Wilson and Brown

When I read this, the following questions and thoughts come to me.

Either Wilson is a liar and his testimony is made up to protect himself . . .

or

Brown is a very angry black man,
who just robbed a store,
and is in some misconstrued way, trying to escape an arrest,
and because he was stoned, and because he was supposed to be going to college,
he knew arrest would endanger all of that,
and he fully believed Wilson would take no action.

Why would Brown think Wilson wouldn't take action?
Being a very big man, he must have had many previous experiences where his size alone intimidated others to back down, as the store manager did where Brown had just stolen the cigars.

I can't answer these questions and I bet you the Grand Jury couldn't either.
So all these 12 people could do was to examine the evidence presented,
and see if any of it could "stick" to one of the 5 charges brought.
This is our system at work.

Binge Watching

Wikipedia says, "Binge-watching, also called binge-viewing, is the practice of watching television for longer time spans than usual, usually of a single television show.  In a survey conducted by Netflix in February 2014, 73% of people define binge-watching as “watching between 2-6 episodes of the same TV show in one sitting.”   Binge-watching as an observed cultural phenomenon has become popular with the rise of online media services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime with which the viewer can watch television shows and movies on-demand."

I am a binge watcher and I like it.  For instance, I am very much interested in the program Gotham.  From the few snippets I have seen of this, it appears to be worth my time, which I value greatly.  Hence, I will binge watch instead of cable watch with all the planning and scheduling it will take to watch it as it is broadcast.  My Mondays, right now at least, are devoted to football.  

Now of course that forces me to be very attentive and very careful not to read or see any plot revelations.  I don't find this too hard to do thankfully.  And even if and when I do get a peak at the plot, it usually isn't a total spoiler.

My first experience with binge watching came with that perfect program, Breaking Bad.

I knew the story line before I watched any of it, and even knew some of the things the characters were doing, had done, before I first watched.  Yet neither of these things kept me from enjoying the program.  The acting was still excellent and the dialog amazing, even though I was aware of "what was coming next."

I also binge watched Sherlock with it's great cast and story line.

And I can't mention binge watching without listing House of Card.

I put Trued Detective, 

and Justified into the mix as well.

And binge watching isn't just for current shows.  Several older multi-seasonal programs are worth a binge, like West Wing,

 Twin Peaks, 

and Lost.

Some of the current programming I plan to put on my binge watch list are Penny Dreadful,

The Blacklist, 

Louie,

and maybe even Cosmos, though I usually save my "educational" program from elsewhere.

We have all this wonderful entertainment value because of the internet and what it does.

HBO Go, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, the sports channels, and now even some of the "main stream" programmers are figuring this out.  

So what have you binged watched and why?  What's on your list?

Minorities and the thug life.

Minorities and the thug life.

In this article, http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/07/geraldo-rivera-tells-fox-news-minorities-fail-because-of-their-thug-ethic-video/ there are too many generalizations.  And it is sad that is what we do as individuals and as a society.

We see one person or one group dress, act, or do something and we just assume they all do.  Of course this isn’t new.  Our forefathers did the same thing with the Indians.  One group killed and scalped settlers so all Indians are the same.

We know this isn’t true, but we don’t seem to want to stop making generalizations.  And I attribute this to the federal government’s insistence on involving itself with every aspect of our lives.  They can’t address individual needs so everyone and their problems, and the government’s “solution” is generalized.  

Sally Raskoff says, "we generalize about people so that we know how to interact with them. If we see someone in a mail carrier’s clothing, we assume they work for the post office. If we see someone who looks over 80 years old, we assume they are not in the workforce anymore."

And so when you see a young black youth dressed with certain clothes in a certain style, or a religious person with certain clothing or jewelry, without conscious thought we make assumptions and lump that individual into a group and that person now has all the attributes and behavior of that group.  We are very good at stereotyping people within the first few seconds of seeing, hearing, or talking to them.  

We do this based on "how they look in terms of sexual orientation, gender, race, and ethnicity. We look at people and may assume they have a certain sexual orientation or that their gender is either man or woman.  We may assume they are white, African American, Native American, Asian American, or Latino." says Sally Raskoff. 

