Category: General

Posted on

It’s been 10 days or so since Parler was taken down…

I’m sad to see it go, but I was able to go cold turkey from social media.

I know the good folks at Parler are working hard to get the site back up, but I’m questioning if I’ll return to any social media.

I maintain Linkedin only for job stuff and don’t interact on the site too much. I’ve never been comfortable with HR departments searching for social history, and Linkedin just makes it easy for them to judge you based on an arbitrary set of nebulous criteria.

I’ve been enjoying my HAM radio much more than social media anyway. There was a gentleman the other day who described HAM as the original social media and I think he’s right. The focus is much more local (although with radio sometimes you can get astounding distances, depending on conditions in the upper atmosphere.)

I’ve been catching up on local events in my immediate area. Figure about 100 miles or so. There are ways to get much farther reliably due to a network of specialized radio systems placed on mountains throughout the country or countries across the planet.

These systems are not funded by government, they’re generally free to use, and are funded by the good will of HAM operators and HAM clubs. Sure, using them is a little more difficult than clicking “Tweet” on your phone, but it does provide a bit of a barrier to the riff raff.

Since Parler was taken down, I switched on my radio and discovered there’s a mountain lion wandering through the town I live in.

Social media on a global scale wouldn’t have necessarily warned me about that. The lion has been seen in multiple locations and appears to be looking for food. The general warning is to make sure that you keep an eye on dogs, cats, and children, even in a fenced yard.

That’s good to know! Especially since Jesse and I sometimes take early morning walks and we’re generally on trails in the forest.

Were I in most any state but California, it would be appropriate for me to be armed while out on a walk in rough areas. Most of those other states would look at being armed as a prudent precaution. But California is so damn twitchy about guns, they’ve made it so that you can’t defend yourself against apex predators, (Human or Animal).

In my local area, there are bears, bobcats, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and as stated, mountain lions. Any one of which could attack if it perceived you and your dog as a threat. This is particularly so if you were to come around a boulder or through a stand of trees and surprise them.

California would prefer to clean up the bloody mess and airlift your body out, rather than allow you to have a fighting chance. Many Californias would shake their heads and tut, tut, your foolishness in being out of the oh so safe, city.

Many of them would say you got what you deserved for being in the wilderness in the first place. That’s one of the weirdest things about living here. Lots of Californias ask, “why would someone have been out in the forest?” I ask, “Wasn’t the person armed and prepared?”

Californians live under the constant threat of sudden destruction from an Earthquake, or a fire, but they are astounded that anyone would want to live where hurricanes or tornados may occur. I actually prefer hurricanes or tornados because you can see them coming and get the hell out of the way. Earthquakes provide no such warning. Fires, you can avoid if you know where they are.

I guess it’s just preference.

Oddly, social media rarely provides any real time useful data about disasters. It’s almost always after the fact. I’ve always assumed that was because of internet outages.

That is why I took the time to get the HAM license, and with recent events, I’m considering taking my license to the next level. This would open my ability to communicate on a wider range of frequencies legally.

Note I said legally. I could talk on those frequencies now, but I’m a law abiding citizen and believe in obeying rules which have a logical purpose and provide a clear benefit. Radio rules typically fall into that category.

There are a lot of other rules that I disagree with because they don’t seem to have a basis in common sense, logic, or science, and simultaneously don’t provide a clear benefit.

Parler was uncensored. Twitter and Facebook are very censored and not in a consistent way. Parler was/is about protecting the First Amendment. Twitter and Facebook say they are proponents of the First Amendment but demonstrably are not.

Parler was taken away from all of us by people that don’t believe in free speech and had the will and capacity to effectively silence a large percentage of Americans. If some people choosing to use Parler were offended by what they read or saw, they had the option to never go back to the Parler site.

But these people, who choose to be perpetually offended couldn’t abide differing opinions. They demand conformity of thought. I suspect that in time they’ll demand conformity of race too, since everything in their world revolves around racial identity politics.

On the radio there is no race. Only the content of your words. If you’re not good at putting your thoughts into words there’s no-one that will stop you from saying something but you might find yourself talking to dead air. Other people listening may simply find another channel, you know, old school… Don’t like what you’re hearing turn it off…

More people need to learn that.

