Maybe I’m missing something, Why does Violet Affleck think anyone cares what she demands?

Who does she think she is? Greta Thunberg?

I tried listening to her. The video of her talking to the LA City Council is in a few places. Twitter, TikTok, it was shown on the news and appeared in Breitbart

She’s really hard to understand, it’s like she’s a chittering squirrel sped up to 3x normal speed. And of course she’s talking through a mask so that makes it sound more like a muffled chittering squirrel.

Apparently because she had some kind of disease having to do with covid etc. She’s now demanding that no one be able to ban masks. I didn’t think anyone was banning masks. Hey you want to wear a mask more power to you, but understand, and this is a lesson from my childhood…

Because so many people used mask regulations as a method to hide their identity while committing robberies and stealing anything that wasn’t nailed down. A lot of businesses won’t allow you to shop with a mask on. So little Violet, the lesson here is an oldie but goodie.

A few bad apples spoil the barrel.

It was my understanding that laws were being enacted that stopped mask Mandates. That, my little snowflake I’m good with. Study after study have demonstrated that masking did little if anything to slow the spread of a virus, any virus!

Worn properly, an N95 can filter out 95% of particulate matter down to .3 microns. Notice I said worn properly. There appears to have been some conflation between an N95 respirator and an N95 surgical mask. They are two entirely different animals. Nonetheless, the average population wasn’t given any training in proper fitting, or, indeed wearing their surgical masks or an N95 respirator.

Therefore, the conclusion that masking was pretty useless is probably valid. Mandating masks did nothing but needlessly expose us to graphene and increased C02 levels. Oh it also made mask manufacturers a shit ton of money.

My absolute favorite though was this little virtue signaling gem.

My Brother gave me this one while I was visiting Florida unvaxed during the pandemic.

I know, it must be so very disappointing to the Vax NAZIS and those who said the unvaxed should be placed in camps, to discover that somehow a cockroach like myself is still alive.

This lovely mask is all fabric, and I believe was made by one of our relatives. My Brother has a few others with similar death motifs. Primarily, we used them to get into bars and restaurants who demanded we wear them until we were seated.

I’ve kept this one because I know that somehow, sometime, I’ll need to virtue signal again.

Maximus bk w hat left angle 2016.This is a super well made machine washable mask. Just because 90% of my family didn’t believe in the efficacy of masking doesn’t mean we’re above cashing in on the terror and virtue signaling needs of others. I think my relative was selling these for $25 or $30.

Had the masking insanity continued, we were going to suggest that our relative start making less elaborate Black Death masks.

We were thinking just the beak and not quite so long.

I’m sure little miss Violet would be outraged that my Brother and most of the rest of the family would be so flippant about masks.

Believe me, if I thought a mask was going to do the trick I’d be wearing one. I commonly wear an N95 while doing yard work. Why? Because the dust and particulates kicked up by weed whacking often contains rodent feces. Those fecal particles if inhaled can cause valley fever which is unpleasant but mostly survivable.

I also wear an N95 when sanding and painting. Again as a protection against breathing chemical particulates which can do me harm. In these cases the N95, even improperly fitted to my face with a beard affords protection. I also swap them out every few hours as well.

Violetaffleckmask 640x480.Not that anyone should care about my mask usage.

The point is I’m not anti mask, I’m anti stupidity and the masking, the mandates, and all the rest was just theater, waving of hands to make it look like the officials had a plan.

It’s the same damn thing as during the 50s and 60s when government officials produced those idiotic duck and cover movies about what we were supposed to do in the even of a nuclear attack.

I got into trouble for saying stuff like, “If you hear the air raid siren, you’ve got 30 minutes to go do whatever you want to do.” Later I amended my statement to, “If you hear the air raid siren you’ve got 30 minutes to have as much sex of whatever kind you want. Get naked and make the best of it.”

I honestly don’t understand why these famous or pseudo famous people think anyone gives a shit about what they think. Why should Violet Affleck think in a million years that just because her daddy and mommy are famous she should be listened to?

Perhaps this is why Ben always looks like he’s taking a hot spike up his ass these days. Is he questioning the wisdom of being a father and wishing that he could go back and get a vasectomy before he got anyone pregnant?

Good God Almighty! If they’d tell the truth it would be easier on us all!

I constantly being reminded of the Harry Potter scene where Harry is writing lines and what he writes is burned into his hand. 

“I must not tell lies.”

In the story, Harry wasn’t telling lies. In fact he was telling the truth and still got punished for it.

The Biden administration could do with a little Harry Potter magic.

