Well, tired of winning yet?  Yeah, I know, gloating a bit and, truthfully, I don’t much like gloating.  (Bad idea.  Fires up the competition…)

So the Republicans had to pull their ‘American Health Care Act’ (aka, “TheGOPDon’tCare”).  But it’s important to remember: there are only two reasons they couldn’t make it happen: 1, it wasn’t cruel enough to the most vulnerable members of our society and 2, it didn’t do enough for the pampered class.

I’ll tell you this: you’d better keep your powder dry because I’m pretty sure they’ll be back – probably when nobody’s looking…

‘The Blaze’ is a far right conservative media outlet founded by well-established far-right nutball Glenn Beck.  If you search ‘The Blaze’, their tagline comes up as “Authentic.  Unfiltered.  Fearless”.

Recently, one of their more obnoxious presenters, Tomi Lahren, went on ‘The View’ and said she’s for less government and in her mind, that included leaving the government out of women’s personal decisions regarding abortion.

According to the BBC, Ms Lahren said: “I’m someone that is for limited government, so I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government, but I think that the government should decide what women do with their bodies.

“Stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.”

That seems like a fearless, authentic pro-choice comment.  So, ‘The Blaze’ filtered her ass right out of the picture – suspended for now but the word is her show is going to be cancelled altogether.

…and conservatives love to tease progressives about unrelenting lockstep political correctness…

You know that feeling you get when you want to laugh – but you can’t ?  Maybe your toddler covered himself with toothpaste and made a huge mess.  You need to teach him right from wrong but he looks so silly.  Maybe you made an inappropriate joke and someone is telling you why it wasn’t funny but the joke just keeps playing in your head and, in fact, it was funny.  Perhaps you’ve completely failed at “humanity” and you’ve figured out how to inflict pain and suffering  on huge swaths of the most vulnerable Americans – all so you can give rich people even more – and you can barely contain your glee.  It’s the mouth gives you away.  You try to sit, all serious and important but the edges of your mouth keep involuntarily pulling up at the edges, betraying your true feelings.

Paul Ryan has managed to come across as one of the more sane members of the House (admittedly, a low bar) through most of his career – until now, anyway.  He’s finally able to unleash his “vision” on Americans and he doesn’t seem to give much of a fig about who he harms or how he harms them – so long as the rich get more.

Enter the Republican excuse for a “replacement” plan for the Affordable Care Act.  They call theirs the ‘American Health Care Act’.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, it will eliminate health care for up to 24 million people.  The Affordable Care Act is credited with providing coverage to 20 million people who didn’t have it before.  One does not need to be a math genius to see that MORE people will be without health insurance once Ryan is done with them than before the ACA.

But, hey, they’ll only be old folks, poor folks, the disabled, and kids.  The Ryan/Trump plan is SO cruel, even Tucker Carlson of Fox “News” says it goes too far.  Ryan just shrugs.  “We said we were going to repeal all the Obamacare taxes…”  Watch the clip.  (…if you can.  This is my first foray into “clip-inclusion” and I may have screwed it up…)  Ryan seems to be having fun with the entire subject.  NOTHING is as important to him as giving rich people the break they so sorely need.

It’s the smirk that irks.  He seems to be having such…fun with it.

The only saving grace is that he seems to be the only one.  I guess his district is pretty safely gerrymandered so he’s not too worried about potential backlash but many of his colleagues are not so sanguine.  They see elections looming and they’re worried people might hold them responsible for their actions.  (It seems like that should happen, sooner or later…)   They fear they won’t be able to blame Democrats since the Democrats have no power in Congress.

So, they’re already introducing changes.  The GOP has long depended on the support of old folks who have come to realize this Ryan/Trump plan does them more harm than good so the plan now offers higher tax credits to seniors.  Lest the GOP be seen as too soft, though, they’ve included a provision to make it even tougher on the poor.  According to Reuters, “U.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday.”

Because, you know, those poor people just have it too easy in life…

I’ll tell you this: I don’t know if this affront to humanity is going to pass or not but it’s rare when one gets to see a “person” having so much fun at the mere prospect of inflicting so much pain into so many lives in such a short period of time and, for me, it’s that smirk that gives him away…

Am I wrong or am I right?

Ah, Daylight Saving Time again.  I mean, at least I think it is.  Really, I’m too groggy to know for sure…

I don’t like Daylight Saving Time.  It’s not just the disrupted sleep that bothers me, although that’s a problem, too.  I don’t like Daylight Saving Time because I’ve come to believe it’s nothing more than a scam to benefit power companies.

