12/26/2020 - The Boogie Man

When I was a kid I remember people talked about the boogie man. This was before K.C. and the Sunshine Band sang the song that de-mystified the poor bastard. Before that it as, "What're ya, 'fraid of the boogie man or something?"

Well, nowadays, everything people don't like is vilified, amplified, and emphasized. One of the things whack jobs from the left do is to blame things they don't agree with, don't understand, or don't like on "white supremacy". And while the boogie man was a figment of imagination and lore, I concede there is such a thing as white supremacy. But I will not concede that it's a large and rampant problem. The white supremacist scumbags are out there, but they're few, far between, way out of the mainstream, and a marginalized few losers. 

What brought this on this morning? It was this:

I'm sure glad I'm not a jerkoff like Jen Bokoff, aren't you?

This dumbass, Jen Bokoff, alleges that the greeting "Merry Christmas" is "white supremacy at work". I get that this bitch probably doesn't believe in Jesus, and I'm fine with that. But by calling the "Merry Christmas" greeting white supremacy, the Bokoff jerkoff does two things: first, she's calling shit that ain't white supremacy to be so, and in doing so marginalizes real claims of same. And secondly, she's showing her anti-Christian prejudice, When people talk about a war on Christmas, many dismiss it out of hand. And granted, in terms of war, this offensive is truly weak sauce, a mosquito bite is a more effective weapon in that war than this one is, but it's wrapped up in the same nonsense.

Rather than to gaff off Ms. Bokoff the Jerkoff for her weak sauce, I posted what started this rant off.

Oh, and lemme know what time you finally get the song out of your head!:

"I'm Your Boogie Man"

🎵I'm your boogie man, that's what I am
I'm here to do whatever I can
Be it early morning, late afternoon
Or at midnight. It's never too soon🎵

12/19/2020 - The Mask and the Vaccine

 

If I gotta wear a mask, I like this one.

 

The night before last I posed a question on my Facebook. I was asking for input on wearing of masks AFTER one has been administered the vaccine. And as one might expect, there was some of the usual political back and forth that gets us nowhere and just delineates where people have their heels dug in, so to speak. The answer from a post-vaccine mask advocate I found most honest was, paraphrasing, that we should wear them for a few more months so that other people feel safer when they're out by seeing us in masks. It's funny, because when I first started wearing the mask, I had my doubts about wearing it, but felt that if by doing so at a minimum the people around me felt safer, I wasn't going to fight the issue. Especially, in as much as I wasn't confident in taking either side of that debate myself and feeling fully justified in taking it.

But as I thought about it, some of what has transpired since the pandemic started began to bother me. First it was 15 days to flatten the curve. That was about 9 month ago now. And in the interim, we've had closures, openings, re-closures, etc. And as much as I am NOT a denier, none of that stuff, I've never been fully sold on the arguments for or against any of the measures. My gut has told me from the start, and still tells me, that they really don't know, and that they're really playing it by ear and learning as they go... as we go. But one thing that has been held out again and again, we have ALL heard it, is, "Just until there's a vaccine." And now the goal posts have moved again. Now it's, "Now that there's a vaccine, just a few more months." Jeeze!

Yesterday I had a minor issue I needed looked at by an eye doctor. They were nice and got me right in. The technician was very nice. In making small talk, when I took my eyeglasses off, I said that they were all fogged up because of my mask anyway. And I said I was lucky I'm retired and didn't have to wear it day in and day out like she and other people working in so many jobs do. I told her that I thought once I get the vaccine that I won't have to wear it anymore, but now I'm hearing maybe a few more months AFTER we get vaccinated, so that people aren't scared. And she said, "Once we get  the vaccine, I'm not wearing the mask. If they're scared to be around me after I've been vaccinated because I'm not wearing a mask, they just need to stay home." I think those were her exact words. You know what? She's 100% right.

If she's not right, then what the fuck is the vaccine for, anyway? I'm not saying I won't wear a mask. I'm not saying I won't get the vaccine. But what the fuck? Does the shit work or not? Feels like this last moving of the goal posts is a bit to far, taking us out of field goal range. I'm starting to think some people have their heels dug in so far on the mask issue, on BOTH sides, that now that it's about time to get rid of them, now we have the next reason not to.

