams in the division… but it didn’t.

Skip’s examination of things was scathing and it was a very serious indictment against what is, on paper, a very good professional football team. I’m not of fan of theirs… but what Skip had to say made me wince and, of course, Shannon didn’t make Cowboys fans feel any better because, from what I’ve heard, he and Skip don’t always or usually agree on things concerning the NFL… but on this show, they were in agreement.

Fact is, the entire NFC East just sucks and that’s kinda unusual. You know shit is really fucked yo with then Eagles, who also,have some serious issues, is leading the division with a 2-4-1 record. Let’s not even mention that in the last few seasons, Dallas had been leading the division and on their way to the playoffs for the first time in a long time, only to have those same Eagles come back and crush their playoff hopes and they even had the “nerve” to go all the way and win it all.

The whole division is the laughing stock of the league… and Dallas, with their better stable of players is leading the league in their inability to play winning football. Skip said – and I felt it hurt him to say it – that their game against the equally crappy Eagles, well, the Eagles will destroy Dallas, not because the Eagles are really the “better team” but because the Dallas Cowboys have given up.

Normally, this would be about the time where I’d be giving my son-in-law, who is also a long time Cowboys fan, the business about how shitty his team is playing and, yeah, rubbing it in that my Dolphins, currently at 3-3, have a better record and have been, on the whole, playing better football. There’s none of the “joy” to be found as we “bash” each other’s team (but also saying good things, too) because like Skip, he’d be the among the first to admit that America’s Team, the way they’ve been playing, probably couldn’t beat the current NCAA champions… or any Division I or II or even IIa school.

So I’m not gonna give him any shit about it. The NY Jets have yet to win a game… and they’re not being tarred and feathered as… viciously as the Cowboys are. Shit… even the Cleveland Browns, who were the perennial worst team in the league, well, they’re not doing bad at all and doing so without any real big name players although they did lose OBJ to a season ending injury.

All kinds of stuff going on with the NFL that’s making this season… interesting, to be nice about it and the #1 question on everyone’s mind is what the fuck is up with the Dallas Cowboys? Shannon, like it or not, said it right: You hurt our player like that and with a dirty hit? Oh, it’s on and even if it doesn’t start a fight – and it normally would – such a thing is often a wake up call and one that makes the team play much better football and, often, coming back to exact the perfect “revenge” and win the game.

Dallas didn’t even try. The refs did the right thing by ejecting the guy and hustling him off the field and while Shannon was going in about going after the guy or, shit, doing the same thing to one of Washington’s players, Skip felt it was a moot point and no need for retaliation and, yeah, I agree with that… it’s just that if you know anything about how they play football within the NFC East, well, that’s not how they roll and some payback would be given and expected.

Cooler heads will prevail and this is good… but, again, hearing such a scathing indictment against the Cowboys was hard to listen to even for someone like me who never liked the team to begin with. and, I’m thinking, even harder for all the ride and die Cowboys fans to admit to to see them just roll over and give up.

I guess we’ll see which way the wind is blowing when they play the Eagles and another team they have a great and fierce rivalry with and, again, more so when the Eagles have a habit of consistently being able to crush all of the Cowboys’ playoff hopes and dreams. Perhaps Skip will be proven wrong and the Cowboys will rally behind their rookie QB and I really do hope they’re scrambling to find someone with more experience to back up Andy Dalton and more so if he’s gonna miss this game because of the concussion protocols.

 

Kdaddy’s General Observations: That Supreme Court Nonsense

I was swiping through Twitter late last night and saw where someone had tweeted about the confirmation hearing taking place and the topic was whether or not this new and proposed Justice was going to do her best to overturn all of the LGBTQ+ rulings previously made by the court. The fact that she appeared to give a bunch of non-answers was expected but also maybe a tiny bit bothersome because the LGBTQ+ community has fought a long and hard battle to wrest back their human rights and to put and end to the discrimination against anyone who isn’t straight.

Then I thought, “Yeah… like the Supreme Court can really stop anyone from being not so straight…” Sure, they could – and with this proposed Justice’s input – overturn it all and set sexuality issues back to the 1960s or thereabouts and once more paving the way for even more discrimination and hatred than is still remaining. I don’t know about y’all but I tend to see the hypocrisy involved given that the Constitution, supposedly, grants everyone the right to the pursuit of happiness and all that…

And we act and behave as if what is really being said that you do have the right to the pursuit of happiness… as long as you are pursuing happiness the way we say you’re supposed to… and that means being heterosexual. Then again, I suppose that since we had – maybe still have – laws against being anything but straight, it takes another law to make not being straight legal even though those who might discriminate still have the right to discriminate and would continue to do so no matter what the law – and the court’s ruling – said about it.

