Category: BullShit

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Wow! Jesse just had a temper tantrum…

The likes of which I haven’t seen since my sister’s wedding day.

He is much younger than the shelter said he was. Etta, my Australian Cattle Dog on her worst day didn’t hold a candle to what I just saw.

Etta ruled this house with an iron paw and had just gotten past her teenage fits of temper when I lost her to the fire in 2008. No, she didn’t burn, she died of smoke inhalation when she ran into an area of the house that we couldn’t get to.

I loved her dearly and am convinced that she, and the rest of the pack picked Jesse for me. I needed Jesse and I think he needs me.

Right at the moment he’s lying at the far end of the house playing the, “If I cant see you, and you can’t see me, you can’t be mad at me.” game. He doesn’t know me very well, does he?

I’m miffed at him, but not as mad as he thinks I am.

We were on a walk and he was being very unruly. Turns out he had seen a St Bernard and wanted to go play. The St. Bernard is name Sven and is very sweet and patient. They’ve met before and Jesse knows him.

The difference this time is that Jesse wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Thank goodness for the training collar. Sven’s owner is a nice guy, and knows that Jesse can’t hurt Sven so he’s amicable to the two of them playing. Jesse got really spun up just waiting for Sven. By the time they caught up with us Jesse was completely out of his mind.

He was jumping, howling, whining, barking, spinning, and not listening to any command. The moment that Sven was nearby Jesse started play attacking, then attempting to hump Sven.

To his credit Sven put Jesse in his place very nicely multiple times but Jesse wasn’t getting it. Sven’s owner, Ron let Sven off the leash and Sven trotted off returning at Ron’s command and obeying other commands as well.

Jesse was howling and whining louder and when he realized we were heading home. Then he pulled the ultimate dog temper move (Short of taking someone’s arm off.) he just laid down and refused to get up.

I let him lay there. I just waited for him to loose his fixation, counting instead on his complete inability to stay still for long. It was a test of will. He kept looking at me then looking away. I was still as a statue and silent. I was just looking through him as though he wasn’t there. He tried to stare me down and failed. Eventually he couldn’t stand it anymore and got up. He walked slowly toward me eyes down. Then we returned home. I didn’t speak to him, I didn’t give him his usual treat, I completely ignored him and am still doing so.

I’ve checked on him a couple of times he’s looking out the sliding door. Occasionally he’s dozing. I haven’t decided when I’m going to let him off the hook. (Probably not more than an hour.)

The wind is out of his sails, but he needs to know there is forgiveness eventually.

Right now, he’s in the dog house.

He’s been a VERY BAD DOG!

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Sometimes I ask Questions I’m not supposed to…

ADT security and I parted ways yesterday. Another divorce and another reduction in mothly expenses. They’ve been replaced by a Simplisafe system and thus far I’m far more impressed with the Simplisafe than I ever was with ADT.

The sensors are smaller, the control pad is smaller, the installation or removal of sensors is a snap, and doesn’t require arcane incantations like the ADT did. The price for monitoring is about 1/2 what ADT was charging.

There’s the rub.

When I called ADT to tell them, “You’re outta here,” suddenly they were interested in me. In the 10 years we’ve been ADT’s customer, we’ve had 4 service calls. 1 Installation, and 3 repair calls. The bill has been paid on time, and for many years they took the cash directly from the account and all was well.

Then I noticed the price going up. I didn’t think much of it. I figured inflation, and cost of doing business. Then the monthly price went up sharply and around the same time due to various human errors on our part we had a couple of false alarms. Both of which we canceled with the appropriate codes and countersigns. But the police still showed up 3 -4 hours later, after we’d been assured by ADT dispatch that they’d cancel the police call.

The police told us that ADT almost never contacted them to cancel a call and that they (the police) hated ADT for that and other reasons.

While speaking to the ADT Customer Service person I mentioned the rise in fees and falsehoods that ADT dispatch had engaged in. I also mentioned that the system was exactly as it was when it had been installed and that didn’t make sense to me.

You’d have thought that when the last technician was out here to replace the cellular communication module he’d have mentioned that there were newer improved systems that we could upgrade to. Those systems being more capable, efficient and lower cost to maintain and work with.

Suddenly, the Customer Service person said we could reduce your monthly fee to about 1/2 of what they’d been charging me. I told the person, “thank you.” but it’s too late. Then she got a bit miffed.

