5093 Rigged election? Yes, but not the way Trump thinks.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

One of the biggest problems facing the world today is
overpopulation, and if the religious types want everything to
be according to their version of God's plan, well, perhaps
they should recognize that homosexuality might be part of
God's plan to stem overpopulation, the "natural" way.  A gentle
way.  The other ways are unthinkable. -- Me –

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Oh!  Oh! I forgot!  Don't know how I could have forgotten given all the talk of rigged elections and voter fraud! 

I voted on the appointed day at my assigned polling station, the local VFW.  The machines, two of them, were the kind that are the size of a refrigerator with the big vertical screen, and the curtains that swung open and closed.  The volunteer in charge of the machines checked my ticket and pointed to the one on the right.  I went in, and closed the curtain.  

The screen looked just like the sample ballot that had been mailed to me, and that I had studied before coming in.  Across the top was a long chart of candidates for federal offices, names down the left, and then party affiliations listed across the chart toward the right.  It was a touch screen, and you were to touch the check-box next to the candidates you wanted to vote for.   Then, below that, on the left, there was a box with the text of a proposal about allowing casinos other than Atlantic City, with yes/no boxes.  In the middle bottom was a box for some local office.  On the lower right was school board choices.  At the very bottom far right was the huge "cast votes" button.

So, I went down the top list, names and check boxes on the left, and made my selections.  The check boxes all lit up.  I ran down it again to check that all the correct ones were lit.  They were.  Remember, this thing was BIG, and I am only 4'8.5", so I had to look up for this part.

Then I moved down to eye level to the gambling part, read it through to make sure it said the same thing as was on the sample, and made my choice, and verified that the correct box lit.  Then my eyes moved right to the local part, made my choices, verified that they were lit.

Then my hand moved to below the school board to the "cast vote" button on the bottom far right, and I was about to press it when --- something told me to check the whole board again  ---

I am registered independent.  I rarely vote a straight ticket.  I do my research, and I scatter-shoot.  I have even on occasion voted third party.

Imagine my disbelief when I looked back up at the federal section, and discovered that ALL THE CHECK BOXES FOR DEMOCRATS WERE BLANK!!!!   All my votes for Democratic candidates were thrown away!  I quickly went through again and touched the boxes, and they turned on again, and I quickly hit the "cast vote" button on the lower right, watching to make sure they stayed on.

How many people had followed the top-left-down-right-right-bottom path without looking up again to check before hitting that red button?  How many Democratic votes were thrown away, and nobody noticed?

When I left the booth, I told the volunteer what had happened, and he refused to believe that I hadn't accidentally cleared those boxes myself somehow,  even though it was obvious that those boxes were too high for me to have brushed them accidentally.

I didn't pursue it further, because there's no way to prove what had happened.

So no, I have no faith in the results of the election, but not for the same reasons as Trump.  But there's nothing anyone can do about it, and at this point in my life, I don't have the energy to stir up a hornets' nest that is doomed to failure.
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5030 Not difficult to understand

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Looking at the field of presidential candidates, I wonder why they are in general so ... bad.  Many of them are just plain weird in their opinions and proposals.  Very few of them come across as thinkers.

Then I realized it's completely understandable why no intelligent, aware, educated, accomplished, thinking person who wants to better the lives of the people would want to run for the office.  I mean, who in their right mind would volunteer to deal with what Congress has become?

That leaves the field open for people who just want the power and glory of the title, or who want to push their own narrow agendas and prejudices.

Out of the whole field, there are maybe two whom I could vote for without holding my nose, and even then it would be without hope.

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If you disagree, tell me who you think is a decent candidate, and why.  Maybe you could sway me. (No, I won't tell you who my two might be.)
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4091 Rambles

Monday, August 17, 2015

“If women are expected to do the same work as men,
we must teach them the same things.”

-- Plato --

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I mentioned that I have been unable to go north to the country house for various reasons.  I realized the other day that there's another reason I have resisted getting in the car and just going.  My last two trips were both emotionally, physically, and financially draining.  I just can't face doing that again.

I'm actually afraid to go north again.

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I find Bernie Sanders very interesting.  I like all his positions and observations.  But I doubt that he's electable.  He's a socialist, and to the average idiot 'Mericun voter socialism is a dirty word, even though they have no idea what it means and they aren't interested in finding out.  These are the same people, by the way, who seem to think that corporate fascism (the end game of capitalism) is just fine.

