Category Archives: General

General

I read the news today/yesterday, 7/23/24 edition…

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So the last week we had Donald Trump almost being assassinated at a rally and I wrote about how the news seems to be on steroids of late, that it seems almost every day we’re hit with one “unprecedented” event after another to the point of being numb about the whole thing.

Case in point: The assassination attempt against Trump seems like distant, distant old news now and hasn’t seemed to alter the fabric of our body politic much at all.

To be clear, there are those Trump fans who did make something of what should have been a ground shattering event. They talked about how Trump was “invincible” or somehow “anointed”… in a religious sense. There were T-shirts showing the bloodied Trump being held by the Secret Service and… welp, I cannot deny his fans their moment of hero worship even if to me the whole thing was incredibly frightening.

Then the Republican Convention came. In short order Trump chooses author and very far right (and favorite of billionaires like Peter Thiel) J. D. Vance as his Vice President pick… and it doesn’t really do all that much to anyone outside the right wing sphere. In fact, many pundits wound up scratching their heads at the choice. Most of the time a VP pick is meant to shore up a Presidential Candidate’s weakness. Like getting a popular figure from a State that’s in play or choosing someone who will help you with some large segment of the population which may not view you in as positive a light. Vance didn’t seem to “help” Trump with broadening his base and came from a state that likely will go Republican already. An odd choice, for sure.

But even worse for Trump, the convention’s finale featured his acceptance speech and… it didn’t go all that well. To begin, it was the longest acceptance speech ever at 92 minutes and that wouldn’t have been an issue except that most viewed the speech as a too long and boring rambling affair. Even the audience seemed to want it to end and that’s hardly a ringing endorsement to the guy you want to lead not only your party but the nation itself.

And there’s more: Trump claimed he would offer a “unifying” speech and truthfully if there was a time to do something like that, after surviving an assassination attempt as he did, this would have been the time for a more humble Trump to come on stage and accept the nomination and ask those who are disinclined to voting for him to give him a chance. That he’s a changed man and would fight for all Americans rather than the hard right few.

Didn’t happen.

So Trump exits the Convention not looking particularly stronger than before he entered and that, in itself, should be looked upon as at best a missed opportunity and at worse a failure.

A few days later comes the (here’s that word again) unprecedented news that President Joe Biden has decided not to run for re-election. He formally endorses his V.P., Kamala Harris, to succeed him.

It’s a crisis point. Will the Democratic Party descend into chaos? Would several others try to claim the nomination from Biden/Harris?

Nope.

What happened was quite the opposite: It energized the Democratic Party. It led to an incredible monetary haul of donations, perhaps the biggest ever in a single day. And it excited many who may have been holding their breaths with a Biden candidacy.

I was one of those holding my breath, I have to admit.

Look, I don’t dislike Biden at all and I’d vote for him over Trump or pretty much any of the current batch of right wing Republicans out there.

But, let’s face it, at 81 years of age, he’s very old and as a potential voter, I couldn’t help but wonder day after day if we’d get the “good” Biden or the tired older Biden we saw in that first debate with Trump.

The idea of another Trump presidency was unimaginable to me but the reality was that I didn’t know if Biden, a mere three years older than Trump, could show more energy despite his age.

In one swoop, though, the tables turned completely. Suddenly the Democratic Party has a young, energetic, and smart woman looking like she will be the candidate and just as suddenly all the stuff that was being leveled against Biden -that he was too old and too tired looking- was wiped out and re-focused on… Trump.

It’s been a few days now since these events and it feels like the Democratic Party remains on a high while the Republican Party is struggling to find a new message. Worse, their biggest televised event, the Convention, came and went and did nothing to broaden Trump’s appeal while they spent all that time slamming Biden… who is no longer even the candidate they’re running against!

It’s a truly fascinating bit of political ju-jitsu by Biden.

He may be old and I feel he was smart to give up a re-election run. Yet he managed to do so in perhaps the best possible way to re-energize his party and focus a harsh light on the fact that all his problems… are present in spades in Trump.

But again… that’s today.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow…

General

I read the news today, oh boy…

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I don’t know about you guys, but it seems like we have “unprecedented” things happening daily…

…and it’s freaking exhausting.