Of course we don't see the same thing in ourselves. We may go to the same church but not be like the deacon's family at all.  We may work in the same office building with hundreds of other be we are not exactly like any of them.  We boil the entire process down to a them vs us scenario.  "They" act, dress, speak a certain way so "they" are all like that.  "We" don't.   Without thought or consideration we continue this bias.

There is a good read on the historical problem of this and you can read it here.  http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2009/05/generalizations-in-history.html

If You Really Think It Matters Which Party Controls the Senate, Answer These Questions

I made these comments in a previous post concerning our new Congress.

Here are the top three things I want to see happen, and please dear gawd don't let these just be dreams.

1.  required Voter ID for registering to vote as well as for actually voting.

2.  an open vote, meaning no party affiliation required and anybody can be placed on the ballot and/or you can write in a name, and NONE OF THE ABOVE, is a choice

3.  repeal of Citizen's United, PACs, or any other kind of financial donation to any candidate from any entity other than an individual registered voter, and not to exceed $5

I have other wishes, such as securing the border, how "appointees" like Czars, and Cabinet staff workers are made, and work days and hours and other benefits of Congressmen.

And today, Tyler Durden asked . . . 

If You Really Think It Matters Which Party Controls the Senate, Answer These Questions

So here are his questions, and my answers.

1. Will U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast change from being an incoherent pastiche of endless war and Imperial meddling?   

NO it won't.  The biggest problem with our foreign policy (besides our foreign policy itself) and the MidEast, is who we send over there to begin with.  In the past it was Rice and Clinton.  The MidEast powers that be, though cordial and polite, don't negotiate with women, because they don't see women as equals.  In fact they think we are chattel, whether American or Middle Eastern.  And based upon Kerry's results, they think he is a women too.

2. Will basic civil liberties be returned to the citizenry?

Our civil liberties are a joke to most law enforcement.  The average cop on the beat is unaware of what they are or care what they are.  Our federal agencies break the laws and rights contained in the  Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and then tell us to prove they were wrong.  You would be lucky to have an attorney or judge uphold them as well.  

3. Will the predatory, parasitic policies of the Federal Reserve that virtually everyone from the Wall Street Journal to what little remains of the authentic Left understands has greatly increased income and wealth inequality be reined in? 

The puppet masters in the Federal Reserve own your representatives.  Don't hold your breath for any changes here to be made by your "elected" puppets. 

4. Will the steaming pile of profiteering, corruption, waste, fraud and ineptitude that is Sickcare in the U.S. be truly reformed so its costs drop by 50% to match what every other developed democracy spends per person on universal healthcare? 

The repeal of Obamacare will not happen.  Big Medicine and Big Pharma own your representatives too.  There will be much talk but no action.  Costs will continue to rise and pills will be dispensed left and right and disease will spread and the powers that be will use it to spread fear worldwide and control the sheeple.  

5. Will the influence of Big Money be well and truly banned from politics? 

This was his answer and I can't improve upon it.  

If you answer yes, please pick up your tin-foil hat at the door.

6. Will the incentives in the Status Quo be reset to punish rapacious financialization and gaming the system and reward productive investment and labor? 

The Big Banks have no morals. Greed is the operating force here and I don't see anyone in Washington changing anything.  They yanked back all the power we had to stop their insider trading by revoking the Stock Act.  Labor unions payoff whomever is required to be dealt with. They are all in it for the money, too. 

7. Will anything be done to dismantle the Neofeudal Debt-Serfdom known as student loans? 

The DC crowd has no incentive to help out students with debt when they depend on that debt to service their machine.  They want students learning what they teach and paying them for that privilege.  Degrees for higher education are not worth the paper they are printed on.  

8. Will any prudent assessment be made of unaffordable weapons systems like the F-35 Lightning--$1.5 trillion and counting for aircraft that will soon be matched by drones that cost a fraction of the F-35's $200 million a piece price tag?  

The industrial war machine has no incentive what-so-ever, and neither do the pigs at their trough, to change this profitable system.  It's war, war, and more war. 

There is so much that needs to be changed, and we haven't even touched on immigration.  Sigh!!!!

Tsu stats

It has been 16 days and 29 posts.

