"The Shot" - 7/15/2022 - 2

Covid Boosters

I got the initial Vaccine in January of 2021. Then I got the booster. I even went and got a second booster. I get a flu shot every year. I've got my old people's shots, too: the shingles and pneumonia vaccines. So don't call me an anti-vaxxer. History would show that you were wrong to do so.

If I ever get another Covid booster, they'll have to have made a better case than they have to this point to convince me it's in my best interest. By my reckoning, the risks of getting it verses not getting it no longer tilt toward getting it. The stuff has shown to be less and less effective as the virus mutates to evade it. Hell, one guy I know got the shot a month ago, his second booster, and three weeks later he got Covid. I didn't see his, "so thankful I was boosted now that I got Covid" tweet.

And before you jump in with the "they never said you wouldn't catch it if you get the shot" bullshit, yes they did. Lemme ask you one, simple question: If getting the shot never meant that you wouldn't catch it, then why in the hell did they refer to something called "breakthrough cases" or "breakthrough infections"? They don't talk about breakthrough infections anymore, now do they? No, they damned sure don't. That terminology has disappeared. Why?

This quote is from early last year. Posted for liars who say, "They never said that." Yeah, they did.

Ineffectual Joe Biden, Four Reasons Why - 7/15/2022

Ineffectual. You could look it up:

ineffectual

ĭn″ĭ-fĕk′choo͞-əl

adjective

1. Not producing the desired effect: synonym: futile.
2. Lacking forcefulness or effectiveness; inadequate or incompetent.
3. Not producing the proper effect; without effect; inefficient; weak; useless; futile; unavailing

(Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.)

President Joe Biden.

I'm calling President Biden 'ineffectual'. Let's set aside debate over my assertion that this is so. Is there really any debate? The guy sucks at his job. Seriously. For those of you reading this who disagree, I've got no answer for you. If you think he's doing a good job, you just go right on thinking that. I can't stop you and I won't argue with you or debate you about it. For the rest of us, for those with ears to hear and eyes to see, I give you four reasons why Joe Biden is "Lacking forcefulness or effectiveness; inadequate or incompetent".

1. He has no electoral mandate. You'd think a President with 81,000,000 votes would have a massive mandate, but Joe doesn't. Why not? The electorate voted against Trump, not for Biden or a Biden agenda. It's that simple. Very few people were enthusiastic about the man. "Who you gonna vote for?" "Anyone but Trump." Votes like that don't confer a mandate. They just don't. And lacking a mandate translates to a lack of support for his agenda. If there was a true "Biden Agenda" that America was overcome with enthusiasm for, Joe Biden would have been President a long time ago. He only won when faced with an opponent that the Democrat base and far too many independents and Republicans found unacceptable. The strategy was, "Who will beat Trump?", not "What's best for the U.S.A.?" It shows.

2. He isn’t governing from his own ideological center. Instead, President Biden, long a more moderate fixture among Democrats, has allowed the progressives to shape and push his agenda. Maybe that's what most Democrats want, I concede that may be true, but that's not who Joe is. It's hard to inspire enthusiasm and support when you're not being true to your own self, and Joe Biden is being true to the progressives he fears in his party, but not to himself. Think about how that weakens his message.

3. He has ideologues, academicians, career bureaucrats, and personnel selected on the basis of identity politics, many of than anti-business and anti capitalism, managing our economy. There is very little private sector experience from corporate America in this Administration. The people making policy simply don't understand the adverse impact on productivity their policies have. These people prioritize social justice and ecological justice over productivity. James Carville famously said, "It's the economy, stupid!" At the heart of President Biden's weakness is really bad economic policy. Productivity, which mostly, almost exclusively means private sector productivity when we talk about driving the economy, isn't what it needs to be. Why isn't it? Because the Biden team has issues like transgender rights and climate change at the top of their moral hierarchy. Not to argue against any of the Biden social or environmental priorities here, but productivity is the engine that propels our economy. The issues important to the Administration are more a steering rudder, but surely not an engine. There is very little experience or understanding within the administration from the private sector, and the economy is showing us how much is dislikes ideologues, academics, bureaucrats, and wokesters tinkering in in the engine room.