Our house has been remarkably quiet over the past 3 weeks. We both tired of the news, we got tired of Hollywood celebrities shooting their mouths off in hateful tirades about Trump and frankly it’s made it so that watching their movies aren’t that enjoyable. Even music is only turned on when we want to listen to something particular. It’s tougher to relax or suspend disbelief so you can just enjoy the music or movie.

We’re hoping that in time as we distance from this season of chaos we’ll be able to enjoy these things once again.

In the mean time, from the radio chatter I’m hearing, we’re not alone. It appears that streaming movies and music over the fiber network here has dropped off significantly in our local area. But the Library is seeing a slight uptick in usage.

Something else I’d never have known from just social media. But it was on my HAM Radio this morning.

I’ve been listening to a bunch of local HAMS who get together every morning over their first or second cup of coffee.

They just get on the radio, and chat about local stuff. The weather, someone older who needs a little help with a project, the community center asking for books to lend, issues with snowplayers, and when the next community meeting is. The day after a community meeting, someone will summarize what was covered for those that couldn’t attend. It’s nice and somehow comforting.

Perhaps it’s time for us all to act more locally, and stop paying attention to the collective idiots who have found voice in social media. Maybe we should be more concerned about the people in our local area who are trying to do the right thing, and could use actual hands to do work that makes our community better?

It costs you nothing to comment on troubles in another state. But when you comment about something locally, there’s a certain expectation that you’re willing to put your money, or sweat equity, where your mouth is.

I suppose that too is old school…

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Jan 6th

Congress was doing what they were supposed to do according to (3U.S.C. §15)

And I submit that up until the capital was breached, so were many thousands of Americans. Marching in the streets of Washington D.C. These are people whose concerns had been dismissed by all of the appropriate legal means.

These people were there to support their President (not a crime). They were there to visibly show Congress that they were not faceless nobodies (not a crime). They were people with lives, children, homes, and reasonable concerns about the election (not a crime).

It’s easy for leaders to dismiss nameless, faceless masses. It’s a bit tougher when those people are right there demanding answers.

People died. Some reports say 4 some say 5. I saw a report from the Capital Police that said CNN was incorrectly reporting one of their officers died. That Capital Police report no doubt ended up page 20 of leading newspapers. It probably never made it to CNNs news desk.

That people died is tragic. That should never have happened.

The Capital has been occupied by protestors several times over the past century, and bombed at least twice. Almost always for the same reason, citizens seeking redress of their grievances, but being ignored by the politicians.

The faux “shock and outrage” on the part of Congress and the news media over the Capital having been occupied is disgusting and disingenuous. Especially since some of the fossils currently in Congress were alive, and If my math is correct were serving in the building at the time of the previous incidents.

There’s a brief Washington Post Article here describing the history of attacks on the Capital. I’ve seen a report that a group of African Americans occupied the Capital and were armed when they did it. There was an interesting picture, but no corroborating link to the the source article.

The building has been damaged far worse in previous incidents, than it was this time.

What I find really disturbing is the spin. There are videos of Protestors attempting to dissuade others from breaking windows. There are multiple eyewitnesses corroborating the videos.

So rather than a few perpetrators being called to account, all the people supporting President Trump and indeed Trump himself are labeled terrorists?

This offends my sense of fairness. How have we gotten to a place where one kind of protest degenerating into violence is labeled “Mostly Peaceful” but another kind of protest is instantly labeled “Terrorist“?

But it goes on. People randomly identified in the crowd outside the Capital are losing their jobs. For what? Exercising their first amendment rights? Then it goes further, the conservative voice in America is being silenced with ever more draconian methods.

In some cases these folks are citizen journalists who make part or all of their living by attending these events and reporting what they actually saw. These entrepreneurs post their video and first hand accounts on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and the like.

Suddenly they’re banned on these platforms because they were at the protest, were identified in the crowd, and chose to report what they saw.

There’s no accusation of wrongdoing, no arrest, no trial, nothing…

Just Censorship. More voices silenced by what amounts to the mob.