The days get longer and shorter throughout the year.  So what?  We adjust.  In the winter, it’s dark at 6 pm.  In the summer it’s still light at 6 pm.  Humanity evolved during this process and we move through our days without ever really thinking about it.  I make more decisions about doing things outside based on ‘warm or cold’ or ‘rain or dry’ than I do ‘dark or light’.  I’ll happily sit outside in the dark on a warm, dry night but if it’s raining and cold, I’m staying indoors – even if the sun is up.  Go figure…

Still, we’re sold on Daylight Saving as “extending the day” so we can all enjoy our summer evenings.  But, as is so often the case, that’s not what we’re doing at all.  Well, we ARE extending the day but the key is about using more energy, not enjoying summer evenings.

Now, stay with me here because this gets a bit confusing.  See, in the evenings, we get to choose what we do.  If it’s cold out, we MIGHT turn on the heater.  But we MIGHT just go crawl into bed and read a book or watch a little TV.  So even though we’re told Daylight Saving is about the evenings, it’s really about the mornings.  The mornings are the time when most of us are moving specifically in accordance with a clock.

Say you have to be to work at 8 am and it takes you two hours to get up and get there so you dutifully set your alarm to 6 am.  With no time change, you would find yourself getting up with the sun and then after the sun rises as the days get longer.  This means you can get ready for work using the sunlight.  But if we jump the clock forward one hour just as the days get longer?  Well, we’ve guaranteed that you’re getting out of bed while it’s still dark and colder outside.  You have no choice but to turn on the lights, assuming you’d like to avoid a stubbed toe.

It’s not just speculation, you know.  Daylight Saving Time used to run from the first Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October…like (ahem) clockwork.  In at least one case, that’s literally true.  I have a computerized clock that changes its own time according to the old rules of Daylight Saving.  Now, it’s wrong for two weeks twice a year…

George W. Bush was such a poor President, he even messed up time!  In 2005, he signed an energy bill that extended DST by four weeks.  At the time, he said it would reduce energy consumption.  Like everything else he touched, that was a “mistake.”  According to Scientific American, a study done in 2006 in Indiana discovered a 1 percent RISE in residential electrical use.  One percent, you say?  Well, in this case that one percent equated to nine million dollars!

In fairness, a 2008 report to Congress showed a small (.5 %) reduction but that study included commercial use, not just residential.  Is it possible the Republicans created a law that hurt homeowners but helped business?  Perish the thought!

I’ll tell you this:  I could live without Daylight Saving and I’d REALLY like the chance to sleep on it…

Have you noticed?  Gas prices are on the rise, again.

I heard on the news the oil companies are offering up their usual “explanations”.  OPEC is cutting production and, in California, the “summer blend”.

You’d think gas producers would know by now they’re going to need the summer blend and plan for it in advance.  You know, like they do with everything else.

Then, I see this article from Reuters that says the price of crude is slipping worldwide because there’s such a glut of oil.  We’re told by supply-siders that means the price should be going down – and it is for a barrel of oil.  So why is it going UP at the pump?

I’ll tell you this: my suspicion is that the ACTUAL reason prices are going up has nothing to do with supply or the summer blend and everything to do with the fact that Republicans are running the show and the oil companies simply know they can get away with gouging…

I offer for your approval a new term: BreitBull.
– BreitBull is any news or “information” in the conservative bubble (from any source) that cannot survive the transition from conservative bubble into the real world…

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We see these folks all the time.  One runs into them in social media commonly, sometimes at work.  Maybe it’s your obnoxious uncle who shows up to Thanksgiving dinner and rails the whole time about how, say, Hillary sold the moon to the commies and they blew it up and are now delivering individual pieces to every liberal in equal portions and Obama never even did anything about it!  Someone tries to point out to Uncle Obnoxious that he can just look out the window – the moon is still right there.

“You Libtards are all the same!” he spittles over everyone’s dinner.  “You’re always drinking the Kool-aid!  Everyone knows that’s just a reflection of the Sun!”
“Well, yes,” someone points out, “but it’s reflecting off the moon, which…is still there.”   He’s furious.  “She always gets away with things like this and the DemocRAT party will never investigate!”

It’s no different, really, than any other person whose head is stuck in the conservative bubble.  (To be sure, there is such a thing as the liberal bubble, as well.  It’s just not the focus of this piece.)  They hear some bit of BreitBull, they internalize it, and they run with it.  Boy, do they run with it.  But, in this case, Uncle Obnoxious happens to be the so-called President of the United States.

Right now, 45 seems to believe the BreitBull that Obama had him “tapped” during the campaign.  Some pundits are trying to figure out of this is some kind of long play – a strategy to distract from his ties to the Russians.  I don’t think so.  I think he believes it because a far right radio host, Mark Levin, made it up on the air – and then Breitbart picked it up.  (Levin offered no evidence to support his claim but little things like that don’t bother conservatives.  Lack of evidence is actually easier for them than the normal “all-evidence-contradicts” fights they usually take on.)