4. He’s simply too old, frail, and in decline. He lacks the stamina to put in the required long hard hours, and he clearly lacks the cognitive skills to be anything more than a puppet for the policy wonks. Don't even begin to tell me he's fine, full if vim, vigor, vitality, and intellectual prowess. No, he ain't and you know it, too. Quit pretending different. He often looks befuddled and sometimes seems to wander off into la la land. His handlers give him crib notes telling him sit and stand. He reads the teleprompter like Ron Burgundy. He's got dementia and it shows. Everyone knows it, even the liberal press is starting to talk about it, after covering it up and concealing it as best they could. They were "Anyone but Trump" accomplices, and hiding Joe's cognitive decline was a necessary piece of the puzzle to defeating Trump.

So, if you're wondering why Joe Biden has been ineffectual, wonder no more. I just told you.

Conclusions, HB and 'The Big Guy' - 7/12/2022

What happens when information is withheld, metered, tailored, and obviously distorted? Well, in my case I tend to draw my own conclusions. Sometimes it's not what you think, but usually it probably is exactly that.

Did you see the shit (yes, it is shit, that's the best word in this context) that's been released from Hunter's iCloud? It's terrible and it's disgusting. But really, who cares, right? We all already knew the guy is a scumbag, a lowlife, and a drug addicted pedophile. The content is salacious and damning, but honestly, I don't know how damning the perversion is to his father, aka 'the big guy'. But it damned sure puts HB in a bad light. We all knew all that already, at least those of us with our eyes opened knew it. What to me is more relevant to our country and more of a concern are the implications and my conclusions as they relate to his father, the Puppet In Chief, President Joe Biden.

Now, to begin with, I'm not referencing the fact that HB has JB listed as 'Pedo Pete' in his contacts. Just because we know HB is a pedo and now we learn that he has named JB 'Pedo Pete' in his contacts doesn't PROVE JB is a Pedo. I'm sure a lot of you have your dad listed in your cellphone contact list as 'Pedo ____ ', don't you? You don't? Weird.

10% for 'The Big Guy'!

No, the implications and conclusions I'm drawing from this have to do with corruption and sale of influence. It is simply this: if the drug stuff, the perversion stuff, the pedophilia stuff has all been shown to be true in words, photos, and on video, it stands to reason that other 'disputed' and denied allegations regarding the President and related to HB's electronic device content are also very likely to be true. Simply put, it is clear to me that HB sold his father's (aka 'the bug guy' and 'Pedo Pete') influence, and that JB profited from it. It would be very hard for you to convince me otherwise. And before you come at me with "not proven" or "not convicted" or whatever, I know that. But I have ears to hear and eyes to see. This avalanche of confirmation of just what a scumbag HB is makes denials of the pay for play corruption ring very shallow with me.

"That's just how it works. Been going on forever, and will always. The powerful always cash in on power and it's no big deal." Fuck that. Fuck you for saying that. Our President, the same "the big guy' who was getting his 10%, and the same President who has been an avowed enemy of US oil production, just released 50 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Oil Reserve. Bad enough he is depleting our strategic reserve instead of rallying industry to increase production, but even worse, he's releasing at least some of it to overseas interests, including China. Some of that oil going to China is being bought up by Sinopec, the company with which HB worked, you know, the job for which he had ZERO qualification, but he did have a connection to 'the big guy'. Well, now 'the big guy' is paying back the back half of the quid pro quo by selling out the US in a time of energy crunch in favor of HB's Chinese connections.

The Big Guy is taking good care of Sinopec.

