Politics, extremists, and other stuff
- A German friend (Chris) will be here on business at the end of this month and we are going to spend the 27th hanging out.. I met him on the Spanish Steps in Rome probably 20 years ago. He was about 19 at the time, traveling with a group of students from Germany, I was traveling alone, and they struck up a conversation. We talked for quite a while, they said bye and wished each other a nice life. A few weeks later I had a message from Chris on my home answering machine. He had remembered my name and called International Information to see if he could find me.
These were the days before the Internet was much of anything, so we kept in touch by snail-mail, Then he came to visit, then he drove from Germany to meet up with me in Vienna, play tour guide, and we drove to Hungary, where I met his (then girlfriend), and then he came to visit with her. She had never been out of Hungary before, so showing her things like Costco came as quite a culture shock. LOL. She had also never seen the ocean before, so being with her to experience that for the first time was pretty cool.
Anyway, he ended up moving to Hungary, started a business, married a Russian gal, had two kids and recently got divorced. I haven’t seen him since any of that happened, so it will be fun to see him and catch up in more detail and meet the others from Hungary he’s coming with.
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- Then I fly to the Bay Area for a week to see my parents and assess how out-of-control things are, and try to get them under control. It’s getting pretty bad. Not that it wasn’t bad before, but it’s worse. I don’t feel like going into it, but I think I may have to move back up there in the not too distant future if things keep sliding at the rate they have been, and I dread that.
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- For an entire month, I was pretty much obsessed with the Oregon Standoff situation where a bunch of (mostly Mormon) armed, militia-type “constitutional” anti-federal government conspiracy theorist extremists took over a wildlife refuge in Burns, Oregon. Basically, they want any and all federal land returned to private ownership and don’t believe ranchers should have to pay the feds for cattle grazing rights - which they get up to a 93% discount on over what they’d pay to graze on private or state-owned land.
Fascinating stuff, especially since almost none of them were ranchers and lack enough education to give them reading comprehension skills required to understand the constitution. In fact, most were living off government handouts while griping about this same government and where their tax dollars (that they don’t pay) were going.
They also came highly unprepared, posting on line asking for various items to be sent to them by supporters - via USPS. So they wanted donations to be delivered by the federally funded postal service to continue their armed occupation. Instead, people sent dildos. LOL. There’s even a video of one of the “patriot” occupiers showing a table full of dildos they received, shoving them off onto the floor and ranting about how they sent these instead of the essentials they asked for, like Marlboros and French vanilla coffee creamer, and snacks.
“Real” ranchers do have a gripe in my opinion, but it’s that the entire meat processing industry is controlled by only 4 huge companies in the entire U.S., and these 4 companies keep squeezing the ranchers more and more on what they pay ranchers, thus getting around anti-trust laws that are focused on what we, the consumers, pay for meat. As long as they keep consumer prices down, they can stick it to ranchers, driving almost all but the largest out of business.
Obama tried to do something about this, but GOP members of Congress who are beholden to the meat processing industry lobbyists blocked him. I fear there will be no small ranchers left soon if something isn’t done, and that will be a tragedy.
But following twitter feeds from the people in Burns, OR has made me feel almost like I know them and made me more curious about meeting them. The whole thing has made me want to get in the car and drive from one end of the country to the other, stopping in small towns along the way and meeting and talking to locals. I think I'd learn a lot. I've traveled internationally, but there is sooo much of the U.S I haven't seen.
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- All those gym regulars I mentioned? I’ve barely seen any of them at the gym since New Year’s, so I’m back to not knowing anyone - except the maintenance guy who is becoming my buddy. I don’t know what happened to everyone, but the gym has been surprisingly empty since the first of the year. It’s kind of nice! I was expecting the usual influx of New Year’s Resolution newbies who usually take over all gyms for the month of January and then disappear.
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- The weather has been incredible. Mostly 80s for the last couple of weeks, It got up to about 90 yesterday, so everyone is back in shorts and t-shirts around here. Funny though, that it's so different inland. If I head out toward Pasadena,most people are still wearing long pants and even carrying coats when it's HOT out.. It's almost like they dress more for the season than they do the weather. .I don't understand this. It's just something I notice and wonder about. Finally cooled off today and we might even get some rain tonight, but by mid-next week, a new high is supposed to build and we should be back up in the 80s.
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- Scalia's sudden passing is causing the whacko conspiracy theorists to go crazy. I help run and auto message board with almost 500K members. There are specific moderators for each sub-forum, but I'm what they call a "super-moderator". overseeing the entire board along with the owners. There are a half dozen super-mods, but only 2 or 3 of us are active now, and, every time someone reports a post, I get an email notification. It can get overwhelming, but especially during an election cycle when people get all worked up over politics and start attacking/insulting each other.
Anyway, someone posted an anonymous poll with the thread title asking if Scalia was murdered, and the majority voted yes! We have quite a few members who are open about being on the extreme right side of the political spectrum, but I think we have more than I realized. Forget that he was 79 with a history of high blood pressure and heart disease.. Seriously?
This may well have a big impact on the election though. I've always believed that THE most important factor in any election is the possible Supreme Court appointments the POTUS will make. A president is only for 4 (or 8 years, but these are lifetime appointments and have an impact on the future of the nation for decades. I think this will bring that realization to the forefront more than it has in the past and make people really think about what direction they want the country to go. The question is, who will be more motivated to get out and vote? This is the WORST slate of candidates I remember in my lifetime. I've never been a fan of Hillary. She lost me completely during the 2008 campaign after claiming she had to dodge sniper fire in Bosnia, but the Republican slate is filled with whackadoodles and religious extremists, .Ugh.