Even if the court – and with this woman’s input and alleged Trump fanaticism – were to repeal everything concerning LGBTQ+ stuff, all it’s going to do is wind up back in court again and maybe with greater overtones of human rights violations and right along with our right to the pursuit of happiness and as given by the same Constitution the Supreme Court is duty-bound to uphold. I’m kinda/sorta paying attention to all this riffing about her appointment and the allegations of “court packing” and it’s gotten me thinking – and not for the first time – whether any of the Justices are as… neutral as their remit says they should be and by that I mean that their personal thoughts on things brought before the court should not ever get involved; they should only and always be about the Constitution and the law and nothing but that.

It still amazes me that we’re still riffing about Roe v. Wade and the ongoing battle to overturn it or otherwise invalidate it; it’s like a lot women have been saying and asking: Don’t they have a right to decide what happens to their body? Um, apparently, there are still those who think they don’t and this is one of those things that I’d really and seriously like for you to think about and ask yourself why this is still being so hotly debated when there isn’t a reason to. If a woman doesn’t want to have a baby, she doesn’t want to have a baby but apparently we’re still stuck back in the past and with that mindset that it’s a woman’s job to have babies and a lot of them and whether it’s detrimental to them or not.

Again, you’d think that we’d be smarter and wiser than that by now, huh? On the issue of sexuality, is this insane or what? We know that not everyone is straight and that not everyone wants to be or, yeah, is going to remain straight if they don’t wanna be. You would think that all the court has to do is to say that even in this, it is a right that all Americans have and it is very damned illegal to discriminate in these things – and that’s the end of that.

Except, it isn’t. It serves no purpose to America to take a gigantic step backwards in this except to continue with a pattern of behavior that’s long since been proven to be wrong and contradicts our rights as citizens of this country and, really, we know to be morally wrong to discriminate against anyone because of race, creed, and now, sexuality. On paper, this is not who we are as a nation… but the truth has always been that we discriminate because we actually have the right to do this – that would be the First Amendment and the part that guarantees free speech.

Of course, there’s a lot of bitching about this confirmation hearing taking place at all when those idiots on Capitol Hill should be working at getting a new stimulus package put together and approved. What I understand, though, is the system is actually working the way it’s supposed to work… it’s just a thing that we kinda don’t need it to work at this moment and in the face of more important shit facing America at this time. The court has worked shorthanded before and I, for one, don’t really see it as a hinderance if we waited until the election has been settled to appoint a new Justice – and the court went back into session and as it always has: On the first Monday in October so they are open for business and as they should be.

I question whether a nominee’s political views should have anything to do with it; it shouldn’t matter what political party they belong to – and if they even belong to one – their sole focus is supposed to be only on constitutional law and without any weight given to the political party whatever president belonged to when they were appointed and confirmed. The laws currently in place are in place because those nine people who sit on the bench said it was constitutional for them to be in place… and now we’re getting our panties in a bunch because the insane clown posse that is Congress has some people who think that this one woman somehow has the power to change the minds of eight other people and convince them that what they know and have ruled to be constitutional really isn’t so much?

What you’d think would be of greater concern is whether or not she can be as impartial as she’s supposed to be and can uphold the law at this level. That some judges are judges because a political candidate owes them a favor is something that I always thought sucked dog ass but it also stands to reason – kind of – that if you don’t have the ability to be able to keep your personal feelings and other affiliations out of things, then you have no business sitting on any bench at any level.

I did, just the same, liked it when she said that she will not be used as a pawn; whether she really meant that or not remains to be seen but one does have to ask what it is about her that the president appointed her over all the other judges who could be elevated to the highest court in the land? Why her? Is it because she’s a woman and she’s to replace a woman who was very highly respected, not only here at home but around the world as well? Given who nominated her, well, yeah – I allow that it makes her instantly suspect but, as one of the people on the judiciary committee overseeing the confirmation asked, “Why are we doing this now and pushing it through when we have more important issues that have to be addressed and dealt with?”

I’ll admit that I wanna know the answer to that, too, and just like I wanna know what her stance on things LGBTQ+ has to do with this when the law does say what it does about this already. I somehow get the impression that Congress isn’t asking the right questions but they might get around to asking them and there’s no telling what the FBI is going to turn up as they dig into her background and take a very close look alongside the Justice Department at her cases and decisions; to that end, I gotta say that if you’ve never had the FBI checking you out, you probably don’t have an idea of how deep they dig and right down to some things you’d probably not want to be made public… or wanting the FBI to find out.

