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| Abe Lincoln statue wearing a mask |
From Newsmax, December 30, 2022
Years ago I moved to Los Angeles from New York, for the weather. L.A. was warm. Low humidity. Little/No rain. No winter ice or snow or cold. And 330 sunny days a year. It was wonderful. Was. Lately, we have been getting lots of rain from Winter to Spring. And, for Southern California, it's been "cold" during Winter and Spring, like 50-60 degrees, not 75-80 degrees. And this year, 2022-2023 we got a LOT of cloudy days. In fact, we now call the month of May, "May Gray". Followed by "June Gloom".
Instead of 330 sunny days a year these days we'll be lucky to get 230 sunny days a year. Yes, I feel the difference. A nice sunny day makes me feel good, motivates me to be outside and stimulates my health and my mind. A lot of cool, cloudy or rainy days makes me depressed, makes me want to stay home and in bed. Yes, it makes me act like a 6-year-old.
In fact, it's now nearly June, barely 60 degrees at noon, and when I go outside I still wear a winter jacket!
Is this new lousy weather pattern Global Climate Change, applying itself to local Los Angeles weather? Apparently. Is it man-made L.A. Global Climate Change, caused by capitalism, gas-powered cars, gas ovens, air conditioning, and white males?
It's 2023. Welcome to the New Normal. The new normal sucks. Every area of American society is malfunctioning. And declining. Due to stupid crazy Woke semi-Nazi loony left agendas that don't work and restrict freedom and opportunity.
Who's to blame? Blame the decline of America on clueless insane cult member voters who vote Democrat, no matter what. Wake up, morons, you are causing the end of society. By electing Democrats and supporting the Woke agenda you will end freedom, and opportunity, and end our currency, the US dollar and, by default, local, state and federal government's ability to raise funds, and to pay its workers and provide services. And YOU will end up with no functioning local government, no law and order, no electricity to heat or cool or light your home, no transportation, no water, no indoor plumbing, no trash pickup...and no food. In other words, you'll be living in a third-world sh*thole country. And, like Global Climate Change, your life expectancy may be less than 7 years.
Apparently, Medicare does not cover the cost of hearing aids. Or hearing exams. Or fittings.
Why doesn't regular Medicare cover this? Aren't our ears important fundamental organs, part of our physical body?
Not to mention our teeth. You know, the body parts we need to eat, and chew, FOOD. Medicare doesn't cover dental work either.
According to Fox News the FBI is monitoring certain lingo used on the internet. The FBI list has terms associated with "Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism". The exposed document includes a commonly used word. The word is "based".
"Based" is defined by the FBI as a word used to "refer to someone who has been converted to racist ideology, or as a way of indicating ideological agreement."
Huh? Based? The word "based" is an FBI indicator of racist ideology? WTF? On my author blog, which I have had for many many years, I state that I am the author of 20 nonfiction books and am based in Los Angeles. "Based", like home base, like where you live - the normal word that's been used for hundreds of years to denote a person's current/permanent location and has NOTHING to do with racism.
Am I on an FBI list? As a racist? Am I being monitored online by the FBI? Watched?
As for being racist, 40% of my closest neighbors are black and I don't care, they are good people and I like them all. And, as an old white guy I had a wonderful black girlfriend 50 years ago, before many people today were even born.
This Woke sh*t has got to stop! Hey, Elon Musk, please invent a time machine, I wanna go back to the 1970s/80s when America was sane. And fun.
I love love love my Lenovo laptop!
No, I am not getting paid by Lenovo or affiliated with them.
I have owned my Lenovo pc laptop for a couple of years now and am still very pleased with it. It works great, starts up quickly and yes, it has a lit keyboard for middle of the night computing. This 13.3 inch laptop is a good size for everything I do on it, it's very well made, thin, not too heavy but substantial, very portable if need be and the keyboard is very good. The screen is bright and clear. And it has plenty of storage. Among other things, I am storing 20 books I wrote, and over 1,800 fine art photographs I took and edited, and still have plenty of storage left. And this laptop fits my desk area nicely.
So far, based on this laptop I am a 100% loyal Lenovo customer. Thank you, Lenovo, for making an excellent laptop. Yes, when it's time I will be replacing my current laptop with another Lenovo.