We’ve seen this phenomenon with increasing frequency over the past few years, in online communities. Twitter “Shadowbans” and Facebook “suspensions”.

These bans happen when someone gets upset or offended by something someone posts. The offended party effectively runs to mommy (The Service) they cry and whine and get all their online friends to join in the whining and mommy summerly silences some poor person for a period of time.

It’s the online equivalent of the “timeout”. The problem is, very often the comment that caused the offense was taken out of context or misinterpreted in the first place. It doesn’t matter though because the damage is done, and the mob has been rewarded with a “Kill” so they’re self-righteous indignation continues on and on.

Where does this stop?

Reported by the gatewaypundit.com today

Mozilla, developer of the Firefox internet browser, has argued that more must be done to keep Donald Trump and other “bad actors” out of cyberspace, prompting many to vow to never use the group’s services again.

In a blog post titled ‘We need more than de-platforming’, the open-source software community said that Twitter’s decision to permanently ban Trump from its platform didn’t go far enough in weeding out “hate” on the internet. While blaming Trump for the “siege and take-over” of the US Capitol on January 6, the non-profit tech group argued that “white supremacy is about more than any one personality.”

“We need solutions that don’t start after untold damage has been done. Changing these dangerous dynamics requires more than just the temporary silencing or permanent removal of bad actors from social media platforms,” Mozilla wrote.

Apparently, it doesn’t. Because for these people there is no such thing as enough. There can never be any end to their grievances. For if there were an end, these people would have to face the fact that they are in fact far worse than what they were fighting.

I don’t need protection from hateful words or ideas, I’m quite capable of ignoring or avoiding these things all by myself. I’m beginning to think that I need protection from those who would force their “protections” on me, unbidden.

Apologies if I’ve been a little rambling. Chalk it up to “Dogieous Interruptus” A young dog in the house means there are no boundaries!

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And now I know the answer …

Growing up, my Father had a lot of history books on the shelves of the family room. Those books were lost in a fire in TN many years later. But I remember the bookshelves being full.

A lot of these books dealt with the history of WWI and WWII. There were some that provided historical analysis of the rise of the NAZI party.

As a child, no books in my Father’s or Mother’s home were forbidden for me to read. Obviously, there were a few books that I was strongly discouraged from reading because of content.

Even then, those books weren’t forbidden but my parents explained, rightfully so, that the subject matter was beyond my experience and that I probably wouldn’t enjoy or understand the book.

As I grew older the number of “discouraged” books dwindled in number. Dad would find me reading something from his library sometimes and ask in a friendly way, “What’re you reading sport?” I’d tell him or show him the cover and he’d almost always respond, “Good for you, if you run into something you don’t understand come get me,” then he’d go on about whatever task he was heading to do.

My curiosity led to our discussing the rise of the NAZI party and the conditions that existed in Germany after WWI that possibly led to WWII and Hitler.

These discussions happened 45 to 50 years ago. So I don’t remember the full context, what I do remember is my Dad listening, guiding, and challenging my logic on certain points.

I remember him grabbing the encyclopedia volume(s) that contained more information and helping me read and comprehend the information they contained. By no means was this a scholarly dissection of world politics but it formed some of my core beliefs about right and wrong, good and evil, and general morality.

I also remember thinking that America was a pretty great place. Dad talked about the rights we as a people had, the duties we had to each other, and those we had to our nation.

Dad was also very clearly pointed out that we delayed entry into WWII in part because we were weary of war. He thought it was unclear if we would have entered the war until much later, had it not been for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Dad said that Japan’s attack was the effect of our interfering with their ability to obtain raw materials for their war effort in China. His opinion, if I recall correctly, was that we were right in attempting to cool Japan’s war efforts but that we should have seen that our interference would illicit a response. I vaguely recall him saying something like Japan was so far away that perhaps the politicians felt Japan posed little threat.

I provide all this as a backdrop so that you can understand why an article caught my attention and sent cold chills down my spine.

The article (I’m looking for the original source,) Was a snippet of an interview with a 80 something German who had immigrated to America after the defeat of the NAZIs. Apparently he was commenting on ANTIFA here in the US. (I really want to read the whole interview.)

