Words and their Meanings

 Words and their Meanings

It is very important in this time of contention to thinks about what words really mean. 

Israel is a country. The people who live there are Israelis. Like any other country there are people who lean right and people who lean left. The country was established as a Jewish state after WW II.

Palestine is a country. Palestinians live there. Hamas is an extreme right-wing group, They say they are Muslim, but I believe Mohammed would be rolling around in his grave if he knew the violence that was perpetrated in his name.

The point I am making is to be pro-Palestinian is not pro Hamas  Nor is it antisemitic. It is for the families that Hamas uses as a human shield against IDF forces while they hide in hospitals like the chickenshits they are.

Open Letter to Jet Blue

 Yes. People travel. They don't always travel because they want to, but because there is a family gathering, there is important business to take care of at the other end. Everyone shops for the "lowest" air fare.

I contend that people would pay up for "all premium" air fare. Just the fare, roomy seats, no extra charges for carry-ons, checked bags, and to somehow make the airport experience more pleasant.

You have a regular route ... HPN-RSW. Two of the richest enclaves around .. Regional Southwest Florida to Westchester County. It used to be a fairly comfortable flight. Westchester Airport is a blight and there is little you can do to improve it save trying to charge me $60 to check my walker in luggage. RSW is not an unpleasant experience save getting on the plane and cramming a small computer case under the seat in front of me and squishing into my "extra room" seat that I paid up for .

I contend that removing a few rows of seats, adding 10% to the price, you could make money on your own without trying to acquire a garbage airline like Spirit. My son's experience with Spirit as the "cheapest flight" he got surcharges for every bag, checked or not, even seat choice (so he could sit with his wife}. He now flies American when he comes.

I recall a trip several years ago where the pilot came on the horn as we were landing "We know you had a choice, Thank you for flying United". Long story short I took the same trip several more times on Delta. One trip I was grounded in Atlanta overnight once (storms). I got on an early flight to my destination on standby, and my luggage arrived with me!

All airlines seem to have lost the focus on CUSTOMER. And why people fly. To desperately cling to airfares  from ten years ago with stupid surcharges is a ridiculous business plan. Give service, you will get paid.

Insanity

 Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over .. expecting different results.

Working class America believes Donald Trump is the engine for change. So let me ask the question: what changes do you expect? His cabinet selections are not being chosen for ability, they are being chosen for how wide they open their wallets. And people with big bank accounts want what? One answer: pay less in taxes.

How well did that work going back to the 80's? Back then it was called trickle down economics. The idea was if the rich had more money to spend, they would spend it, and the economy would improve. .. the rising tide lifting all boats. It didn't work. The stock market began a massive climb upward.

We had a black swan event in 2020 .. covid viruses kept everyone home and permanently disrupted supply chains. Grocery shelves were empty. Our brave servicemen were fighting a losing war halfway around the world. Our national debt exploded. What did republicans do? The governor of Florida encouraged spring breakers to come to Florida in March 2020 assuring the nationwide spread of covid as the party animals returned home to their schools. They initiated tariffs to ostensibly protect the remnants of our economy. They "built a wall" because everyone wanting to come here was a drug dealer who wanted to eat my cat.

Fear and loathing is no way to live. I hope and pray that more Lincoln-esque  Republicans will come forth and feel responsible to all Americans, not just the wealthy.

Electric Car

A message to Chargepoint, EVGo, Electrify America (and all Auto Manufacturers including Tesla)

I own an electric car .. and I love charging it at home. Do you want to know the best high speed charging? 
It doesn't exist yet. Have you ever tried to co-ordinate your charger and your car with your cell phone on a sunny day in Florida? Not only can you not see the screen on the charger, you can't see the screen on your phone. The first successful charging company will have the following features:

• High speed only
• Shade

There are several "level 2" chargers around. Can you consider the thought of driving 175 miles and stopping to charge for 8 hours? I have one in my garage. That's fine. But if I am gonna haul me and my dog to Connecticut, I am gonna have to make major plans.

An Open Letter

 To Electrify America, Changepoint, and others getting into the EV space. 

I live in Florida, a perfect location for EVs. My complaint is about shade. It is nearly impossible to read the charging machine screen or even my cell phone screen in sunlight. I don't even want to think about what it would be like charging in the rain. 