Well since that kind of magic doesn’t actually exist, perhaps this administration could benefit from a branding iron every single time they lie. 

Although I’m partial to Scott Adams creation of “Shock Pants” too.

I would love to see politicians getting their butts and privates shocked every time they lie. I think the voltage should go up with every lie and only drop after 1 whole hour of truth.

Congress would only have the smell of seared flesh for a few hours, before the liars learned or destroyed their ability to procreate. Either way, the American People win.

Karine Jean-Pierre screaming mid way through a press conference would serve as a lesson to children everywhere. “I must not tell lies

All of this is brought to mind because now, its coming out that the Parkinsons Specialist who visited the White House monthly as shown by the visitor logs, was in fact answering questions with Joe Biden in the freakin room.

Joe biden health 640x480.In other words, even though the Biden administration doesn’t want to come right out and just say, “Yes, the President is suffering from Parkinsons and is undergoing treatment.”

We, and the entire world see the president is obviously having problems and should not be running for re-election.

Had the administration spoken the truth directly they really could have facilitated a nice soft landing.

But NO! These morons had to lie, just as they’ve lied about everything. Now they’re unhappy that huge swaths of the country are pissed off, have no trust in the administration, and are probably going to vote for Trump.

That’s what happens when you keep lying to everybody and attempt to lie about what people are actually experiencing.

It’s arguable that Joe Freaking Biden was screwed up when he took office in 2020. 

So much for honesty, transparency, and unity, Liar in Chief! (Sounded a lot like Hope and Change, anyway)

I thought it felt really Obama-ish these past 3.5 years.

At this point… I personally would vote for a murderous dictator knowing full well that we’d have to shoot our way out that kind of mess, just to be sure that every single liar in Washington D.C. was imprisoned or tried for treason. 

Oh what the hell, try them in a “Kangaroo Court” in New York. They seem to have an abundance of them.

Hey assholes in Washington D.C.

Tell the truth! It’s about the only thing you haven’t tried…

Ugghh! I don’t want to do anything!

Between the poor air quality from the fires, the blazing heat, poor sleep, and my general crankiness I’m not motivated to do a dang thing!

The dog and I have been taking early morning walks because it’s cool even though the air quality is terrible. So at least his walk has been completed.

It’s the other stuff, the people stuff that I’m unmotivated to deal with.

I should go to the pharmacy, the grocery store, and the post office. But it’s 90° at 10:00 am and you can almost watch the mercury rising like the old Loony Tunes cartoons.

I’m thinking I’m going to say the heck with it for today. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night and all I want to do is lay on the couch and nap.

I don’t want to get in the habit of blowing off the day because I’m afraid I’ll be mistaken for Joe Biden. (Couldn’t resist…)

I’ve had a walk with the dog, a pot of coffee, breakfast, and I am literally nodding off while typing this.

Maybe I’ll wait until after dark to make the pharmacy and grocery store run. That way I can leave the pup outside without too much worry since the temps will be dropping, and I’m not walking around in a blast furnace.

This is from a guy who likes the heat, and has considered moving to Palm Springs. I think in this case it’s the altitude, coupled with smoky air that’s taking the wind out of my sails.

Sleeping is tough because I’ll have the house open and not smell smoke, when I go to bed and there’s a nice breeze, then the wind shifts a little and I wake up with my sinuses wadded up feeling like I’m suffocating.

That isn’t a happy way to wake up, because I’m panicked and it takes a while for me to drop off again. Running the A/C 24 hours a day might be my only option for the next few days.

Why don’t I do that all the time? Because normally we get these nice evening breezes that are really pleasant. Even if they’re a little warm some times of the year it’s easy to sleep.

Honestly, I don’t really like A/C, especially if you have to have it running all the time just to survive. I feel like it isolates you from the world.

That’s one of the things I like so much about living here. The house can be open at least during the day, most of the year. Even in Winter it’s not uncommon for the outside temps to be around 60°F so you can leave the sliders cracked open a bit for the fresh, albeit cool air. If it’s a sunny day, having the shades up, allows the sun to warm the house so the furnace is idle until nightfall.

It’s only in the deepest Winter that the house is closed all the time. Think maybe 2 to 2.5 months. It’s a nice way to live.

There are places in the Midwest and on the East Coast where the same kind of living is possible. Maybe there will be a few more bugs, but that’s what screens are for.

Yep, it’s nap time…

Getting harder to hold thoughts in my head…

I really used to like Nest Products. Then came the Google…

Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd Generation product.Google I might add hasn’t substantially changed, improved, or added, to the Nest line of products since they took over. 