Not proven you say? Well, no shit it's not proven. None of the corrupt agencies, or corrupt Congress has any interest in it. Got news for you, I don't care. Now that I can see the other HB shit was absolutely and totally true, there's nothing to prove. You've got to convince me JB isn't corrupt. I don't have to prove shit.

Today's Insanity, "Baked Goods" and "Birthing People" - 7/7/2022

Just when I had let the insanity that is Teacher's Unions slip from my mind for a bit, there come reports today that the NEA (National Education Association) is discussing replacing the word "mother" with "birthing parent" as a way of being more inclusive of LGBTQ+ people. These people are ridiculous. No kidding, they're absolutely ridiculous.

I love my mother. She is my mother. I am not going to call her my "birthing parent". I am not going to call your mother your "birthing parent". I am not going to call a gay person's mother "birthing parent". I am not going to call a trans person's mother "birthing parent". I am not going to refer to anyone as "birthing parent." If you are LGBTQ+ and for some reason the terms "mother" and "motherhood" bother you, I am sorry to hear that. That doesn't negate or invalidate motherhood. And I'm sorry if motherhood bothers you. Do you know who else may be bothered or saddened by the words mother and motherhood? People with broken hearts because their mother, their mom, their mommy, mama has passed away. I've never heard a one of them ask that we not use that hurtful term.

Imagine if a certain oatmeal cookie felt more like a cherry pie.  Didn't feel like a cookie at all, as a matter of fact. Feels like a cherry pie, 100% a cherry pie. Always identified as a cherry pie, even as they were lifted from the cookie sheet with the oatmeal cookies that identify as such. Follow along.

Cherry Pie Cookies

"Everyone calls me a cookie, but I am a pie. Call me "Cherry Pie" please."

"OK, my dear Oatmeal Cookie, oops, I mean Cherry Pie, if it will make you feel better, from now on I'll call you Cherry Pie. I'll try to get used to your new name, I promise."

"Thank you, I appreciate it."

"Hey, Cherry Pie, now that you realize that you're not a cookie, are you still friends with Sugar Cookie and Peanut Butter Cookie?" All at once, Cherry Pie starts to cry.

"Why are you crying, Cherry Pie?"

"It hurts my feelings when you call Sugar and Peanut Putter "Cookie"."

"What, but they're still cookies, right?"

"When you call them "Cookie" it makes me feel bad, because I'm a cherry pie now."

"If I don't call them Cookie, what would you prefer I call them?"

"Baked Goods. Call them Baked Goods, that fits us all, all us CPCDMs (cookies, pies, cakes, donuts, and muffins).

"You gotta be shitting me."

"Nope, I'm serious, call us all "Baked Goods" and I'll feel better about who I am."

"Fuck off, Oatmeal Cookie, I ain't calling anyone Baked Goods."

"Most wack-a-doodle-doo" politician of 2022" - 7/6/2022

Tiara Mack, a Rhode Island State Senator, got my attention the last couple of days. I want to crown her "most wack-a-doodle-doo" politician of 2022. I know it's only mid-year, and I suppose someone even more wacky may come along and take the award in the second half, but right now Ms. Mack is the clear front runner.

Vote for me I'll.... (screenshot from Tiara Mack's tik-tok)

She posted the above video to her social media doing a headstand, her head in the beach sand, wearing a somewhat skimpy bikini, shaking her larger than voluptuous booty in a movement that may be a twerk, except it is upside down.

She proudly proclaimed that teaching "comprehensive, queer inclusive, pleasure based sex ed" was the highlight of her teaching experience. Does she discuss her favorite toys and and sources of gay pornography? It's pleasure based after all.

I wrote about the politicians on the extreme left and right just the other day. Well, Washington needs Tiara Mack. Someone has to make the idiots we send there to represent us seem halfway normal. Tiara Mack is perfect for it. She's so far out on the fringe, the fringe is downright moderate in comparison. And, hey. If you want someone with their ass in the air and their head in the sand, Tiara's your girl!

