Drive – mental mcnuggets from a lengthy commute

When you have a lengthy commute to work as I do, it gives one plenty of time to sort out a myriad of issues that might creep into the cerebral cortex and not leave…

I notice Amazon isn’t taking the bait from the President. I think he is attacking the company because the owner also owns the Washington Post.  The Post covers news. The President is frequently is in same. He doesn’t appear to like that. Maybe he shouldn’t have run. Pretty sure that when a public figure runs down a public traded company that it is a form of securities fraud.

Different towns in Western New York have decidedly different approaches to snow removal. When you cross through a variety of townships, the care and patterns do shift a bit. I guess that is a good thing, keeps me alert during the drive.

Everytime one of our weatherforecasters has said a storm is “nothing we can’t handle,” I see multiple evidence the next morning that we apparently cannot. From spinouts to rollovers, this winter has seen them all.

Is there a right way to protest? That seems to take over debates than the actual matter being debated. A tv show host busts a student advocate about getting rejected from colleges instead being at all concerned that he got shot at. He’s too wrapped up in her and is losing site of his original cause, noble as it was. I say was because it sure looks like nothing is really going to change, except for Stoneman Douglas will take a few elements of high school that are already prominent in many urban schools already.

What should change? Hey, glad you asked. Make all gun transactions the same. Make background checks universal. Let ATF databanks be electronic so they digitally track potential trouble spots so it can be a little more difficult for a whackdoo to be an armed whackdoo. That’s a pretty decent objective, no? The fact that we might never completely eradicate doesn’t mean we need to necessarily not try anything. Responsible gun owners lives don’t change at all. And, oh yeah, let the appropriate agencies full enforce what is already there on the books. That would be good. See, simple, let’s move on.

Good of the guy in graphics to be on top of what we truly need to know.

Last guy to perpetuate such a relentless and pointless press attack was Nixon. That worked out well.

We have become so touchy about issues, especially ones involve political figures or ideology that we don’t necessarily agree with. When Roger Waters and U2 played shows in the region, people groused on Facebook about those acts “turning political.” It makes me wonder what they’ve been listening to as both artists have always had a concern in the political arena.

The restart of “Roseanne” has people talking about politics and of all people, Kareen Abdul-Jabbar has it right. Check out his article on what is really playing out: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-dont-be-fooled-roseanne-is-tvs-anti-trump-show-1099170?utm_source=twitter

If you are taking your cues from a sitcom character, that might be an issue. That’s never been good, be it Roseanne or Archie Bunker. Can they spark debate and thought? Sure, and we can certainly use more of that.

I wonder if more folks are going to the final home Buffalo Sabres’ game for the Dominik Hasek bobblehead than the actual game. They are and always will be my team, but my team is broken.

The Cuban flag dates back into the 1800’s and is not symbolic of Castro and Communism. It needed to be said.

I really liked the NBC production of Jesus Christ Superstar. It had a few flaws but as a whole was pretty great. I enjoyed Alice Cooper as King Herod, but a friend of mine posited how cool it would have been to see what David Bowie could have done with that assignment. That would have been something to see.

This was pretty good, however.

So a local congressman is afraid to meet with students out of fear they might not agree with him? What a world. That’s how you win over voters, by showing up. That’s how a grownup behaves, or do those kids not matter until they are donors?

Social Security and Medicare? We’ve been paying into them all our working lives. Left to their own devices, the programs are self-maintaining. Don’t be fooled when they are talked of as entitlements. It’s a misleading word. These are programs that literally have been funded by taxpayers, our money that is getting mismanaged and is under assault by those who don’t represent us.

I wish the Sabres weren’t so terrible.

Time for a walk.

 

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Shenanigans

Can’t swing the proverbial dead cat without hitting some.

-The President Elect didn’t save jobs from Carrier. The state bribed them with tax breaks to not take them all. This is a strategy that worked out really well for Carrier in New York State where the only thing still functioning with the name Carrier on it is the dome.

-Saying you are “Draining the swamp” doesn’t preclude from the fact that you might just fool around and refill it.

-Coal jobs aren’t coming back. With wind and solar getting to be cheaper, it’s one of those industries that won’t dominate as it once did and for somebody to magically promise, without substantiation that the jobs are coming back is both exploitive and sad. But then again, so is believing that somebody.