Google has however used the Nest products that I own as a gateway to insinuating themselves into my life. (For my own good, of course…)

It’s been hotter than Hell up in my little mountain town for the past week or so, and it will continue to be hotter than Hell for the next week or so. This heat wave isn’t abnormal except that it’s about 2 months early.

This means that I’m running the A/C and while I hate to use A/C I’m not opposed to turning it on when we get above 90°

Google logo hd.Every single year, when I start running the A/C and again when I start running the Heat, Google in their infinite wisdom dicks with my settings.

For example, this morning as the temperature crossed the 80° mark, I closed the doors and windows to the house and set the thermostat to “Cool”.

The Thermostat responded by telling me “Cooling set to 82°” uh nope! That’s not what you’re set to do They/Them Thermostat. (I figured I’d have some fun since my thermostat is now behaving like an asshole.) You’re set to Cool the house to 79° regardless of time, or day. 

I know this because I personally lobotomized your schedules the last time we did this dance, and I turned off your settings to accept changes to my schedules from Google. 

So I try to get to www.nest.com to verify that the web hasn’t pushed some kind of software change to the thermostat. Oh, but that URL now redirects me to a google shopping site and logs me in using a google account created to use Google voice, and does not present me with the website that allowed me to inspect and modify the schedules using a full screen and real keyboard.

Instead I’m presented with all the various google products that I can purchase, however Nest products are not listed prominently. They’re buried under smart home and because Google has logged me in using the Voice account, and I haven’t wanted to link, or create, or whatever other bullshit Google wanted me to do with my nice functional Nest.com login I can’t get to the UI that I want to get to.

One of the reasons I freaking HATE GOOGLE! I swear these people could Un-fuck a wet dream (yeah, think about that one…)

I shift over to the Nest app running on my phone. I’m able to see the schedule and indeed Google, in some software update, reset the switch that tells the thermostat “DO NOT ACCEPT GOOGLE INPUT” for schedules back to “off”.

Of course I want a multibillion dollar company monitoring my coming and going and controlling how I choose to spend my money on my local environment in my own home.

I’ll tell you what Google, when you start writing the checks for the mortgage and the utilities then you’ll have some input. Until then, in the words of Elon Musk, “Go Fuck Yourself!

After another frustrating half hour undoing their scheduling via the phone app, where at least 1/2 the buttons don’t work as expected and none of them light up, change color or give any indication that they’ve been pressed. Plus because the app is running on an iPhone instead of an android phone, Google refuses to have all of the controls on the visible screen.

Which is why I use, or rather, used to use, the nest.com interface.

Old Thermostat.The dog, sensing my frustration sat next to me and gently made me lower the arm I was holding the phone with. It was, in his opinion time for me to look up, and he was right.

5 or 10 minutes of cuddling and his laughing face did wonders for my outlook.

During the playtime I realized, this is probably the last time I’ll have to fight with Google altering the temperature schedule in my house.

This is a true statement because regardless of my keeping or selling this house the nest devices are due for replacement and they will not be replaced with more nest devices.

The nest protects will reach end of life next year and if I replace them with another manufacturers products there will be no need to keep the Nest Thermostat either.

Intelligent house.

Before Google bought Nest. I’d standardized on the Thermostat and Protect fire alarms because in the event of fire, the Protects can shut the air handler down via the thermostat to prevent the system from spreading smoke throughout the house.

I also like that the Protects have a nightlight feature and use color coded light signals to indicate their operational status. Mostly, I liked being able to shut them up if they warned they were about to go  off because of smoke from the kitchen.

Then Google bought Nest and honestly… they haven’t done shit to enhance the products.

I look forward to the day when I can reset the Nest Products and delete the Nest app from my phone. On that day I’ll delete any remaining Google logins and do my level best to never use their crap again.

Heck, I might go find myself an old Honeywell lever thermostat with mercury bulbs inside, and eschew all this smart home nonsense entirely.

I’ve tried it, I’ve got the T-Shirt and while there are a lot of aspects I really like, the level of complexity and flaky behavior might just outweigh the benefits.

I suspect if/when I sell this house, and while I’m living someplace I’m renting that I’ll be able to make a reasonable evaluation on the benefits of smart home versus dumb home. 

Maybe I’ll choose a “Low IQ” home. Where nothing important can be controlled by any outside force.

(Then my home and I would match. I’m apparently a Low IQ voter, since I didn’t vote for Hillary. I’ll probably be living in a flyover state too. From a marketing perspective, political parties, and in particular, the Democrat party really need to re-evaluate their merchandising to the masses. Just saying…)

I’m going to have to visit one of these!