I guess we’ll see how her confirmation turns out and if she makes it past this part, we’ll see what happens when she takes her place on the bench…

 

KDaddy’s General Observations: Political Insanity

I’ve been voting since I turned 18 and I’ve seen a lot of political madness over all this time… and nothing like I’ve been seeing today and with the 2020 elections growing closer. We are a house divided and nothing divides us more than politics; I can remember when politicking was… fighting fair, to put it that way, and with candidates putting more focus on convincing voters that they were, in deed and in fact, the right person to hold an office and with little in the way of digging up dirt on the other candidates…

Then I saw it all change and political candidates were more focused on digging up all the dirt they could and kinda/sorta just paying lip service to about why they should be the candidate to get voted into an office. Lots of truths mixed in with even more lies; even more stuff being taken out of context or otherwise misconstrued, not to really prove that one person was the better choice but to totally and completely assassinate the character of whomever was vying for the office.

Nothing seems to make us more insane than when it’s time to elect officials – any officials – for public office. The ongoing rift and dirty tactics between Republicans and Democrats has gotten so much worse and now that it’s become evident that foreign influences are – and probably always has been – involved in how we govern ourselves, my god… what the fuck is going on here? As I’ve written before, there are a lot of people I personally know who are expressing political views and to the point where I really don’t know who they are any longer. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t check Facebook or Twitter and see the insanity going on over this upcoming election and to the point where not only are people unfriending each other, whole families and friends are at war over things.

I’ve seen so much spin doctoring that it makes me dizzy; I see the direction Trump’s campaign has been going in as well as his antics and other behaviors that still has me wondering how he got elected in the first place. I’ve seen it written that this man is, hands down, the worst president this country has ever had and so much that he makes George Bush Jr. look like a stellar example of a good president. What amazes the shit out of me is that it’s been proven that this president not only knew of the dangers of COVID-19 and before it reached our shores, he choose not to do or say anything about it and has continued to downplay how terribly serious this has proven to be… and, yes, I’m wondering how he got “cured” of contracting the virus that is still sickening and/or killing not only Americans but people across the world.

It appalls me that there are so many people who believe that he’s been doing such a good job as president when there’s so much evidence that says that, bluntly, he sucks at being president and, even better, there are a lot of members of the GOP and RNC who, now, thinks it was a very bad idea to do whatever they did to get him into office and it’s clear that the country is suffering behind his indifference.

I’ve known about Joe Biden for a long time since he has represented my home state for that long time. I’ve met him, talked to him and, coincidentally, I happened to be at the hospital to have dinner with my mom who worked there when his family was brought in after the horrific car accident. Yeah… Joe is a character and then some and, yeah, he can be an embarrassment at times because he just isn’t known for having much of a filter in place… but I don’t know about other Delawareans, but I can’t say much in a bad way about his record as a politician and someone who spent decades representing us. He wasn’t always right… but he wasn’t always wrong. Our proudest moment, as Delawareans, was when he was selected to be vice-president and even then, um, Joe was still being Joe and if I can’t say anything else about the man, he is consistent.

Would he be the best choice to be president and the de facto leader of the free world? Maybe.. and maybe not. If you listen to and believe some Republicans, he’s the worst choice ever and in our history… and I’m having a hard time imagining how he could be or do any worse that the guy currently sitting in the Oval Office – and I’m not saying that because I’m a Democrat or because Joe is okay with me:

No: This is my intelligence trying to get a grip on this mess and everything that I’ve been seeing and hearing over Mr. Trump’s time in office is screaming at me and saying that to believe he’s been the “greatest president ever” means something is very wrong with me. I’m not gonna say that he hasn’t done good things while in office… but I’m of a mind that this country just might not do or be as well as it can be if he gets elected to serve another four years. Not with his attitude; not with his rather callous approach to the hot-button topics we’ve been going through – and we’re going through them because even he admitted to not giving the pandemic any real or serious importance… because he didn’t think it was important or, as it’s being suggested, he just didn’t give a fuck about it.

I don’t know about y’all but I’m thinking this is a problem. I sit and look at stuff about what the polls are saying but given that Mr. Trump got into office and in a way that, in my memory, only happened once before (but I’ve been told it’s actually happened twice before): The person who won the popular vote hands down didn’t become president. The last time, well, before the last time, we saw Al Gore run away with the popular vote even with some hanky-panky happening in Florida confusing things – and he didn’t become president. Then we saw it happen again: Hillary Clinton had the popular vote in the bag… but the Electoral College decided otherwise and she didn’t win.

