Random randomness

Yeah, I just typed that moronic title

First off, a mundane question, once a bi polar person gets dementia, do they forget they are bi-polar?

And you might think, hey we are coming up on the first 100 days of Trump, any thoughts? And earlier this week, I thought I was going to put together a score card etc,,, so I started doing research and well they put me off. I do want to comment Trump is loco as ever with the 100 day promise in October, then saying the first hundred days aren’t that big of a deal, now he is signing executive orders and trying to get different major legislation introduced and others passed here in the last week of his first hundred days. Donald Trump doesn’t know what he wants to do.

Yet I am going to agree with the 100 days not being that big of a milestone NOW. Like I mentioned before I started doing research and one article l read made some comparisons to past Presidents when Obama was just about to complete his first 100 days. One of the comparisons was to Carter and well we all know Mr. Carter struggled a bit, yet early on there were many things Carter took on. And according to the article it may have been too much, plus when you look at the first hundred days a few years, ten years later you get a better feel for how well the first 100 days went or how much was truly accomplished. So, I will hold off on Trump’s 100 days till we get a wider lens of history on it.

And quite frankly the tax deal is a bit underwhelming, but I do like some of the direction it is taking, I just have many changes for it.

NFL draft starts tonight…… yawn and yes, I know the Cowboys have so many defensive holes that they are the definition of swiss cheese.  And that as a Cowboy fan I should glue myself to the whatever stream and have all sorts of fits on who they draft and who they don’t. I just can’t get myself into the draft, now and in the past.  Just bores the heck out of me.  I read about it later and decide if I like it or not, but to spend umpteen hours pouring over data and act like I know what I am saying, nope, not going to do that to you. Do I believe the draft is important, yes, but the world will continue to spiral out of control tomorrow no matter who the Cowboys draft? I like watching the Cowboys, I love it when they win, but I am not going to lose my sanity end of April.

It is maddening when you call someone up, make an appointment, they never send you the email they promised you, so since the appointment is coming up you call and find out they have you down for a different date than you thought. And of course, there is no way for you to argue with them since you didn’t write it down, nor record the conversation. And since they never sent you the ppwk, you wonder did they screw up and this is their way to cover. They apparently are booked up now for the date I thought and since I had that date in my head for over a month I feel that was the date that it was originally scheduled. If I didn’t need this, I might just cancel completely and start all over and get a new company involved. Right now, I am sorely tempted for many reasons, one of which I was going to go to the baseball game with my grandkids on the night I now have the appointment. My frustration is a bit high right now.

No matter whose mistake it is, yours or theirs or someone else, it always feels like the most important person the customer, or the client gets screwed. Yeah, I know, stop my whining, but right now I don’t care.

Keeping America great.. addendum

Absolutely beautiful day here in North Texas; the kind of day you cruise to the lake in a convertible with the top down. Yep good ole fashion teenage hang out cruising fun kind of day.

And just think how wonderful that would be if you were driving an electric convertible car, powered by either solar panels or a power company that derives it sources from renewables like wind or solar. You now enjoy this wonderful day and help keep the air clean so everyone could see the blue sky clearly, breath wonderful fresh air, and of course wear the sp 5000 so you do not get sun burnt from the wonderful sun beating down on you as you cruise. This is how it should be. Companies still make cars, power companies still make money, jobs abound, and you enjoy a healthy environment that allows you, your children, your grandchildren etc…. to also enjoy the same pleasure.  Keeping America great as we cruise through the 21^st century.

Why is this so hard to come to fruition? This is healthy, it is smart, doesn’t take away from capitalism, and derives happiness. What is not to love?

And this isn’t some fo fo hippie crap, this is plain common sense.

And on a different note: I am not a fan of the Houston Rockets, nor generally Patrick Beverly, yet I think there is more to his fan story and it did meet the eye.

As a pro sports player in any sport, you have to expect taunting. It will come from fans, other players and you need a thick skin. It is part of the game.

Yet when watching the video it looked like that fan said something outside of the realm of normal sports taunting. Mr. Beverly’s reaction seemed more of a human reaction of a more personal derogatory note. I am not thinking any kind of calling you out as a player comment. I mean directed to him personally that had nothing to do with him being a professional athlete. Sure Mr. Beverly should not have gone after the fan after the game, however, yet any professional athlete deserves not to be denigrated by fans for anything other than comments that follow under normal sports taunting.

If for example, the fan said ha ha you missed or your team sucks, then Mr. Beverly needs to get a thicker skin, if for example something was said about Mr. Beverly for ANY OTHER REASON that was derogatory then the fan is in the wrong. And unfortunately based on Mr. Beverly’s reaction it definitely seemed the latter.

Going back to keeping America great, respect of all humans for who they are is part of keeping America great, anything less is demeaning to the person and demeaning to our culture.  The current culture of hate within some of our country is taking us away from everything we strive to be as leaders of the free world. Hate for any reason is destructive and even self-destructive so it has no place in any society, and especially if we want to hold ourselves out as something special throughout the world.  No one may know what the fan said except the fan and Mr. Beverly because it may have been loud or since he looked down at Mr. Beverly on the floor and the words never travelled far, but if someone did hear and it was wrong, I hope they call out that person. It would be nice publicly for Mr. Beverly’s benefit, but at least to the person’s face. We need to stop this madness. And again if I am wrong and it was just normal sports taunting, well then Mr. Beverly you may have some hard times being a professional athlete if you don’t learn to get over it.  Based on the reaction on your face though I do not think that is the problem.

