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.

11/28/2020 Corners Without Exits

Immediately after the election I wrote that I recognized Trump's chances were slim. I still feel the same. Right now I still hope Trump's legal team will show the court ample evidence of fraud and corruption in enough of the states of Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to get the phony election results tossed, and I do believe they're phony, but for several reasons, I don't think the efforts will succeed.

1. The first reason is simple: there isn't enough time. The Electoral College is December 14th. An investigation into some, any, or all of the questionable occurrences in these states leading up to the election in changing their rules, often in ways not provided for in their state's constitution and election laws: the actual execution of the election itself by absentee, mail, early in person voting, and day of election in person voting, election infrastructure (especially the machines and software for collecting, storing, counting, and transmitting vote totals), and post-election decisions and actions, to be done right will simply take longer than till Dec 14th. So time is the first and biggest hurdle.
2. Democrats have home field advantage in most of the states under contest. Most of these governors, secretaries of state, state judiciaries, and election officials are partisans who won't support a real and thorough investigation, and frankly, it's likely in some cases because they're the ones who bent rules, thumbed the scales, or perhaps downright committed the fraud themselves.
3. Republicans can be divided into three categories: Never-Trumpers who are glad to see him moved out and who may have been co-conspirators in any schemes. Many of these are the "uni-party" types who are Republican in name only, but in reality they're just cashing in on power. Then you've got the chicken-shit Republicans. These chicken-shits have a lot of Democrats in their districts and are afraid to speak up for fear of losing the next election. And lastly, the Trumplicans, like myself. The problem with us Trumplicans is, we're the majority of the party, let there be no doubt, but because we're a new phenomena, the never-Trumpers and chicken-shits in most cases are the office holders in the states in question, and they don't recognize us as their primary constituency, if indeed they recognize us as constituents at all.
4. Judges will be loathe to take an action and ensure the election is policed and ensure electoral integrity. No matter what they rule, they'll be pilloried for involving themselves. And besides, considering the time constraints I discussed in the first paragraph, many of the corrupt acts will still fall short of evidentiary rules lacking the time consuming, full and thorough investigation that would be required to toss the result.

 

So, based on all the aforementioned, what do I think? Should Trump concede? No. Should he continue to fight? Yes. And we MUST concentrate on both challenging the corruption AND winning the Senatorial runoffs in Georgia, too. Should we leave the GOP and form a new party, the Great America Party or the American Greatness Party, the Patriot Party, or the America First Party? I think so. Not until after January 2021, but long the before 2022 Mid-Terms. This party should appeal to all the Trumplicans, all Democrats who aren't radical leftists, and especially to minorities who want opportunity, and to not be used to win Democrats and election and then set aside until the next campaign rolls around, and who don't want to be sold out by fat cats by both parties in favor of cheap overseas labor and corporate profits rather than their own financial well being. And this party would also favor and end to endless wars, something Democrats and Republicans alike seem to love more than our country itself.

I feel like both the election of 2020 and the future of the two party system equate to corners without exits. It's as if it's untenable to stay where we are, but within the framework of the system as it is now, there's no way out. It's time to rebuild it, and when we do, to install exits from thess corners.