Putting aside the fact that I drove around a Walmart parking lot for several minutes just trying to find the chargers, they are not in pull through spaces where a tractor trailer rig could fill up. It would have been nice to just head for the "green sunshade" to top off.

I know these networks are a work in progress, but to get a real market going remember your users.

 When did "woke" become a dirty word? According to Webster, the definition is 

Definition of woke

 (Entry 1 of 2)

chiefly US slang

: aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)

When and how did caring about your fellow man become "bad"? 

Dissecting the Trump years

 Taxes

Everybody thinks problem 1 is taxes. Nobody likes throwing money down a black hole. But here is what really happened with the Trump Tax Cuts:

People who are genuinely poor got nothing but more pain. The next few quintiles got a little more take home pay, but what happened to that nice Tax Refund check that came in time for Spring Break? And the top payers got the BIGGEST break which is pre-programmed to grow to 2025!

which leads me to Dow 30,000.

On election day, the Dow Jones industrial average was down on the year. It wasn't until the results came in that it worked its way back up to a new high. Yet who chose to pat himself on the back?

The Wall

We were promised that Mexico would pay for the ludicrous wall.

Funds were diverted from FEMA as a hurricane bore down on the Florida panhandle. Literal billions have been diverted from the military. And the wall has holes.

Florida

In many ways my new home state, Florida, is amazing. The weather is consistent. Sunny every day with an afternoon thunderstorm to cool things off. The eye  of Hurricane Irma passed right over my house and a few tiles got knocked off my roof and a few bushes got windburn. The power was out for a few days and some trees got knocked down. Sounds like Connecticut, no?

And Florida politics is very interesting. We have a Republican candidate for governor who ran on the platform "I am endorsed by the President". No other substance at all. The  Democratic candidate was a low budget Mayor who came out of nowhere. We are in for an interesting couple of months until November. 

I am outraged by the attack on a Mosque in Egypt. It essentially left an entire village of widows and children.

I am even more outraged by the "News" coverage. I just read a lengthy article about "was it Militants or Terrorists". https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/isis-raises-stakes-egypt-mosque-attack-n823986

Baloney. If families were terrified, it is terrorism. That includes the maniac driving down the sidewalk in New York City and the shooter in Las Vegas. They are all Terrorists and should be treated as sociopaths.

An Open Letter to Microsoft

You have the most interesting marketing it has been my experience to deal with. You get a stable OS (XP) and you stop supporting in favor of a highly buggy and unreliable Windows 8.1. Meanwhile, you are working on Windows 10 (what happened to 9?) it works OK until your computer refuses to boot and you have to go back to factory settings losing all your downloads and apps.

The most interesting part of this is you introduce OneDrive. So at least I didn't lose all of my documents. Now your marketing department has decided to cut the OneDrive in half while Google Drive, Dropbox, Box are all adding space.

And you sit there and scratch your heads ..
"Gee Whillikers why are people totally angry at Microsoft?"
"Why aren't people replacing their stable Windows 7?"

I think the real question is: Why does anybody at Microsoft still have a job?

Oh yeah .. I wrote this blog using the new featureless Microsoft Edge .. and Blogger gave me the message: The browser we detected is unsupported and may result in unexpected behavior.
Please choose from our list of supported browsers for the best experience.

Thanks again Microsoft for another lousy computer experience.

Surveys

As if we aren't inundated with enough spurious nonsense, what is it with the surveys. Almost everything I do requests a survey after I have had a successful transaction of some kind.

• Yes i bought Doggie Poop Bags
• Yes I am happy with my purchase
• My hand remains clean
• The poop gets tossed
• The salesperson rang out my puchase with the same stupor he has for every customer

Seriously. I am in the store for 2 minutes, and spend twenty minutes telling some machine how great the experience was.  What a PIMA (Pain In My A**). If the bags leaked, or there weren't 25 bags in a roll, or if the salesperson was actively an idiot, believe me, you would hear from me. I really don't want to or care to share about every purchase I make.

Are you listening Amazon.com?

At the end of each Chuck Lorre episode, there flashes a so-called Vanity Card It is mostly drivel ..  just the thoughts that came pouring out. And since Chuck is a funny guy, they are usually funny .. though sometimes very dark. He has decided it is a chore to do those cards, so I find myself moved to pick it up.


