Month: November 2018

Bizzarro-America Today…

by MyBaconPress

This is kind of funky.  The Guardian has a story, ‘Top Democrats Accuse Trump of Lying About CIA’s Jamal Khashoggi Report.’  That’s the way it starts out, too.  “Senior Democrats in Congress have accused Donald Trump of lying about the CIA’s findings on the involvement of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”  They cite Adam Schiff and Jack Reed, both Democrats.  But then, they cite Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah.  They also cite Ben Sasse and Joni Ernst, both Republicans.  So why “Top Democrats…” in the headline?

Is it possible that even Republicans are starting to question the behavior of our National Shame?  They should get the credit they deserve…

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It’s been about a week since we all found out that Ivanka used private email for government business.  That seem like plenty of time for bubble-dwelling conservatives to have come up with all of the various and sundry reasons why Ivanka’s use of private email is totally different from Hillary’s use of private email – and why Ivanka’s case is a-okay with them.

They trotted out the idea that Ivanka didn’t own the server the emails were routed through but it had to go away quickly because anybody who understands these things knows that LESS control over who has access to the server being used is not “better.”  So, I guess we’re left with the unsupported assertions that she has turned them all over and never sent classified information.  Of course, how can we know without an investigation?

Whatever happens, I’m glad I don’t have to listen to “lock her up” anymore.  You know, since the “her” in question could easily be Ivanka…

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The whole freaking country seems to be getting lost in faith-based bubbles these days.  It’s been some time since I realized far-right conservatives had enclosed themselves in a faith bubble of protection against information they dislike.  Recently, I’ve been noticing the same behavior from loyalist Democrats.  It’s important to note, it seems to be specific to Democratic rank-and-file members and not progressives or lefties in general but the seeds are there and starting to sprout.

To THIS day, if you ask a loyalist Democrat about the 2016 “election” and Russian collusion you’ll hear about how the Russians said mean things in social media, revealed “hacked” emails, and how the “purists” (newspeak for progressives who were pissed off at DNC shenanigans) threw a temper-tantrum.  Not one word about the DNC shenanigans themselves, their candidate bragging in coal country about all the coal workers they were going to put out of business, nor quitting the campaign three days before the campaign ended – among other…problems…

Facts?  They don’t need no stinkin’ facts.  Their story of why Hillary lost has become a canon of faith and WILL NOT be questioned…

 

The PG&E Homicides…

by MyBaconPress

Here’s all the proof you need that corporations are NOT, in fact, people: the “person” known as Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, can legitimately be considered a serial arsonist with a steadily increasing body count.  How do we throw him/her/it/them/they/whatever in prison?

PG&E has blown up San Bruno (“only” 8 dead but they were just getting started), burned much of Santa Rosa (at least 41 dead), now destroyed Paradise.  Think about that; PG&E destroyed Paradise.  Um…allegedly…

All of it can be traced to PG&E trying to maximize profit.  They refuse to bury their wires.  Too expensive, they say.  (Please don’t notice, they hope, that they manage to bury their gas lines…)  In one sense, it’s true.  See, PG&E might have to incur the cost of burying the lines and that could impact dividends.  But it’s already definite the rate payers will be forced to cover the costs of the deaths and damages resulting from PG&E corporate choices.

As of this writing, the death toll in Paradise is up to 76 with nearly 1,300 still missing.  Still, some politician (on the take) will stand up to defend and then protect the corporation.  I know the rule in “free market” America: privatized profit and socialized risk.  But how many people have to die in support of PG&E corporate profits before someone intervenes…you know…on PG&E’s victims behalf?

I’ll tell you this: I think it’s past time to hold the officers of PG&E criminally responsible for their destructive, now homicidal choices…

Crapitalism – Video Games

by MyBaconPress

Crapitalism is the tendency of the so-called free market to provide ever-decreasing substance at ever-increasing cost…

I’ve enjoyed video games going all the back to Pong.  I’ve owned several game consoles and dropped many quarters in the arcades.  In the early days, you couldn’t really “beat” a game.  The games were far too simple, very repetitive.  All they did was speed up or add more attackers (or both) until the player finally failed.  All the player could really hope for was high score.  Over time, consoles got more powerful and the games got better.  The graphics were better and the content became more sophisticated.  The idea of a video game became a complete home entertainment experience.