And even if by some miracle he was actually elected, he'd have even more opposition from Congress than Obama did on anything seen as even remotely "socialist"  even if it happened to be a "friendly" Congress, so he couldn't make any difference anyway.  

An exercise in futility.

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People sure do love fireworks around here.  Every local fair, several a year, ends with an hour of house-rocking booms and huge colorful chrysanthemums, often six or eight in the sky at once for the whole damn hour, even long before the finale.  I see them through the trees, and every time I find myself wondering how many people could have been housed or fed on what it cost to burn all that material.  And I see my $8K in real estate taxes going up in smoke, even as my car falls into axle-breaking potholes.

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I haven't had a retirement raise in 15 years.  I don't understand.  I understood at the time I retired that I would be getting periodic COLAs.

I have this idealized version of how it should work.  In very simplified terms, let's say that at the time I retired there was $100 in the total employees retirement fund (you can think of that like 100 million or whatever, I'm just using $100 as an example), and let's say that I had contributed $5 to the fund before my retirement.  So my principle in the fund was $5, or 5% of the fund.  It seems like I should be entitled to 5% of the profits earned by the investment of that fund.

As more employees contribute and retire, the total fund balance goes up and my percentage share in the principle and profits in the fund goes down, but the total profit in the fund goes up, so the actual dollar value of my share of the profits should go up - especially when over time other contributors die off and their principle stays in but their profit share no longer goes out.

Carefully invested, the retirement fund should be earning at LEAST an average of 7% per year, even with the 2008 panic averaged in.  Properly invested, it should be earning more.  A lot more!  My IRAs and 401K without active management on my part earned 30%+ last year.

So, even though my idealization isn't the way it works, why haven't I seen a raise in 15 years?  Can you imagine the inflation in my costs over 15 years?   I've probably dropped in retirement income buying power by a huge amount.  A table I found online says that $100 in 2000 is $140 in 2015, at about 2.5% per year inflation.  It seems like there's something very wrong here.

The Company puts out an annual report on various employee funds.  It's both very high level and very complicated, so I don't pay much attention to it, don't attempt to figure out what's going on with it, but I think I might delve a little deeper next time.  I want to know what The Company is doing with the money they aren't giving to me.
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4090 Catching up

Sunday, August 16, 2015

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

-- Plato --

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It must be the end of summer.  The cicadas, both of them, are buzzing.  Yeah, both.  There's one cicada a bit north down the street, and one to the east on the next street over.  North starts buzzing, then East answers, then they both stop and there's nothing for five or ten minutes, or more.

Poor cicadas.  Such a long time to wait underground anticipating this, your debut year, you dress in your fanciest flashiest clothes and then arrive at the party ready for your big once-in-a-lifetime chance at romance ... and find no one there.  Except another guy who keeps stomping on your song, and he's too far away to punch.

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My back is still iffy.  I got a little worried because I felt a sharp pain under the last rib on the right, where the "good" kidney is.  But I ran my fingers along my spine on the right, found a tender spot, pressed there, and the pain went away for several hours.  I guess it's just an angry nerve.  I guess.

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Catching up on saved stuff.


This one makes me smile every time I watch it.  I didn't realize walruses were built so similarly to humans.  Note especially the leg lifts and situps.  It's from opinionsofallkind, titled "Walrus fitness", 1:29.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X67R7m4C8Ug]

This is so incredibly cute, especially his first attempt, it makes you want to run right out and kidnap a little kid.  From ChildrenVids, titled "Little Boy Trying To Break Board In Taekwondo", 1:54.

[https://youtu.be/1ZLN9AzxVa8]

This is from CGP Grey, titled "The trouble with the electoral college", 6:30.  Fascinating.  He shows several ways the electoral college can really screw up an election.  We know this is a problem, and there's no way to fix it short of an amendment, but enough states benefit from the problems that it's not going to be that easy.  What's maddening is that the founding fathers planned it that way on purpose.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k]
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3638 Simplistic rant - don't bother reading.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

If your customs allow you to kill on the basis of religious, racial, material, political,

or ideological differences, then you are living in a barbarian society,

and you are a barbarian.

...[T]hose who engage in violence even to spread seemingly well intentioned

political ideologies are barbarians.

-- Michael Hachulski --

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I'm hearing that CEOs are against Obama.  Not all - but the hand-picked ones are being trotted out, threatening layoffs.  Sheesh.  I can't think of a better reason to vote for Obama.  Yeah, sure, if he's elected you're going to kill your own personal golden goose?  Wait a minute.  I gotta find my violin.