-Did anybody ever take a more pained dinnertime photo than Mitt Romney? Whoever lit that table was editorializing in their own way. You can almost watch his soul leave.

-New York Times contributor Paul Krugman noted on Twitter that “Another metric: Trump would have to do one Carrier-sized deal a week for 30 years to save as many jobs as Obama’s auto bailout.”

-So the NFL decided to bust the Bills’ Offensive Lineman Seantrel Henderson for using medical marijuana…to treat Crohn’s Disease. First, just legalize it already. Look at the revenue that Colorado is reaping. Second, NFL? Really? Seriously? It’s not a performance enhancing drug, it’s a medical regimen. Good thing he isn’t beating anybody up. Oh, wait, you’re cool with that.

-The Affordable Care Act is a noble idea, but a flawed law. I think Congress wasted all those votes on repeal because they didn’t have to actually deal with the consequences of “what’s next?” Well, guess what, time to shine, obstructionists!

-Cutting Social Security and Medicaid, this confuses me a little, as they are things that we pay into, why would payouts need reduced? Oh yeah, because that pot of money keeps getting borrowed for other things.

-I’m not certain that Bernie Sanders would have won, but I’m glad the grumpy old man isn’t going gently into the good night.

-The recount efforts won’t change anything, but there is no harm in letting the process play out. I mean, unless you think it might not go your way, then panic on twitter.

-Nobody, and I mean, nobody ever gets everything they want or promise done once they get into office. That said, despite not being the most natural campaigner, Secretary Clinton was a pretty capable Senator.

-It would be good for our current President to take some action on Standing Rock, any action. And place his nominee on the court as a recess appointment. The court would be fully stocked for a year, while the obstructionists in congress publicly obfuscate, squirm and talking point their way around a nominee who actually meets their criteria.

-Steven Colbert was right, we are overpoliticked with the election. One of the worst mediums ever is the public comment sections of newspaper and tv websites. Laden with digital ninjas whose sole human contact is their moms yelling from upstairs to come up for breakfast, that style of uninformed, meme-posting, if you don’t agree with me, you must be a moron discourse is all over social media. I suppose this essay falls into that category, but it’s okay to disagree with me and I don’t live with mom.

-That said, everybody’s history has some poison in it. Every race, creed, color has a list of do-overs and we haven’t always come to grips with that. The naysayers who have issues with Black Lives Matter miss the point. All lives do matter and should matter, but the central point to me is that some lives haven’t mattered as much and correcting that takes time, time and recognition that a lengthy history of abuses, misconceptions and prejudice affects all involved and doesn’t magically go away. So, standing up for that is a good thing and that reminder very good.

So, another transition.

-The Buffalo Bills have me concerned. They had trouble with the 2-8 Jaguars at home and are going to play the Raiders, in Oakland, and the Raiders are pretty good again.

-It’s great that Jack is back, but should one guy….

It’s that time of the year where we act, mostly, like we should all year long. Let’s strive for less idiocy and realize that differing views don’t make the opposing parties morons. We can learn beyond facebook bickering.

 

 

“Long Walk Home”

““I believe in hope, not fear.” “I’m a leader, not a politician.” “It’s time for an American leader.” “America’s earned a change.” “I before ‘E’ except after ‘C’!” It’s the fortune-cookie candidacy! These are important thinkers, and understanding them can be very useful and it’s not ever going to happen at a four-hour seminar. When the President’s got an embassy surrounded in Haiti, or a keyhole photograph of a heavy water reactor, or any of the fifty life-and-death matters that walk across his desk every day, I don’t know if he’s thinking about Immanuel Kant or not. I doubt it, but if he does, I am comforted at least in my certainty that he is doing his best to reach for all of it and not just the McNuggets. Is it possible we would be willing to require any less of the person sitting in that chair? The low road? I don’t think it is..” — The West Wing

I was a little hooked on that program, but first step to recovery is admitting you have an issue, but that quote keeps coming back to me.

So, you found your candidate. Congrats! Not for nothing, now hush. Go read. I’ve been avoiding the bulk of the “discussions” on Facebook as they pretty much all are really stupid. People are forgetting everything but the most current zinger. Reading social media about the presidential election is a dizzying and nauseating idea. Everybody seems to be in the spirit of crapping all over the ideas they don’t immediately agree with, it’s like the whole campaign has come down to clever memes and easily forgotten double standards. It gave me pause reading through some of this stuff as my oldest friend and I probably don’t agree on much of this, but he’s still the best drinking bud I’m ever going to have. He’s never derided me nor I him. It’s a crazy notion, I know, respecting principles and all. Hell, having principles is tough enough. I say this because he is a smart fellow and informed and doesn’t browbeat anybody for their choices. I try to return the favor.

