Month: November 2022

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Red Wave? My Ass, more like bathtub ring.

I’ve made a bigger wave dropping a deuce in my toilet.

Sorry for the crudeness but damn!

I’m guessing that the lawsuits will start immediately, the demands for recounts will provide entertainment through the Winter and in the end, nothing will have substantially changed.

It’s the same as is ever was.

Watching the election night coverage on ABC last night there were some things that really bothered me. The pundits kept talking about election deniers on the ballot, that was expected. One of the things that I found really annoying was how many times the pundits pointed out that Candidate X, Y, or Z was “at the capital on January 6th,”

I kept thinking, “So What?” There were a TON of people at the Capital on Jan 6th. It makes sense that some fractional part of those people may have chosen to run for office, to legally correct what they saw as a problem is not surprising. That’s called patriotism and following the law.

It’s the way the system is supposed to work. If you think the government is doing it wrong you have the right to protest.

If the protest doesn’t cause changes, then by God, if you think you can do a better job, you have the right to run for office. That’s not “Wrong”, “Suspicious”, or “Criminal”, it should be acknowledged and appreciated for what it is, The Love of Country.

What I saw last night on ABC was the pundits using someone’s mere presence at the capitol on Jan 6th as a cudgel. There are a lot of reasons people might have been at The Capitol on Jan 6th. They might have been there to simply voice their opinion without engaging in riots, guess what? That’s totally acceptable!

AOC and Nancy Pelosi were at the Capital on Jan 6th, you don’t see them being maligned by the media. There were people who were there to wait for the results in person, you know, folks who innocently wanted to be physically present for a little bit of history.

ABC kept mentioning the military candidates running. As if that was a bad thing or somehow wrong. Those military candidates already served the country, especially those who were career military. It is unsurprising that they would be among folks who, if they thought the country was on the wrong track would seek to correct course through the legal and peaceful mechanism of election.

I was very disappointed in the way ABC chose to cover the election results. I was reminded again why I don’t like main stream media.

When I went to bed last night, I knew John Fetterman would win. He got the pity vote from Pennsylvania. Yeah, he had a stroke that’s sad.

But it doesn’t qualify him to be a United States Senator. The man is cognitively challenged, plain and simple. But if Pennsylvania is moronic enough to want Fetterman as a Senator, more power to them. For my part, I’m not going to take any problem in Pennsylvania seriously. The people of that state electing someone who is obviously a mess cognitively, speaks volumes about the people of the state in toto.

Don’t mistake my comments about Fetterman as an endorsement of Dr. Oz. I’m not sure Dr. Oz has the right stuff to be a Senator, but at least his brain is fully operational.

On the plus side, Joe Biden will have someone to hang with at parties.

ABC was harping on about “Election Deniers”. I kept thinking, “So what? Why is that a thing, or even an issue? These election deniers are participating in an election, so clearly this still believe the system can work.”

I guess I think differently than most people. I will be interested to see how the media handles Democrats that lose and demand recounts and file lawsuits. By definition those candidates will be election deniers. Stacy Abrams I’m looking at you! Although Stacy did apparently concede to Kemp this time.

ABC was also mentioning abortion every 7 minutes. Then they started reporting the states who had amended their constitution to enshrine abortion rights. ABC didn’t once mention that this process was exactly what was supposed to happen.

Overturning Roe v Wade, kicked the issue back to the States.

Many States, including California accepted that responsibility, and guess what? They let the voters decide. Again, this is what was supposed to happen, Overturning Roe v Wade didn’t destroy the country, all the hand wringing, protesting, and wailing was completely unnecessary. The Supreme Court simply corrected Judicial over-reach on their part. Congress had almost 50 years to put forward an amendment to the US Constitution and they did nothing. So the Supreme Court returned the question to the states. Big Deal! So What?

Even the bastion of “oppression” that is Florida, says abortion is legal for 15 weeks, and they have exceptions in the case of rape, incest, and danger to the mother. Yes, I looked it up.

Why? Because my Stepfather was spouting on about how awful Florida was in its abortion stance. When I asked if he’d actually looked up the law he said, “no”. I pulled up the Florida Law, from the Florida Website, and showed it to him. He’d bought hook, line, and sinker, the abortion activists spin as reported by the media that Florida was completely abortion free.

My stepfather tried to make the argument that there have been cases of women not knowing they were pregnant. My reply was, “Then abortion rights to them, is irrelevant because if they didn’t know they were pregnant, they wouldn’t have sought an abortion in the first place.” That shut down the abortion discussion at my parents home.

Going into the election I thought perhaps we had a chance at making course corrections that would actually help the whole country. Now I’m wondering if the system irrevocably broken and just how dumb my fellow Americans are.

If the system is irrevocably broken then I have no desire to pay attention to, or participate in it. In my mind, that’s the equivalent of masturbating but never quite getting to the “Money Shot” for years on end. It’s not about my “side” winning or losing. This is about continuing to vote, participating in the system, and nothing ever changing except to get worse.