I have not and will not fight the mask until I get the vaccine. And as I said, that's even though I don't have 100% confidence in them. Hell, my confidence in them is in the 50-60% range, which I concede is better than nothing. But if I don't have the virus, and after I get vaccinated so I won't get the virus, I don't need a mask and you don't need me to have one, either. If you want me to wear one I don't need for either you nor me just because you're scared, then I don't need a mask. You just need to stay the fuck home.

12/17/2020 - Coronavirus and Our Holidays

 

Not our tree, just a nice Christmas tree.

 

Later on this morning I'll be pulling our Christmas tree and all of our decorations from storage. There's some in a little storage locker in the basement, and the rest is in the guest room closet. And while we'll do our best to make the most of Christmas, 2020, I have to say I've noticed I don't have nearly the same excitement as in years past. Surely we'll see our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. And we may see, within the stinking stupid CCP Virus rules, a couple of dear friends. But it won't be a whirlwind of socializing and activity like other Christmas seasons. I'm tempted to say, "It sucks," but Christmas is supposed to be about the birth of a child, Jesus, Son of God and our Savior. Coronavirus doesn't change that at all. But what all is different this year?

Masks. Social distancing. Closures and restrictions. Can't visit sick friends in hospitals. People sick with the virus. This Christmas will be challenging. Whatever. We're all challenged now and again, right? It's just not usually all of us at once like this year.

Shopping at the malls, and target, and this place and that. Nope. Not this year. Groceries and necessities only

OK, no malls and stuff. Shopping online. With the malls closed, online shopping is a bad idea, if you ask me. The time would have been a week, maybe two weeks or more ago. I'm not feeling good about my chances of getting stuff out and getting it, or having someone else get it on time. Nope.

Restaurants! Nah. Restrictions. Masks. Cold weather means inside dining. Not so much. Sadder for restaurant employees and owners than me, but that's the truth. Take out? Probably so, but not for large gatherings. Not this year.

Christmas parties! I'm retired, so the office party is a thing of the past. People aren't doing house parties. There ain't shit for Christmas parties this year, probably not much of any anywhere you might be.

Church? I'm not good at getting to church like I should anymore. That's a whole separate topic. But at Christmas we've been known to attend worship with our friends. Watching it live streamed or delivered as a giant Zoom conference? Not as much. So I don't see church in our plans.

So here's what we are going to do: we're going to put up the tree and put out our nativity set. We're going to start to listen to holiday music. Christmas carols, Santa songs, Winter Wonderland, all that stuff. Caroline's going to make some cookies. Maybe a drive or two to look at some awesome Christmas decorations. They're out there. Some people went bonkers with it I bet, with the pandemic going on. Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners with the kids and exchanging gifts with them... and especially with my little Cutie-Pie! And on Christmas morning, we'll take a ride out to the Veteran's Cemetery in Radcliffe, and salute my father in law and all the other veterans spending an eternity of Christmas's there. And though they lay many miles away, I'll think of all my other family, now gone from this world. What better day than Christmas to think of them? The Redeemer's birthday.

Nope. It won't be a normal Christmas in many ways. But it is still Christmas. Make the best of it you can, and we will, too.

Have a great day, friends! God bless. And please, have a safe and lovely holiday. Merry Christmas!

12/12/2020 USPS Delivery - Apocalypse Now!

 

 

To understand the problem the USPS is having, here's a simplified explanation. Every day, letters and parcels are picked up at residences and businesses, transferred to a local post office where they are unloaded, sorted, then loaded, delivered to big sorting facilities, transferred in 53 foot tractor trailers, unloaded, sorted, reloaded, transferred to a destination sorting facility, sorted, transferred to a local post office, sorted, and then delivered.