Everybody seems to be out to scare and frighten, paranoid of ideas that aren’t in lockstep with their own, clinging to words that barely make a meme as a position, intolerant of any facts, you know, those pesky things we studied before facebook status updates. I started writing this some time ago, and I was worried about focus. And then came the “no fact checking” headlines for the presidential debate and the quote about appeared in my head. We’re arguing over stupid things and not paying attention to what truly matters. “You can’t trust her” some wag posts on facebook. “He’s gone backrupt 4 times” posts another. “Her husband’s fooled around” “He’s on his third marriage.” Hey, guess what?

None of it or other non issues matter. Congressional leaders came out in 2008 and stated that their number one priority was to make sure the Obama administration failed. There have been email server issues since there has been email. There were 8 different Benghazi like incidents during the Bush administration and nary an investigation or question for that matter. One candidate has insulted gold star families, actual war heroes, handicapped reporters, advocated violence, shortchanging social security, wants to change freedom of speech so he can sue the media that doesn’t agree with him. He lost a billion dollars one year and got twenty years off from tax payments. That last part is legal, so I’m a little concerned about the losing a billion dollars in a year. That sounds like something out of Brewster’s Millions. She made Obamacare look good in the early 90s, promised New York state 200,000 jobs that never materialized, screwed up on NAFTA and was less the reverent with classified material. I mean now that Johnson and Johnson has said their insulin pumps are prey to hackers, perhaps we should let that go, but in light of all the mansplaining that has been going on, I miss Tim Russert. He wouldn’t take any guff from either side. The debates aren’t changing anything for anybody unless you are a meme-designer

Fact of the matter is that I’m with her if for no other reason that I prefer public service, to self service. There is nobility in the failure. The futility is in not trying. I’m under no illusion. Neither candidate gives a rat’s behind about my fortunes. That I spend part of 2015 unemployed isn’t an issue either candidate is going to address for me. You don’t get to profit from a system and complain it was rigged at the same time. That level of hypocrisy doesn’t work for me. You can’t have it both ways.  George Carlin was right. It’s a big club, but they don’t want us in it. You do have to play the cards dealt to you. I know I’m working through lunch on the day of my funeral, but I want a grown up at the wheel, not somebody prone to twitter rants at 4am. I  am making my choice based on the candidate who will reach for the whole thing and not just “Settle for the McNuggets.”

You don’t a President to bring us together. Officeholders don’t embue you with your humanity. If you post hateful things online or in newspaper columns, that’s on you. My folks put a premium on just being informed, knowing what is actually going on. That can be sometimes tough as every outlet seemingly has an angle and the supposed tough questions aren’t always getting asked, but I’m glad to see my kids are reading and digesting information from multiple sources. because these are complex times. It’s a strange thing where a white billionaire can say “America isn’t great” and have masses blindly cheer, and a black millionaire athlete can say the same thing and get a decidedly different reaction. We seem to be for freedom of speech until somebody actually uses it. It’s like we are looking to complain. While the candidates continue to bicker, I continue to hope they, like anybody running, would focus on what they would do on the job. Until that happens, debates are meaningless and skits like the Saturday Night Live debate parody contribute more to the conversation and raise the “Level of Debate”

In the meantime, the country we carry in our hearts is waiting.

 

 

 

 

 

Lawyers, Guns and Money

I started working on a blog post about the facebook-ization of everything. That is to say status updates being actual information, something to take seriously instead of the digital hieroglyphics that they actually are. Because we all have that digital soapbox, we are instantly experts at everything, from how to run a zoo, a campaign, policy race relations and the harsh reality is that nobody knows anything, but like a dinner of hyperactive kids trying to catch their folks attention, everybody is talking, and nobody is listening.

A horrible event like what happened in Orlando has everybody spouting and nobody reading or looking a little deeper. All the horror is deeply complex, more so than self-congratulatory tweets from Vulgar Talking Yam candidates to every moronic meme that is populating most folks facebook news feeds.