E86decc8ed22352241aff2f896bf5cb8 1200 80.I caught this article;

 Grocery Stores Selling Ammunition Out of Vending Machines in Alabama and Oklahoma

I decided that I’m going to have to make a point of stopping next time I’m through the area.

I play a video game called Borderlands. In the game there are vending machines from which you can buy Ammo or weapons.

I never thought I’d see anything like it in real life. Yet, here we are. The contrast between California’s restrictive background checks to buy ammunition versus going to a vending machine in Alabama or Oklahoma is mind boggling.

I get excited walking into a Bass Pro outside California, where I’m able to comparison shop brands and prices. Then pick up several boxes of Ammo off the shelf put them in a cart and make my purchase without anyone batting an eye. 

The thought of a vending machine is damn near orgasmic.

I thought perhaps it was some kind of parody article but it’s the real deal.

Along the same lines, I saw a picture of a store someplace that I’d also like to visit. From the picture it looked like you could buy a carton of Marlboro Reds, a doughnut, cup of coffee, a Sixpack, rifle, and ammo at the same time.

I’d probably have to take a private moment just inside the front door.

Even as a kid in the Deep South you had to go to the gun store for guns and ammo, the liquor store for booze, and the grocery store for other things. When I got to California and found that you could buy booze at just about anyplace, even some pharmacies, and it didn’t matter if it was Sunday or not I thought it was truly progressive.

Walking into a store where literally everything could be purchased at once would blow my mind. Although there was a time when Sears Catalogues would sell you everything under the sun.

Being out of California and not being able to buy liquor in the grocery store is weird but I’ll take that over the regulations and taxes extant in California.

I’m not saying California is terrible and other places are perfect. It’s not that binary. I think it’s more a matter of choosing an acceptable level of taxes and regulations versus services rendered by the state for those fees and taxes, versus personal choice about restrictions or limitations on your personal freedoms.

Kind of like an HOA. Sure, you may love the house. But do you really want to deal with the HOA fining you because your grass is 1 millimeter too low, or the grease spot left on the street in front of your home by the garbage truck on a Tuesday, you didn’t get to cleaning up until Saturday? Do you want to be fined because you parked your boat in your drive way for one day packing up for a family trip?

Some HOAs are out of control and because you signed on, when you bought your beautiful house you’ve got to put up with it. 

Traditionally I have hated HOAs with passion and vigor, recently I’ve revised my opinion of HOAs due to my neighborhood. I still hate HOAs but I’ll admit they might be useful.

In contemplating moving, I have opened my search criteria to include HOAs whose fees are reasonable and for whom their responsibilities are limited to common areas. This slight change has opened up neighborhoods that I would previously have passed up even if the housing prices were bargain basement.

So for those of you who think I’m never learning or changing here’s an example.

All that being said, I wonder what other freedoms Oklahoma and Alabama have that I might not have in California. I wonder what their tax structures and employment is like. 

I’ve been looking at places that are kind to retirees. Places that have low or no taxes, who don’t regulate or tax the hell out of everything, and last but not least someplace where my car registration doesn’t cost $600 a freaking year.

(Ya know, my car is a 2019. The registration was right at $600 when I got it, and it’s still about $600 although the vehicle itself isn’t worth what it was when I got it. California charges registration fees based on value not weight. Makes sense if you think about it. Why charge a fee that assumes the individual should pay for their portion of wear & tear on the public roads. California can take more charging based on value of nice cars, and still not maintain the roads. I say that as someone whose been here a long time and remember smooth gleaming ribbons of freeways in good repair, instead of what we have today where a kidney belt might be advised.)

I’d also like lower medical insurance costs.  I’ve had no, none, zero, nada, major medical issues and am in good health. I’m not obese (okay, I could lose a few pounds) so I’d really like to know why medical insurance costs 1.5 X my mortgage payment.

That’s before even using it. I know the Doctors have to maintain their country club memberships, pay for their yachts, make alimony payments on their previous 2 wives, pay for their whore/mistress on the side and keep their current wife in diamonds and furs but come on. 

If you force people to choose between a roof and health insurance I’m betting most choose a roof over their heads.

I don’t think ammo vending machines are a good enough reason to move to a particular state. I do think a state having ammo vending machines is reason enough to look at other aspects of the state to see if it’s a place I might be happy and can afford to live in.

At the very least, Ammo tourism might be fun. I’d love to have a picture of me buying rounds from one of these things.