It seems each day’s news comes and attempts its best to outdo what happened the previous day to the point where it’s becoming mind-numbing.

I’m not saying the things that happened aren’t newsworthy… but the frequency they come, are digested, only to be supplanted by something even more disturbing or shocking the next day is (here’s that word again) exhausting.

To be very clear, the assassination attempt against Donald Trump yesterday is very much a news event… this is an obvious, shocking, and disgusting no-brainer.

While I have no love for Trump or his policies and absolutely will not vote for him nor do I want him anywhere near any real government power again, I want to be absolutely clear that I do not take any glee at all at the fact that someone -and likely we’ll come to find a very disturbed individual- took a shot at him.

Just as I wished those on the other side -including Trump himself- didn’t make stupid jokes and/or offer such “clever” sly innuendoes about the clearly deranged intruder who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home and attacked her husband Paul with a hammer.

But the worst of it is that I’m left wondering what shocking news we’re going to get tomorrow.

Or the next day. Or the day after that.

I worry we’ll quickly forget about this shocking episode and move on to the next “unprecedented” event.

And so on…

…and so on…

General

Greek Archeologists discover mysterious 4000 year old building…

Sometimes one can despair from the ramping up of political news which seems all encompassing and, frankly, alternately depressing and annoying.

Then comes news like this, which I find so incredibly fascinating.

The article is by the Associated Press and I found it on CNN.com:

Greek archeologists discover mysterious, 4000 year old building on hill earmarked for new airport

The most fascinating thing to me are the photographs from the site, which indicate some kind of circular structure on top of a hill…

Now that’s an incredibly interesting structure!

At the risk of further hijacking the story itself, they also posted this image, taken from directly above the structure:

Wow!

Again, I highly recommend you read the article from the link I provided above but I will summarize a bit: The architects aren’t entirely sure what the structure was used for. They did find some animal bones within so the thought is that maybe the structure was used for some kind of ritual and/or feeding. It is likely Crete Minoan in origin but it doesn’t fit in with any other known structure from that civilization. Because of its size and structure -which is quite elaborate!- it likely was a structure which required considerable resources and personel as well as technological know how therefore was likely an important structure in its time.

Fascinating, fascinating stuff!

General

Rule of Law…

BEWARE: POLITICS!!!!

Yesterday ex-President Donald Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges he was tried for.

He is now a convicted felon.

Not terribly surprisingly, Donald Trump claimed he was… well, what do you think? It was unfair. I did nothing wrong. If I did, it wasn’t worth this trial. I don’t know the lady. Etc. etc.

Depressingly -and not surprisingly- those on the far right, many in positions of power within the government, are also dubiously claiming this was a rigged trial and Trump shouldn’t have been pursued and…

…sigh…

The hypocrisy runs thick. These Republicans were right there pursuing Bill Clinton for a blowjob yet feel things are unfair when Trump is found guilty of sexual assault (E. Jean Carroll) and now for campaign finance illegalities.

You do know this was what the trail was about, right?

I mean, the “big” headline is that he forced himself upon Stormy Daniels, a porn star. In reality, the trial was about how he illegally paid her off to keep quiet about their tryst while campaigning for president against Hillary Clinton.

Worse, those claiming he was somehow railroaded seem to conveniently forget Trump effectively offered no defense in this trial. Trump’s lawyers never offered an explanation for the obvious payoffs made to the likes of ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

And when it was Trump’s turn to defend himself, he could have taken the stand -tough guy that he’s supposed to be- and set everyone right about what happened.

He didn’t.

Now, Trump -indeed any defendant- doesn’t have to testify. But Trump sure seems to be mouthy whenever he’s not under oath. He’s quick to talk about all the unfair things that happened and how this trail shouldn’t have happened and that he was being persecuted by the Biden administration…

…yet when he had a chance to swear to tell the truth and the whole truth and take the stand he declined.

Ah well.

General

Oh Elon…

The latest news about Tesla and their vehicles is… not great.

There have been pretty significant layoffs, including the entire staff behind the wonderful Superchargers (I’ll get into that in a moment), following the news that sales during the first quarter of the year were slow/stagnant.

Is Elon panicking?