Vanity Card #1

I saw a great ad on TV last night. KFC poked a little fun at store-bought roast chicken. Mom and Dad are about to cut into yet another plastic container of chicken and they look around the room. A kid is stomping around in a space suit made of discarded chicken containers. There's a plant hanging from the ceiling in a discarded chicken container. They move aside a dining room centerpiece made of discarded chicken containers and put a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The reason I found this ad notable, is it is the first ad that I can recall scanning backward to see over again. it took my two tries to "get" the space suit. In this age of super repeated dull boring attack advertising, I find it refreshing that an ad can be so entertaining that it fought my senses to break through to the point where I Tivo'd back to it.

Shrimp costs have Red Lobster in hot water: Associated Press

Shrimp costs have Red Lobster in hot water: Associated Press



I know. I said no more rants. But this article from Microsoft money is just another prime example of Microsoft trying to shoot  itself in the foot.it is article about Darden restaurants. the stock symbol is nowhere to be found in the article. I wonder how much longer Microsoft is going to get away with not considering its customers. Hey, Microsoft! I am typing this on my Android tablet.

I promised but ...

What is it with Microsoft?  I have a Hotmail account, but Microsoft decided it wasn't good enough, so they had to do a web-based Outlook. So my ELEVEN CHARACHTER password got hacked, my Hotmail account closed.

What part of New and Improved do they not understand? How is it improved that my email got hacked?

I promised no more rants, but let me set a topic for discussion: Is all the new technology really "better"? I had a recent conversation with some young folks what it would be like to explain to someone even in the 60's that most people would have a hand-held device that could make phone calls, access the world's brightest minds (and dumbest ones), make and watch movies in high definition, and store all your LP's to listen to, send audible map directions to your car, read your mail ... you get my meaning. We are really way ahead of the science fiction guys. Dick Tracy's watch? pfui .. just a Skype app (remember to turn your camera around). Those little book thingys on Star Trek? Mini disks are old technology. Tricorders? Pretty clunky when you consider the cellphone. At least they got the Bluetooth insignias right. But of course we are a long way from the year 2245 (Star date 1314.5) when the Enterprise will launch. Who knows what improvements we will have by then? Maybe we will have personal tricorder tattoos bio-engineered the diagnose and treat every thing from hemorrhoids to Alzheimer's.

I wonder how slowly we will advance with Microsoft in the vanguard?

Snow

They are forecasting snow for this part of the world. i haven't seen anything about it being a super storm or anything ... BUT I have had warning email from my insurance company and the electric company. I'll probably get one from the town too. I am so glad that our infrastructure is so woebegone that a simple New England snow storm sends us running for the hills. (or in my case, my parents' house ... they have a generator).

Fear is a powerful motivator. My brother has found a news feed from an extreme survivalist who is predicting the fall of the dollar, gold through the roof yadda yadda.

I cannot spend my life running around collecting bags of corn and hoarding assault rifles.There is music and dancing everywhere.

Enjoy it.

Silly Question

If you are made Vampire, what happens to your life insurance? Is is now payable because you are dead? or is it still in effect because you are walking and talking?

Punishment/Reward

We have a very odd set of laws. Generally if you do thing "x" you will get a penalty. I have a friend who actually did jail time for dumpster diving.

I was thinking about this with all the downpours we are having today, and how few people actually turn on their headlights with their windshield wipers. For those of you in the know, it is actually required in many states including Connecticut. And I have to admit, it is actually annoying when a little grey car suddenly appears from behind a wall of water.

Now I do not know how many people have been ticketed for this, but it is certainly damn few.

And comes the question: what should be the fine for hurling a deadly weapon at oncoming traffic? I actually think that a $10 ticket would actually be sufficient. It is annoying enough to have to plead "nolo contendre" and send a certified check to the Superior Court for the first offense. If you can't remember to turn on your wipers after that, then you are ... an idiot and you deserve a harsh punishment.
 
Traffic inspections could set up for lights and also catch the no lights guys, the no seat-belt guys, the texters, the DWI's, the no insurance guys, and the unsafe/prohibited right on red guys. ( please note, I am using "guys" as a non-gender specific word).

I don't believe this is a quota system. Traffic stops are usually announced in the paper. So the only people that are actually caught are the people who have so little consideration of their community that they can't be bothered to keep up with the local news.

But heaven forbid a Police Union employee be assigned to stand a post in the rain.

And Hartford, please take note: If you are going to pass a law that says something that is just common sense include enforcement rules or else stop wasting my freaking tax dollars talking about stuff over which you choose to take no control.

