So does this mean….

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson May15 23 AP 640x480That reparations are off the table?

While Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago was blaming white extremists for some of the problems in Chicago he said one thing that really stuck out from all the usual diatribe.

“It is abysmal and it is an affront to everything that is good about this country for the extremism in this country to use people as political tools to settle political scores for something that happened over 400 years ago. They’re still mad that a black man is free in this country,” – Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago.

Is he suggesting that we should stop trying to settle scores for something that happened 400 years ago?

If so, does he mean all scores? Since reparations have been paid at least once, (40 acres and a mule) I’d take Brandon Johnson at his word and say, “Okay, The black community needs to stop asking for more reparations and those evil white extremists will stop doing whatever you’re accusing them of.”

Let’s face it, the majority of this whole white supremacy/ white extremist narrative is nothing more than a reuse of “The Monster in the closet/ Boogieman” designed to terrify black folks into voting for the Democrats. It’s a lot like the Hamas children’s shows extolling the evil of the Jews and teaching little Palestinian Children that killing Jews is a good thing.

In fact you could take one of those Hamas children shows and replace the word “Jew” with the word “White” and not have to reshoot a single frame of the show. A lot of black folks would eat that shit right up and be burning and looting inside a week. Especially if you made sure that everyone knew the show was from Palestine. (After all if it’s from Palestine it has to be “good and right” doesn’t it?)

Chicago is a shit show and has been a shit show for a very long time. I have an acquaintance who talks about driving into Chicago for a Thanksgiving gathering in the late 1970’s and getting shot in the leg, sitting inside the car after filling his tank with gas. No warning, no altercation, he just happened to be a white guy passing through South Chicago. The family was selling their home due to the rising crime and this was to be the last Thanksgiving in Illinois. The round was a .22 and had to be surgically removed. The police of course never found the shooter, and couldn’t even say if he was a target or if the round ricocheted from a gun fight happening half a block away.

The issue isn’t White Supremacy or extremists. The issue is one of law and order. If someone breaks the law and gets arrested, it doesn’t matter what the color of their skin is, or their financial circumstances, or in fact anything except that they broke the law. They should pay the price! End of discussion.

The only variation I’d offer is for children. Sometimes a kid gets caught up in something that escalates so fast they’re in the middle of a storm. I’d suggest we go back to the time when a judge could show lenience in the case of a first time offender. The judge could sentence the youthful offender to supervised public service. 

Paint buildings in the park. Pick up trash. Have the kid do something useful and make it clear that if they wanted a part time job it’s available depending on their grades, their parents permission, and how hard they work. Try to instill a sense of pride in the community.

Oh yes, that can’t work right now because there are too many people with completely different views of pride in their communities and simply too many people committing crimes.

Johnson doesn’t want to say it out loud. 

Chicago is the mess it is due to poor public policies, lack of law enforcement, lenient courts, and being a sanctuary city. Lightfoot didn’t help matters and he does have a mess to clean up, but Lightfoot is not solely to blame for that mess. Johnson needs to blame half a century of poor Democratic leadership. People who wouldn’t learn from their mistakes and who simply kept doubling down instead of discarding failed ideas.

Wow! This FUCK really doesn’t give a shit…

JacksmithsilkenrobesofstateJack Smith, you know, the fuck who’s going so hard after Trump just completely lost me. The New York Post is carrying an article here

I was more or less willing to at least listen to his side of the case against Trump because that’s what a decent person does. I don’t know if Trump did bad shit, He’s been accused time and again of doing shit. But without proof I was curious about what exactly the prosecution had on Trump.

Now I don’t fucking care! Guilty or not, I feel that I’m faced once again with choosing the lesser of two evils. I’ll choose Trump in opposition to Biden and his corrupt government. I’ll do it with certain reservations but to be honest with the hope that Trump does become a dictator and cleans out the corruption in our government, Executive, Legislative, Judicial, and all the lifelong bureaucrats, With FIRING SQUADS!

I know that sounds excessive, harsh, and possibly illegal. But when the rot is as deep as it appears to be, it’s best to burn it out as quickly as possible. If there are harsh consequences and penalties for corruption, then maybe we’ve got a chance.

Jack Smith issued a search warrant to Twitter of which half is redacted, demanding Twitter disclose all Trump’s Twitter interactions. Smith didn’t limit his warrant/subpoena to only two way conversations between Trump & others. Smith wants it all.

This potentially exposes millions of people to the DOJ.

2021 message signals return trump 72916781 1 jpgTechnically, if you “Liked” or “Retweeted” a Trump Tweet you’re gonna be on the DOJs radar. 