Matty's Lament, Washinton is Broken - 7/4/2022

It's broke and I don't know how we're ever going to fix it. Political discourse is rabid, acidic, poisonous, ugly, and has become pointless. It really has. I don't have the answers, but there are three things I want to point to.

Discourse is in the gutter.

 

Where do you go to get your disinformation and vitriol?

Cable news, FoxNews, CNN, MSNBC. It's bad enough that all the broadcast major networks are biased. Cable news networks, thinking back to the 90's and the Clinton era, took bias to a new level. But worse than that, they sold us arguing, bickering, and insults and called it political discourse. With each televised argument, I could feel my anger at "the other side" rise up within me. While sometimes the arguments were intolerable, often the underlying issues were of great importance. They'd talk over each other, filibuster, and toss insults back and forth. I'd find myself sucked into watching, and with every passing day I became more and more unhappy with and intolerant of the other side. I knew "my team" was just as bad, but at least they were fighting against that other nonsense. That kind of TV set discourse back, way, way back. The ugliest face of each side became the face of the whole for those on the other side of the political fence. And both sides were so ugly, it was very hard for anyone to stay on the fence for any length of time.

Twitter, where the fringes define the whole.

Social Media, especially Twitter. Anonymity. Vitriol. Yes, I use Twitter. It's the public square in 2022. But the state of discourse there is awful. Memes and insults. Mischaracterizations and untruths. >99% talk, <1% listen. On social media there is near zero listening to understand, talking to be understood. Instead it's destructive, attacking, monologues designed to gain the admiration of like thinkers, those who think differently? Be damned. It's not helpful.

Lied for years about having evidence. Re-elected anyway.

Electing and re-electing extreme lightning rod politicians who become perfect caricatures of how the opposing point of view paints the entirety of the other side (Ocasio-Cortez, Schiff, Boebert, Taylor Green). This last point I want to make is how we let lightning rods, the far extremes of each side, define the whole of it. For every outrageous thing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says, there are 10 Democrats who are unheard. For whatever crazy thing Rep. Lauren Boebert might have to say, there are 10 Republicans who didn't get any mention at all on TV or social media. And as crazy as it seems, the bulk of each side seems to like the extreme whack jobs out there on the fringe. As long as Marjorie Taylor Green and Adam Schiff are making noise on the fringe, then the others feel like they've got duck and cover room to act unhindered by public attention or scrutiny.

Washington is broken.

Immigration Reform 7/3/2022

I'm trying to write a blog post about immigration reform, but I can't find nor fit the words. So lemme just say this: the vast majority, by a mile, are hardworking people looking for the opportunity to improve their lives. Yes, there is human trafficking, drug smuggling, and there are some violent criminals among them. But again, the vast majority are NOT involved in any of those things. By a mile. The majority of whom I speak are people I want to see come here and prosper. Legally.

 

Immigration Reform NOW!

Our politicians from both sides of the aisle are supposed to make laws. One badly needed is a reform of immigration policy and infrastructure. Why?

 

Our economy needs these workers. Period. A vast majority of the workers I'm referring to come from Mexico. I see such workers all the time. From my perspective, these folks work their asses off.

We need to make it possible for the workers we need to enter legally. We need to vet each and every immigrant to limit the number of undesirable people: criminals, gang people, drug runners, human traffickers. Yes they are a small minority in the big scheme of it, but we owe it to ourselves to do our best to weed out those types, even if small in number.

 

Why isn't it fixed? Because our politicians like divisive issues. On both sides of the aisle they're dug in. Like many other issues, they treat compromise as failure. All or none. Our way or the highway. But in this case, as in many others, Win-Lose is Lose-Lose. Special interests like the situation as it is now. We elect people to argue for our position, so we will "win", but we don't elect them to actually solve the problem.

People who come here illegally are in the wrong, even though most are coming for the right reasons. Washington is in the wrong, no matter how indignantly right they and their supporters profess them to be right.

 

Reform immigration now!