It is a genuine pleasure to have a product I use daily that is not junk, that works like it should, and is reasonable priced. More and more, the things I buy these days that are actually good quality, at a good price, are a rarity, an exception to the poor-quality "new economy".
I am a strong believer in giving credit where credit is due. Especially in this day and age of lousy products and services, and often non-human, customer service. I would've sent this glowing testimonial to Lenovo but on their website I could not find how to contact them for that. Hence this post here on my blog.
Update/rant
February 2023. As my beloved laptop was getting old I bought a new Lenovo 13.3 inch laptop. As a replacement. BEFORE my beloved old one stopped working. And it was on sale for President's Day! Once I started setting it up I realized that the all-important keyboard backlighting was not automatic. It's default was the off position. It would turn off and the keyboard would go dark after like 15 seconds of idleness. It had to be activated EVERY time you wanted to use the keyboard again. What? I do a lot of creative stuff, in the middle of the night, in the dark. I write books, blogs and do lots of photo editing, in the dark of night. In a dimly lit room. I NEED a backlit keyboard that lights up and stays lit permanently.
I spoke to Lenovo and they told me they designed the new laptops with this new default backlit keyboard - to save the battery. I never use my laptop on battery power, it is always plugged in. I do not need to save the battery! And they told me that there is no option for permanently turning on the backlit keyboard. I'm on my computer 9-12 hours a day, 7 days a week, doing stuff. In a darkened room. And it is a annoying pain in the ass to have to turn on the keyboard backlight 200 times a day.
Sad, upset and disgusted I returned the new laptop for a full refund. I cannot use this Lenovo and apparently all the smaller Lenovo laptops work this way.
So, no more Lenovo. The love affair is over. Because they got design-stupid and environmental overcontrolling - without first checking with PAYING F-ING USERS.
Welcome to the New Economy. Where nothing works properly. And, if something does work well, and is of good quality, it's rare.
p.s. I bought an HP 14-inch laptop. With permanent keyboard backlighting. It was on sale. It's not as nice as my old Lenovo laptop but it works, so far.
Today, a Sunday morning, as usual I checked my email. And found 62 spams. 62 spam emails? 62 unsolicited unwanted emails? As usual I did not open any of them and deleted them en masse. Two hours later I got another 76 spams in my email box.
The next day, a Monday, so far in my email spam folder I have 101 spams. So far. It's only 3:30 PM.
And, on St Patrick's Day, 2023, I got 100 spams - in an hour! That's a 24-hr average of over 2,000 f-ing spams!
This annoying super spamming has been going on for at a long time. I am getting like 100-200 email spams a day. Every day. Despite any/all laws, rules, regulations et al email spam is alive and thriving.
What's the solution? Here's an idea
The US federal government should designate email spam as a Terrorist Attack upon American citizens. Punishable by the Death Penalty.
And that could also apply to spam phone calls.
Stop the spam. With the Spam Death Penalty. A good idea. A damn good idea.
And, anybody found guilty of spamming could be executed, live, on TV, as a pay-per-view event. A TV Special. Even after the Spam Law Death Penalty is passed there should be enough stupid spammers to make it a weekly show. The show could maybe 1-2 hours long, culminating in the live execution. It could be a terrific highly rated, high-revenue generating Saturday night TV show, in prime time, especially since there is never anything good to watch on TV during prime time on Saturday night.
Making it visually appealing for ratings sake the official US government execution could be by hanging. Or firing squad. Or maybe by guillotine. Let the convicted spammer decide how they will be executed.
As for spammers operating overseas the US could nicely demand the country turn the spammers over to us, or threaten to withhold foreign aid to that country.
Stop The Spam!
Yes, this is dark humor. Seriously dark humor. Humor/not humor.
P.S. My stupid, poorly run, outdated free aol email does not allow users to block span by "word(s)". My free aol email only allows blocking by specific email address - and spam senders use numerous different addresses, so blocking each specific email address is not feasible. Blocking spam by "word(s)" would be very helpful. I get multiple annoying spam emails that use certain words, words I am never interested in, words that would never make me open the span email, words that I would like to block permanently. Words like McAfee. And penis.
Why don't I use another email provider? I have been using aol email for over 25 years and don't want to dump it, as I have been using the same AOL email address, putting it out in the world, so people or organizations can contact me for legit reasons. AOL is now owned by Apollo Global Management, a large investment company who also obviously doesn't give a shit about us AOL free email users.