I’ll grant you that nothing is private in a public forum like Twitter. However, This goes too damn far! What happens when… Yes, WHEN not IF, our corrupt DOJ or IRS, decides to punish everyone who interacted with a Trump Tweet?

We’ve already heard for the entire time Biden has been in the White House about the “Existential Threat” posed by the evil WHITE PEOPLE.

You know, the election questioners, the white supremacists, the Domestic Terrorists composed of parents with the temerity to ask questions of their representatives or school boards, the people who demand accountability from their representatives. Yeah those people. a.k.a. Half of the fucking country! 

We all know it’s coming. Our government his slipped it’s leash. It is no longer under our control and I doubt seriously that even Trump can put that genie back in the bottle. 

The folks controlling our government are probably not even our elected officials. There is someone, or a group of someones behind the curtain who are driving us all headlong into one of several possible dystopian nightmares. 

I think most Dystopian nightmares have been at least roughly sketched out by various fiction authors. All that remains is, which one the assholes behind the curtain, drive us toward.

I’m not going to be terribly surprised to find we’re all carrying little red books in 20 years. It’s possible we’ve already been sold to China and we’ll be used like the Uyghurs in slave labor camps. Why not? China will not be questioned by the UN. The UN won’t be around long after China “wins” anyway. 

Will China even need us as slave labor?  If China owns our asses anyway then who are they going to sell their shit to?

All I can say at this point is, we absolutely need a real son of a bitch with a set of big brass balls as president.

He can grab all the women he wants by their pussy, as long as he puts an end to the corruption in our government.

Hell, I’d be happy to be President…

I REALLY ENJOYED being the specter of death in some companies I’ve worked for. There were people that richly deserved the pink slips I handed out.

I’m sure walking through the halls of government issuing warrants for arrest wouldn’t be much different.

I wonder if “Take them away,” would have as much impact as, “Off with their heads!”

Dunno, but it might be interesting to find out.

Hmmm. Interesting, and they wonder why we don’t trust them…

REVW0406So this cold is annoying enough that I was thinking about getting some over the counter cold remedy. Then I thought about it and seemed to recall seeing something about the FDA doing a study on cold medications and discovering problems with them.

Off to the internet, Boy Wonder! CBS Reports this

Ahh, there it is:

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Tuesday against the effectiveness of the ingredient found in popular versions of Sudafed, Allegra, Dayquil, and other medications sold on pharmacy shelves.

“Modern studies, when well-conducted, are not showing any improvement in congestion with phenylephrine,” said Dr. Mark Dykewicz, an allergy specialist at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

So here’s the deal, these medications use phenylephrine. They used to use pseudoephedrine. Pseudoephedrine worked but was taken out of the normal OTC medications because it was possible to convert it into Meth.

Phenylephrine was grandfathered into use without much in the way of testing for efficacy by the FDA. It should be noted that there are tons of drugs, and products that are grandfathered like this all the time. Some of these grandfathered products are later found to be, at best ineffective, and at worse harmful.

The cold medications appear to be simply useless if they’re not using Pseudoephedrine. But it does beg the question, how many other medically approved products are nothing more than Placebos or as it was said in the past “Snake Oil”. Placebos have their place in clinical testing, because they provide a baseline to determine if a drug under test is doing anything.

In the past, purveyors of  Snake Oil may have been tarred and feathered and run out of town, if they weren’t hung for hurting and swindling people. The FDA was created to provide a measure of safety to the public because of the prevalence of snake oil and quacks.

Yet here we are, the FDA having been complicit in cold remedies that don’t work, a.k.a. FRAUD! The cost of a box of these cold remedies is /was  $10 to $15 and were sold to millions of people. The fraud generated billions for drug manufacturers.

I’d like to have my money back! I looks like I’m due a refund from 1980 forward??? I’d have to find when Pseudoephedrine was swapped out.

On the plus side, we all got over our colds pretty much naturally! This also might explain the apparent conflicting data between the folks who swear by natural remedies versus Doctors recommending OTC remedies. It’s possible that the natural remedies actually performed better because these remedies survived and were handed down based on centuries of accumulated observational data.

The OTC cold remedies on the other hand were not thoroughly tested and no better than sugar pills.

I wonder about the collateral damage during COVID-19. Most people would have initially thought COVID was a cold, they would have gone to their ineffective OTC cold/flu medication. Their symptoms would have gotten worse until they were hospitalized. Then, they would have been given more ineffective treatments because the treatments that actually worked, (as shown time and again in other countries,) were forbidden. By… guess who, The FDA!

I guess my point is why should I or anyone trust the CDC or the FDA at this point? They’re not protecting us from medical quackery, or big Pharma selling snake oil.