So now we’ve got Uncle Obnoxious in the Oval Office repeating one spurious far-right claim after another.  It’s frustrating with our own Uncles Obnoxious since he gets to shout to his heart’s content and there’s little or nothing anybody can do to get him to acknowledge that, for example, the moon is still out there.  Any decent far-right conservative knows that when actual, factual evidence is presented, one should, properly, close their eyes, cover their ears, and scream “la la la” until the offending fact goes away.

45 tries.  His problem is, he’s not just some doofus in the conservative bubble anymore.  Facts simply won’t go away.  Worse, they keep coming back from every direction and from many sources.  You know why?  Because as it happens, when the so-called President says “someone should investigate”, someone investigates – always a problem for BreitBull…

From time to time, we’ve seen 45 back away from some piece of BreitBull.  Once it gets to a point where there’s too much evidence to continue to defend defenseless positions (outside of his rallies, of course) he throws his source under the bus in an attempt to deflect criticism from his own glorious self.  “All I can tell you is I heard it on such and so…”

This suggests that, at some point, the Donald begins to perceive that people think he looks like an idiot.  He doesn’t want to look like an idiot so he provides his source – try to make the source look the fool.

I’ll tell you this: I’m hopeful that his ego will eventually come into conflict with the BreitBull.  I wonder how many times his narcissism will allow him to look dumb in the face of evidence before he begins to question his sources.  I think I perceive a glimmer of possibility that, perhaps, THIS Uncle Obnoxious might be tamed over time – or at least learn to distinguish facts from BreitBull…

There was a time in the state of California when schools had enough money to teach more than just the very basics.  California schools used to teach young Californians how to drive.  It was part of the curriculum and because it was part of the curriculum everyone in California drove the same.  It wasn’t all good but it was all the same…

I drive a lot.  There’s something of a “new” trend going on among my fellow motorists.  People get in line at traffic lights and leave a “buffer”; often an entire car length.  I don’t know what they’re doing but as nearly as I can tell, they seem to want extra time to admire their own genitals.

I know, that sounds strange but seeing people waiting out lights while staring down into their own laps is too common to be ignored.  Did every one of them spill coffee in their laps at every light?  Is there some connection between neck problems and the need for extra space?  I KNOW they’re not looking at their phones…that’s illegal.  It must be the genital thing.

Honestly, I don’t know what they THINK they’re doing but I’m quite clear on what they’re actually doing: they’re causing traffic problems behind them.  See, people who work with traffic study traffic flows and traffic patterns.  Then they design roads intended to accommodate all that information they collected.  (That’s the theory, anyway.)  So they calculate that a given corner needs a left turn lane that holds, say, five cars because they know that much of the time, five cars will want to turn at that corner.  Then, because it’s what they do, they build the left turn lane with capacity for five cars.

Then someone decides they need extra space – a whole car length of extra space.  NOW that carefully designed turn lane is only holding four cars with a big gap between two of them.  But five cars still need to turn.  The result is that the fifth car is pushed back into another lane, blocking THAT lane.  Worse, we’ve got a LOT of genital admirers these days so it’s common to see more than one car with a large gap in front of them and their eyes fixed on their laps – pushing traffic back further and further behind them.

That little buffer zone is selfish and rude.  It’s taking space that doesn’t “belong” to you and you don’t need.  It’s causing problems nobody needs.  It’s downright anti-social.  Also, it might be an interesting observation on the unexpected impact of localized privatization: non-standard results.

I’ll tell you this: I was taught to pull up to the car in front of me as closely as I could and still see the bumper.  (I was also taught to admire my own genitals on my own time but that’s a different essay…)

I own a small business.  I drive around in a pickup truck loaded with the tools and supplies of the trade.  If you look at my truck from the front, it just looks like any other pickup truck.  It’s not until you see it broadside that you can see the equipment.

The other day, I was sitting in a line of cars working their way out of a grocery store parking lot.  My truck has a high-profile so I could see the over the cars in front of me in the line and, standing near the first car in the line, a man holding a little folding piece of cardboard.  You’ve seen him.  Maybe not THAT guy but you’ve seen him.  I’m sure he could see me, too, but only from a straight on angle so…just another truck.  The man had written ‘Will work for Tacos’ on his cardboard.  Cute, right?  A small touch of whimsy to lighten the moment.  He was working the lead car and only glanced up at the rest of us from time to time.  As traffic cleared and the lead car moved out of the parking lot, my angle relative to the man changed, allowing him to see the bed of my truck – now obviously a work truck and with only one occupant in the cab.  The man immediately folded his cute sign, turned away from me, and walked off.  The man clearly was NOT willing to work for tacos or anything else.

I mention it so you know that I know they’re out there.