Even more frightening, is the possibility that the American People really are too stupid to survive. Maybe our nation is descending into 3rd world status not by nefarious design, but though natural processes. Perhaps, the “Great Experiment” is winding down to failure and America is getting what it actually deserves.

I hope that is not the case, but evidence does seem to be mounting.

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Election Day!

Happy Election Day!

It’s a cold rainy day here on the mountain. On the plus side, at least I’m not having to walk through snow to the polling place and back. Yes, I’ve done that in past elections. It’s been raining enough here that if it was only a few degrees colder we’d have a foot or more of snow.

If it’s raining where you are, don’t let that stop you from casting your vote!

I don’t buy the hyperbole about voting for the soul of the nation. 

In fact I don’t care what your politics are, or your party preference. 

What I do care about is that you vote. Vote your conscience, vote for candidates that represent your beliefs, vote because it’s your civic duty.

If you can’t be bothered to do this one thing, then you have no voice and I’m not going to listen to you whining about the results after the election.

IVoted

Personally, I’m hoping to see Gavin Newsom tossed out, unfortunately here in California that won’t make much of a difference because there are a lot of bad ideas that have ossified into the dreaded, “We’ve always done it this way,” mindset in this state.

I would enjoy seeing Gavin standing there with his hair blown back in surprise. I know it’s kind of a cheap shot but I’d love to see his smug arrogance take a nice uppercut. For clarity’s sake, I’m not advocating physical violence to Gavin, I’m speaking metaphorically about his attitude and arrogance taking a hit.

There was a time when such disclaimers weren’t necessary, these days though, people seem to be searching for anything they can spin into something it’s not.

I pray that Newsom takes such a drubbing that any presidential aspirations he may have, get flushed down the toilet. The whole country knows what Newsom has done to California. I’m hoping that they remember it in 2024 and decide they don’t want the rest of the country to follow California’s lead. Let the wonder that is Kamala Harris be a warning to everyone.

I’ve been fascinated by the Democrat messaging over the past week or so. (Spending hours on end in a car means you listen to a lot of radio.) The message seems almost like they’re expecting to take a major hit. Some candidates sounded like they just expected to win without really putting in the work.

These candidates seem quite surprised that they’re being challenged strongly by their opponents. When asked why their opponent is doing so well in polls they’re unable to answer. To me that speaks to a profound disconnect between the incumbents and their constituents. In a nutshell, that’s the answer.  Many of them appear to be blindsided that their voters are interested in much more basic issues than special interest stuff. Most of us are really focused on basic necessities.

How can so many candidates have missed or ignored that?

The Republican Party appears to have capitalized on the concerns most Americans have. What remains to be seen is if they were lying to get into office or if the candidates really meant what they said on the campaign trail. 

Time and vote counts will tell.

There was a piece in Politico that says in part, “The 2020 presidential election was rife with allegations of voting machine hacks that were later debunked. Yet there are real risks that hackers could tunnel into voting equipment and other election infrastructure to try to undermine Tuesday’s vote.” 

That one was a head snapper. I thought there was no possibility that the election could be tampered with. Isn’t that what we were told after the 2020 election? So what’s changed?

More from Politico

Wireless modems enabling hacks of voting machines or vote tallies

At least seven states and Washington, D.C., use wireless modems to transmit unofficial election-night results to their central offices. These modems use telecommunications networks that are vulnerable to hackers, and malicious actors could exploit them to tamper with unofficial vote data, corrupt voting machines or compromise the computers used to tally official results.

Really? So are we to assume that since the 2020 election which was “perfect and secure”, that some states have taken steps to make the voting process more vulnerable? If these states haven’t made the process less secure, then can we assume that these states were as vulnerable in 2020 as they are today?

Does that mean that law suits filed by Trump which were dismissed as having no standing should be re-evaluated? 

I’m sorry, but I’m kind of a binary guy. Either something is a problem or it’s not, Politico seems to be playing both sides depending on which party wins. How about we just settle for reporting the actual facts, and let the chips fall where they may? That would seem to be a simpler way to deal with politics and life in general. 

President Biden’s speech may have muddied the voting waters as well. Listening to his speech I couldn’t help but think he was setting us all up for endless challenges about ballot counts and election integrity. As if we haven’t had quite enough of all of that over the past two years. What happens when the Democrats become “Election Deniers”? How does that play out?

If both parties become election deniers, does that mean both groups are domestic terrorists?

I’m looking for a change in this election.

I’d like to see someone tap the brakes on the excessive spending in Washington.

Instead of hiking the interest rates to curb inflation, how about we fix the supply chain issues? More products on the shelves and in the pipeline would also curb inflation.

I hope that our politicians pay more attention to the immediate issues that we’re all facing.

Go Vote, and have a good day!

 

The rain has picked up quite a bit. The normally dry creek bed behind the house is roaring, rocks the size of small cars are tumbling down the mountain. It’s causing the ground to shake almost as if there’s an earthquake.