Whatever! Within an hour of that phone call I’d disabled the system, and removed all the sensors. Now, I’m patching the holes in the wall from the 10 x 8 control pad.

While I was scraping off all the leftover glue from the entry sensors, it occurred to me that if ADT could offer me 1/2 price reduction, that the price they were charging could always have been at the lower rate.

Then I remembered that Cox Cable had played the same game. They raised the rate per month gradually until I called them and told ’em I wanted to cancel service. Suddenly the price could be magically reduced by a substantial amount.

This indicates that these companies at least are charging much more for their services than they are actually worth.

Which leads me to the question:

Why not charge a fair price for your service in the first place?

I know that it’s a money making process to increase the rates yearly, regardless of actual need. I wonder if corporations would find it more profitable in the long run to just be honest.

If they’re going to raise rates, explain to their customers that costs have increased by X and that rates will be increased by Y to facilitate continued good service and provide for expansion to increase service levels. Most customers, myself included would understand that.

But customers like me tend to get very annoyed when we reach our breaking point, and during our cancellation call, suddenly find that, for who knows how many years, we’ve been ripped off.

The ADT Divorce is final. I save 1/2 on the monthly security bill with Simplisafe and have a smarter more adaptable system too.

I’m just working on simplifying my world and reducing the costs too. If you’ve had services in place for a long time. Maybe it’s time to call ’em up and see if they’re ripping you off.

I’ll grant you, you shouldn’t have to do it, but rattle their cages and see if discounts fall out.

Have a great day.

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What? We Still don’t know who won the election?

I’ve been busy training a dog. I haven’t been paying attention to pundits, wags, news, or opinions. It’s been all I can do to keep up with the buzzsaw named Jesse.

That’s not a complaint, the distraction has been healthy and much better for my general health and well being than reading the news feeds. I’ve been outside, walking and hiking a lot and the noise and conflict of the outside world has dropped completely off my radar.

I haven’t noticed that I’m losing any of the Covid weight yet but My heart rate is much lower as is my blood pressure. Yeah, Cardio activity will do that for you in real short order.

The buzzsaw is sleeping peacefully on the deck. We had a 2 mile adventure walk bright and early this morning. He was funny, pulling moderately on the way down the mountain and criss crossing all across the path.

His mood changed considerably when we turned around to begin the long trek back up to the house. Yeah Pup, going down is always easy, the bitch is the climb. By the time we got back to the house he was walking right beside me. He’s learning albeit sometimes slowly.

As tired as I am from the sudden change in my activity level, I’m happy and enjoying the various challenges.

While he’s sleeping, I’m checking email, catching up on the job search, and scanning the news.

Ugh! I shouldn’t have bothered. The stupidity and insanity has reached the level where it actually hurts my head to process it.

Some media outlets are claiming that Biden won. But that’s not certified and apparently won’t be for a while.

Twitter says that Jan 20th they’re going to transition the POTUS twitter feed to Joe whether or not Trump has conceded. Twitter makes no mention of what they’re going to do if Trump has no need to concede. Based on their past behavior, I’m sure they’ll just censor the hell out of the POTUS feed.

An entire company appears to be going underground to avoid answering questions in the Pennsylvania house. Dominion, who makes voting machines and voting software has been called to account for apparent irregularities in the Pennsylvania election. Their behavior begs the question, “What do they have to hide?”

Recounts are ongoing, as is litigation filed by President Trump over claims of election tampering and this is all reminiscent of the Bush / Gore election.

I personally am disgusted and dismayed that our election may have been tampered with and there appears to be ample evidence that it was. Yet the same people who screamed, “Russian Collusion” for four solid years are now saying, “everything is fine there’s nothing to see here.”

At this point, I want an entirely new election. I want it in person, I want for ID to be required, and I don’t give a shit that some people think asking for ID is racist or will disenfranchise some people. Don’t care! You’re required to have ID for virtually everything, voting is no less important.

I am pissed off, not about who, or who is not, the President. I am pissed off that the results of the election are even remotely questionable.

That being said Obama saying that everything was above board, tells me the election was rigged & completely off the rails. What I’ve learned about all the corruption going on in his administration tells me that everything out of his mouth is a lie. Obama can kiss my ass, then go straight to hell!

