Category: Civics

Me Me Me

I’m paraphrasing someone smart here: Never compare yourself to others as it will only make you either vain or bitter.

don trump comes to mind, a man who lives in an entirely ego-based reality, where everyone is on some sliding scale in relation to don trump, so he’s bombastic and pompous over to those below don trump, but nano-sheet thin-skinned when faced with strength. I don’t believe I can say that he sees anyone above himself. He brags and rages in the same sentences, which meander and jump but mostly into vile fields of lies, insults, degradation and hate.

He’s one-of-a-kind crazy and seems to have some sort of love potion but one that only enamors some people. And not only do they love one of the truly unlovable men on the planet, they adore him, religiously so. They see a demigod. But what’s lost on everyone else is what an evil, dumb demigod these folks choose to glorify.

The continuum of colors of the human race

100 each of black men, white men, Asian men, Hispanic men and Native men, beautiful badass looking men, should go to the White House and stand apart in their respective groups silently and peacefully for one day. Halfway through the day, after the press and everyone with a phone has shot lots of photos, the whitest white guy and the blackest black guy walk to opposite ends of a city block and then the rest fill in as best they can. 

It would be a great reminder to them of what America actually looks like and that it won’t roll over for the ugly monochromatic men demanding it.

This is America. 

Power to all the people. 

Bad Business

“Based on the latest figures from Experian, the average new-car loan interest rate for a buyer with excellent credit was 5.18% for the first quarter of this year. But that average jumps to 15.81% for borrowers with a poor credit history.”

It’s a sad feature of our financial system that those with the least ability to afford something are often forced the pay the most for that very thing. The further up the food chain the less they often pay for food, chains, cars, whatever. They would argue that those with bad credit, with less ability to pay, are more likely to default, which I would assume is true. But let’s say you have an insanely large percentage of defaults – like, 30%, well, then 70% of those same people stuck it out, despite it all, giving you more money than you deserve, maybe? 

Of course, they are not in business to be nice, but to make as much money as they possibly can and unfortunately, that is mostly made off those with less money and little power. Rich people have more power, more choices, more everything, and they cannot possibly purchase – even with their fancy yachts and mansions – enough to rival the giant middle to lower classes. So, they developed a system that makes the most money off the giant middle to lower classes.

That’s also why they charge $30 late fees; can you imagine what it actually cost that lender to get a late payment? It’s almost too small to imagine. Now imagine selling something that happens automatically with no human intervention for $30 – constantly – over and over and over, day after day, seven days a week. The late fees department must have one impressive profitability.

But of course, that is not the only way to run your business. You can make money and be good, too. There are lots of good businesses out there making good money by being good, caring about their customers, never overcharging, yet being paid well for what they do. But none of the giant companies – the huge multinational banks and the like – are good. You have to wonder if a business gets to a certain size does it automatically get kind of sick in the head? Does huge always ultimately lead to heartless? And short-sighted modern-day investors don’t help either. 

What would that look like? A VISA or Chase Manhattan or USBank that ran a much tighter ship, like their grandpa would have? Make good money, but god dammit, be good! Could that exist in the jungle of the financial sector? When I was young, credit card rates were often 5.99%, 7.99%; I remember when I saw 9.99% for the first time and thought it was the apocalypse. And it does beg the question, why have the average credit card rates gone up across the board so much? To what do they attribute that? Have we all gotten so bad that we must be charged more? And even during COVID when they were borrowing at zero percent, their rates never came down. It should be noted that they borrow at like one or two percent now. And now the only people who could get a rate like those these days are, again, those who don’t need it. 

That’s the system. And most people are perfectly fine with it. The wealthy are, of course, and those with less are too busy getting by to think much about it. 

YHTFiS

You have to find it somewhere. 

What if we chased the evil idiots out of The Real US of A™ and agreed as a nation to go back to pre-trump budgets (and rules and morals and exceptionalism) with the addition of YGTFiS (you can read each letter like LGBTQ or maybe break it into YGT FiS and “Yat Fis” – the G is silent.) We freeze the overall budget forever (tied to inflation), but allow the departments to move budget money from department to department, not wholly but a bit here and a bit there. In emergencies, whatever. And so if a department has a shortfall (or the public wants more money shifted from here to there) they can ask for that and the asked departments say yay or nay. And the departments who give up funds are rewarded somehow – maybe some advantage at the 4-year reset by congress, who cannot make changes that exceed 20%. What exactly does that mean? I have no idea and know exactly: “But how would it work?” and “Well, twenty percent.” 