Unlike so many others who speculate about internal issues such as this, I genuinely don’t know but feel incredible sympathy for those laid off. Maybe there was an urgent need to tighten the proverbial belt around Tesla and maybe the release of the Cybertruck wasn’t quite as successful as hoped or maybe Tesla simply needs to provide a new “wow” product beyond the refreshed Model 3…

If I was to speculate, though, regarding the stagnant sales, I would say that Tesla may well be a victim of its own success. I’m a big fan of the cars (can’t say the same about Musk himself) and, frankly, I love them.

In 2019 I bought a Model 3 and in 2021 bought my wife a Model Y. Because of those stagnant sales and discounts offered following the disappointing first quarter sales, I wound up getting curious and decided to check our local Tesla dealership as to the cost of trading in my Model 3 for a Model Y. I was frankly shocked that, with the $7500 EV credit and a $22,000 trade-in value for my car, I could buy myself a brand new 2024 Model Y for a grand total of… $19.9K!

If that isn’t a great deal on a new car, I don’t know what is, so I took advantage and took it.

Going back to what I said above, though, is the idea that maybe Tesla is a victim of its own success. Granted, some of the batshit crazy stuff Musk has been saying since buying Twitter has turned many people who might normally be interested in buying his cars very off.

I don’t blame them!

But the reality is also that the Tesla vehicles are IMHO superior to pretty much everything else I’ve ever driven and I could have easily kept my Model 3 for several more years without a second thought. The only reason I decided to trade it in is because the offer was simply too good to not take advantage of.

There is this story told here and there online that the quality of Tesla cars is terrible and I know there are those who have had the vehicles and have had problems with them (this tale of woe has appeared for the Cybertrucks of late) but for me the reality is that the now three Tesla vehicles I’ve had and driven have all been superior rides and given me absolutely no problems.

So if we are to remove those who are so turned off by Musk’s craziness and therefore refuse to consider a Tesla, I wonder how many people are like me: People who enjoy their Teslas and are perfectly content to keep them for many years before even thinking of trading them in or getting a new vehicle.

Again: The only reason I got rid of my 2019 Model 3 was because the deals available to get a new one were simply too good.

It does raise the question of the future of Tesla and electric vehicles in general.

If Musk and company feel they have over-extended themselves and must now pull back and lay off people, one wonders just how deep the resources of Tesla are. There is also the threat of Chinese vehicles eventually making their way to the United States. The tariffs are keeping them at bay but my understanding is that considerable investment has been made in Chinese EV products and there are many that could easily threaten not only Tesla but all the other car companies out there.

As for me?

Well, I still love my Tesla and can never see myself returning to gas powered vehicles again.

I’ve noted before that EVs are not perfect. They are two innovations away from being truly magnificent (maybe 30-50 more miles of “real” range and cutting down full charging by maybe 10 minutes) but as they stand today they’re IMHO far and away better vehicles to own.

Understand: Since getting my Model 3, I have not had to do any work on my car. Obviously no need to go to a gas station or get the oil changed. I still go get gas for my daughter’s car if I’m up early enough on the weekend and its surprising to me the awful smell of a gas station… especially when one hasn’t had to go to a gas station with any regularity!

There have been reports of tires wearing out quicker but, frankly, I haven’t seen that either. If you drive like a maniac and like to “punch it” with the EV -and its acceleration is spectacular versus the gas powered cars!- then don’t be surprised if your tires wear out quickly. However, if you drive normally, the tires will last.

In the end, I hope Tesla has a rebound. I hope those who were laid off find work again quickly. I also hope -though don’t expect- Musk to have an epiphany and realize the crazy shit he’s been saying these past few years haven’t done him any favors. On the contrary, it actually turns off the type of people who may be more interested in buying EVs… his included.

One can dream.

General

End of the beginning…

…beginning of the end?

Today, April 15, 2024, Donald Trump, ex-President and current Republican candidate for the Republican party, is in court facing his first actual, honest-to-goodness criminal trial.

Criminal.

Oh, and if it isn’t obvious… BEWARE… THERE BE POLITICS DISCUSSED HERE…!