FIX THIS! The government or at least the tech industry needs to do something and stop the spam. NOW.
Los Angeles is getting a new Mayor. Karen Bass, a Democrat. She and the city council are going to tackle the homeless crisis, by spending money. Lots of money. $1 billion.
Here's my response, posted on Fox News:
"What about all the homeless RV's permanently parked on Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles, near an entrance to Warner Bros Studios? The unsightly unsanitary trash from the many homeless RV's is piling up! This has been going on for years.
This permanent street parking of homeless RV's adversely affects local residents and employees, local travel and tourism. Among the entities in this particular area adversely affected is Warner Bros, Universal Studios (and its new $500 million sound stages), famed Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the largest urban wilderness area in the US aka Griffith Park, and Ava Toluca Hills, an apartment complex of over 1,000 units."
December 7, 2022 marks 11 years since I quit smoking cigarettes. And started vaping.
After smoking a pack a day for decades, I quit. In 1 day. I switched to vaping. In the past 11 years I have not smoked one cigarette. I have no craving for cigarettes and prefer my e-cigarette which has no odor, produces no flame, no ashes and does not require a lighter. Plus, my vaping addiction (yes, I am addicted to nicotine) costs me less than cigarettes. I probably save $1,200 a year.
I am a happy vaper. Despite all the government laws and mandates restricting it, in my experience vaping has been a good thing compared to smoking cigarettes. And though it's illegal to call electronic cigarettes a "smoking cessation device" that's exactly what it did for me.
Oh, and the definition of "smoking" is the igniting of tobacco. Since vaping does not contain any tobacco why is vaping considered smoking?
And, no, this is NOT f-ing misinformation or disinformation, it's my f-ing personal experience, my personal opinion, based on 11 years of living the reality.
I buy my trash bags at vons. I've been buying these for decades.
On TV Sunday morning before noon I tuned in to the show, "Zombie Flipping", on the A&E network channel. It's an interesting show where a group of flippers buy horrible houses (they call them zombies) and renovate and flip them. I tuned in about halfway through the episode and first had to sit through a bunch of tv commercials. I noticed. I said to myself, "Wow, there's a LOT of tv ads. It's very intrusive and annoying". I vowed to find out how many ads viewers had to suffer through the next time the show took a break to run commercials. Soon the show stopped and the ads started. On my fingers I counted the tv ads.
THERE WERE 12 F-ING TV ADS IN A ROW!
Seriously? 12 tv ads in a row? More than 15 minutes in an hour? 25 f-ing percent of a TV show is ads? And the networks expect viewers to put up with that? And the dumbass TV execs don't know why TV viewership has declined so much in the past decade(s)?
I changed the channel. To a TV news channel. I let the tv play in the background while I wrote this rant. I am now considering no longer watching TV at all, due to too many ads. Or, in the case of streaming TV networks, lousy or old shows. If only Netflix and Hulu, which I subscribe to, had more new g-o-o-d TV shows instead of hundreds/thousands of ancient shows I've seen or new crappy shows I have no interest in seeing. Seriously.
November 2022
WHY is the media playing with the Presidential Election of 2024? It's 2 f-ing years away! There are plenty of critical issues facing the US and its law-abiding taxpaying citizens that have to be addressed. And fixed. None of these issues have anything to do with an election 2 years away.
Two years is a long time in politics. America may not even survive the next 2 years so stop playing with future politics.
I have noticed a recent increase in RV, truck and van permanent/homeless street parking on both sides of Forest Lawn Drive, in between Warner Bros studios and Universal Studios in Los Angeles. I live nearby. I see it every day.
Along with the increase in homeless permanent parking there is an increase in unsightliness,
trash and filth.
All the homeless/permanently parked (and perhaps inoperable) RVs, vans
and the resultant trash can be seen by commuters and tourists, local employees
and local residents who use that part of Forest Lawn Drive. The permanently
parked vehicles and resulting trash and unsanitary conditions is lowering the
scenic quality of life for those who live and work in the immediate area and
could even lower the value of real estate in the area, and may likely also
adversely affect employees and customers and tourism in the vicinity. Plus, for health
reasons, these and other homeless permanent street parked vehicles deserve
access to electricity, running water, toilets and showers, proper trash
disposal etc.