The quote was, “We never thought it could happen in Germany either, these people must be stopped by whatever means necessary.“

I’ve caught similar interviews from survivors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Dachau. These survivors were Jews, but this is the first time I’ve seen something from a German who was not in a camp, and not a Jew.

Then I remembered reading about the rise of the NAZIs, and talking with my Dad about it. There were similar comments in those books and some of the interviews expressed a confusion on the part of average Germans as to how Germany, and by extension themselves, had come to be involved in death camps. I remember that a lot of the first person accounts were very conflicted. It was as if their pride in their country had been subverted into a rabid nationalism and that state run media and censorship had a large part in adding fuel to the fire.

One aspect was that it became dangerous to yourself or your family if you asked questions or expressed dissenting opinions. Because of that overarching threat, human nature was to comply.

Many of the people were hoping that the problem would just go away and tended to their jobs hoping that the disruption wouldn’t be too severe. A lot of average Germans held no animosity toward Jewish people at all. But Jewish people, and people who were different were painted by the propaganda machines of The Third Reich as enemies of the state.

After years of hearing the propaganda, folks were left questioning their values and would in fact snitch on their neighbors sometimes out of a misplaced sense of nationalism. At other times to curry favor with the local NAZI officials for better food or medicine.

The disturbing thing was that generally, folks believed they were doing the right thing. It was only in hindsight that it became clear their loyalties and national pride had been co-opted, perverted, and ultimately betrayed by their leaders.

The chill that ran down my spine was noticing the similarity between then in Germany, and now in the United States.

Here in the US right now, we have several “Enemies”.

The Police, The President, The Republicans, The Democrats, COVID. All are to varying degrees painted as the enemy. While at the same time Nationalism coupled with a pervasive sense of fear, or unfairness, is increasing.

To listen to the left, Trump is trying to subvert the electoral process, The right says the Democrats are stealing the election. Yet both sides would tell you they absolutely believe they are trying to protect this country.

Maybe both are.

Both parties are coming at this with different information and both sides are having that information re-enforced by the news media and their own personal beliefs. I strongly suspect that the “Truth” is not something that either side has a full grasp of. I also suspect that is by design.

At the level of the ground forces both groups only know what they’ve been told, or what they choose to believe.

The puppet masters at the top are the ones who have the full story and are pulling the strings. It’s the oldest story in the world, (besides prostitution,) divide and conquer.

While I personally believe that the election was monkeyed with on many levels. I’m hoping for a Trump win but that may not be the case. As I’ve stated what concerns me more as a citizen of this country is that the election itself may be corrupt. If that is true, then it’s become completely pointless to have elections at all. If there’s no point to elections then we already have a socialist state where dictators for life will become commonplace.

It is entirely possible that if Biden / Harris are declared the winners, that I will die before another Republican gets into office. Look at Obama. I voted for him for his first term. I bought the hype and thought, “If he delivers on any of his promises the country will come out ahead.” By his second campaign I was firmly in the anyone but Obama camp and was disappointed that he won a second term. I personally was concerned by his pen and phone call stance to bypass naysayers in congress. Of course there were those on the far right that said he was corrupt. I chose to reserve judgement.

As Obama yielded office to Trump I thought, “I hope this guy does a better job than Obama and thank God it’s not Hillary.” Naively, I thought that would be the end of it for at least four years. I was laughably wrong about that the past four years have been a shit show of epic proportions. Not because of what Trump did or didn’t do, but because of the unparalleled venom, obfuscation, and outright demonstrable lies that have become canon told about him and his administration.

Had congress spent less time pursuing red herring after red herring to impeach the man and simply worked within the framework of the constitution and law with him. I believe that the country would be far better off than it was in the Obama years.

I mean look at it. Congress spent four years trying to come up with evidence to support impeachment. When they finally did, their four years of conflict fell apart within a week.

That on it’s face says they didn’t have anything. It was all smoke and theater, a distraction, something to polarize the parties and the people.