But the biggest change/improvement is that I am now creating my own content and posting that.  

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My thoughts on the midterm elections.

I am under no illusions concerning elections; either their forecasts or their results. The pundits did predict a "victory" for the Republicans and that was the result, only I don't think they expected it to be as big as it was.

Looking back, I think we suffered a little from Bush's second term, but that was not close to the pain delivered by Obama.  His lack of transparency (promised but not delivered), the ACA (a disaster from the beginning), and his Executive Orders (some of which now will be challenged as illegal) are just three examples.

The electorate spoke and they said, "Enough is enough" or rather not enough is too much.  In business we know you under promise and over deliver.  Obama got this backassward and the voters let him and his Democrats in Congress know about it through these midterm elections.

Now the pundits have said the turn out affected the results.  Meaning the young and black vote that put Obama into office didn't come out and vote in these midterms, hence the results.  I have a different opinion.

I believe the voting public has awoken to the real corruption in politics which is found on both sides of the aisle; just a little less so on the right.  And most importantly, they are sick and tired of nothing getting done.

Here are the top three things I want to see happen, and please dear gawd don't let these just be dreams.

1.  required Voter ID for registering to vote as well as for actually voting.
2.  an open vote, meaning no party affiliation required and anybody can be placed on the ballot and/or you can write in a name, and NONE OF THE ABOVE, is a choice
3.  repeal of Citizen's United, PACs, or any other kind of financial donation to any candidate from any entity other than an individual registered voter, and not to exceed $5

I have other wishes, such as securing the border, how "appointees" like Czars, and Cabinet staff workers are made, and work days and hours and other benefits of Congressmen.

I see our government as being more corrupt than honest, and I know I am not the only one.  In fact I believe other countries see us that way entirely.  These things must change, and it can only change when the citizenry stands up and votes like they did yesterday.

The "Pullet" joke.

Today's joke.

Fred was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young pullets and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs. He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced. 

This took a lot of time, so Fred bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out his efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

Fred's favorite rooster, Old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this one morning he noticed that Old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. 

To Fred's amazement, Old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. Fred was so proud of Old Butch, that he entered him in the County Fair, and Old Butch became an overnight sensation among the judges. 

The judges not only awarded Old Butch the "No Bell Piece Prize," but they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well. Clearly Old Butch was a politician in the making. 

Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Time and money - before the year ends.

The new year will be here before you know it.

Like many of you I really do not enjoy these count down sites.  Whether it is for shopping or anything else, it almost always is bad news or last minute news.

Yet, there are many financial things that will benefit you, and you should consider before the year ends what those are. 

For instance, have you prepared a Christmas gift buying budget?  If not, now is the time to consider how you can reduce your expenditures in this area.  One idea if you have a large family or group to buy for, is to get everyone to draw names so you are only buying one gift.  One very large family I know all go to the Dollar Store together and limit their buys to one "gag" gift. Another is to limit the expense to under $10 or $5.  I know some families and friends limit it to personally made gifts, like artwork, or food, or babysitting service. 

But that covers gifts to others.  What about gifts to yourself and your savings?  

 If you haven't funded your 401K or IRA, now is the time to do it. The elective deferral (contribution) limit for employees who participate in 401k, 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan is increased from $17,500 to $18,000.  On October 23, 2014, the IRS announced cost of living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2015. 

Many of the pension plan limitations will change for 2015 because the increase in the cost-of-living index met the statutory thresholds that trigger their adjustment. However, other limitations will remain unchanged because the increase in the index did not meet the statutory thresholds that trigger their adjustment.

For 2014 and 2015, the maximum you can contribute to all of your traditional and Roth IRAs is the smaller of  $5,500 ($6,500 if you’re age 50 or older),  or your taxable compensation for the year.

And if you have relatives or friends asking you what you want for gifts, ask them to contribute to your retirement in whatever amount they can.  Otherwise if you get cash, just deposit before you spend it. 

It’s said that nothing feels as good as skinny looks.  Well, for me, nothing feels as good as a big fat savings account.  It feels better than getting any gift, toy, or service.  It feels better than giving someone that gift, toy, or service.  Being debt free and having a good amount of savings if the best gift you can give or receive. 

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