Now imagine one of these big sorting facilities has just one unloading position. They have a lot more than that, but to illustrate, imagine there's just one. Three shifts of three employees each unload 53 footers at that position, and it takes 3-1/2 hours for them to offload each one. They can handle just about 7 a day. Ten employees are assigned the position each day, 3 shifts of 3 and a supervisor. Now imagine 40% of the employees are absent, for whatever reason. Instead of three employees per shift, they only have two. Overtime! So each of the remaining 6, including the supervisor, work 12 hour shifts, getting them back to 3 per shift, or a capacity of 7 trailers unloaded per day. The employees can't do that indefinitely, but for a short span of a few days they can. Except instead of 7 trailers a day, they're receiving 10 to 15 per day. It's physically impossible. Each day the backlog of work increases. If this goes on for days and weeks, which it has, it becomes a logjam that only time and manpower can fix.

Multiply the problem times all of the pickups, loading positions, unloading positions, sorting, transfers, and deliveries they're getting nationwide. If you're screaming at your mailman, and there are people who are doing just that, you're not being fair. Travel and gathering restrictions imposed due to the virus, restrictions that were NOT imposed by the USPS, but by mayors and governors, has people sending many, even most of the gifts they would normally give in person by mail. Covid and exhaustion has the post office dealing with high absenteeism on top of the massive shipping surge. It's a perfect storm, a delivery failure apocalypse. But if driving to the local post office and screaming at the clerk selling stamps and tendering packages makes you feel a lot better, have at it. And blaming Trump is just as stupid. But have at it. I hope you feel better now.

12/10/2020 Alternative Social Media Platform Quick Takes

It seems to me that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the big three of social media platforms. I suppose you could add Instagram to that, but I'm not sure it fits into the same niches in our daily lives as these behemouths pertain to the sharing of news and political information. Maybe to a lesser extent, but I'll leave it out of this discussion. All three of FB, Twitter, and YT are the subject of much discussion and debate regarding their status as a platform vs. a publisher. This post is NOT intended to delve into that topic. Instead, in my opinion the ideal answer to dissatisfaction many of us may have with the big three is to adopt and use alternative platforms whose post curation practices and policies are more to our liking. This morning, let's look at the some I've been using, in varying degrees. And one I won't used at all, and why.

Parler:

Parler is an alternative to Twitter

First on the list is Parler. Parler is clearly intended to be an alternative to Twitter. I've been on Parler since the beginning.  It's from the French verb to speak, but I think it's pronounced like parlor, as in "Come in to my parlor." Parler has a lot of users, and plenty of traffic. A good number of conservatives who have been banned by Twitter for obstinately, defiantly, and uncompromisingly maintaining their position and posts on issues with which Twitter's left wing censors disagree are now posting on Parler. 

As I write, I am a Parler user, but I see three big drawbacks to Parler. 1) Many of the biggest accounts on Twitter that draw people to that platform aren't on Parler at all. President Trump is the notable missing account, but there are others. Notably, many news, opinion, sports, and other entertainment content producers, and all manner and sort of non-political interests are vastly under represented on Parler. It's something short of critical mass, for lack of a better term. 2) Many of those whose posts I am interested in who have accounts only post to Parler as an afterthought. If I'm interested in keeping up with those persons or organizations in real time, Twitter is where I still need to go to find them. Lastly, 3) Parler's platform needs a lot of work. After 10+ years on Twitter, Parler still feels clumsy, awkward, and rough. The platform still needs a lot of refinement. 

On the plus side, Parler doesn't play games with the number of accounts one might like to follow. Twitter surely does. And Parler does a much better job embracing free speech and allowing expression of opinion than does the highly biased and openly hostile to conseratives platform, Twitter.

MeWe:

The MeWe platform is attempting to replace Facebook

I joined MeWe a month or two ago. For all intents and purposes it appears to be a clone of Facebook. While it's missing a lot of the features in Facebook, like a marketplace, etc., the look, feel, and use of it are very similar to Facebook. Founded on a basis of allowing various points of view and content that liberal Facebook blocks, I like MeWe a lot. There would seem to be three drawbacks. 1) Most of my friends, family, and treasured contacts are on Facebook and haven't and won't move with me to MeWe. 2) Most of the big names in politics, media, sports, entertainment, etc., aren't on it, either. And finally, 3) It just doesn't have all the bells, whistles, and functionality of Facebook, which has a 10 year head start on MeWe, and it shows. Yes, I like MeWe, and wish many more of you would try it, but I do concede it has a long, long way to go to make large inroads into Facebook's traffic. One additional note: MeWe is free, but does offer a pay option. I am only using the free version, and I'm not able to comment knowledgeably about the pay side of it.

