Category: Politics

I’ve really been enjoying the current U.S. political situation for the sheer entertainment value it creates, and look forward to even more fun if/when impeachment proceedings begin. But it might be a nice respite if, after this chapter is finished, some jackholes reevaluate their general disposition:

How did Randall Munroe see this coming so many years ago?

It took three generations, and I cannot believe I’m still putting this stuff under the Politics category. But that’s the way it goes when religious nutbags and greedy capitalists get together to run a country. it’s too late for the millions of people (almost half a million DEAD in the U.S. alone since 1999) with lives ruined or lost at the hands of these bastards.

Then look at the other side of the same coin with another few million in prison or otherwise unfairly subjected to collateral damage in the war on drugs. What was the long-term plan? Keep the dopers in the closet and the stoners in jail? Jesus-H-Fucking Christ.

All that’s really needed now is to free the finances. Since when was money not the “big thing” behind any controversy? Then it’s time to put that gang of fuckwits known as the Sacklers in jail.  Business dishonesty is de-rigeur.  But the old caveat-emptor concept doesn’t cut it when people conspire to profit from evil. The cocksuckers were selling addiction and death to anyone able to pay.

Never thought I’d get to a position, where I can just say and do pretty much as I please, without fear of reprisal. It’s probably one of the few benefits of getting older, which most agree, generally sucks. Last month I went on an Air Force Magazine publishing wake-up crusade. Before that it was the electric utility pricing scam. This month I finally got fed up with yet another Colorado government agency and gave them a heads up. I just sent this to every Colorado representative and senator:

Full text here. Curious to see what, if any response I get. I imagine an inbox full of automatically-generated replies will be the extent of it.  Congratulations Colorado!  We somehow managed to come up with a program that wastes both tax revenue AND consumer dollars at the same time.

Answer: Because our government is impotent to affect corporate commerce in meaningful ways apart from tacitly supporting the criminally derelict activities of greedy wealth-sucking companies. The previous post illustrates one of the best examples of just how well that’s working out. I’ve been ready to start an active anti-FB campaign for awhile now. This might just be the tipping point for me. Don’t think FB themselves had anything to do with exposing this story, either. That says something people with their eyes and ears open might understand.

Illicit FB activity has been allowed for years, while they knew it was taking place and did nothing to stop it. Under cover of the family-friendly image everyone knows and loves, this insidious gang of greedy bastards has tapped directly into the dark side of human evil on many levels. It needs to be stopped. They know it, we know it and the government knows it. But FB achieved “Too Big to Fail” status, and the money numbers are too high. Corruption and scandal ensues.

Do yourselves and the world in general a favor, and DUMP FACEBOOK!

The Sacklers are probably the worst of the greedy cocksuckers making millions from selling opiates. At least Insys has been dealt with. I mentioned these mutherfuckers in a post 2 years ago, where they actively lobbied against Cannabis.

I remain thoroughly flabbergasted at how the government allowed the Pharma industry to basically addict the whole goddamned country to one of the most dangerous drugs out there, while still to this day, maintaining prohibition against one of the safest. Idiots.

Who can say they do not occasionally get frustrated with a telephone answering service? How much time do you waste listening to option picks? “Press 1 for existing customers…” etc. Of course there should be options for sorting this out, depending on the circumstances. But today I learned it can also be a completely stupid exercise in government waste. This morning I discovered the most blatant abuse of this time-wasting nonsense you could possibly imagine at the Colorado DMV.

Call their number and you are presented with the usual menu of choices. I needed to replace my Drivers License and option #2 seemed appropriate, to which I was greeted by 9 more choices, none of which seemed quite right, so I picked “0” as instructed, for an operator. Afterwards, I got to thinking that stuff all sounds pretty similar. Wonder what happens if I select different choices? Oddly enough, at least in this particular case, it doesn’t matter! Option 1 took me to Samantha, the same lady I spoke to a few minutes earlier, to which I quickly said, “Oh I forgot to ask about the appointment thing…” Guess who answers option #2? “Sorry, wrong number.” and #3 and so on. She immediately hung up on my 4th call. It was early Monday morning, so I got through quickly each time. Apparently most people with government documentation issues don’t jump right on that 1st thing Monday morning.

I wonder how much the state taxpayers paid to get that system installed and programmed? Regardless, if you don’t have a proper application for it, then WHY? A quick hold message followed by muezack would be so much less unpleasant. Even at that point, they loop the muezack at annoyingly frequent intervals to interrupt with more nonsense. Why did option #2 on the 1st menu not take me straight to Samantha? Because logic and dare I say common sense, seem to be sorely lacking in alot of things I notice these days.

Free speech – sounds like a great idea, right? Most recognize the old reference to free speech’s obvious limitation: Yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. That’s a fairly obvious, hard line to draw. But it’s on the extreme end of a spectrum that includes alot of language between that and saying good morning your SO. When did the 1st amendment become the protector of lies and deceit?

We (meaning people who understand the Internet and mass communications) have known this for a long time. I daresay Zuckerberg and his ilk have know it longer than anyone. There have been documented episodes of what I am now referring to as “Facebook Frenzy” (FF) getting people killed all over the world for years. Now we have some terrorist moron murderer in Christchurch NZ live streaming his mass shooting. Despite my doubts about Elizabeth Warren as a presidential candidate, she might be on to something with her recent idea about breaking up the tech giants. I think her position is probably too broad-brush at first blush. But the social media part is definitely something to consider.