This ongoing and increasing permanent homeless parking problem has been going on for years...and can be laid at the feet of the Mayor and the Los Angles City Council (and the County of Los Angeles), who have done little or nothing to remedy the situation.
You've heard the slogan, "A picture is worth a thousand words". I have another slogan, a new slogan, an offshoot of that quote.
I have noticed that all my favorite prime time TV fictional action shows now suck. Why? Because we viewers are getting more drama and less action. Because the shows (and their writers) are now featuring and emphasizing personal difficulties and conflicts in the lives of the main characters. This is not "entertainment", it's not "action", it's drama, it's TV therapy, and b-o-r-i-n-g.
In TV action shows like "The Equalizer" I'm interested in seeing the star, Queen Latifa, help people, solve or prevent crimes and kick ass. I am NOT interested in exploring her family's inner personal dramas. In the TV show, "9-1-1" I am interested in seeing the team tackle unique WOW disasters and saving lives while working together. I am NOT interested in endlessly exploring the personal inner traumas of the individual characters. It's b-o-r-i-n-g.
I understand why the producers have turned to featuring the internal difficulties and drama facing the shows' characters. It's hard to create fabulous action scenes week after week, year after year. And it's expensive. It's CHEAPER to film drama, on/in a cheap existing set, with dialog (not action) between 2 people rather than create, produce and film full action scenes with special effects and lots of actors. But I don't watch tv fictional action shows for their soap opera plots and soap opera dialog.
If this trend continues re my favorite TV shows I will dump them. I will stop watching them. I have already started, I switched channels in the middle of last week's Equalizer episode. And, if I can't find good watchable interesting action tv shows (fiction NOT reality!) on any of the major networks, cable channels or steaming pay networks (I subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime) I will stop watching tv altogether. And read a book instead. Or maybe write one.
F U CVS
I went online to schedule a flu shot at my local CVS. I signed in, went through the online form, filling it out and picking a date and time that was convenient for me. I spent 15-20 minutes on the CVS website making the appointment but was not allowed to finalize it unless I agreed to their conditions. What did I have to agree to? To get f-ing texts and/or emails from CVS. For pretty much whatever reason CVS wanted to contact me about!
"By providing your mobile number and/or e-mail address, you consent to receive live and automated calls, text messages and/or e-mails about this and follow-up visits, your account, and important health care messages including additional vaccine scheduling and a copy of your immunization record. For text messages, standard message and data rates apply. Message frequency varies."
"Important health care messages"? I visualized lots of unwanted CVS email/text spam coming if I agreed, if I checked the OK box, if I finalized my flu shot appointment.
I did not proceed and left the site without scheduling a flu shot.
As a longtime adult consumer I felt controlled and abused. WHY should companies with online marketing and sales totally control what we online consumers can and can't do, and collect our personal information for marketing purposes, to sell or use it to generate spam emails and/or texts. Why do so many of them, not in critical industries, force us to give them our private contact information and force us to comply, instead of just taking our money and leaving us the F alone? Or at least giving us a choice of NOT getting endless marketing emails and texts - BEFORE we buy something!
As an online consumer and a human being I value my privacy. Online sellers do not.
Regarding getting my flu shot what will I do? I will physically go to my local CVS and see if I can get a flu shot without giving them my phone number and email address and without agreeing to let then contact me with "important health care messages".
UPDATE
I found out that my primary care physician was offering flu shots. On a walk-in basis. I went there and got my flu shot. No hassle, no problem, no spam, no invasion of privacy.
I sent this to Fox News corporate via email
"I live in Los Angeles and I am sick and tired of seeing Camp Lejeune ads on your tv channel. Every 5 f-ing minutes you are showing one of the Camp Lejeune ads! And the ads only apply/appeal to people who were at Camp Lejeune and got sick. I was not and did not, as were/are the vast majority of Fox News viewers. The "My Pillow" ads every 10 minutes were/are bad enough but the Camp Lejeune ads may be even more annoying and may repeat even more often.
As a result, after decades of watching Fox News all day I am seriously considering ceasing my viewing of Fox News altogether as my response to the never-ending repeat ads, and getting my news online. I will also be sad to stop watching Jesse, Tucker, Hannity, Laura, The Five and Gutfeld but I am prepared to do so if I can avoid your horrible way-too-often repeating TV advertisements. I'm sure there are millions of other loyal viewers who feel the same way. This is your last chance to stop the WAY TOO MANY repeat ads."