Rumble:

Rumble is a fairly new alternative to YouTube.

Rumble is marketed as an alternative to YouTube. Some notable conservative outlets that have been banned by the ultra-liberal YouTube are posting their content on Rumble now. I have a Rumble account, but for almost all of the content I'm interested to see, YouTube is still far and away the place to go for it, frustration with YouTube's politics and policies notwithstanding. Dan Bongino, whose conservative podcast I enjoy occasionally has invested in Rumble and he does market it on his shows. Bongino has an investment and ownership interests in Parler, too, by the way. Thus far I haven't found there's enough content of interest to me on Rumble to draw me to it as a regular user. If the platform can gain more mass and more content of interest, I may find my way over there more often, but not as of now.

Gab:

Spoiler: Gab is garbage.

I tried Gab a couple of years ago and didn't last long. All the cliches and stereotypes of conservatives being racists seemed to be true on Gab. The whack a doodle doo idiots I saw on there aren't my people and I didn't stick around, haven't been back. If Antifa sympathizers and activists don't represent the mainstream of the left, neither does Gab represent the right, Good Ol' Matty P in particular. My advice: Stay away from Gab unless it's specifically your cup of tea. If it is, don't tell anyone. You'll embarrass yourself.

12/6/2020 Election Anomalies: 7 Possible Explanations

On a recent blog post, a Facebook friend of mine commented that while there were anomalies, there is a reasonable explanation for most of them that is not voter fraud or election tampering. It got me to thinking, of all the hundreds of affidavits and hearing witness testimonies, what are there possible explanations? Well, I think they fit into a handful of broad categories:

1. The sworn witnesses and people who submitted affidavits were simply and straight up lying. The things they said were either made up or a selective reporting of facts, with intentional omissions and with emphasis on anything that shed a negative light on the election.

2. The people who submitted affidavits and testified misunderstood the facts.  The stacks of ballots and computer 'glitches', all that 'stuff', were the normal goings on and there were and are reasonable and perfectly legitimate explanations for them.

3. Voters and election officials made mistakes. There may have been errors and problems, but there was no intentional fraud underlying what the testifiers saw. Some of the anomalies was officials righting honest mistakes that were made.

4. On an individual and local level there were isolated and uncoordinated instances of voter, ballot, and tabulation fraud, but there was no widespread, coordinated corruption conspiracy.

5. Political operatives at the local, state, and national level conspired to change the election's results before, during, and after the election in any and every way imaginable.

6. Bad actors, foreign (China, Russia, etc.) and domestic (DNC, Silicone Valley, Dominion) had a hand in generating phony ballots, manipulating election software, and also manipulating public opinion through social media.

7. The entire election and vote tabulation is 100% legitimate. Joe Biden got 10,000,000 more votes than Barack Obama (2008) and 13,000,000 more than Obama (2012). Donald Trump got 10,000,000 more then in his first (2016) election campaign, won a net increase in seats in state houses and the U..S. House, got more minority votes than any GOP candidate in decades, but came up short against a political dynamo and powerhouse in Joe Biden.

My opinion? There was some of all the above. Well, except for number 7. Number 7 is bullshit, and everybody knows it, even those who won't dare admit it. And if you think there's no chance any of 4, 5, or 6 is true, and every single issue was either number 1, 2, 3, or number 7, you're the reason this could happen in the first place.

12/3/2020 - My Future in the GOP: Spoiler... Not!

 

Is Good Ol' Matty P leaving the GOP again?

Sometime late in 2014 or early in 2015 I made the decision to leave the Republican Party. I was fed up. I would sum up my frustration in two ways. First, I saw their opposition to Pres. Obama, opposition I supported, but the GOP's opposition did not propose practicable alternatives. The GOP proposed ideological alternatives that were never meant to stand the scrutiny of passage, nor the test of implementation, but which were instead a counterpoint in principle only. They rarely, if ever, proposed real solutions to the problems Obama took on, I'm thinking mainly of healthcare. The GOP really just defended the status quo and cried out in unison, in denial. And secondly, I understood that the GOP talked a big game: the budget, trade deals, etc. etc., but when I looked at them critically, and I did, they sold out American workers in favor of overseas workers and corporate profits again, again, and again. So I came to the conclusion that I was no longer a Republican, and changed my registration to 'independent'. If the GOP wanted my vote, I figured, they would have to campaign to get it. As an independent, I reasoned, I would be viewed as a swing voter, and would become important to their chances for election and re-election, not a presumed vote to be overlooked and unappreciated.