So much crap has happened since he first announced his first candidacy against Hilary Clinton some, what, five thousand years ago now? Won the Presidency (thanks to the electoral college… he actually got less votes than Ms. Clinton), was impeached several times, had a disastrous presidency (I know there are those who don’t think so but… seriously?!?!), then lost to Joe Biden but refused to accept that fact and started his “I wuz robbed” campaign which continues to this day.

He’s already been found liable in two civil trails, one in which he was formally found guilty of sexual assault and another involving lying about the values of his properties and thus not paying the taxes owed. Between those two civil trails, he’s in the hole by nearly $250 million and counting. If the tax trail -on appeal though the monies proffered for the appeal are questionable and may wind up getting him in even more trouble (if that’s even possible)- ultimately loses its appeal, Trump will then owe somewhere north of $350-450 million on that trail alone…!

But here’s where the rubber hits the proverbial road.

In this case, which involves campaign financing illegalities -specifically paying off Stormy Daniels to deny an affair during a time where such an admission might have cost him the first election- Mr. Trump may well wind up being actually found guilty of criminal activities.

Remember: Trump’s one time attorney Michael Cohen served time in jail for elements related to this case.

So buckle up kids…

…I suspect we’re in for one hell of a ride. And it could well be the start of the end for Mr. Trump.

General

O. J. Simpson (1947-2024)…

Today comes the news that O. J. Simpson, running back extraordinaire for the Buffalo Bills back in the 70’s, then parlayed that to becoming an actor in both movies and TV commercials, and then…

…and then…

June 12, 1994 Nicole Brown Simpson, O.J. Simpson’s wife, and her friend Ron Goldman, were found stabbed to death.

The police investigated Simpson and ultimately were about to arrest him when we had this…

I vividly recall being at home and watching the infamous “Bronco chase”. O.J. Simpson, in the back seat of the car, chasing Al Cowling, Simpson’s friend and the driver, and supposedly a despondent Simpson saying he was going to end things.

He didn’t.

What followed was his capture, a trial that said more about us than him, and ultimately an acquittal… even when the evidence was incredibly strong as to his guilt in this brutal murder. There were names that came out of this farce, including the name “Kardashian”. Yup, the father of the Kardashian brood, Robert Kardashian, was a friend and “lawyer” for O.J. Simpson. It was speculated -and we can know no more- that he did this because he might have had knowledge of what Simpson did but as his lawyer he was couldn’t be forced to testify.

Robert Kardashian would die of cancer in 2003. He had long before -supposedly after the trail- stopped talking to O.J. Simpson and, once again, one can speculate as to the why.

After the trail, it felt like most people -even those who seemed so ecstatic that he was found not guilty- belatedly realized he likely was indeed guilty of this heinous double homicide.

Simpson found himself a pariah and the Goldman family pursued him in civil court and won big… though I wonder if they ultimately got whatever monies were awarded to them.

Simpson found himself in jail for nine years after being found guilty of 12 counts of armed robbery and two counts of kidnapping two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in Las Vegas in 2008.

It’s all such sordid, sordid stuff.

Somewhere along the line Simpson was supposed to release a book entitled If I Did It which supposedly was a “hypothetical” account of what “might” have happened the night of Nicole and Ron Goldman’s murder. There was understandable outcry when this book was supposed to be released and it wasn’t.

The Goldman family, through their lawsuit against Simpson, acquired the rights to the book and eventually released it. They retitled it If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer and it was released in 2007.

With the news of Simpson’s death, I feel absolutely no sympathy. He was, to my mind, guilty of the killings and the fact that he “got away with it” is one of the grand tragedies of recent times… as well as a shining example of how the legal system can be twisted and turned and where the sharp use of publicity and age old grievances -real though they may be- can be used to one’s advantage.

Having said all that above, one thing that has become better known since those murders is the issue of CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

In recent years we’ve come to know much more about this and have also come to realize CTE can very much have an effect on people who suffer from it lives. There are ex-football players who have exhibited extreme behaviors and emotions following the end of their playing days. One player, Junior Seau, committed suicide shortly after his career in football ended. In 2012 he shot himself in the chest and an autopsy revealed he suffered from CTE.

Did Simpson suffer from this as well? Did it affect his mood and/or possibly contribute to what he may have done with his wife and Ron Goldman?