When I think of all the water rushing down to the desert floor, I’m hoping that it makes it into the ground and replenishes the aquifers a bit.

Before all the streets and rain culverts, water ran down and soaked right in. On old aerial maps a perfect example of an alluvial plain was clearly visible. Today, with all the streets, parking lots, and pavement, localized flooding is becoming more common at the base of the mountain. Builders and City officials literally paved over the alluvial plain and now spend tons of taxpayer’s money combating the flooding. It would have been simpler to take the hint from nature and not allow building there in the first place.

For all our knowledge, humans miss the obvious more often than not.

I’ve often thought there should be wilderness buffer zones between communities. I picture areas that provide habitat for wildlife and access for runoff to soak into the ground. Zones as I envision them, would provide places for walking, hiking and communing with nature. I’m not talking about miles wide buffers, I’m talking about 1/4 of a mile or so green belts.

I guess the problem is that some people would see wilderness areas as places to dump their trash and do bad things.

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Finally Back!

Got back to my mountain late yesterday.

I am beat. I’ve got laundry running, the car is filthy and there’s rain and snow predicted for this week. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch up on chores around the house before Winter really sets in.

On the plus side, since I was traveling across time zones during the few days leading up to DST. That doesn’t seem to have hit me as hard as usual. I don’t know what time it is and haven’t known the time for at least the past two weeks.

Election Day is tomorrow, I specifically told the family that I needed to be back to vote, (A little white lie…). I’ll be voting in person and producing my ID even though it is not required. I want to make a statement. My statement will be ignored, but at least I’ll sleep secure in the knowledge that I made it.

Driving across country is always enlightening. When I left California, I made sure that I bought only enough gas to get me across the border to Arizona. 50 miles over the border, I filled my tank with 93 Octane for 4.50 a gallon. An immediate savings of about 2.00 and my car gave me a range of over 550 miles with that fuel blend. When the computer in the car said that was my estimated range I thought something was wrong. In California with their 91 Octane blend, I’m lucky to get 380 miles per tank. As it turns out, the computer was correct. 500 miles later I stopped to refuel.

Tell me again, how shitty gas saves the environment? It seems to me if you go further using less fuel and that fuel is burning efficiently that you’re doing more for the environment. Less drilling, less emissions, lower costs. But I’m just one of the unwashed morons what do I know?

When I got to Florida the Octane was still 93 and the cost per gallon was 3.80 The Floridians were complaining about the cost of fuel and I just smiled. There was one guy who saw my smile, I pointed at the California Plates on my car and shrugged. The man laughed and said, “I guess it’s a matter of perspective.”

I’ve also decided that TX is not for me as a possible place to escape the insanity of California. Every single time I’ve driven through TX, they seem to have more roads torn up than actually in good repair. Houston, Dallas/FtWorth, San Antonio, even Amarillo are terrible. 

Coming back to California, the last 30 miles of the I-10 in Louisiana all the way through Houston was a solid mess of construction, and traffic jams that were worse than Los Angeles at rush hour. San Antonio was a shit show and by the time I got there all I wanted was to find a straight country road to take me off I-10. I easily lost a day of travel just because of poor traffic management due to construction.

New Mexico, I blew through both directions. Last year they were still doing all the bullshit covid masking kabuki theater when I went through, and this year there was still some evidence of that. Plus their gas prices were noticeably higher than either Arizona or Texas which leads me to believe they’ve got some dumbass state taxes on the books that, like California aren’t being used to keep their roads in good repair. Fortunately, the gas range on the car meant that I only had to stop once. 

Texas may always have roads torn up, but at least there aren’t potholes that you could lose a city bus in. New Mexico on the other hand…

Most of Arizona is also out of the running for me personally as a retirement location. There are some very pretty places in Arizona. I’m fond of Flagstaff and the surrounding area. Coming through Tuscon and Phoenix felt like I was already back in California, just further from the beach. Flagstaff is a maybe, the rest of AZ not so much.

The sad part of the trip for me was that I’ve been driving across country for years. I can remember when the I-10 was a smooth ribbon of concrete. You’d often notice you were in another state because the road surface itself was a slightly different color. In Arizona for example, the I-10 had a reddish color I always thought that color was because of the color of the sand from the state. Now all the roads are gray and nondescript. What variations there are now, are from tar patches filling in the potholes. 

Approaching the California border there seemed to be a lot of U-Hauls heading East. Doing 70 behind a long line of 18 wheelers I wondered if those people apparently leaving would remember to leave their California attitudes behind or would they recreate the same conditions that led them to leave California at their destinations. 

I suppose only time will tell.

When I finally get to leave California for the last time, I’ll be sad. But I will do my best to leave all the California bullshit politics, bad ideas, and baggage at the border.

Bad ideas aren’t a crime, not recognizing a bad idea and continuing to double down on something that isn’t working is a crime. California seems to have done a lot of doubling down and not a lot of introspection.