And hey, Kodak wants to kill the health care plans for their existing retirees as a means to  emerge from bankruptcy.  Note that retirees are usually on medicare, so all Kodak is paying for is fill-in policies, and for dependents of retirees.  These are older folks and dependents with pre-existing conditions.  Um, did you do anything first about executive salaries?   And if you get Romney, what will these folks do when medicare is strangled, or disabled to the point that facilities will no longer accept it?  How about the 60-year-old dependent who is not yet eligible for medicare?

Oh yeah, I forgot.  Romney has a plan for them.  He said people who don't have health insurance can just go to ERs.  Is he unaware that the ER will just stabilize you, then if you don't have insurance you are not admitted for further care, you are just sent home?  Stabilized means you're not going to die in the next day or two.  The basic condition is not addressed.  That's Romney-care.

CEOs like that, I guess.

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Something to keep in mind - CEO jobs and salaries have not been impacted in the current environment.  The stock market isn't thrilled, but that's because large companies are not expanding.  They are sitting on capital, waiting.  They won't admit it, but they kind of like being able to dictate salaries and conditions to people and unions who are desperate for jobs.

"Don't like it?  Leave.  I can get another just like you for less."

What they don't seem to realize is that nobody's buying what they have to sell because nobody's sure of their jobs, your job could move to India or China next week, and if they have a job they haven't had a raise in six years.  Corporations don't seem to have made that connection.  Chicken and egg.

You can't keep taking away from your workforce, and then expect them to keep buying your crap.

That's the REAL trickle-down theory.
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2988 Shifting the Blame

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."
-- Sidney J. Harris --

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I wrote the following in my post " 2108 Ok, I'm a Conspiracy Nut", dated November 9, 2008, when it seemed to me that the Republican party was royally screwing up the campaign, doing everything possible to ensure that they lost the election:

The pundits are all blathering about the "split" in the Republican party. I think there's another split they've missed. I think The Powers of the Republican party didn't really want to win this election. It helps to explain some of the stupidities of the Republican campaign.

The next President is inheriting a royal mess. There are things that will have to be done that will be very unpopular. Many of those actions will look very socialistic, which will strongly alienate the Republican voting base, who will not understand the absolute necessity for those actions. Many problems will require more than four years to show improvement.

So if the next President and Congress does a good job, and gets things turned around and headed onto the right track, it probably won't pay off during the first term, and it could be at the cost of popularity. So why not let the Democrats take that heat, instead of the Republicans? 2012 is the right time to waltz in and reap the benefits.

So, did I call it, or did I call it?
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2038 The Conspiracy!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

I'm not going to footnote (i.e. link) anything because you can find anything you like on the internet, so have at it.

Ok. Here's what I've heard and/or read lately, no assurances that any of it is true, but when do you ever get assurances with conspiracy theories?

My Very Own Conspiracy Theory:

Point 1: The US economy is a mess. The debt is enormous. Tax relief, let alone anything like health care assistance will be impossible. Foreign affairs are a mess. The world hates us. We're in one war we can't win and another we don't dare lose, and we can no longer afford either.

Point 2: I hear that Sarah Palin's handlers are having fits. They've had some practice debates, and some mock news conferences, and they've been total disasters. They'd like to cancel the upcoming Palin/Biden debate, or postpone, but that doesn't seem possible. People are freaking. There are those in the GOP rarified levels that would like her to voluntarily withdraw (but I'll bet she keeps insisting she's ready), but it probably wouldn't help anyway (that "experience and judgment" thing McCain thinks he has going for him would be shot full of holes).

Point 3: I hear that Palin was recommended to John McCain by none other than Henry Kissinger.

Point 4: Of all the people in the world who suffers least from cognitive dissonance, I'd put Kissinger pretty far up there. I see him as coldly logical.

Point 5: I think Kissinger knew exactly what he was doing, and I think others were involved.

Conclusion: The GOP wants to lose this election. They will be happy to hand the whole mess over to the Democrats, who will be forced to do some unpleasant and very unpopular things to clean it up. The American public has a very short memory. In a few years, they'll forget who created the mess, and all the anger and frustration of the cleanup will be dumped on the Democrats (who not incidentally don't know how to use the media to the same effect as the right), and in 2012, the Republicans will be able to waltz right in, and look like saviors. And in running McCain and Palin, well, it's not like they sacrificed any of their valuable players.

How's that for a conspiracy theory?

(Oh, and don't forget what the Mayan calendar and Nostradamus and some interpretations of the Bible have to say about 2012.)
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