BLM and ANTIFA are becoming more violent and yet law enforcement does nothing to curb their terrorism. After years of racism accusations and this new systemic racism bullshit.

I’m not going to worry about being called a racist anymore. I’m white, I can’t change that, and being accused of being a racist by virtue of my skin color is in fact racist.

So screw it! I’ve now got carte blanc to be as white and racist as I freakin want to be, or not depending on their actions and my mood.

BLM/ANTIFA I have zero patience left for you. When the, however many millions of pissed off people there are in the United States, start Rittenhousing your stupid asses, I’ll not shed one fucking tear.

Since it appears most of the BLM crowd are white, privileged, spoiled, self important assholes, Dropping them in the streets with hunting rifles shouldn’t be much of a racial problem. Same goes for ANTIFA.

I will turn on the TV and make popcorn when hunting season on these assholes opens.

I may even have a drinking game, one shot of fine bourbon for every headshot shown on the news. These jackasses aren’t using their brains for anything, so it’ll be no loss when their brains get spattered in the gutters.

Harsh? Yeah, maybe.

This isn’t about fearing change, these feelings are about watching my country being flushed down the toilet. BLM and ANTIFA are just the foot soldiers. The real puppet masters are still behind the curtain. I seriously want to see them all brought into the light, tried, then hung in front of the Washington Monument.

Just so we’re clear. Tried, found guilty, and summarily hung.

That includes the news media that has skewed so far left, The journalists who have not reported the news but have been spouting propaganda for decades, and the masters of big tech that have actively engaged in censorship and silencing decent people who would otherwise have engaged in healthy civil discourse.

I’m about to the point that I’d go all in, supporting a McCarthy style inquisition.

“Are you now or have you ever been a scumbag?”

Then there’s the COVID kings. COVID is 99% survivable. There was a recent study out of Finland or Denmark that actually appears to prove that facemasks are fucking useless. Twitter censored references to the report saying that there was conflicting information from experts. Uh, the people doing the study are experts… At least one major news outlet did run the story NBC or The New York Post. So that’s at least some progress.

Gavin (Dumbass) Newsom is trying to get his paws into family gatherings for the holidays, but has found out that Law Enforcement at least in Southern California is largely going to ignore his edict. OOOOpppps, Now what are you going to do Newsom? Mobilize the National Guard to make house to house searches? I’m with the LEO folks… Fuck you and fuck off Newsom!

There’s a line from Star Wars that’s appropriate. “The more you tighten your grip, the more planets slip through your fingers.”

What happens when Newsom or Garcetti are ignored completely? What happens when Biden followed by Harris (We ALL know that’s the game plan,) are ignored? Would we have a government anymore?

I’m going back to training the dog. Burn it all down you jackasses I’ve got better things to do.

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Election Day has come and gone…

Well, not actually gone. 

It’s devolved into what appears to be blatant cheating along with the usual allegations of voter fraud.

Due to the mail in voting, it’s going to be weeks until we have a winner declared and even then, the legal wrangling will likely last for months if not years.

So ultimately, even if the Democrats lose… they’ve still won because they’ve managed to cast a pall of illegitimacy over the President. 

Likewise though, if the Democrats win, they’ve cast the same pall over their candidate. This is the lesson of mutually assured destruction.  Apparently, the Democrats didn’t learn the lesson during the cold war. 

The new Democrats and their ultra progressive allies obviously never learned the lesson and quite frankly are behaving more like Communists, Bolsheviks, or flat out NAZIs than I’ve ever witnessed. 

Frankly, I’m so disgusted I can’t think straight. 

I fear for my county, and I fear for our future. Not because of one President, but because of the cultural shift that’s occurring and this (In my opinion) wrong headed thinking of win at any cost.

Historically the win at any cost philosophy has proven itself to extract a very high price.

Even now, people are questioning law, order, government, and anything official. 

Folks are also demonstrating a surprising willingness to tear down and destroy anyone or anything that they disagree with.

This path is littered with war, poverty, crime, and genocide. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re killing people over religion, color, or politics, people still die and xenophobia in various forms kills more than people. xenophobia kills progress and enlightenment, and gaining of knowledge. Ask Galileo about that.

xenophobia: [noun] fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.

By that definition, anything strange or foreign could loosely be politics, religion, belief,  or custom.