Sadly, as with all things corporate, the games began to be monetized at every opportunity.  Games came with less and less content and FAR more junk.  Many games include things called “cut-scenes.”  Basically, a cut-scene is an animated segment of the game the player(s) just sit and watch.  The player doesn’t get to DO anything during those scenes – just sit and watch.  It should go without saying that I don’t sit down to play a video game just to sit and watch.  If I just want to sit and watch, I’ve got, like, a billion viewing options.  (The cut-scenes are used to sell the games.  In the commercials, when the games look so cool or so realistic – those are cut-scenes.)

As one example, I’ve played a game called ‘John Madden Football’ for nearly as long as I’ve played video games, certainly as long as ‘Madden’ has been made.  I first played it on an IBM 386 on a 5.25″ floppy disk.  Originally, it was just football and playbooks.  I could create my own plays and playbooks and use mine instead of the computer’s.  But as ‘Madden’ ported out to consoles, control over the playbook was reduced, then, effectively rendered useless.  It took awhile to understand why.

It was Crapitalism…

Game company Electronic Arts locked up the rights to exclusive use of the NFL properties.  That pretty much locked out any competition.  Some clever sod in the corporation realized they could monetize more of the game.  They started selling ad space in the game.  In exchange for using the likenesses of the players, EA had to include cut-scenes intended to placate the egos of the players.  Now there are so many of those, the game play is bogged down and just not fun anymore.  The problem has become so pronounced, if you watch televised football, you’ve probably noticed an increase in the number of cute, animated graphics showing up during the game on TV.  They’re product tie-ins to John Madden Football and you can expect to suffer through them in the game soon…

That’s just one example but these days, it’s very difficult to buy any decent video game one can sit at home and play at all, let alone with another friend in the same room.  You can play across the internet with your friends but the option to play while sitting in the same room has been largely eliminated.  The big game companies are moving to online games known Massive Multiplayer Online games or MMO’s.  Why?  The slang colloquialism for MMO’s is “pay-to-win” games.

See in many games, the player has to complete missions in order to increase skills and equipment until they’re ready to confront some big “boss.”  In pay-to-win games, one has to shell out extra money to get the tool or weapon they need.  Technically, it’s possible for a player to acquire the needed object in some other way.  Apparently, that took a lawsuit.  But the free versions of these games are pretty much basic, stripped-down versions and all the cool features are behind pay walls.  Maximum monetizing, right?  Pay to buy the game, pay to subscribe, pay to obtain needed objects.  Pay and pay and pay…

Right now, I own a PlayStation 3 and a PlayStation 4.  PS3 offers better, more complete games but my controllers aren’t quite as dependable as they once were and the good ones are hard to come by – and expensive.  The PS4 controllers work fine but I’m having trouble finding games to play because of all of the above.  So after several decades of playing video games, I can see the end in sight and, to me, it’s a shame.

Crapitalism is destroying the home gaming industry.  Okay, in my opinion, Crapitalism is destroying the home gaming industry.  The corporations are focusing on online play where they can squeeze every last cent out of the players.  Sooner or later, the players will catch on and stop playing (and paying).  As the “popularity” wanes, the industry will blame anything, everything other than the fact that they killed their own golden geese because of their pure, naked greed.

I’ll tell you this:  The Crapitalist tendency to monetize every aspect of every experience is, in reality, a race to the bottom…

 

Paradise Burned…

by MyBaconPress

Not JUST the town, mind you, although that appears to have burned entirely.  California has now suffered through THREE of the worst fires in it’s history.  Tubbs (2017), Mendocino Complex (2018), and Camp (2018).  It’s good that the deniers have assured me Global Warming is all a conspiracy or I might be getting worried.  I DO feel, however, like the Chinese are going to an awful lot of extra trouble to convince people their hoax is real.  Couldn’t they just doctor a video or something?

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Speaking of fires, I see in the news that “President” Dumpster has fired Jeff Sessions and replaced him with a delusional loyalist dedicated to doing the so-called “President’s” bidding.  Nixon tried it but found that men of integrity stood up for the nation.  Sadly, “men of integrity” is an oxymoron in today’s GOP.

