You Never Know Who These People Will Turn Out to Be

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Long ago and far away, I used to be able to amuse my friends by giving them tours of various glamourous and rewarding entities, facilities, and/or studios in the motion picture or related industries.  Sometimes I cant be there and so the tour happens without me.  Once I sent a relatively young colleague to REDACTED for a tour by my friend REDACTED.  He told me later that he thought it was a waste of his time for which I apologized.  Little did he know who she was or who she would be.  So recently I sent him an update.

Dear REDACTED

It's completely possible that I've told you this already and if I have I apologize for the repetition. But I find it so entertaining that I want to elaborate on it just a little bit. Remember that young woman you gave a tour to at REDACTED, and which you basically thought was kind of a waste of your time for which I apologize. In retrospect yes I see your point of view. But I can also tell you that with the exception of one or two people at the Rand corporation who move in circles of power of our great dysfunctional nightmare of a country, that person that you gave a tour to is possibly one of the more powerful people that I know in the area of international and global economics. Although of course that wasn't true then. Later, however,  REDACTED was able to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, that elite confab of the most evil globalists which has certainly worked very hard to destroy the American economy and the ability of American workers to get a fair wage. I adore REDACTED for who she is and I'm very proud of her. She's also been very involved in various not for profits working to help control disease in REDACTED. The one time I went to a United Nations black tie event she sighted me which is what you want, of course.  To be seen.  Of course it is the case that she's there regularly and it was just accident that I was there even once.  This was so long ago that my tuxedo still fit.  Anyway I just want you to know that I have your interests at heart and that I wouldn't send just anybody or intentionally waste your time. I have asked REDACTED to possibly introduce me or even induct me into some sort of secret society so that I can also help conspire to destroy Western democracy but she just laughed at me and said well if I told you then it wouldn't be secret anymore. Yeah yeah I know we've all heard that before. Well my life is fucking miserable I hope you're doing well.
 

Sincerely,

 

                                                                                 Klaus Schwab at Davos

Happy New Year or We May as Well be Optimistic

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Looking back at 2022 is complicated for me.  There is reason for hope, or at least the slope of the curve seems to be positive.  I dont believe that positive thinking necessarily results in a more positive outcome but at least it can make things more pleasant.

 

The problem is, or one of the problems is, that I have worked very hard to look at the world as realistically as I can and that was a bad idea.  Long ago, when the world was a different place, I was ... well ... deluded about how the world works. And because of luck and timing and a few other things, I got a lot done.  Fools may go where wise people fear to tread.  And yet it was painful and I was broke so I decided to spend some time figuring out what this "reality thing" was all about and that may have been a mistake because reality can be really unpleasant and not very charming or fun.  And I had forgotten to get a "trust fund" and that was another mistake.

 

So a middle ground is sought.  On the one hand, yes, its true we are really f*cked, and in so many ways.  And I contributed to my situation today.  The question becomes what can we do with the resources at hand, and that is problematic. So much easier to worry about institutional racism or war in europe or the bizarre beliefs of some of our fellow citizens.  These are things of great importance and also things I couldn't possibly do anything about. 

 

The world is just going to have to take care of itself while I try to make some progress on this "life" thing.

 

Minimum Govt Protection of Civil Rights

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If there is one thing that the events of the last few years has proven, it is that our government is hopelessly either incompetent or corrupt when it comes to protecting our citizens from being oppressed by the government, or republican nuts, or tech bro stupidity.  What can we do to protect ourselves against the kind of overreach we have seen time and time again?  Not much actually, the government of the US was deliberately set up to be immune to the beliefs of the citizens.  But still it does not hurt to ask, well except that if you ask you will be put on various lists and have your life destroyed.  

 

But why not?  Unless you are wealthy, your life has been destroyed anyway.

 

Here is a short list of things we could demand and of course not receive.

1. In every movie, we always see that the US govt has complete access to all our private records, transactions, credit cards, driver licenses, etc.  We can see that they do not have such access and any violation of this law requires that the law enforcement officials be indicted and tried for a crime that requires jail time.

 

2. Time and time again, some internal security force, whether DHS or FBI or other, deliberately underestimates the threat of white, racist organizations but inflates the threat of innocent non-organizations such as Antifa.  When this becomes public knowledge, as it has in the case of the Portland demonstrations of a few years ago, the agents and management involved must be indicted and tried, and if found guilty, have minimum jail time.

 

3. The US can prohibit facial recognition systems used in this country and against American citizens.  Those organizations that violate that rule and their management and agents must be indicted, and if found guilty, be sentenced to some minimum jail time.

