Month: June 2023

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Something I never thought I’d say…

I suppose there are a lot of those things.

In this particular case, it’s I’m happy with how long my computer battery lasts. I’m also somewhat impressed with the iPad battery too.

The computer is insane. I’ll use the thing for days. I’ll be surprised when I get a low battery warning and then think, “Oh Yeah, it’s been a while!” This is very different from the older machines I’ve had. I lived by their power monitors and always carried spare batteries or adapters.

I’m still working on settings on the iPad to minimize its power consumption. My Computer and iPad both use the M2 chip but the iPad is more in line with a day or day and a half of use. I think that’s because there are background applications that wake up or are running on the iPad that aren’t as “busy” on the computer.

I believe I can probably trim more of the iPad background applications out of the background and realize more power savings.

The point is, when I started using laptop computers years ago, a 2 hour battery life was considered good. Now I’m talking about 2 day battery life between charges. I’m using the machine as I normally would, I’m typing blogs, surfing the net, working on stories, (although not fast enough there,) attending video conferences or watching lectures. Through it all, the computer doesn’t seem to care or get winded. I don’t think I’ve heard the fans come on, ever.

For the first time I’ll leave the house with my machines in my brief case and leave the chargers behind.

I suppose this is on my mind because today the computer asked for a bit of power. I plugged it in, and it said okay I’m charging to 80% quickly. (That would have actually gotten me through my typical day with ease.) The computer then switched over to a holding pattern at 80% and will finish charging by about 1:30PM.

This means that the machine has figured out my general habits and is using the charging feature Apple designed to extend battery life. It’s cool. I can override it if I want, or need to, but why? I’d rather have a battery that’s healthy in two or three years (like my iPhone 12 Pro) than force the issue. Besides, I’m using the big monitor in the office. I like this monitor a lot but I like working with the computer on the back deck more.

For the past 24 hours the wind has been kicking up to crazy gusty levels. I don’t feel like sitting out on the deck in all the blowing dust and pollen. Even though the sun is shining and the temps are nice.

It’s been all I could do to keep my sinuses open and the poor dog literally snorted a patch of pollen he thought was a food wrapper (I think). He’s been sneezing 5 or 6 times at a go for the past two days. I laugh at him… Then he saunters down the hall trying to look dignified, until another sneezing fit hits and he sneezes himself into a wall or something. My continuing to laugh gets me a dirty look and he retires to his “Room” where he can be alerted about food but doesn’t have to look at me.

All of which is to say that the amount of pollen in the air is so high that getting it into a keyboard would not be such a good thing. So I don’t need to be sitting outside for my sake, the keyboard’s sake, or the dog’s sake. All of us are quite comfortable inside.

I’ve got the leeward side of the house open for the fresh air but every once in a while the wind will shift just for a minute or two and blow a new batch of yellow joy into the house.

I was originally going to use a photo of my hand but when I looked at the photo I realized that you could easily see all of my fingerprints. Probably not a great idea to broadcast that kind of biometric information across the internet! With a little work I could convert the image into usable prints, so you get the swiffer. If the FBI ever needed non carbon fingerprint dust, I can recommend pine pollen.

I hope you all have a nice Monday. I’m hitting the sinus spray again!

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I personally don’t care that much for Trump…

I literally can’t stand Biden!

Trump v. Biden? I’ll vote Trump every fucking time!

That being said, if either party presents reasonable alternatives to Biden or Trump, I’ll give them due consideration.

One of the things that I’ve always thought we should consider is a politician’s interaction with the public. Trump interacts with the common folk. I’ll bet the Secret Service has a lot of migraines because Trump gets into crowds in public. Trump is confident that people are going to be generally decent. I think that confidence is born out of his belief that things were better while he was president, and the average person knows it. Many people believe that Trump was at least trying to do the right thing even if misguided from time to time and Americans are pretty forgiving.

I look at Biden interacting with people and there is not the same energy. It not just his age, there’s something else. He’s uncomfortable and the crowd is uncomfortable. It’s like he’s forcing himself to be someplace that he doesn’t want to be.