Why should I trust a doctor, or a hospital?

Bottom line is this.

If a Doctor or a medical person can not explain something to you, or can’t produce test information showing the efficacy of a treatment, drug, or vaccine.

DON’T FUCKING TAKE IT!

Perhaps I’m being overly harsh. However as we keep finding more out about COVID, and the vaccines, and how it really looks like the medical establishment is covering up something truly evil. We shouldn’t give the medical profession the blind trust that we gave them in the past.

It’s really strange that a tattoo / body piercing shop might be a safer place than a hospital, laboratory,  or doctors office, when it comes to having needles stuck in your skin.

On the plus side…

Screenshot 2023 11 13 at 8 05 22 AMIn Wauwatosa, WI there won’t be any Palestinian flags flying in city buildings.

This is true for at least the Christmas season. You see, a memo from a Wisconsin deputy city administrator discouraged employees from putting up “religious decorations” in “red and green colors” for the holidays in public buildings in order to be “inclusive.”

You have to love ill thought out edicts with unintended consequences!

Since Red and Green are used in Christmas Decorations. Or so the theory goes, Christmas is offensive to some people and can’t be celebrated. Red and Green are also used in the Palestinian Flag, Most African Flags, and of course the flag of Italy.

So tell me again, how this is inclusive???

What this deputy city administrator really wanted to say was, “Hey Christians Fuck you and your Christmas Trees, traditions, and decorations,”  She just didn’t have the guts to say it out loud or in print.

This was directed at employees decorating their cubicles. With “Open Office” floor plans it’s likely that the cubicles are visible from public areas and are therefore considered public areas.

The last place I worked, we could decorate the hell out of the place for Halloween. But we couldn’t do elaborate decorations for Christmas. It was the same thinking… We had Jews, Muslims, Atheists, and people from every religious persuasion in the building. Christmas decorations could offend those other people so they were muted.

The funniest thing was that the practitioners of Wicca were the happiest folks in the building because everyone went wild over Halloween. That being the only holiday that wasn’t frowned upon. Even the Fourth of July was frowned upon because there were workers from other countries in the building.

I’ll grant you, this is a small thing. But it’s another annoyance, and I think an attempt to wipe Christianity and possibly American values, from America. 

I really miss the elaborate decorations in malls at Christmas. When I was a child shopping with my parents, the decorations made the time of year magical. As an adult myself, shopping for family and friends, the decorations made me smile and actually enjoy being trampled, in over crowded Southern California malls.

Over time, those beautiful elaborate decorations became muted, and watered down, the last time I was in a favored mall the decorations seemed “phoned in”. There was no joy in them, and many were obviously shop worn, not having been replaced for many years.

I think this trend is not inclusive at all.

Inclusion would be, “Hi, come on in, join us in our fun and revelry. Let’s brighten up this dark time of year. You don’t have to believe in my religion to participate, you’re welcome all the same. Where are you from? How can I make you feel welcome?”

This “inclusivity” is actually exclusion. It eliminates a situation where respectful questions get asked, and people smile at each other more. A time when people share favorite foods, family recipes, and sweets, enjoying it all together and putting aside differences.

This inverted “Inclusion” spawns nothing but low level resentment and demonstrates that some are apparently MORE included than others. Some are more important because they can’t have any possibility of their feelings being hurt.

Honestly, that’s the birth of resenting “Snowflakes”. If you’re so weak in your beliefs, culture, sexuality, or whatever, that you have to be protected at the expense of everyone else’s method of going about their lives…

You’re going to be disliked. Not because of your beliefs, but because you disrupt and prevent others from pursuing happiness in their way.

It begs the question, why is group X,Y, or Z more important than all the rest of us? How do they rate and why?

I wonder if some people seeking answers to those kind of questions find themselves harboring resentment that blossoms into hatred. In their search for inclusion do these folks join hate groups that they would never have considered had they not been excluded by “Inclusion”.

It’s just a theory. I honestly hope I’m wrong. I do wonder though, if we stripped away all the sophistry and spoke what we really felt and thought without fear, would a majority of us admit we felt excluded from society by the never ending inclusivity movement? It’s just a thought.

Merry Christmas to Wauwatosa, WI.

To anyone working for the city of Wauwatosa, WI who might be proud of their African, Italian, or Palestinian heritage… Y’all will need to put the flags in your cubicles away until after Jan 1st!

As I age…

As I age I notice an accumulation of stupidity and everyone else either ignores it, or flat out doesn’t see it.

I wish I could ignore things and remain blissfully ignorant. 

