Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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Hmmm A petition to recall MI governor Whitmer

Whitmer.jpgThat’s interesting!

I got a video taken by a guy wandering around in a Michigan Walmart.

The gardening supplies, seeds, plants, painting supplies, and BBQ stuff were all yellow taped. It wasn’t that the shelves were empty, they were full, just taped off.

His commentary was interesting because he’s muttering to himself about being stuck at home and not being able to do home projects.

I thought it was one single instance of a store misunderstanding lockdown instructions. When I saw the video I didn’t think much of it other than, “Boy someone is dumb.”

This morning, while catching up on the news. (I’m only taking the news in small doses every couple of days) I saw a headline on Breitbart that said; “Over 200,000 Michiganders Sign Petition to oust Governor Whitmer“

It turns out that the Walmart hadn’t misunderstood. They were complying with Michigan’s governor’s order.

Which leads to WTF?

I’m uploading the executive order Here.

The relevant part of the order reads:

For stores of more than 50,000 square feet:

(1)  Limit the number of customers in the store at one time (excluding
employees) to 4 people per 1,000 square feet of customer floor space.
The amount of customer floor space must be calculated to exclude
store areas that are closed under subprovision (2) of this subsection.

(2)  Close areas of the store—by cordoning them off, placing signs in aisles,
posting prominent signs, removing goods from shelves, or other
appropriate means—that are dedicated to the following classes of
goods:

(A)  Carpet or flooring.

(B)  Furniture.

(C)  Garden centers and plant nurseries.

(D)  Paint.

WTF? I could see maybe carpeting and flooring, possibly furniture because folks take their time deciding what they want.

But if you walk in and say I want paint in color X, a flat of Pansies, 1 package each of cucumber, carrot, and watermelon seeds. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to buy them.

The executive order seems somewhat random in its constraints about what will and will not be allowed. 

For example, you can be outside running, walking, biking, kayaking, and participating in other outdoor activities as long as you maintain social distancing requirements. 

But there was a report, I have yet to confirm, saying that a man had been arrested for being in a boat alone, out on a lake fishing. This activity does not conflict with the executive order so someone may have been arrested, but there may be more to the story.

The petition is on Change.org here 

A lot of comments in both the Breitbart piece and on the Change.org site appear to be disgruntled MI residents who feel that their Governor has over-reached her authority and is unnecessarily restricting their freedom. Another thread of comments say that she’s a possibility for the VP slot in Biden’s campaign, and is posturing for that position.

Given that MI has one of the higher rates of COVID-19 I’m not sure that the freedom allegation holds water. But the VP slot could cause her to be remotely interviewing.

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Watching really bad ’50s SciFi movies

ElviraWhat a way to spend the day.

Some of these are really bad and thankfully short. They’re fun because every once & a while you’ll see an actor that became famous later.

Often they’re impossibly young. I’ve watched more than a few of these movies only to discover in the credits that the actor I was struggling to recognize was someone super famous.

Some of the original Roger Corman films are a lot of fun. The only thing missing is Elvira making comments and bringing her very special brand of schlock to the commercial breaks.

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Happy day after Easter

The family wasn’t able to have their usual get together in the park. This kids didn’t get to have their easter egg hunt or play family baseball. Believe me there are enough folks between the immediate family and various in-laws to field two teams, have a few folks on the bench and a crowd in the stands.

Yeah, Easter dinner in the park is a big deal.

Everyone was just stuck at home, facetiming and wondering, “what next”.

On this coast, Easter was marked by a nice ham and simple fare for dinner. Nothing is particularly different from one day to the next.

Like most of the rest of the country I’m bored and I suspect that the country is getting to the point, that like an overheated boiler it’s going to blow.

How many movies can you watch? How many books can you read? How long before you just don’t give a damn and the need to see something beyond four walls over-rides your fear of an unseen enemy?

The  main stream media is painting a picture of death and destruction. But more and more independent video footage is appearing showing that hospitals aren’t over-run, contrary to what the media is saying. This makes me wonder what the real truth of the situation is. I am thankful the politicians were mostly quiet over the weekend. That was a relief.