Any politician that is visibly uncomfortable in a crowd of well wishers causes me to have an immediate distrust of them. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons that I personally distrust so many politicians.

I watched the coverage of Trump after his court appearance in Miami. CNN’s Jake Tapper was clearly offended demanding that the control room cut the live feed. I’d suspect a lot of America tuned into conservative video feeds and found those stations were sticking with Trump as he went to the Cuban restaurant.

When the locals embraced Trump and prayed for him I thought, “how kind,” then I thought, “The only time anyone is going to pray over Biden is when he’s in a box. Even then it’s questionable!”

I tuned in again when Trump made his speech in New Jersey.

While I don’t care for Trump, I found that his speech made sense. His words and the points he made were clear. This was refreshing, because the universal translator in my brain blows a fuse every time I try to listen to Biden.

Moreover, I agreed with him. Something is fundamentally wrong in this nation.

One of the most obvious examples of the rot, is a justice system that clearly has two tiers.

If Pence had documents, and Biden had documents, and Hillary had documents (and destroyed them even under subpoena), and Trump had documents, Why is ONLY TRUMP indicted?

Love Trump or hate Trump, if having documents is illegal then ALL of these people should be indicted. Especially since, of them all, Trump is the only one who had the power to declassify documents. It’s written in black and white in the Law

No one is above the law, right??? Isn’t that what the pundits and wags are saying? Isn’t that what the democrat machine is screaming from the rooftops?

We all know what the Democrats really mean is, no one is above the law, (Except Us). That sentiment extends well into the Republican Party too. I suppose a more accurate statement would be, “No one is above the law… (Except we who are the political elite.)”

That’s one of the fundamental problems in this country right now and everyone knows it. There are two tiers of justice. Hell, thinking about it there may be more than two tiers of Justice.

I’m a white guy. If I shoplift, I know for sure that I’m going to be arrested. If I was any other color but white, I’d get a pass.

White people get punished! Everyone else gets some kind of excuse.

Look at that Marine in New York.

A dude gets on the train, obviously not right in the head. He’s telling people he’s gonna kill them, he’s telling people he don’t care if he dies, he’s telling people he don’t care if he goes to jail. He’s saying all this crap in a closed train car that’s moving, there is literally no place to go to escape and of course there’s no police because… New York and defund the police.

So an ex Marine steps up. He didn’t plan to kill that dude, he didn’t plan to do him any harm at all, and he didn’t choke the guy for 15 minutes.

No Marine would waste the energy. If a Marine is gonna kill ya, trust me, it’s going to be over real fast.

Regardless of the fact that the dude was threatening people, or that he had a record of violence, (The Marine couldn’t have known that,) or that the Marine is by definition going to protect women and children. The New York DA decided to indict him saying that he essentially murdered the crazy dude. Let’s think about that. The New York DA whose known for not charging criminals for their behavior decided to charge a white guy who was protecting a train car full of women & children of multiple races. Mr. Penny was also assisted in restraining the crazy person by two other men who happened to be black or brown. They’re not charged as accomplices. No, only the white guy is charged.

I’m sorry that’s racist on its face, and underscores the two tiered nature of justice in this country.

An old rule is something like; You don’t let a rabid dog get a chance to bite someone. I’d say the same rules need to apply to humans.

Threaten people and say you don’t care if you die…

Don’t be surprised if someone stands up and says,

“Your Terms are Acceptable.”

But I guarantee you if the white dude was the one doing the threatening, screaming & hollering in people’s faces, terrorizing them, and a black Marine choked the fool killing him. The black Marine would be a hero, and the mayor would be shaking his hand.

No one would point out that the defund the police movement and the DA’s office in New York is very soft on crime. Or that these factors are responsible for the increasing crime in the first place. Would we apply reasoning and / or logic to the situation or ask how we came to this dire circumstance?

Nah. We’d move on to the next bullshit without missing a beat.

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I don’t have to outrun the Bear, I only have to outrun YOU!

Two Hunters in the woods.
One Hunter turns to the other and asks if they encounter a bear, could they outrun it.
The second and older hunter replies;
I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.

That old joke passed through my mind during some news coverage about Daniel Penny.

I’m not sure exactly why.