And some people, at least from what I read today, are thinking that history is about to repeat itself again and back-to-back at that… and it seems to be scaring a lot of political experts and, I think, for good reason. We’ve learned that our political system is very broken and badly so; we even acknowledge that we seriously need to do some shit in order to fix it… and all we’ve done is talked about fixing it.

Still, what I’ve been seeing from people I know and who are on either side of the political fence, dear lord… what has gotten into them that they are more than willing and able to let their political views and beliefs destroy friendships and families? I read something written on Facebook from a very dear friend against Biden… and putting a very dizzying spin on something that Joe said way back when he was a mere US Senator and on a topic that, today, has no relevancy that I’m aware of since what she was losing her mind over was relevant decades ago. I sit and read – and with great sorrow at times – her going off the deep end with her views which, yeah, is her right but, at least to me, without the great intelligence I thought I knew she had and employed. She must’ve had written something that made Facebook fact-check it, found it to be false, and not only deleted it but told her that it was deleted… and she lost her shit over it.

I really did wonder why and more so when Facebook, in particular, went out of their way to make it clear that any fake news or unproven facts would be summarily deleted. She went on an unbelievable rampage about her freedom of speech rights being violated when, um, yeah – all Americans have that right to say whatever the fuck they want to… but that doesn’t mean that everyone is gonna find out that they said or even accept it.

I thought I knew her… and I really don’t. I see other people who continue to rabidly believe shit that valid sources keep proving to be untrue and, fuck me: I don’t know what kind of drugs or whatever these folks are on but I know I don’t want to be subjected to whatever it is that is making them, well, insane. This whole political situation is more polarizing than talking about sex and religion normally are and, of course, politics has always been one of those things that’s best left out of conversations.

When my beloved mother was alive, whew – she’d often be totally bent out of shape because her husband – a real fan of Donald Trump – would just keep fucking with her about how he believed in Trump and even I thought some of it was just him pushing her buttons since I knew – we all knew – that my mom was a very confirmed Democrat. What made this worse, at least from where I was sitting, was listening to him blaming Obama for my mom’s illness and blaming political entities for not providing her the care she most definitely deserved. I was in the room with him not too long after my mom came back from having life-saving surgery – and a surgery she shouldn’t have survived at all…

And he was almost yelling that she wasn’t getting the best possible care because of political considerations and, again, Obama was somehow directly responsible. I thought I knew this guy and I’ve known him for a very damned long time… and found out that I really didn’t know him at all, not if he believe that Donald Trump was going to make my mother any better than she could be. And he believed it more than he believed the science of medicine that was being explained to him.

That day in her room? I have never wanted to kick someone’s ass as much as I did his at that time. I couldn’t – and didn’t – understand why his politics seem to be more important that the fact that my mother – his wife – could have died on the table or before she even got on the table or even why he thought the government could do something about it. He’d disagree with what the doctor was telling him and, again, believed that the doctor’s political affiliations had something to do with it. The man was straight up losing whatever mind he had and despite how he was ranting and raving about politics, I really did understand that this was just him being very and seriously worried about her health and continued existence.

But, damn; is it just me or did everyone pretty much lose their minds once Mr. Trump took office? I have never seen the kind of shit I’m seeing before and I’ve seen quite a few very heated contests for office from local to the presidency. Shit… we had a county executive get stung by the FBI, removed from office and sent to prison… and he got out, ran for the office again… and fucking won! Anyone remember the mayor of Washington, DC? He got stung and outed for a lot of “evil” shit done in office, was removed, did a little time. got out, ran for the office again.. and he fucking won and against all odds and even common sense.

But this shit we’re seeing now? Like I said, I’ve never seen anything even close to this. I’ve never seen people be so polarized than they are right now; there’s a man sitting in the office that a whole lot of people, if they didn’t know it before, knows that he’s an asshole and the worst kind of asshole and, no – this isn’t my politics talking; this is what I’ve been reading and hearing from others. I know and even kinda accept that there are some things a sitting president will know about at it will be determined and decided that the American people, well, they don’t need to know about it and there hasn’t been a president who hasn’t been “guilty” of this and, yes, sometimes, it has cost the lives of those in the military and we’ve never really done a whole lot for those who have put their lives on the line – and have made the ultimate sacrifice and because of some political crap.

COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it – or knew it – and we now know that our president knew about it… and did nothing; he is still acting like this is no big deal to him. He’s fired a lot of people who didn’t agree with his views or plans; he’s castrated the organizations whose job is it to not only prevent this shit from happening but who’s supposed to do something about it. He really did tell people that we didn’t have to wear masks if we didn’t want to and against the expert advice given him that said that, yeah – mask up if you don’t wanna get sick.

Even his fellow Republicans are very unhappy about the way he’s been dealing with this… and if that doesn’t tell voters something, I don’t know what would. Him fighting with Congress and specifically Nancy Peloski? Actually nothing unusual about that since she’s a Democrat and in Congress, the war between Democrats and Republicans have always taken place and just the way shit happens in those hallowed halls… but even this business as usual thing has gotten out of control.

Do I think that Joe Biden can right the ship? I really don’t… what I do know is that if he wins the election, he’s going to have one seriously hell of a mess to clean up and even that isn’t all that unusual: Every president who has held the office has left a big, smelly, pile of shit for his replacement to deal with – just part of the job. Politics aside, I think no matter how the election goes, we are in deep trouble…

And our lives, as Americans, will never be the same ever again. I do not believe that political ideology is going to do a damned thing to restore or better our way of life. Republicans have always had their idea of how shit should be and Democrats historically have an opposing view of those ideas. We lose our collective minds over left wing versus right wing shit and we put so much importance on these disparate points of views that we’ve lost sight of what we should be doing: Doing the best we can do for each other and regardless to politics and more so when there’s a virus that’s still running wild and unchecked and killing us…

And Nero appears to be fiddling while Rome burns and I’m having a very hard time trying to understand why any sitting president would do such a thing – and then think they’re doing what’s right. And, yeah – if this had happened on Obama’s watch and he behaved in this manner, you bet your ass I wouldn’t say he was doing a good job… because he wouldn’t be. I wouldn’t dare to tell anyone how they should vote and I can easily sit here and think about stuff that’s both good and bad about both men fighting for the office.

I am officially worried… and everyone should be. Politics, such as they are, aren’t going to fix shit and our government has been historically and glacially slow when it comes to seeing to the well-being of the the people who votes any of them into office. Congress seems to be more worried about shit that affects them personally than they are in doing the job they were elected to do – to represent the people who voted them into office and to speak for us. Oh… they’re speaking alright… and some of the shit they’re talking about and going about doing is disturbing and more so now than any other time I can remember.

I was told, lo those many years ago, that if you don’t vote, you really don’t matter. I have, over all this time, listened to people bitching, moaning, and complaining about elected officials not doing shit the way they’re supposed to and, as such, going out of their way to not cast their vote and believing that it won’t ever make a difference. A lot of people sacrificed their very lives so that we could be able to vote and to insure that our right to do so is, can, and will forever be upheld. Maybe my vote – which has already been casted – won’t make much of a difference when it’s all said and done… but I voted… because it’s my right to and I’d take a very dim view of myself if I didn’t exercise that right that so many sacrificed so much to make sure I had. If none of my candidates win, it won’t be because I didn’t vote.

I’ll leave you with this to consider:

“Whilst men are linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design. They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to oppose it with united strength. Whereas, when they lie dispersed, without concert, order, or discipline, communication is uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable. Where men are not acquainted with each other’s principles, nor experienced in each other’s talents, nor at all practised in their mutual habitudes and dispositions by joint efforts in business; no personal confidence, no friendship, no common interest, subsisting among them; it is evidently impossible that they can act a public part with uniformity, perseverance, or efficacy. In a connection, the most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly unserviceable to the public. No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

–Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents 82-83 (1770) in: Select Works of Edmund Burke, vol. 1, p. 146 (Liberty Fund ed. 1999).

This is the long version of this: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” I think it’s appropriate in this context and, yeah, if you think or otherwise believe that the “wrong” person is holding an elected office they shouldn’t have, it’s not because of how people voted – it’s because they didn’t vote.

No matter how this cluster fuck of an election turns out, go vote. Be that good man or woman who chooses to do something rather than to do nothing.

PS: If anyone is of a mind to give me some shit about what I’ve written, don’t bother wasting your time doing it; I really and truly do not give a fuck about political affiliations and I’m not even that rooted in whatever I think about politics. Your objections are guaranteed to fall on deaf ears and no matter who you are supporting… or not. I expect to get flamed and I just want y’all to know that I’m fire-proof because none of this shit is worth getting pissed off about and it sure as fuck ain’t worth alienating anyone over.