But back to YHTFiS, or Yacht Fish or “aight” Fis. Yeah. That’s perfect! Easy to say and will appeal to Gen z, some of whose pop heroes elided alright to aight and popularized it through music, television, marketing… Now, that I think about it, this was way before Gen Z. This is pure millennial and they’re old enough now to be bitter and jaded, god bless em. Okay, so we’ll have to focus our campaign on millennials (bitter and jaded), Gen X (over it), Boomers (going boom as we speak), and whoever’s hanging on from the generation that preceded the boomers (what are you still doing alive?). 

Look. The whole point of this was to go back to the budget levels of the Biden administration and begin with a rule that states that as a nation we can never raise the budget beyond this level. We can lower it, but it cannot exceed it. So, the point of the YHT FiS was that the whole of government will be a part of the allocations of funds because, well, YHTFiS. Departments would elect one allocator generale (pronounced with a soft G) (Oh, and a “lay” for the e on the end). Allocator Generales. That’s it. 

So the allocator generales are elected within the department – one person for every hundred workers in that department (not to exceed five [5]) – and they meet every year to tell of their accomplishments and ask for what they need most. In a big hall. I think we could add in purple robes – a nod to Prince, mostly, but it will give the allocator generales a bit more gravitas, and every single allocator generale has to be present in the huge, maybe gothic, hall without mobile phones or computers or any other distractions – just paper and No. 2 pencils because that’s what we used – and no getting up to sharpen your pencil! Bring plenty. You can sharpen them during one of the breaks that come on the hour. We could make them pee into mountain dew bottles. No. I hate plastic. 

So the few hundred United States Federal Allocator Generales would – after every department has given their presentations (PowerPoints will be accepted but we’d encourage them explore other options, shit, use AI, we don’t care), they’ll go back to their sleeping quarters (probably a Sheraton) and disrobe. (They have to wear the robes whenever in public during the three-day Federal Allocator Generales Expo or FAG-E. Maybe they could have trucker hats with that on em – logoized. Oh, yeah, so disrobed in their sleeping quarters they can immerse themselves in the coffee-table-style book that is provided and that retells each department’s story with nude pictures. No! Not nude pictures! And it would, wait, let’s not call the departments, but kingdoms, or villages, like the Kingdom of Health and Human Services or the Village of Public Safety. And through the perusing they will come to peace with how they will vote the following day. We might as well make the three-day Federal Allocator Generale Expo a federal holiday so people can watch it on C-span, and also a bacchanalia, so people can be drunk, full and having sex in the streets. Three days. 

I hope you’ll join me in supporting YHTFiS and celebrating FAG-E – both the expo and public debauchery. And don’t forget, we’re also be selling purple robes with your favorite allocator generale’s name on the back, in the lobby, after the show. 

Manufacturing in America

If we believe in America and want to bring manufacturing back to the United States, we need to recognize and embrace two things: 

  1. It will take a lot of time. Factories need to be planned and built along with the corporations who will own and run them. Then there is training for new employees, mostly robots, but some people, too. If you look at the Biden Administration’s work (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction act, CHIPS and Science Act) they helped create over 700,000 new manufacturing jobs with over $910 billion in private investment. And, yes, manufacturing soared during the administration, but it took some time (and a lot of people who know what they’re doing working very hard). Now, just imagine with President Trump will achieve with his tariffs. I’m excited to see how many jobs he creates and how much money businesses invest in this new America he is creating right before our eyes! Those factories should be popping up all around us and right soon!
  2. It will cost a lot more. Buying a pair of pants (or a hammer or computer) made in America, the richest nation in the world, in a state-of-the-art factory, even with robots, will cost a lot more than one made in a Vietnamese factory, where the average worker makes $4,623 per year. But we are proud and patriotic Americans! We can suck up the cost and sacrifice other things we want, and in fact can start right now by purchasing everything we possibly can made in America and from smaller local shops. We must understand that this will require real changes for each of us. Rarely, if ever, setting foot into any Walmart or Target (what’s made in America in those places?) will be quite a change for those of us who darken their doors all too often. But if we love America, we must, right? 

And while I’m not sure if firing all the people who know what they’re doing and work very hard will help, nor whether tariffs put on every other country on the planet will do any good, but I’m a patriot and I’m going to pay the price by purchasing everything I can made in America! Who’s with me?

One more thing, anyone know a good American smartphone company who manufactures here in the good old USA? I need a new phone. 