Some examples:

Tail lights. I’ve recently seen at least two different cars, with all three tail lights flashing at different intervals from each other. There are warnings in movies about flashing light sequences affecting photosensitive individuals. In a movie the person is sitting in a chair. On the road, a photosensitive person might be in the driver’s seat of 2 thousand pounds of vehicle and can do considerably more damage if they react poorly or have a seizure.

F-hN5LJWgAQ59Xq.jpegI’ve noticed the irony of college protestors demanding an Israeli cease fire, but being perfectly happy to beat the living shit out of a Jew with a different opinion. Which is it? Peace or War? 

The Washington Post Censored the Cartoon at right, even though it is a perfect description of truth. WP didn’t want to offend? How does truth offend? WTF?

We literally censored people from the internet who spread “mis-information” about elections, COVID, Vaccines, etc. When Rashida Tlaib spreads mis-information on the steps of the Capital using her position in Congress to magnify her importance and therefore her voice, nobody says shit about it, until the House passes a vote to Censure her. What is said after the Censure vote is in condemnation of the Censure.  That for me is a complete WTF moment. Personally, I think Tlaib should be taken from the capital in chains and tried for Treason. Oh, for the college educated… Censure is very different from Censor. You idiots might want to open a dictionary.

Evidence suggests Joe Biden has apparently lied about his involvement with Hunter’s businesses, and the “Biden Family Business” to the tune of millions of dollars, at minimum it looks like influence pedaling. Nothing much is said or done about it. Donald Trump inflates the values of his properties a tad, gets loans from banks, pays off those loans, making everyone money and harming no-one. Yet he’s in court on fraud charges?

Warner Brothers has decided not to release a completed movie as a tax write off. Let me get this straight, if I build a house and never move into it. I just lock the doors, and never use it, rent it, or sell it. I can write off the entirety of the house on my taxes? How about nobody gets tax write-offs on completed projects until the project actually loses money. That seems a lot more logical doesn’t it? Oh and shouldn’t Warner Brothers executive be sitting in court alongside Trump for fraud? It’s a cinch that they borrowed money to produce that movie. 

The entirety of the UAW strike and its resolution. WTF? I understand wanting higher wages and benefits. But you do realize that a nicely equipped FORD costs almost as much as a top of the line BMW luxury car. A GMC Truck costs more than some models of fully equipped BMW SUVs. So tell me again UAW how you’re going to preserve your jobs building your current line, or when everyone transitions to electric vehicles with fewer parts and higher purchase prices. If I have a choice, I’m going to pick the cheaper vehicle with longer range. Toyota? Kia? Nissan, hello paging common sense, is common sense in the building? There’s no incentive to buy FORD, CHEVY, GMC or Tesla at the prices they’re currently charging. Even if you wanted to buy one of these brands, you can’t order the vehicle exactly to your specification. Go on, try to build one on their websites. You’ll find you can’t have certain engine / trim combinations. For example I found I couldn’t have a truck with nice seats, no chrome,  a V-6 engine, 4×4 transmission in a 2 door with 6 foot bed configuration. They make what I want with a 4 cylinder 2×4 transmission but swap in a V-6 4×4 and NO! You get 4 doors and a 4.5 foot bed. Sorry, that just doesn’t work, I want to carry a full sheet of drywall flat in the bed of a pickup, and be able to drive uphill. This is especially true when the prices are at $40 – $60,000 before options.

Loyalty Reward programs. This is a bit hypocritical of me because I use these programs. Not using them in protest which I should be doing, is punishing myself, not the companies. Why do we need these Loyalty cards? Why not simply sell the goods or services at the discounted a.k.a “REAL” price to everyone all the time regardless of their loyalty? Why is it that on a recent grocery store run I was able to save $45 off the bill, but only had one .50 manufacturers coupon? Is it that the grocery store inflates the price so much they can afford to discount everyone’s bill by 1/4? How about gas stations? Why not give everyone a break on the price and speed up the refueling process along the way, instead of having folks enter loyalty numbers and selecting options of payment and 50 other questions?

Medical Costs. Same generic RX for years. Sometimes it’s $120 other times it’s $90, still other times it’s $50. I’d really like to know, how much does this shit really cost? Perhaps a better question is, “How much on average does it really cost to get medical treatment?” Maybe we should base insurance costs on the average, not how much can we get for removing a splinter in Beverly Hills.  Why can I negotiate 2/3 off on a medical bill? It’s not even negotiation. All I had to do was ask… That suggests that the actual cost of doing business is 1/3 less than advertised.

A better overall question is this;

Why do we put up with these clearly irrational things, and why are these things accepted as “Normal”?