Is this where we’re headed? Are we careening down a path to wanton destruction on both sides?

I find myself asking if I want to deal with this. I’m old, and tired, all I wanted was to quietly retire, go fishing, or hang out with folks my age, in peace.

If I don’t want to deal with this – insanity, what are the alternatives? 

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Can we all agree this is out of hand?

There are scattered reports of businesses and even homeowners boarding up their windows and closing or planning to close on election day and perhaps for days or weeks after. 

Never in my life and thankfully it’s been a long one, have I seen this kind of behavior. I remember antiwar riots during the Vietnam war but nothing like we’re seeing today.

This is a standard election year, this happens every four years and all of us are supposed to get a say in the direction of our nation.

This is supposed to be a respectful process. Let the politicians sling the mud, We The People, are supposed to be better than them. After all, our elders used to say the only thing politicians had in common was their corruption.

Yet that is not what we’re seeing. We’re seeing what amounts to a series of childish temper tantrums played out on the streets of cities around the nation.

Thanks and credit to GettyimagesACTUP, an organization that appeared during the AIDS crisis wasn’t as violent and there were literally thousands of people dying in hospitals around the nation. (I Know… I was there.)

Visiting an AIDS patient was done with full biohazard protection. I’m personally all too familiar with dressing in white disposable “Bunny Suits” with gloves, mask and eye protection. There were some hospitals where the staff was in self contained pressurized suits because physicians had no idea what was killing gay men, but they knew it was contagious and communicable.

ACT UP 1489405375Let me tell you, those were ugly, lonely deaths. ACTUP had plenty of reason to scream, riot, and raise hell.

Those deaths were in fact generally being ignored by the media, and the government, and everyone else. Because they were deaths occurring in a marginalized segment of society. A group of people who could and did have their rights regularly suspended because of the love that dare not speak its name.

Yes, Black Lives Matter, ALL LIVES MATTER.

080213_Westboro_Baptist.jpgDuring the AIDS crisis there wasn’t any separation between black, white, hispanic, or asian gay men.

They were all dying and the gay community, the real gay community, stood up and raised hell. Eventually the gay community was joined by other people who realized that standing up for what was right, outweighed being stigmatized.

And in the midst of that, The Westboro Baptist Church was holding signs outside hospitals, protesting at ACTUP rallies, or protesting funerals, spouting hate filled speech, (as is their right), things like God hates fags, AIDS is God’s retribution, all FAGS burn in hell, better dead than a FAG.

185ay4jt8tqiwjpg.jpgMy Mother and I were even accosted by members of Westboro, going up the steps to a concert hall where one of the Gay Mens Choruses were performing.

My first reaction to these people’s hate filled vitriol was to punch their teeth out of their heads in anger and defense of my dear old mom.

It was she, that stayed my hand. “Son,” she said loudly, “these people, no matter how cruel, misguided, inbred, or stupid, have the right to be assholes where ever they choose. We have to defend their right to be morons or risk losing our rights too.”

Westboro-Baptist-Church-protests.jpgWe enjoyed the concert.

What the hell happened to that philosophy? How is it that in 30 years we’ve gone from understanding people have the right to their opinions, (no matter how contrary to our own,) to a culture where people who don’t agree with you must be silenced unequivocally?westboro.jpg

While looking up Westboro, I honestly didn’t know if they were still around since Fred Phelps died. I noticed that not only are their current signs still largely about FAGS but a lot of their signs now relfect a general hatred of America. They also seem to hate Trump which begs the question of why, or if, they’re not naturally aligned with ANTIFA or the radical Islamic elements.

They don’t like Jews, and many of their signs appear to be thankful of the maiming and killing of American soldiers.

It’s likely they’re not going to be aligned with BLM since they may just be flat out racists too, perhaps the racist thing is the reason they’re not marching with Islamic terrorists.

I find it interesting that they are not censored in searches, their hatred is on full display with no content warnings. At  the same time conservative and GOP voices while far less hateful are being censored.

I guess this means that there are acceptable kinds of hatred, or hate speech. 

Today, membership in ACTUP means you are by definition apparently against Trump. There was a time when politically ACTUP was against anybody that refused to take action in the AIDS crisis. The organization was fairly nonpartisan. Now it seems that they’re firmly Democrat.