I’ve caught up on seasons of SouthPark that I’d missed. I’ve been able to write a bit which is fine but like everyone else I’m restless.

In light of Easter I’m hoping that things will start moving again. That will present a whole new set of challenges but at least it will be different.

We’re looking at generally sunny mild weather for the next week. I’ll get some of the yard work done that I need to do. Hopefully we aren’t going to have another cold snap that dumps snow on us.

Try to keep your head together and remember that this won’t last forever.

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Bwhahahahah! There are some things that tickle the hell out of me!

CNN: Wanted: People who know a half century-old computer language so states can process unemployment claims.

willcodeforfood.jpegI saw this and just about laughed myself stupid.

I thought, “New Jersey is going to have to check homeless camps, ask old bartenders, check with real estate agents, lawyers, and gas station attendants.”

That’s where most of the old COBOL or FORTRAN programmers ended up, all of whom were laid off in favor of H1B1s. Yep, a lot of those programmers were tossed aside like yesterday’s trash by businesses, and government back in the 80’s.

manonbench.jpegA lot of them moved on to other things and I know several that built lucrative businesses in other fields. For a while I had an Eye doctor that had been a COBOL programmer. He was making way better money as an eye doctor than he ever made as a programmer and the hours were better too.

He didn’t regret getting out of programming at all. Like most of us old school tech people, he’d gone through lay off, after lay off, and had “trained” his replacements at too many companies.

homelesstents.jpegHe went back to school after his last layoff, graduated and started his own practice. To do this, he lived in a leaky teardrop trailer for two years after cashing out everything he owned to pay for school. He wasn’t eligible for student loans because he’d made too much in his previous positions.

I know some real estate agents and a couple of patent attorneys as well. They were all great programmers and they were treated like shit.

Iusedtobeyourneighbor.jpegThey wouldn’t touch a programming job now. It brings back bitter memories for them to even talk about programming.

See, they loved what they were doing, they had their joy crushed and were considered disposable in favor of “cheap” labor. Many of them simply walked off the job rather than “train” their foreign replacements.

I say “train” because more often than not the foreign replacements weren’t up to snuff to begin with. Many of these folks couldn’t follow the code, so training was a pointless exercise.

Then I remembered Y2K and thought it’s been 20 years. Couldn’t these government entities be bothered to update the equipment and programs? 

Some of the COBOL guys did come back to rework Y2K systems and they charged frankly obscene amounts to do it. I’d heard that several paid off houses and cars loans with the money they earned from Y2K contracts.

Then I thought, “Who’s gonna test it?”

I went back to laughing.

I’m sorry that the people in need of unemployment benefits aren’t going to be helped it’s not fair to them. However, this brings into sharp relief, other problems “leaders” in business and government have been sweeping under the carpet for decades.

The chickens are coming home to roost.

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Well, that wasn’t unexpected.

Bernie Sanders via Fox NewsBernie Sanders has dropped out of the Presidential race.

All I can say is, Duh!

After his relatively poor showings in key states it was something that should have happened weeks ago.

Surprising that it took him so long to decide. 

I’ve never understood how someone like him who is rich, could condemn wealth. I’d trade places with him. Give him a taste of what being on the other side of the walled garden is like. I guarantee that after a week he’d be wanting to trade back. Of course by that time I’d have done a little redistribution of my own.

Honestly, I’m amazed that he did as well as he did.

Come on, you’ve got to admit in your heart of hearts that it’s going to be a tough sell. A rich guy telling a country of not rich people that being rich is bad?

My thought was always, “If being rich is so heinous Bernie, then give your money to those less fortunate in your home state.”  I know that wouldn’t happen in a million years.

Just so you know, I’m not above taking a 500K handout from him. I’d pay off my house, bills, and car, then I’d see if I could get a job at a fast food place until I could legitimately retire.

If you think about the fact the 500K would do it for me personally, you might start to understand my frustration with rich politicians.