 

4. The Republicans have perverted the law by filing baseless lawsuits over and over again.  Fix this.

 

5. Any law enforcement official of the federal, state or local government who violates these laws must be prohibited from serving in any similar capacity in the government or in private industry.

 

6. Any tech company that violates the rights of its users or its employees should be nationalized without compensation and those who committed the crimes, if found guilty, serve jail time.  

 

7. The DOJ must be required to indict members of government who are obviously criminals such as Trump and his minions.  Failure to do so should result in dismissal and jail time.

 

This is minimum.  More will be added later.  Not all that interested in why you think morons like Trump should be exempt.

 

Yay! Global Wahrman is a "Hate Site" !

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The swine-like arbiters of all that is good and right, Boingo, an ISP for chrissake, has determined that this blog is a "hate site" and that their customers must be protected from me.  A greater compliment I can not imagine.  

 

I tried telling them that I am in reality a "contempt site" but it went over their heads.

 

Yes, global wahrman must be a "hate site" as I hate injustice and hypocrisy and, horrors, I am willing to write about it.

 

Happy Hanukkah

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Jill Fraser sent me these pictures of important new types of Hanukkah candle holders.  I think they speak for themselves.

Second Boingo Letter

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For some reason unknown, Blogger wont let me post the second letter to Boingo without turning my blog blue.  I am blue but I dont want my blog to be blue.

 

So what I have done is to make three jpegs from the letter and see if I can post that.  I thought it was a nice letter and I am being a nice guy.  You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and besides, what else am I going to do?  Sue them?  Write my congressman?  

I am starting to like the idea that I am considered a hate site.  Maybe my blog is actually better than I thought. But I think this is just the result of a dumb program at Boingo filtering at random and it found some words it disapproved of.  Thats my guess.

 

 

News of the Attempted Coup in Germany

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The attempt to restore the monarchy in Deutschland lead me to wonder if (1) Reichsburger could become a new fast food, (2) whether the US should attempt to rejoin the British Commonwealth and (3) failing that perhaps we could ask a Hapsburg or two to come over and run us since clearly we can not govern ourselves.

 

Kathleen Quaife Memorial Service December 5, 2022

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There was a memorial service for Kathleen Quaife (-Hodge) on December 5, 2022 at noon.  Stereotypically, I got a late start and other hilarity ensued combined with everyone leaving immediately afterwards.  But the upside is that an insider tipped me off to the correct location and I arrived to have several hours to myself in the fabulous exhibit dedicated to Kathleen's work as an artist.  This exhibit was created by her co-workers at the California State University Channel Islands where she had taught for several years.

 

Kathleen was one of my favorite people from my time in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s and I was happy to reconnect with her for a day two years ago at the opening of a ceramics studio here in Santa Barbara.  

 

Kathleen was like having a glowing ball of positive energy around. Again, why are the best people taken from us while the annoying and amoral swine continue to live among us?  Where is the justice in that?

The physical plant of CSUCI is astonishing and was the location of a notable hospital far, far away from anything else five miles outside Camarillo.  The buildings are classic and the place is huge.

The "Left" Used to Love Elon Musk

A Republican friend pointed out to me that "the left" used to idolize Elon Musk.  First this is more or less totally true.  Second I thought it was obviously stupid and I think it is stupid now.  Third, what he calls "the left" is objectively more like the moderate center.  There is very little "left" in this country.  There is some but they are tiny and have almost zero credibility.

Maybe I Understand What is Going on With Boingo and their "hate site" Designation

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In the process of sending my little letter to Boingo to try and unblock this blog, I may have (almost accidentally) come across what they are thinking here.  In the process of contacting customer service, the phone system asked if I was calling about service at a government facility.  Perhaps it is their policy not to provide access to websites that discuss politics, particularly websites that are very negative about the political situation, which I certainly am.  I would not say that is a hate site, however.  So we will see.  Maybe they can just call me a "political site" and perhaps convince me that they do this to everyone who is political, and then it might be understandable and maybe even reasonable.  However, if they do this to me and not to, for example, the Wall Street Journal, that would not be reasonable.

Or maybe what is going on is that they can't handle the truth and dont want to be accused of allowing free speech to happen if it does not reinforce the illusion that we live in a functional democracy with a justice system and equal opportunity for everyone.  Maybe their clients require them to censor reality.  Its perfectly possible and completely understandable.  Maybe the "hate" is all on their side, they hate certain blogs because they say things that they dont want to hear.