****

The reason I bring this up, is that there is going to be big election noise about subsidizing alternative energy projects. Isn't it awful that the Government invested taxpayer dollars subsidizing renewal energy sources. It is also my understanding that Big Oil also gets federal funds. Or at least tax breaks in the for of "depleted reserves". Thank you Big Oil for figuring out a way to get the government to help you pay for using up and burning a legacy from the rain forests of the dinosaurs that took millions of years to crush under tectonic pressure. It has been just a little over 100 years since Spindletop gushed crude oil, and it took 30 years to burn all that oil. Even if you are a Creationist,that means that all the oil that God gave us 6,000 years ago is getting burned up in 120 years.

So, how do we organize this in a more sensible way? Our Federal budget is decimated, and cannot afford another Solyndra. Or even a bank bailout.

How about this: we slowly take away the depletion credits, we add a little to the gasoline taxes and add this cash to the general fund. I believe we are approaching peak oil as the world population approaches 7 billion.
Then, let alternative fuel become part of the capitalist system! Let it compete head to head with Big Oil.  Reward the good behavior and take away the credits for bad behavior. More cash flow to pay off our debt, and new business to hire people with. Gee gosh golly, you don't suppose Government would work better with positive cash flow? Or at least breakeven?

Where is the downside?

Face Book

A quote from Morningstar:

"More than 500 million people use Facebook on a daily basis, spending more time there than any other  website, according to most third-party reports."

In 88 days, world population will reach 7 BILLION individuals.

A little quick math tells me that that is a 7% world wide market penetration. And I am actually beginning to believe it. I just got a Facebook Friend request from someone I thought did not even remember me. 20+ years ago, we used to hire nannies for our children. One of the most capable and memorable was a lovely young woman from Åland. (If you don't know, look it up). Most of her timeline is in Swedish, but ... hooray for Face Book, they translate it.

Can it get bigger? Certainly. May there be spoilers?  Possibly. But how really immensely hot must the spoiler be to get to 500 million users and growing.

I don't like Face Book, I hate the games. The timeline stuff is weird, and the latest iteration actually posts where you are if you allow it. My first take on it, it was a sort of unconscious voyeurism.

But I use Face Book. Go figure.

Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.

I spent 6 days altogether at Dodd's Farm in Hillsdale, NY at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. I arrive before the gates open to secure a good place in line when the gates open on Wednesday.

Rather than repeat myself, in sum it was the rainiest festival I have been to. And among the most fun.

I had the good fortune to be in great company at Pirate Camp, originated by the late Jack Hardy, and the tradition is dutifully carried forward by Stuart Kabak, a very creative and thoughtful guy in his own right. He and I set up the basic part of the camp and awaited the arrival of a myriad of talented people.

One of the more interesting additions to our camp was Michal Kornfeld, not much of a camper, but a great publicist.and promoter under the sobriquet Acoustic Music Scene. He was able to schedule late night shows in our little tent that drew large crowds and a lot of compliments from nearby campers. And the tent was always open for musicians stopping by and sharing something new. If this is your first look at this festival, there is a "quiet" camping area. And in any case, the music is acoustic only with the occasional battery-powered piano turned low so as not to cover over dulcet voices.

As for the rest of this magical festival, see the web site http://falconridgefolk.com/ and see what you missed!

Maybe I'll see you next year.

California

California has to be the most ridiculous of our states. is it because so many people have lots of money and too much free time? The 99% there are truly suffering. Town after town is going bankrupt essentially shutting down essential services. There are several sub-layers of government that mimic Federal departments and go a long way to making sure their sinecure jobs pay good benefits forever. As near as I can figure, none of these department people are elected. It seems they are appointed by ... guess who .. the elected ones. But if the elected one goes out of favor, the unemployable brother-in-law still has his job at the California EPA.

This gets me to my point. Effective July 1, the sale of Foie Gras is prohibited in California.

The commerce in any foodstuff should be legal. Yes some countries mistreat their farm animals to supply this delicacy, but they are just that ... farm animals. And Foie Gras does not require dramatic force feeding (the French call this gavage). In fact, some wild ducks have been shot that were lucky enough to get into rice fields or some other food rich area .. they develop the extra fat layers that make a a duck's liver make the magical change from normal to distended.

Back to California, what are they going to ban next? Big Macs?