Perhaps it’s because if both hunters worked together they would be able to defeat the bear. But if they break and run then the bear is likely to get at least one of them.

Daniel Penny and two other men stood up to one bear in the subway car. I don’t believe for an instant Mr. Penny thought to kill anyone.

I’ve heard of, and actually seen on one occasion Marines goofing around choking each other out. They seem to consider it kind of harmless play. Indeed, most of the time, in most situations it seems to be harmless. Among Marines.

They’re fit, strong, and in the prime of their lives. (At least they’re supposed to be.) So they’ll lose consciousness, their buddies will draw a dick on their forehead and when they wake up everyone laughs and the recently unconscious guy is handed a beer. It’s a weird bonding, an expression of comradeship and nothing is thought of it.

Or wasn’t back when all my best friends were Marines. Granted, that was a decade or two (or three) ago. Things may have changed and the Marines might have gotten a little more pussified than they used to be.

Everything is going “Woke”. There may have been some recruits that couldn’t cut it, who sued because BOOT was too hard, and their feelings got hurt.

I wasn’t in the military. I broke bones as a teenager and the surgery to fix it disqualified me. I should have gone military. Looking back, I wish I had been able to, I’d like to have been pushed up against my limits. I’d have either gotten a lot out of the experience or I’d have spent my time in the brig or stockade. Whichever, I’d have learned a lot.

I suppose my experience with Marines colors my opinion. Every Marine I knew was goofy, funny, dirty minded, rough & tumble, honorable, kind, and when the shit hit the fan, deadly serious. In an instant, they focused on everyone getting out of the situation in one piece. None of them put up with threats, intimidation, or the strong picking on the weak. In my experience two Marines could hate each other’s guts, but they’d join forces instantly to protect someone who couldn’t protect themselves. It’s like somehow all of this is hardwired into Marine DNA.

I was honored to be counted among them, and honored again when they said I was scrappy in a fight but needed some training, then showed me how to fight better. I appreciated knowing they had my back as I had theirs. There was a rule that a lot of folks didn’t get…  if you ran your mouth in a bar or wherever and deserved an ass whipping you’d get one.

They’d stand by and let you and whoever you offended duke it out, but you weren’t gonna die. They’d make sure your well deserved ass whipping didn’t go too far in either direction. Win or lose, they’d take ya home clean ya up and critique your style while doing it.

It’s a weird mix. I guess it would confuse the hell out of people who’d never hung with any group of military folks. The group dynamic is different from any other group I’ve ever seen. Maybe a large family would come close. You and your brothers might fight like you’re going to kill each other but God help anyone who sucker punched a brother.

I miss those guys a lot.

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I guess all of this went through my mind as I was processing the news outlet reporting.

One conservative commentator got away with pointing out that the general media wouldn’t have made a big deal about it, if both participants were black, or if the person who died was white and the Marine in question was black. Or if both participants were white.

But because the Marine was white and the person who died was black, the media is in the promised land. Likewise we wouldn’t have all the protests and discussion about homelessness or all the rest. It would be just another white guy dead on the subway… Big Deal!

The problem is The Bear we all have to worry about now is the Bear of the mob, of the preconceived notions, the Bear of our spineless pandering leaders.

We’ve spent the last few years ignoring the mob, and all the stupid reasons for protests or razing of city blocks. We’ve watched politician after politician cave in to bad behavior and tacitly approve of escalating violence. At the same time police forces around the country are bleeding officers from their ranks.

This inevitably will lead to people standing up to defend those who cannot defend themselves, today we call it vigilantism, in centuries past we called it guardians of the community or village. The warriors who stood between the village and marauding hoards.

Woe be unto those who cause a warrior to put down his plow and pick up his sword. They will not survive the encounter. Real warriors value peace, home and hearth above all, but they understand war and the necessity to sometimes fight. When they go to war, they go to win.

New York and other large cities better brace for what’s coming next. If the people don’t feel safe going about their daily lives, Vigilantes will fill the vacuum left by the dismantling of police forces. When prosecution isn’t an option for career criminals in these cities, summary street execution will be. Vendetta will be the norm and innocent people will be caught in the crossfire.