I didn’t set out to weigh into this particular subject area as it is one with more grey areas than we care to think about. About the only real conclusion that can be reached is that the system is definitely, flat out broken, and there doesn’t seem to be any get up and go make changes. Banning certain kinds of guns does slow down revenue for gun sellers, but I’m not certain that won’t keep things for finding their way. A lot of barstool philosophy has gone into this, but again no real action. I am of the mind that there should be some regulations on what someone can just show up and buy, as there doesn’t seem to be a logical use for certain weapons other that to injure as as much as rapidly as possible. For me that’s a problem. Ethical hunters wouldn’t stand by that.

But the broken system failed us. I don’t know if it is AR based weapons or another make of gun as there is a source saying that. I don’t think either are necessary for self defense or deer season, but you might disagree. A friend of mine who I have much respect for might be onto something that folks favoring AR or other gun bans are making the wrong case to support their point, not that a ban will save lives, but it would be morally incorrect to allow such things for civilian use.

If somebody wants to inflict harm, they will find methods of accomplishing that, but I agree with a few folks who posted that it shouldn’t be so easy for someone to get the guns they wish, especially when they have had documented domestic issues and caught the attention of the FBI.

Another poster mentions that “Terrorist used planes, not guns on 9/11.” We learned a little from that and made it harder for that to happen again (a work in progress, I grant you). Planes weren’t banned, it was made harder to use them as a potential weapon.

I found this article and will forward here to the three of you following my spiel: https://medium.com/@stinson/an-open-letter-to-liberal-friends-on-gun-control-c41d7a44d88b#.eexd0eglk

It’s a good read that spells things out a little more evening that a facebook post typically does.  And I didn’t know if you noticed, I’m not coming for your guns, nobody is. I mean they can have mine, but it’s up to them to refill it with water now and again.

I’m not so certain we’ve got the whole story, but we have gotten snippets that have all sides losing their minds, from ad-hoc conspiracy blusters to people who should never have a microphone placed in their faces again. And it doesn’t stop digital activists who activism stops at their enter keys.

Samantha Bee hit the nail on the head pretty good.

I’m not Orlando. I’m just a middle aged white guy who reads too much, but unlike other middle aged white straight guys, I’m not preaching about how others should feel. Nobody is in the position to do that and can you imagine how that much feel to the preachees?

But the system is fucked. I don’t know why the Vulgar Talking Yam (stolen from Esquire with respect) candidate wants the president to label the crime as that doesn’t accomplish anything other than rousing underinformed rabble. I know that if harm came to my kids in any fashion let alone the horrors of the folks in that nightclub, I couldn’t care less about the terminology being used as nothing would solve that hurt, no slogan will fix what happened. I wonder if the way to get the NRA to the table is for a bunch of folks to join and actually shift the agenda from within. Crazy, right.

I don’t blame the gun. He never should have had it.

The system is fucked. Let’s fix it.

 

 

Primary Colors

“I’m the President of the United States, not just the people who agree with me”

A fictional president said it, but you sort of wish all the folks running now would remember it as well. I worry about writing about the election at all since no one has ever changed the mind of anyone in a facebook post, yet there are plenty of folks in the “share if you agree” part of the electorate.

There are an awful lot of manufactured controversies that get big shift and real problems that aren’t getting addressed at all. There are some things don’t make a damn bit of sense to this semi-interested observer.

People really dig Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” but nobody has asked what that means. I mean no freedoms have been lost in 8 years, gas is $2.00  a gallon, unemployment and the deficit are headed in the proper direction. Show me what you mean there, o, curiously toupeed one.

On the other side, Hillary Clinton doesn’t know where Bernie Sanders was when she was championing health care as the first lady, but a picture revealed he was right behind her, literally.

Bernie, by the same token, I sort of admired at first, because he told you what he was standing for, actually taking a view. That is a rare thing, but redoing healthcare once more? I think the Senate might have millions of our dollars to waste taking that one down. Take what we have and make it better, refine what is there into something greater, so much so, the other side will want to take credit for it. It’s a million dollar idea, and it is yours for free.

Violence at a rally? seems like guy on the name plate should LEAD and shut that stuff down.

The same show I quoted at the top of this piece also once said “People aren’t smart during elections.” Another character countered with people are talked to like they aren’t smart during elections. While I want to agree with the second sentiment, the first seems to be playing out in greater detail. That is the depressing part.