Hinge Pin Door Stop Wall Protector with Rubber Tip, Design House Polished Brass Adjustable Door Stoppers

I broke mine.

Photo of Hinge Pin Door Stop Wall Protector with Rubber Tip, Design House Polished
Brass Adjustable Door Stopper’s severed arm.

Or mine broke. I didn’t do it. oh, crap I did do it, it wasn’t quite falling off and so I bent it off, but it was just a matter of time! I can’t be blamed for the Hinge Pin Door Stop Wall Protector with Rubber Tip, Design House Polished Brass Adjustable Door Stopper’s ultimate demise.

Another letter never published

I like to write letters to the editor and here’s one (of many) they ignored.

The column inches dedicated to the cost of eggs over the last year has been absolutely ludicrous. Eggs are expensive because there is a shortage of eggs because we humans had to kill millions and millions of egg-laying chickens due to the bird flu. A shortage of something leads to an increase in price. Even our dear leader* can’t do anything about it, short of firing all the people tasked with killing the chickens or possibly adding bleach to their feeding tubes to treat the flu. 

Mary, mother of truth 

Mary M. Coady nailed it in her letter to the Minnesota Star Tribune today:

We seem to make up words to not use the word lie. Just to be clear, fake news is a lie. Misinformation is a lie. Alternative facts are a lie. Revisionism is a lie. We teach our children to tell the truth and anything else is a lie. Or remember the word fib? I wish the media wouldn’t shy away from saying something is a lie. When someone says that Ukraine started the war, the media should emphatically state that is a lie and that Russia started the war in 2022!

From your lips to God’s ears, Ms. Coady. And so should we. She’s absolutely right. Call it. Every time. Anytime you hear yet another lie from the republicans in any context, say it out loud, “That is a lie.” Like a religious mantra. “That is a lie.”

How about we just go ahead and start a religion: Truthism. But with one moral: Tell the truth.* One Psalm: Lying hurts. One holiday: Every day is truth day. One hymnal: Any song with “the truth will set you free” in it. 

So someone says something, in front of you, or on the television, or in something you’re reading, and you know it to be untrue, say it out loud, “That is a lie.” And be ready with your sources and that is all you say, like a captured soldier who will give only name, rank and serial number, “I will email or text my sources.” Like Spock. 

Let’s just stop putting up with it. It’s a lie. It’s a lie! It’s a god-damned lie!  No. “That is a lie.” “That is a lie.” “That is a lie.”  

Our sacred sound and invocation. Our own om. 

Stop the money. Save the nation.

I do this every once in a while where I write something after some immersion in the bad news of the day. Note that the current bad news is worse than it’s ever been in my lifetime. But I start pontificating on the evil, greed, hate and blah, blah, blah. This time I’m quite a bit more freaked out but when I got done and reread it, I was struck by how silly it all is. Bestowing upon the world my opinions on whatever. Here’s what we need to do! Whatever. But it’s cathartic and so ultimately it’s worth it, right? And I kind of like this one. Here goes:

Everybody right now open an account on Bluesky. Good Americans can talk there. 

Completely shut down all of your other social media accounts –  X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. All of them. We’ll do this fast and we’ll do this right and you can get your accounts back. Grab your data, or start fresh. Do it now. 

Do not buy anything from any of those companies – purchase nothing on Amazon, close those accounts also, do not buy a Tesla, if you have one, enjoy it and drive it into the ground. Do not use Elon Musk’s satellite connections, nor any of his other companies, and those of you who do the science as astronomers and engineers and the like working for him, you’re smart! Get the fuck out of there! Anybody working for any of those companies, walk now.

Disrupt the activity of everything related to those same businesses. This of course includes Trump companies.  Whatever you can do. Good hackers, this especially means you. Blow our minds.

Yes, this will create hardship, but if we do this fast and we do this right, we’ll get through it easily and the old-fashioned way, taking care of one another, looking after our neighbors. We’re the good Americans, remember? We can take a little hardship. In fact, we can take a lot of hardship to save the nation – and ourselves, our families, our loved ones, our friends and coworkers and neighbors.

If we do this fast and we do this right, we can avoid violence of any kind. That being said, everyone be prepared to the best of your abilities. 

The only two things they understand are money and power, and they will stop at nothing to use their power to bring us to our knees and take all the money for themselves. They are doing it right now. Right in front of our eyes. We must immediately stop the flow of any money into their businesses.

Please pass this on to everyone you know.