Operations like Facebook have existed for only one purpose from their very beginning: To profit from people’s private information. Trading marketing intel, ad revenue and the burgeoning membership driving it all has created a society where truth becomes questionable and every individual with an Internet connection holds the potential to become a viral sensation, up to and including a mass murder broadcast.

There is nothing FB does that cannot be accomplished with the more commonly recognized tech tools preceding it (email, SMS, html, etc.) FB just made it easy for anybody to broadcast – with one glaring side-effect: FF. It’s just another in the ongoing string of unintended consequences created by dumb-asses who either didn’t know what they were doing, or continued doing it for sheer greed anyway, well aware of the risk. Sell that mutherfucker.

Don’t believe for a second this SOB has one single fuck to give about his customers.

It’s gonna be a 3-fer from me here on the weed topic early in 2019:

“Let me begin by saying that I understand and respect the strong feelings on both sides of this debate.”

Apparently you do not yet understand the fact that this “debate” as you refer to it, is based only on greedy capitalists wishing to continue taking unfair market advantage due to government collusion with the alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical industries for the past 70 years since the Federal ban was enacted. Anyone with their eyes open who has studied the science and read the history can see this. You need to educate yourself on the topic instead of trying to balance political interests on the backs of people in need.

“…we have a responsibility to cultivate an environment that protects our children from drug use…”

This duplicitous generalization only reinforces the fact that you simply do not know what you are talking about. Again, look at the facts: I won’t even mention the opioid issue, using alcohol alone as the example. Health risk (confirmed cancer link in recent studies), DUI (we don’t even yet have a reliable way to measure impairment with Cannabis because research has been stymied), domestic violence (how many husbands convicted of spouse abuse after ingesting Cannabis? Answer: ZERO). Yet Cannabis holds great potential and has been conclusively shown to offer health benefits in a wide assortment of chronic condition treatments, where corresponding pharmaceutical remedies are fraught with dangerous side effects and high cost. Have you seen the TV commercials? Oh hell, let’s just mention the opiate/painkiller comparison: OD risk for Cannabis: again- ZERO. How may CO citizens died from opiate overdose last year, while the Pharma Co’s continue raking in millions?

“Should any marijuana legislation come before the Senate, I will keep your concerns in mind.”

Based on your response, I find that doubtful.

Lying, Teat-Sucking Idiots.

v/r
Full text of the senator’s message here.

As long as we’re on the topic, apparently industry insiders are just now coming out of a 50-year coma:

“Consumers will continue to look to cannabis products over alcohol for occasions when they are feeling creative, need to get motivated, or seeking health, medical or wellness benefits,” BDS Analytics’s Vice President Jessica Lukas added.”

The headline reads:

“LEGAL MARIJUANA COULD THREATEN THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY, SAYS REPORT.”

So, just as the electric utilities are caught with their pants down by alternative energy, so the alcohol industry begins to realize decades of unfair market dominance are coming to a close.  The craft brewers here in CO saw it coming, and hemp-infused beer is gaining traction.  Looks like once again, greedy capitalists will be scrambling to preserve their bottom line and jobs in an industry that does little more than cause a whole host of problems including dangerous health issues, DUI, domestic violence, etc.

Society will eventually realize benefits from the truth about Cannabis and the alcohol industry will adjust to a size and market cap more appropriate for such enterprise in today’s economy.

Stumbled across this A.M. – had to re-post, so true:

The New Hampshire Gazette recently ran a couple of opposing editorial viewpoints.  Taken together, they reveal a disturbing political truth we are living through these days:

“Trump is nothing but a freak show which serves to distract the public so that McConnell and the rest of the ghouls in the GOP can go on looting and polluting.”

Fair enough – pretty much my take. Problem is, they couldn’t just loot and pollute “as-is.” Noooo. They had go in and try to roll back the playing field to 50 years ago before people realized what was going on. That was the editorial response to this:

“The left underestimates the intelligence of the common man. The left is a movement populated by fools who by identifying with the elites, think themselves to be elites, when in fact those elites do all they can to isolate themselves from anyone who does not meet the requirements to join their club. The elites use their base only to maintain power but do nothing for that base except to make them feel superior to Trump voters. “

So if you pick through the partisan bickering, bottom line is, at least Trump is trying to keep campaign promises. Small consolation.
No IMHO, what we have here is the early stages of the utter failure of western democracy. There is no middle ground. The so-called “common man” no longer has a voice in government – if he ever did. The only thing left to do is to sit back and watch the show while a government diametrically opposed to it’s own stated intent, implodes.

Government is not the solution to our problem – government IS the problem.” -Ronald Reagan, 1981 Inaugural Address

It all comes out in the wash, right? Too bad for the millions of people with lives ruined because of these cock-sucking pieces of shit. This – after numerous opioid-related convictions in recent years:

In May 2007 — immediately after the 2007 convictions — then-CEO John Stewart began planning to expand Purdue’s sales force in Massachusetts and across the country.

Somebody please get real, lock up these greedy mutherfuckers and throw away the key.

“Despite the opioid epidemic, there are no federal limits to marketing opioids.”

What is wrong with these idiots?
And it just keeps getting better.
Baloon-Busting Inflation

Hemp is back. Was there ever any doubt?