Ted Cruz apparently wants to be the president of the white evangelicals and lock everybody else out. Trump will pay legal fees for anybody who punches a protestor in the face. His supporters have been caught on camera threatening to punch people. And don’t get me started on the Chris Matthews interview. And psst, Cruz is a bigger threat.

I get that none of them like each other. That’s fine, but they don’t seem think much of us either. Because despite all the speeches, and pointless debates, absolutely nothing has been said yet that will hold any weight on the actual Election Day. It’s like political American Idol, but we need Simon Cowell to call them all out.

You want the job, why should you have it?

But barely.

Vote, folks.

 

Schlockin’ the Vote

My dad has been the perpetuator of a number of great cons. I’ve tried to imitate a few in my own parenting career. One of the old man’s best schemes was the library trick. My folks correctly put a premium on reading and a weekend trip to the town library was a regular feature of my grade school life. Occasionally, we’d make a trip to the main library downtown. Saps that we were, my siblings and I ate it up. The result being that we grew up informed.

This came to mind watching the coverage of the stupidly early Presidential election. It is that right of passage where many things get said, but nothing gets talked about that has any ramifications for that often mentioned entity “the American people.”

I openly mocked the debate a few weeks ago and a friend pointed out that the show was “better than the state of the union the past six years.” He was probably right as those speeches don’t add up to anything typically no matter who was delivering the addresses.

And the same is holding true for now. The coverage shows that many of the republicans are upset with Hillary Clinton and the current president (who they are not running against). I think folks are gravitating toward Bernie Sanders as he is actually talking about the, get this, things he would do if he got the job of President. I like that. That’s a healthy trend, hopefully it spawns an imitator. It is something to respect the candidacy of Mr. Trump. While I don’t agree with what he stands for, he picked out some opinions and is hanging on them.  If I wanted to stand out as a candidate on the overcrowded republican side, perhaps that would be a good thing do, say why votes should come to my campaign. I mean when seven guys get relegated to debate happy hour, perhaps you should say something other than “I want to make America great again.”

I mean, what does that even mean?

It’s a great rant, and we could stand to know more. We could stand to know that the President shouldn’t get the blame for high gas prices or the credit for low ones, that it is more complicated that. We should know that Benghazi wasn’t the first time an embassy was a battle site. Every adminstration has had people who shouldn’t be in it.

Another favorite program of mine pointed out that “people get stupid during election seasons.” Another character correctly pointed out that wasn’t the case that “people get talked to like they are stupid.”

We shouldn’t be stupid. It’s a complex world and shouldn’t be boiled down to intolerant facebook status updates.

When it comes time to actually vote, which a long time away still, please do

Still six months till primaries start.

Indecision 2016

I’m already sick of the 2016 Presidential Election.

If there was a way to make it all go away until 2016, I’d be fine with that.

There was a line in one of the episodes of the West Wing that was something along the lines of voters get stupid during election years. And the president’s aide replied that “No, people get treated like they are stupid in election years.” I’m not sure who is right except a staggering amount of money will be spent as if both things are true.

I don’t know who I like yet, but I want to vote for them for what they will do in office, not because they aren’t somebody else. Hillary’s listening, Christie wants to gamble but not smoke, Rubio and Cruz are well against Hillary, Huckabee is in a favor of microphones, pointed at him, Rand Paul doesn’t want to answer questions on the Today Show and Jeb Bush is testing waters with press conferences. None of it will make any difference at all to folks voting. You can’t read a facebook feed without somebody posting “Benghazi” with a tourette’s like fervor like that should trigger something (for me, it’s where were all you self righteous knuckleheads during the embassy attacks or did ya notice security budgets were cut bipartisan like.).

There’s enough good and bad for everybody on all sides. Don’t trust, candidate X? Good, you shouldn’t.

My main point isn’t your candidate is bad or mine is good (especially since I ain’t got one). It’s that we should be picking them for them. Living in New York State, we are almost a moot point as far as the presidential election is concerned. It was fascinating to walk a few blocks to work in Wisconsin in 2008 as the real thing was being fought out there. We were into the general campaign at that point, but actual positions were being discussed in Milwaukee.

Voters were selecting who they wanted to win, which strikes me as the whole point of the process.

The parties need each other, desperately. In the meantime, anybody who is running = tell me this, why should I vote for you.

I’d like that answer, but not until 2016.

The Mets are on.