Then, Donald J Trump and Melania came down the escalator. As much as I knew he was an asshole, I also found that his rhetoric resounded in me. Here was a guy who actually seemed to love America, and who really seemed to connect with me as a voter. And so, in 2016, when I moved my voting registration to Florida, I also changed my party affiliation back to the GOP so that I could support Trump in the primary.

Now Trump is in a battle over election, voter, and ballot fraud in a number of states, enough states that it would change the apparent outcome of the election. And in this battle, what do I see from most of the GOP? Most of them are sitting on their hands, more than happy to see the bully Trump go away. They want to go back to being what they were before Trump. I see that. I am sure many, many others do, too. Well, there's one thing they were before Trump that if they have their way I promise you they'll be again. They'll be without me, Good Ol' Matty P. If Trump's challenges fail, and I think it's about an 80% certainty they will, and especially if the Democrats win the Senate, which I think is about a 60% chance right now, due to disaffected Republicans in GA staying home because the two GOP candidates represent the pre-Trump GOP, not Trumpism, I will once again change my party affiliation. If there is a new Trump party of some sort, I will join it. If not, then I'll either go independent again, or maybe Libertarian.

I believe the country is headed in the wrong direction under Democratic Party control. I have no interest in supporting a Republican Party that is more than happy to be the minority, opposition party. As minority, opposition party they will once again point and criticize, but they'll do nothing that is in the country's best interest. Want a real example, new as the last 24 hours? Senator Lee of Utah's support of eliminating some green card restrictions so big tech can get their overseas workers. Fuck Americans out of work during a pandemic and its shutdowns. Fuck America first. Well guess what Senator Lee, GOP, and US Senate? Fuck us? No, Senator, fuck you!

A special note for my friends from the left: please understand when I post something critical of Democrats or of a Democrat, when you come at me with "But the GOP...", it falls on deaf ears. When you point out to me what the GOP is doing as a counterpoint, you're not missing the bullseye, you're missing the target altogether. 'Cause the GOP ain't me. 30 days or so and I'm outta there officially. Unofficially, I've been outta there for years. I'm a Trumplican, and I take no responsibility for the other bastards called Republicans.

12/1/2020 Boot Camp Memories

I just finished reading Thomas E. Ricks' "Making the Corps", his 1997 book about USMC boot camp in the mid to late 90's. The book explained that USMC Drill Instructors no longer get 'physical' with recruits like they did back in the 70's and before. I went through boot camp in 1978, but I only recall one time when a D.I. got physical with a member of my platoon. There was a kid named Private Germany in the platoon. Germany was easily the most athletically gifted and physically fit kid in the platoon. He was so fit that pretty much none of the things they did to break us down seemed to phase him in the least. I remember in some of the worst of times, the rest of us were grunting, groaning, sweating, and bulgingly red-eyed, Germany was just having fun, often smiling, almost mockingly.

So one day one of the DI's, a Guy named SSgt Anger (great name for a DI), had had enough. Anger wasn't with us more than about 5-6 weeks, and he disappeared. We saw him next he was a Gunny and was Company Gunny for a different company in our battalion. Anyway, SSgt Anger was PT'ing us for something (whatever, they didn't really wait for an airtight excuse), and Germany was going through the motions like usual, smiling, happy, having a ball. So Anger stopped us and brought Germany up front. "You think this is just a game, do you, Germany?" Long story short, a few minutes later, Anger took of his SSgt chevrons and told Germany they'd settle their differences in the gear locker. We heard some banging and stuff, and when they came out, Germany was beat up pretty good. Unfortunately, Germany washed of boot camp out a few weeks later. The story we heard was about a girl and a baby back home. I don't know if they washed him out because of something to do with her or for something else, but we never did see him again. Oddly, Germany's picture is in my boot camp book, so he must have washed out right at the very end, after the book was finished.