UPDATE: 3 months later
The Camp Lejeune ads have stopped. Yay! Unfortunately, there are still 4-5 very annoying ads which repeat like every 7 minutes.
Newsflash for all anti-Semites
Jews do NOT control the US banking system or banks. Or the Federal Reserve. There are, and have always been, very few if any Jewish CEO's of major banks in America. Look it up. The idea that "Jews control all the money" is incorrect information, ignorant misinformation. It's totally false, it's simply not true. It is a mistaken concept, equating non-Jewish banking with Jewish INVESTMENT banking. The two industries are totally different. Banks take deposits and loan money. Investment banking in the US is Wall Street firms, many of which were and are Jewish, creating, buying, selling and trading stocks and bonds and other securities, and high finance. Unlike banks, investment bankers do NOT take consumer deposits and do NOT make consumer car or home loans etc.
Generally, non-orthodox Jewish people (especially males) in America are not interested in controlling things, they are interested in family, being educated so that they can make a good living and provide for themselves and their family. That often includes entering professions in accounting, the law, medicine, education, investment banking and, starting in the 20th century, the entertainment industry. The possible reasoning behind this is that, after living in Nazi Germany, or ancient Egypt, Jews tried to make themselves professionally indispensable to the ruling class, so that, as Jews, they wouldn't be enslaved, or killed. It didn't always work.
So, please if you embrace conspiracy theories in America, update your thinking and your beliefs. And stop targeting Jews as enemies. They are not your enemies. And neither are Asians or Hispanics or Blacks. Or women. Or gays and transgender people. They are not restricting your freedom or your life. Now, loony left semi-Nazis are another story.
The price of gas
September 25, 2022
Once again America shows itself as a third-world country re the supply chain.
It was Saturday and I was running low on Diet Caffeine Free Coke so I decided to go buy some more. I went to my usual closest supermarket, a Safeway subsidiary called vons. They had none on the shelves. OK, that's the new normal. Especially at this vons, which is in Burbank, California and happens to be in the middle of the Los Angeles entertainment business yet it runs out of MANY of my favorite standard food items. OK, I am used to that. I hate it but I am used to it. I drove around the corner to a Smart & Final. They had none either. OK, I started to get annoyed. It's the new normal in my life when it comes to food shopping. I drove over to a CVS in the same mini-mall. CVS often has Diet Caffeine Free Coke, though they charge more than the supermarkets. The CVS had none, out of stock. OK, then, I am a persistent person, do not give up easily and I sometimes make a habit of checking a lot of stores to follow and document the deterioration of my local supply chain in Los Angeles. There was another Smart & Final not far away so I drove there, only to find, you guessed it, no Diet Caffeine Free Coke. Hmm. Like I said, I don't give up easily. And I wanted to see how bad the supply chain shortage was on that day. Next, I went to a Ralph's supermarket. Out of stock. Not one bottle of my beloved Coke on the shelves. That made 5 places that didn't have any. This is not unusual in these, the new and shitty days/years of Covid. The supply chain shortage has now been going on for nearly 3 f-ing years. America was becoming more like Venezuela. With high inflation and supply chain shortages. We were becoming Amerizuela. Anyway, there was a CVS right near the Ralphs. I walked over and, voila, no Diet Caffeine Free Coke. I was running out of local food stores.
Next, and last, I went to a Pavilions, an upscale version of vons. I walked through the store to the soft drink section. At least I was getting a lot of exercise in my quest for my Coca Cola. I carefully scanned the large soft drink section and did not find my Coke. They had many brands and many flavors but not the one I wanted.
OK, I was done shopping. I was going home. Annoyed, disappointed and thirsty. I had gone to 7 food stores. No Coke for me.
On my way home there was another CVS on the street I was driving on. OK, I said to myself, let's make it an even 8 f-ing food stores where they don't have the popular product I wanted. I parked the car and went in, fully expecting to be a victim of the supply chain shortages. Again. I walked over to the soft drink section and, voila, there it was! They had it! They had my Diet Caffeine Free Coke! I bought 2 large bottles, the most I could carry. And happily paid their higher price.
I drove home conflicted. Happy I finally found my usual and highly desired soft drink, unhappy that I had to go to 8 places to find it in stock. Welcome to the new economy and its shortages of way too many things people want and need. It sucks.
