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TreasonousBastard

TreasonousBastard's Journal
TreasonousBastard's Journal
March 15, 2020

A woman of my acquaintance just had her daughter accepted to a prestigious private...

high school. But it's the one she applied to that didn't accept her that is the story.

They are both shutting down, but her school offered students who had no safe place to go a safe dorm until the crisis is over, or at least better understood.

The other school demanded that everyone leave, including a large number of Chinese students who they insisted had to go back to China. No tuition refund, or other assistance-- just get out. Sounds inhuman to send them back into the maelstrom.

These Chinese students, btw, pay full freight, allowing girls like my friend's daughter to get generous scholarships.

March 12, 2020

Yesterday I was listening to Mazie Hirono say that Donald Trump should just...

shut up and get out of the way so people who know what they are doing can deal with the crisis.

Simple, eh?

February 27, 2020

Don't have time to look right now, but has Pence's new position been...

fully raged about here?

The man who once expanded the HIV crisis in his state by personal objections to needle sharing solutions and insisting prayer was better than medicine is now the gateway through which all comments by people who know what they are talking about must beg to pass?

Even Goebbels understood that at some point the public's eyeballs meant more than the most exquisite propaganda.

February 22, 2020

Good bye, cable nooze...

Had it up to here with endless discussions about looming elections. Never anything breaking that I don't get with a quick look at the Times or WaPo.

And never anything in depth-- takes up too much time and money to do a half hour on a subject.

And what's with the Kars for Kids commercials on MSNBC on Sirius?

Back to local channels, PBS and NPR. At least you can get traffic and weather reports. And the latest gas station shootout.

February 13, 2020

I have been spearphished!

Which is worse than a simple phishing expedition.

I'm in my car and get a message that my account has been suspended.

What account? Was this a text? (Bluetooth can do odd things)

Then the phone rings and I'm given a choice of numbers to press. I press one and some guy with a vague accent starts asking questions...

"Are you *****"

Yes.

"Do you live at ********"

Yes.

And few more like that.

Finally, he says there is a problem with my Sprint account.

"I don't have a Sprint account."

Immediate hangup.

Spearphishing is an advanced form of phishing where they have tidbits of information about you, enough to make you think they are for real, and try to get the good stuff. If we went on longer, he would have eventually asked for my credit card info to "fix" the problem.

It's getting nasty out there.


January 14, 2020

I was in the ER last month when I was found passed out in the shower...

then went back to the ER the next night when I felt the same symptoms. They found my pulse and blood glucose way too high, but otherwise OK, and I was released in the mornings. Got an envelope from the hospital a couple of days later, but it was just a survey about how well they did. Just got the bill in the mail, though.

It was not itemized, just the total of $18,000 and change.

18 grand! You woulda thought I got a brake job on my Mercedes. But, it appears Medicare bargained that down to around 8 grand and paid about $7,000 of that.

So, from $18,000, I owe them a little over a thousand. Although grateful that I don't owe them the whole thing, the absurdity of it all astounds me.

July 22, 2019

This bullshit drives me up a wall. It was only a little less than three years ago...

that 65 million Americans voted for a woman.

Actually voted. Didn't just say they would on a poll.

And that was Hillary, with a ton of baggage they tried to crucify her with. And no one knew just how bad Trump would be.

Get Warren or Harris up there compared to Trump in a real election and you bet your damn ass Americans will vote for a woman.

(OK, Klobuchar, too, but she does look like a lost cause at this point. Maybe Veep?)

June 3, 2019

I've been wondering how Trump can impose tariffs all by his little ol' self, since...

the Constitution says right there, in black and white, that only Congress can do that.

Well, I found the answer. And just as I suspected Congress fucked up and gave the power away.

Most articles about this are from last year, when he first started this crap, and here's one of the better ones:

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/8/17097206/trump-tariffs-congress

Here's a conservative take on the whole mess:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/tariffs-congress-handed-president-power-to-levy/

Don't snort because it's National Review-- this article makes sense. If you really can't help gagging at NR, just think of the stopped clock,

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Long Island, NY
Member since: 2003 before July 6th
Number of posts: 43,049
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