A funny second part to the gear locker incident, is that right afterward Sgt Washington, the meanest sadistic bastard of our DI's, asked if anyone else in the platoon wanted to settle anything with him in the gear locker. Private Ryan immediately stepped forward. "Sir, if the drill instructor wants to settle things with this private, the private would love to go into the gear locker now!" "What's your beef, Ryan?" "Sir, when my girlfriend's picture went onto the hog board, the Drill Instructor said 'Who's Dago is this?', and said the private would have duty on graduation day when she comes to boot camp, and would show her a real man. After we get done in the gear locker, that won't happen." And Washington didn't go in there with Ryan. Germane to the story is the fact that John was a PAL heavyweight boxing champion in New York back before boot camp. He'd have tore Washington's head off, and I'm sure Washington knew it just as well as Ryan and every other recruit in our platoon did, too. Ryan was a damned stud, and was probably 30 or 40 pounds heavier and 4-5 inches taller. I'm not sure 3 or 4 DI's would have been smart to take him in the gear locker, at least not without weapons of some kind.

 

I wonder where Germany and Ryan are today? I was a little older, so I'm guessing they're both 60. Funny how reading that book brought back memories.

21/1/2020 Election 2020, What's YOUR Truth?

 

I saw a Facebook post this past weekend by a friend who's a longtime Democrat. He's entitled to his opinion and I did refrain from adding my comments and thoughts to his post. But his complete dismissal of the issue of fraud in the 2020 as being an imaginary issue in the minds of Trump supporters based on Trump lies made me wonder what all kinds of different people might think happened in the election and in its aftermath. Where do you stand on it, and why? Pick a number and leave a comment if you're willing to explain.

1. All of the people who've filed affidavits or testified alleging voter, ballot, or other kinds of election fraud are liars who are willing to say anything to help Donald Trump, the liar in chief. Fuck the Republicans!
   
2. There were things that could have been perceived as suspicious that happened, but there are legitimate explanations for nearly all of them. The remainder, even if they were election, ballot, or voter fraud, wouldn't have made any difference in the election.
3. Concerns about the election are really just thinly veiled efforts at voter suppression because you really don't think people of color and women should be voting in the first place.
   
4. I don't care if they cheated or not, I'm just glad that bastard Trump lost. Fuck the orange man, and fuck racist, xenophobic, homophobic bastards who voted for his fat fascist ass.
   
5. I'm sure we cheated and I'm glad, because fuck Trump!
6. There was probably cheating, but I'm indifferent. I don't like Trump or Biden enough to pay attention.
7. People who think the election was stolen are delusional and paranoid.
   
8. I feel certain there was cheating, but I know I could be wrong, too. I'd like these issues investigated promptly to ensure of the 2020 election's integrity before the wrong candidate is sworn in.
9. There was no doubt ballot, election, and voter fraud. Some of it was overseas interference, likely from China, Iran, and Russia. The rest was from corrupt city, state, and federal officials, elected and appointed. It happens all the time and there's nothing can or will be done about it.
10. I am a Trump supporter, and I'm certain the election was stolen from President Trump, and I'm so fucking stupid I've decided to let Democrats win everything now and in 2022 so I can watch them ruin the country and I'll be able to point and laugh and say, "See! I told you so!"
11. I want every affidavit and every testimony of voter fraud, ballot fraud, and election fraud investigated and prosecuted. I will never accept Joe Biden as president. He's illegitimate and we need to resist. Fuck Biden and fuck Democrats stealing the election!
    
12. I don't know what's right or what's wrong with the election, but the affidavits and testimony worry me. If you ask me, the numbers don't add up to a legitimate result. I think for sure there was some cheating, but don't know if what can be proven will make a difference or not. I'd like it investigated and corrected, regardless of how that might affect the outcome, but especially if it affected the outcome. I want any and all cheaters, regardless of party, punished to the fullest extent of the law. I'd also like safeguards put in place to eliminate as many of these problems as possible in the future.
13. Something else. (please explain)
    

So where are you at? I'm #12.