Despitee my distate for virtually everyone running, I'll be voting, but based on potential Supreme Court nominations in the next 4 years rather than "for" anyone.
These were the days before the Internet was much of anything, so we kept in touch by snail-mail, Then he came to visit, then he drove from Germany to meet up with me in Vienna, play tour guide, and we drove to Hungary, where I met his (then girlfriend), and then he came to visit with her. She had never been out of Hungary before, so showing her things like Costco came as quite a culture shock. LOL. She had also never seen the ocean before, so being with her to experience that for the first time was pretty cool.
Anyway, he ended up moving to Hungary, started a business, married a Russian gal, had two kids and recently got divorced. I haven’t seen him since any of that happened, so it will be fun to see him and catch up in more detail and meet the others from Hungary he’s coming with.
--------------------------------
- Then I fly to the Bay Area for a week to see my parents and assess how out-of-control things are, and try to get them under control. It’s getting pretty bad. Not that it wasn’t bad before, but it’s worse. I don’t feel like going into it, but I think I may have to move back up there in the not too distant future if things keep sliding at the rate they have been, and I dread that.
--------------------------------
- For an entire month, I was pretty much obsessed with the Oregon Standoff situation where a bunch of (mostly Mormon) armed, militia-type “constitutional” anti-federal government conspiracy theorist extremists took over a wildlife refuge in Burns, Oregon. Basically, they want any and all federal land returned to private ownership and don’t believe ranchers should have to pay the feds for cattle grazing rights - which they get up to a 93% discount on over what they’d pay to graze on private or state-owned land.
Fascinating stuff, especially since almost none of them were ranchers and lack enough education to give them reading comprehension skills required to understand the constitution. In fact, most were living off government handouts while griping about this same government and where their tax dollars (that they don’t pay) were going.
They also came highly unprepared, posting on line asking for various items to be sent to them by supporters - via USPS. So they wanted donations to be delivered by the federally funded postal service to continue their armed occupation. Instead, people sent dildos. LOL. There’s even a video of one of the “patriot” occupiers showing a table full of dildos they received, shoving them off onto the floor and ranting about how they sent these instead of the essentials they asked for, like Marlboros and French vanilla coffee creamer, and snacks.
“Real” ranchers do have a gripe in my opinion, but it’s that the entire meat processing industry is controlled by only 4 huge companies in the entire U.S., and these 4 companies keep squeezing the ranchers more and more on what they pay ranchers, thus getting around anti-trust laws that are focused on what we, the consumers, pay for meat. As long as they keep consumer prices down, they can stick it to ranchers, driving almost all but the largest out of business.
Obama tried to do something about this, but GOP members of Congress who are beholden to the meat processing industry lobbyists blocked him. I fear there will be no small ranchers left soon if something isn’t done, and that will be a tragedy.
But following twitter feeds from the people in Burns, OR has made me feel almost like I know them and made me more curious about meeting them. The whole thing has made me want to get in the car and drive from one end of the country to the other, stopping in small towns along the way and meeting and talking to locals. I think I'd learn a lot. I've traveled internationally, but there is sooo much of the U.S I haven't seen.
---------------------------------
- All those gym regulars I mentioned? I’ve barely seen any of them at the gym since New Year’s, so I’m back to not knowing anyone - except the maintenance guy who is becoming my buddy. I don’t know what happened to everyone, but the gym has been surprisingly empty since the first of the year. It’s kind of nice! I was expecting the usual influx of New Year’s Resolution newbies who usually take over all gyms for the month of January and then disappear.
--------------------------------
- The weather has been incredible. Mostly 80s for the last couple of weeks, It got up to about 90 yesterday, so everyone is back in shorts and t-shirts around here. Funny though, that it's so different inland. If I head out toward Pasadena,most people are still wearing long pants and even carrying coats when it's HOT out.. It's almost like they dress more for the season than they do the weather. .I don't understand this. It's just something I notice and wonder about. Finally cooled off today and we might even get some rain tonight, but by mid-next week, a new high is supposed to build and we should be back up in the 80s.
--------------------------------
- Scalia's sudden passing is causing the whacko conspiracy theorists to go crazy. I help run and auto message board with almost 500K members. There are specific moderators for each sub-forum, but I'm what they call a "super-moderator". overseeing the entire board along with the owners. There are a half dozen super-mods, but only 2 or 3 of us are active now, and, every time someone reports a post, I get an email notification. It can get overwhelming, but especially during an election cycle when people get all worked up over politics and start attacking/insulting each other.
Anyway, someone posted an anonymous poll with the thread title asking if Scalia was murdered, and the majority voted yes! We have quite a few members who are open about being on the extreme right side of the political spectrum, but I think we have more than I realized. Forget that he was 79 with a history of high blood pressure and heart disease.. Seriously?
This may well have a big impact on the election though. I've always believed that THE most important factor in any election is the possible Supreme Court appointments the POTUS will make. A president is only for 4 (or 8 years, but these are lifetime appointments and have an impact on the future of the nation for decades. I think this will bring that realization to the forefront more than it has in the past and make people really think about what direction they want the country to go. The question is, who will be more motivated to get out and vote? This is the WORST slate of candidates I remember in my lifetime. I've never been a fan of Hillary. She lost me completely during the 2008 campaign after claiming she had to dodge sniper fire in Bosnia, but the Republican slate is filled with whackadoodles and religious extremists, .Ugh.
Despitee my distate for virtually everyone running, I'll be voting, but based on potential Supreme Court nominations in the next 4 years rather than "for" anyone.