The upshot is, partisan AG Matthew Whitaker will likely try to squelch the Mueller investigation into the National Shame’s interactions with Russia in service to his master.  I suspect he’ll succeed, too.  He’ll take the report and refuse to release it.  Simple.  This is going to come down to the Democrats and their control of the House of Representatives.  I wonder if they’ll follow up…

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I’m glad Stacey Abrams is holding strong against Cheatin’ Brian Kemp.  I hope she’s able to force a run-off.  To me, there is currently no greater exemplar of the depths to which Republicans will stoop to cheat than the Georgia Governor’s race.  Kemp did every underhanded, dishonorable, dishonest dirty trick he could think of – and he STILL might not win.  The people of Georgia seem to know what a scumbag Kemp is.  The people of Georgia seem to have preferred Abrams.  They might get stuck with Kemp, anyway.  It’s a flaw in our country’s set-up that a person can cheat so nakedly, so completely, and “win” anyway.

Someone I know said to me, “That should be illegal.”
“It is”, I said. “Lawsuits will be filed and Kemp will lose…but he’ll still get to be Governor.  We don’t punish politicians who cheat so we can pretend we’re ‘protecting the integrity of the vote’.  But there’s no ‘integrity’ in a stolen election…”

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I believe the ‘integrity of the vote’ went out the window with the introduction of voting machines that don’t create a paper trail.  I note that EVERYONE in both parties was paying lip-service to the idea that the Russians might hack into the voting machines and affect the outcome.  I ALSO note that neither party suggested not using the suspect machines until they can be secured and PROVE the ‘integrity’ of their vote counts…

On the up side, we the people likely never “elected” the National Shame at all…

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Democrats turned out in FAR higher numbers than Republicans – which make sense.  There are FAR more lefties than righties out there.  Still, they didn’t win what the numbers would have dictated had the GOP not been cheating so effectively for so long.  In California, we did away with gerrymandering and the obstructionist Republicans went away with it.  I hope to see a concerted effort on the part of Democrats to eliminate gerrymandering everywhere they can.  I doubt I will, though.  The Dems will be loathe to eliminate a “tool” they might benefit from in the future, even if it does undermine democracy.

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Fun fact: the term ‘gerrymander’ was first coined by the ‘Boston Gazette’ in 1812 after a guy named Elbridge Gerry formed a district that was completely partisan and looked roughly like a salamander.  Because of the way he spelled his name, we pronounce the term with a soft ‘g’ – like a ‘j’ sound.  But Elbridge pronounced his name with a hard ‘g’ – like Gary.

Gerry was a conservative, of course, which means the conservatives have been cheating – fearful of leaving their unpopular positions in the hands of the people – since at least 1812…

206 year later?  Paradise burns…

The 2018 Mid-terms…

by MyBaconPress

“Vote ‘no’ on their Proposition or everyone you know will DIE!”
“No, vote ‘yes’ on our Proposition or everyone you know will DIE!”
“It doesn’t do ANYTHING to help veterans…”
(Um…isn’t it about recycling?)
“Your grandma will HATE YOU forever if you vote against this Measure!”
“Nothing less than blood in the streets.”
“If you vote against this, the terrorists have already won!”
“Plagues of bloody water, frogs, and then locusts…”

I guess they’ve been using scare tactics during political campaigns going back to the Bible…probably longer.  I’m over it.  “Election” day is stalking us like a knife-wielding maniac in a slasher film and I’m just trying to get away.  The avalanche of propaganda that has consumed my mailbox continues unabated, offering absolutely zero in the way of information but urging my vote one way or the other anyway – always with some scary outcome if I don’t do as directed.  “For the children!”  Uh-huh.  Repeal a tax on vodka…for the children.  Right, I got it…

I take a circuitous route to my mailbox.  The path I follow allows me to pass right by my garbage can.  The political mailers drop right in as I pass.  Sometimes I wonder about the money some special interest group has invested into the colorful little flyers as I drop them into the can without so much as a glance.  I note that we, the people can never raise enough cash to feed the poor but we always seem to have plenty for less-than-useless, lying little flyers…

“My opponent is:
Sure to tax you into the poor house!
Happy to support corporate rule!
Instantly going to repeal the Constitution!
Tragically misinformed on the issues!”

I’ve already voted.  I think the most important technology Silicon Valley could give us – besides a voting machine that can create an audit report, that is – might be an “opt out” that lets the various interests know that my vote has been cast – so leave me out of the flyers, advertisements, and robocalls from this point forward.  You’re wasting MY time and YOUR money.  Hell, even if you change my mind…it’s too late.  I’ve already got my “participant” sticker!

Vote.  Exercise your franchise.  Do your duty (or, in some cases, “dooty”).  Put it on paper if you can but VOTE!

My understanding is, liberals vote Tuesday and conservatives vote on Wednesday so get out there on your designated day and vote like your future, your very life, depends upon it.

It actually might…