In the coming days, perhaps there will be an autopsy and perhaps it will be found that he also did suffer from this.

Either way, it doesn’t excuse his actions and it doesn’t make up for what happened to two innocent people back in 1994.

General

Trumpian Monday…

POLITICS… Beware!!!

So I wrote a few days back about Monday and the bond Trump has to pay -which was supposed to be $464 million dollars and… it was reduced by the New York appeals court to $175 million and he was given ten days to secure this amount and…

…I don’t get it.

I suppose there are many who don’t either. I thought the whole point of posting the bond was to secure the judgment amount while the appeals process was playing out.

Assuming Trump can get this lower amount of money for the appeal and further assuming he has the rest squirreled away somewhere, what’s to stop him from trying to burn through it while the appeal process goes on?

Again: Wasn’t this amount supposed to essentially lock up the judgment amount so that if the appeal fails, the victim(s) of the fraud perpetrated by Trump would get their restitution?

I dunno.

I did see some pundits say the amount is very high and, to be clear, many of his properties are in the United States and, specifically, within New York and perhaps because of this -and the fact that there are people overseeing Trump’s finances now- they felt there was no way he would get around this judgment if and when the appeal process is exhausted. Prosecutors could then just take over the properties and -hopefully- that’s that.

And I suppose $175 million is still a pretty high amount.

So why do I feel like Trump has yet again gotten something no other defendant gets when facing the legal system?

I have to say… the moment we no longer have to deal with Trump and his… stuff… anymore can’t come soon enough.

General

The final countdown…?

Warning: Politics!!!!

If you’ve followed the news even a little nowadays you know that Donald Trump is facing a whirlwind of legal challenges even as he’s running for President yet again under the Republican ticket.

He’s so far been losing judgments yet at times “winning” by having trials be delayed.

On May 9, 2023, Trump was found liable for defamation and sexual abuse against author E. Jean Carroll and she was awarded $5 million in damages. Trump, never a shrinking violet, went on to talk and talk and talk about this verdict to the point where she sued him a second time for defamation. On January 26, 2024, Trump was found liable for defamation against Ms. Carroll and awarded a whopping $83.3 million in damages.

Trump appealed this verdict but, to do so, he had to produce a $91.6 million bond… which he did. In New York, you see, you can appeal verdicts but you have to put the money (plus some 10%) down in case you lose the appeal. It’s a way of ensuring the victims know the money is there for them the moment the appeal is exhausted and does not allow the guilty party to forever stall and appeal the verdict.

In other words: Pay up before you appeal or else you can’t appeal.

There were plenty of people wondering if Trump had the money to pay for this appeal but he did manage to get it… even as very quickly the company who provided the bond was exposed and, apparently, that caused enough consternation within the company, Chubb Insurance, the CEO was forced to defend the action…

Chubb CEO defends backing Trump appeal bond in E. Jean Carroll case

The fact is that Trump -whether you like or loath him- is increasingly being viewed as a financial risk and there are those who invest in Chubb that viewed this bond as a financial risk.

Welp, Trump had another case go against him, this one also from New York and involving civil fraud. Mr. Trump lost the case and was ordered to pay $454 million. This case involved years of questionable financial dealings and, once again, if Mr. Trump wants to appeal the case, he can certainly do so… provided he offer a $454 million bond.

This bond is due March 25… a whopping four days from today, and…

Trump’s lawyers say it is impossible for him to post bond covering $454 million civil fraud judgment

It would appear, according to the above article, that there is no bond company willing to cover this amount and Mr. Trump doesn’t have the liquid assets to cover it himself… this despite boasting under oath during one of these cases (I forget which) that he had some $450 million in such assets.

So the clock is ticking and, should Mr. Trump not be able to post this bond, by Monday New York Attorney General Letitia James, the woman who successfully prosecuted Trump, can start seizing his assets.

It’s a fascinating fall for Mr. Trump, whether he manages to post that bond or not, and one can’t help but note that the man brought this all on himself.

Like it or not, getting into politics shines a bright light on you. Running for, and being elected President shines an even brighter light on you and you really, really must make sure your past is clean because inquiring minds will start to look through your past…

I wonder if this is the start of the end for the Trump financial empire. It’s possible, certainly, he finds a way to wiggle out of this and gets someone -maybe someone close to him- to pay the bond.