With that relatively small amount, I could wipe my debt, and be in a situation where minimum wage would pay my utility bills, provide insurance, fund a retirement account, and allow me to have some monthly savings. Perhaps It would even allow me to take a vacation once every 5 years instead of once every 12 years.

Look at the amount of money folks like Bernie and other politicians waste & you’ll start to get why I’m opposed to bloated Government and high taxes.

If we could reduce the tax burden by the cost of countless pointless hearings and Pelosi follies, overall the average taxpayer would be better off.

Unfortunately that’s not the way it works. The Government will always find a way to keep what they’re taking and find new ways to take more.

Under Bernie, I wholeheartedly believe that it would have been business as usual and those of us in the middle class would have been worse off.

So it’s with a certain sense of relief that Bernie is out of the race.

Joe biden 2012 7 13Sadly, that leaves Biden. 

Biden was at one time a statesman that I respected.

But those days are past. He’s well past his prime and honestly I’m concerned over what appears to be his degraded mental state.

The last thing we need in a president is someone that’s not all there. With Trump we got lucky, he may not be all there, but he’s contentious enough that he’s not going to be manipulated without a fight.

Dourif lotrWith Biden I’m not so sure.

In his case, I start asking, “Who would be the power behind Biden?”

Would it be his VP? Or would it be some other shadowy character whispering into Joe’s ear?

If it was his VP then we could still come out ahead, so long as that VP was someone that had a brain and was minimally  interested in serving the people.

But we all know it doesn’t work that way. A corrupt VP could do much more damage to the country than a bad president. I know if I were nefarious, a VP slot with an “out of it” President would be perfect…

You do pretty much whatever you want, work it out so that you have two terms, arrange your power, take as much cash as you can, and let the outgoing President take the blame…

You bail to Malta with untold millions and live out your days quietly, opulently, and laugh every time your investments double.

I never said it would be right, moral, or ethical. 

It’s because I think of shit like this, that I’m mistrusting of government. The potential for abuse is just too damn high and no-one is above temptation.

Hell, I’m a straight shooting, ethically bound, guy. I can tell you without hesitation, If I were a VP with Biden as President, I’d have a tough time not taking advantage of the situation I described.

I don’t believe that the majority of politicians are equal to me in ethics, or morality.  

That being said, I think Biden in his current state, isn’t the man for the job. I think he’s not there enough to realize he’s being manipulated. Which leads me to believe if he’s elected we’ll have 8 years of super bad stuff happening in this nation.

Just my 2 cents.

This election year I again find myself in a position where I either vote for the Devil I know, or don’t vote at all.

Another thing I have to thank the Democratic party for… Really? You couldn’t come up with better candidates?

OH and for the record… I’m registering Independent. Because both parties have so utterly and completely failed our nation.

Later that day…

Well, that was easy. I just changed my voter registration to “Independent” online. Gee it’s nice when governmental online stuff actually works.

Now, if only the same could be said for CoveredCalifornia’s website or the Employment Development website. Both sites are terrible, buggy, and clearly untested across multiple web-browsers and operating systems.

Later Still… 

I realized that the American Independent Party doesn’t really align with my world view. In fact they seem to be a little to the right of the more radical parts of the Republican party. Clearly I’d confused The American Independent with someone else. 

So I began more research. I know that it’s not ever going to be a perfect fit between a party and me so it’s a matter of who fits best.

So the American Independent party is out.

The Democratic party is a complete no-go

The Republicans have drifted away from the principals they had back in my Dad’s time (When I first registered to vote)

The Green party is the Democratic party on steroids and a no go.

Obviously the Communist party is right out.

The Libertarian Party… Hey, their platform / mission statement resonates. Minimal Government, Freedom of the individual, personal responsibility, individualism.

Hmmmm.

Wow! There are a lot of political parties in the US. This is going to take some time to analyze.

But analyze I will. I want to be a member of a party that actually represents my beliefs and I want to be joined by other like minded people because in numbers there is strength.

I’m tired of tone deaf political parties that are only interested in their agendas and actively ignore the will or rights of the people they’re supposed to be representing.