It’s been raining a LOT where I live.  Not rain forest “a lot” but it’s been fairly steady and sometimes quite heavy since October.  When it’s not raining, it’s cold.  The other night, I got to thinking about homeless people and what happens when the weather turns bad.  I don’t take an opinion about HOW they got there so much as thinking about how it must be BEING there.  Like many people, I’d like to help but like so many people, I’m only a few short steps from becoming their neighbor so the problem is far bigger than me and my oh-so-limited resources…

Then I got to thinking: what practical, actual thing could I do?  Maybe, if nothing else, I could help a homeless person stay warm.  I went to Amazon.com and found a waterproof, 4 season sleeping bag – 37 dollars.  That seemed so…reasonable.  The idea got good to me so I looked up inexpensive tents – 30 bucks with compact carrying case.  $67 dollars (plus shipping) and I could make one person warm and dry at least for a season.  I randomly rounded up to 100 dollars and figured I could put the difference on a grocery store gift card.  (As a bonus, I buy from Amazon through a program called Amazon Smile that donates to a local charity – in my case SNAP cats – whenever I make an eligible purchase…)

One hundred dollars.  For me, $100 bucks is a big deal.  If it went missing I would notice.  I wouldn’t be destroyed, mind you, the bills would get paid…but I would notice.  Then I realized the opposite; yes, I would feel $100 but it wouldn’t change my life much, certainly not the way that same $100 could change someone’s life for the better.  To be sure, not permanently but very definitely.

For me, the hardest part is getting beyond ‘Mr. Won’t-work-for-tacos.’  I have a bias: I don’t WANT to give $100 I work hard for to someone who won’t work at all.  But the truth is, I don’t think most homeless people are in their situation by choice, probably not even Mr. Taco guy, and however they got there, bad weather has to make it worse.  I don’t want to set myself up to decide who might be “worthy” and who might be “faking it” and I don’t want to let the reality that someone might be faking it keep me from helping someone who really could use the boost.

So I’m in.  I’ll put this small bundle in the cab of my truck and hand it to the next homeless person I see.  My attitude is ‘however it helps’.  Sure, I might make a mistake – give the bundle to someone who won’t use it as I’d hoped.  But I might actually make one person’s life just a little bit better; warm where they were cold, dry where they were wet and, for $100, that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

So…what does $100.00 mean to you?

When I was in elementary school, there was a kid who would sit in the back of the classroom banging his head against a water fire extinguisher.  This would continue until the teacher had to stop what she was doing, make this kid the center of attention, and toss him out.  The kid didn’t seem to care, he was getting the attention he wanted – even if it was negative.

I had occasion to see this campus troublemaker , Milo Yiannopoulos – who calls himself the “Dangerous Faggot” – on Bill Maher last week and all I could think about while I was watching him was that kid from my elementary school.  That kid was smart.  So, it seems, is Mr. Yiannopoulos.  (A tough spell…couldn’t be ‘Jones’, right?)  The kid was personable.  So is Milo.  But that kid was…off, somehow, and so is Milo.

I’ve never really understood the “attention at any cost” attitude.  The kid in school wasn’t working as the class clown.  The class wasn’t laughing with him.  He was just being obnoxious because it got him attention.  It was the exact same feeling I got watching Yiannopoulos.  He’s just an attention-seeking brat.

He doesn’t seem to have anything of value to add.  His only interest is inspiring rancor.  In the short performance I saw from him, he enjoyed baiting people and saying things calculated to irritate and anger people and when they responded, he smiled and seemed to be savoring his “victory”.  “I win.  Another person hates me!”  Yeah, some victory.

Last I knew, my old classmate was sitting it out in San Quentin.  He ended up using his intelligence and charisma to steal cars from dealerships and take them on interstate joy rides.  Unfortunately, Milo managed to stay out of prison.  Instead, he wrote a speech calling for withdrawal of federal money to colleges that don’t toe his far-right line and takes that speech to colleges.  Then, all he has to do is sit back and watch the fireworks fly.  (And if they don’t on their own, he’s got his agent provocateurs to initiate riots.)  In the end, Yiannopoulos is happy and everyone else is upset.

He’s very good at being a petulant brat so it won’t be easy but the solution is straight-forward enough: ignore him.  Don’t fight him.  Don’t protest him.  Don’t acknowledge him.  Ignore him.  Let him come to your campus, speak to the Young Republicans, and leave.  (I confess, I could see tearing down the flyers announcing his shit-show but other than that, ignore him.)  Unless I miss my guess, at first he’ll get MORE outrageous but, eventually, he’ll dry up and go away.  He’s a pimple, not skin cancer.  You don’t have to DO anything.  You could pick at it, making it more visible, or you can ignore it and it will go away on its own.

I’ll tell you this:  Between the Berkeley debacle and this piece, I’ve already written WAY too much about Milo Yiannopoulos.  Now, it’s time to ignore him…