But $454 million dollars is an awfully large amount of money and there are other cases -criminal cases- to come.

All while Mr. Trump runs for President.

There was a time even one of these scandals was enough to fell any potential candidate. Mr. Trump, to his credit, seems to know no shame and pushes on despite everything falling around him.

I’m damned curious to see what happens Monday.

General

Please let karma be real…

…because after the last two weeks, I’m in need of some good stuff happening.

First though: Sorry for the dearth of posts. It’s been unreal how busy I’ve been the last few weeks and, in particular the last couple of weeks starting from just before Christmas. I’ll get to that in a moment.

But its just been unreal busy for me. I’ve finished up the 4th draft of my latest novel and finally feel like I’m seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. The novel is solid and feels like what I was hoping it would be.

There is a second work I’m involved in though that one features less of a day to day input on my part. The hardest stuff I’ve already done and when I do work on it, it’s after my partner has done his part. Don’t mean to sound all cryptic about it but when the time approaches, I’ll give more information.

Suffice to say, I believe in the first half of this new year there will be not one but two pretty cool works released, my latest novel and the first part of this secondary project.

Now then, what happened from just before Christmas:

I have another job (yet another) and this one decided to take the proverbial shit in the bed the Thursday before I was heading out to see my daughter in another state.

I got a call at 1:00 am that Thursday super early in the morning of a strange power failure. I headed out there and spent from 1:30 am to 12 noon dealing with electrical issues. In time I finally found out that a transformer a building over had blown and caused a power failure through 1/2 our building… as well as the other buildings on the block.

Our power company sure did take its time time finally arrive by close to noon and work on it and get things going again. But in our building, the elevator was out and I had to call the elevator company to get it rebooted… even as I discovered one of our employees had gotten themselves trapped in the elevator (thank the gods it wasn’t a client…!).

Thinking that was it, I finally headed home.

Morgan Freeman voice: That wasn’t it.

For the next week plus while on “vacation” I was literally on the phone each day dealing with the repercussions of this transformer’s failure. Our phone system? Half-fried. Our internet modem? Fried as well.

From a distance I made calls and dealt with all those problems plus the fact that we were at the cusp of Christmas and finding people to fix these problems, I feared, would be really hard.

So now another week passes and finally I had one day without having to call the business. Then another.

My daughter, who was sick the week before, started feeling better. Then, just as we were about to fly out and back home, she took a turn for the worse.

So bad she wanted to stay at her house and have us take a taxi or Uber to the airport.

However, it was too late for either and I drove us there with the intention of letting her rest then she could drive her car back home. We get to the airport and she’s feeling really bad. So bad that we tell her to immediately go to Urgent Care to get looked at.

She takes off and for the next hour plus we’re seriously considering having one of us turn around, not take the flight back home, and go taxi ourselves to the Urgent Care.

My daughter, it turned out, had Influenza. We think she was first sick with a cold, got better, then somehow caught the influenza.

Urgent Care gave her fluids and drugs and sent her home and we flew back, not totally content with the situation but knowing we had to get back to deal with our home, pets, and jobs.

This was December 31st.

We get home and I’m exhausted.

I think its just exhaustion from dealing with the problems due to the transformer blowing throughout my “vacation” and then the last minute issues with my daughter.

It turned out to be something else.

I caught the influenza from my daughter. And I was really, really freaking sick from it. Like barely-able-to-get-out-of-the-bed sick. But I had to. You see, there were still things to be dealt with regarding that blown transformer and burnt out equipment…!

I, like my wife, was vaccinated for the flu but I think the stress of dealing with all this shit got to me and on Monday the 1st of January I was feeling bad and by Tuesday even worse. That day it was my turn to go to Urgent Care and get medications.

Today, Sunday the 7th, I feel like I’m over most of it.

As I said above, I hope there is such a thing as karma because truly I could not have ended 2023 and entered 2024 in too much worse shape than I have.

Let’s see if the rest of 2024 treats me a little kinder…!

Otherwise, let me very belatedly say: Hope everyone has had a great holiday and New Years!

No such luck for me but c’est la vie!