Trump is a New York businessman. He doesn’t have to be nice, he by definition is arrogant and bombastic. He’s prone to hyperbole, so the fuck what? He’s made and lost more money than I’ve made in my whole life several times over, and still he’s comfortable enough to donate his entire presidential salary for four years to various charities.

When was the last time any other politician made that choice?

Posted on

Well, I Never!

This election is tearing our country apart.

I’ve spoken with a few acquaintances who shockingly said, “Anyone who voted for Trump in my enemy.”

That sentiment is astounding to me. Frankly, I have zero desire to have people like that in my life. Regardless of who I voted for or not. That kind of vitriol has no place in my life or my country.

People voted for who they voted for due to a variety of reasons. Some just plain hate Trump, others saw Biden as a return to “normal”. I think a lot of people who voted for either candidate were actually voting from an emotional level against the other guy.

A vote for Trump may simply have been a vote against Biden, or more properly Harris. Similarly a vote for Biden may have been a completely emotional choice based on 4 years of Trump bashing and Trump’s bombastic nature.

Either way, for me someone determining the the status of their relationships based on political party or who they voted for is completely insane.

While Biden is a known commodity. He’s also probably not going to serve out his term. As Trump and conservative media pointed out, Biden has been in office 47 years, 8 of them as Vice President, and now suddenly he’s got a plan? He’s a career politician but has done little of note.

I’ve personally not been impressed with Biden as a politician over the past decade. Harris is mostly unknown. She couldn’t carry her home state of California in the Primaries and it wasn’t about the fact that she is a woman or that she’s a person of color, it was about her character, she didn’t resonate with the voters.

After the Primaries she had some pretty harsh things to say about Biden and then she turns around and accepts a VP slot from him? There were many rumors about her climb to power and then in full view of the American people she did exactly what the rumors claimed. She compromised her expressed beliefs and metaphorically climbed into bed with someone she excoriated on multiple issues only months before.

I was very disturbed about the Hunter Biden laptop as well. The main stream media was sweeping it under the rug prior to the election. The conservative media was rightfully asking questions about the veracity of the photos and emails. Some of the photos I ran across were shocking. A video I saw, less so, but I’m convinced it is actually Hunter in both. Now the mainstream is reporting on Hunter’s laptop. For me, what they’re reporting is “old news”

I’m certain, if one of Trumps boys had a laptop turn up we’d see 24/7 news coverage and demands for his resignation.

For me, this begs multiple questions.

Why / how is the media so biased? Isn’t the media supposed to be simply reporting, and to the extent possible, verifying the events?

How does this double standard stand in America? We are supposed to be a country of equal opportunity which means, good or bad, no-one gets a PASS.

In the face of a spectacular amount of evidence, how did Hunter avoid prosecution to date?

Loosely associated with the Hunter question is what appears to be fraudulent voting. In 2016 voter fraud was the democratic party’s explanation of Trumps win and Hillary’s loss. In 2020 there are multiple reports of more ballots being counted in states than were sent out. There’ve been affidavits filed legally in courts across the country detailing sworn eyewitness testimony to voting irregularities. But we’re being told that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Throughout 2020 we’ve seen protests that turned violent. The media has painted the violence as the responsibility of white supremacists and extremists. The media has also told us that rioting and looting wasn’t widespread. We’ve had politicians telling us that ANTIFA is an idea nothing more.

Yet we have ANTIFA crowing about their conquests. Then directing their followers via social media to disrupt scheduled peaceful rallies supporting issues, which ANTIFA condemns. We have police officers standing by watching looting, arson, and violence, yet doing nothing.

For me collectively, this suggests that the law no longer applies.

So when someone says, “Anyone who didn’t vote for Biden is my enemy,” I wonder what that really means.

What happens if that sentiment is extended? Anyone not wearing a mask is my enemy, anyone not taking the vaccine is my enemy, anyone not carrying a BLM sign is my enemy, anyone who is not gay or transgendered is my enemy, anyone who is black, brown, yellow, white, is my enemy.

The problem with drawing those kinds of lines, is that if you mean it, there’s no end to it.

If “Selective Law Enforcement” gets added to the mix, then logically you could murder someone an claim they were “the other” and get away with it.

Kinda like NAZI Germany.

Posted on

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!