And not saying anything (yeah right) some players need to quit trying to trip people from the bench.  Just a random statement maybe (half attempt or not)

A random phrase and more worn out conspiracy theories

First of all, have you ever noticed that when a person is told something and especially if it what they want to hear it is just about impossible to get them to realize the first person is wrong. You may see this at your work or other endeavors in your life. For example, someone tells a person to visit your place of employment, and unfortunately, they were given incorrect information. So here you are the person that works or has the information they truly need, and there are other people or factors at your work and yet it takes two or three people to convince them the random person they spoke to earlier is incorrect. And there are variations of this or nuances that make this different, yet overall I am sure you have seen something that fits into this category. Hold onto this thought for a moment

I should probably do an internet search for this since I do not know if anyone has come up with this, (takes the fun out of it to discover you are late to the party) yet I like this thought. So, in my eyes I am playing with potentially a new label---hyper conservatism. I am not sure exactly how to define this yet and why I don’t want to look it up. In my new definition, it is not the alt right, it is not Regan Republicanism on steroids, it is more of following conservatism down the wrong path to not being able to distinguish fact from fiction. The alt right knows they are spewing craziness so it is not related to them. It is not Fox News, but where Fox News gets some of its’ audience. They are in some ways truly conservative such as belief in smaller government and less over reaching government, fiscal and social conservative policies, lowering taxes, more control by local government yes, a bit of Reaganism, but not the trickle down and other specifics to Reagan policies, yet for some reason they cannot rid themselves of being led by leadership in their ideals into believing certain policies are conservative that do not benefit them. You may recognize some of these traits. Okay so see the above paragraph,,, starting to tie this together, for now though we move on.

I am going to change directions for a moment into the conspiracy mode for a moment. First of all, though I am glad the Treasury Department turned down the request for a waiver from the sanctions by ExxonMobil to drill in Russia. When they applied conspiracy theory mode went into hyper drive in my brain. Still all this saber rattling by Trump with Syria and especially with North Korea had (has) me worried. Now why would anyone mess around with the idea of throwing Nukes at each other. Well if you believe in the Trump/Russia connection, you should have an underlying reason for them to get together. Well Russia has been in an economic slump since oil prices have dropped significantly so what if all this noise is only really about getting the price of oil to skyrocket. Yep plain ole simple greed. Hence the worry when ExxonMobil applied to drill in Russia, looks like much tying together of this reason. And of course, a nicely placed escalation in Syria (Middle East) is also not a bad way to escalate tensions and oil prices. Now they really do not expect anything to come of this except heightened tensions, consolidation of power in respective countries, and yes indeed higher oil prices. Keep the tensions ongoing and well the sky may not be the limit for oil prices, but it may be high enough to help billionaires become richer, armies stocked up, our lovely planet more polluted, and the motto becomes again drill baby drill. Russian, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Seven Sisters, Wall Street, Military Industrial Complex and a few traders and hedge fund managers to increase their wealth, while the rest of the world diminishes in resources, power, and overall lifestyle. Yep just the way a few greedy bastards have been trying to rule the world, well since Adam and Eve left the garden; only oil gave them the best tool ever possible.    As always, best way to save the world is to move to renewable energy, rips power right out of their hands and supplants it with a whole new world of greedy people. Oh well the cycle of life isn’t perfect, but at least there is new wealth, new opportunities for awhile and a much prettier, cleaner, and healthier planet in the long run.

Okay well end of the worn-out conspiracy theories, what about hyper-conservatism and the guy that get over himself because well he wants what he wants. Basically, a large core group of Americans, especially white Americans, but for the original paragraph all people, yet for this post more specifically older white Americans have been told for so long that the Republicans were going to make them all rich, the world would be great forever because of them, and then wham they became aware this wasn’t really coming true for everyone. The recession showed some vulnerabilities in these thoughts as people lost savings and houses; also, the working class got tired of the Democrats not listening to them and wham you have millions of people in one country now having their dreams diminished and so who is to blame. The easy and correct answer is Washington D.C. Both parties have become so self-serving it was obvious to everyone but Washington. Some people rebelled and many turned their anger to someone who would say I know your pain and I am here to fix it. So, having gone for so long believing one way of thinking as conservative, they needed that thinking corrected and wanted someone to tell them they were RIGHT. And along comes Trump with all sorts of drain the swamp talk and I know all the enemies destroying this country. They needed this since as per the first paragraph, they now realized the first person was wrong and someone was telling them what they now believe to be the correct answer. So, conservatives who were led astray for years to the point of being hyper-conservatives have gone so far with what the new person is telling them they are even more closed minded to alternatives than ever before. They have found their answer. Unfortunately, for our Country, Trump got to them first before a rational conservative alternative could have sprung up. In 2016 this country was ripe for change, we just went backwards and sideways in a horrible way.

There is more that caused this misdirection than what this post is about, but it is more of the psychology of what led to the ease of Trump becoming successful. And this is important to know because once the deal goes down with Trump when either he is found innocent or guilty, going back to the first paragraph, one half of the country is not going to belief the answer no matter how much real evidence is presented. In the immortal words of Trump, this is going to be “sad” for our country. And the rest of us (okay I know there are only 2 halves, but you know what I mean in a philosophical sense) will need to prepare to coalesce around the right answer and bring the losing side back from the edge of the cliff and yet keep the perspective of the winning side that we are all in this together and there are many things we still need to do to get away from what the one percenters etc have done to our country.

No easy task to say the least.

Finally, why the heck is Congress going to even look at paying from Trump’s wall. He promised me that Mexico would pay for it. This alone is enough to remove the President and Congress with a recall election. If anything, this one issue and statement is what he hung his hat on the whole election. Passing anything close to paying for it is outright political treason. (and before you go crazy I am against the wall, yet Trump said we weren’t paying for it) So If one penny is spent by US citizens for this mess, RECALL THEM ALL. 

Some random non-tax thoughts for tax day

Birds of a feather enable each other

So let’s say you are the CEO or other chief in a large company or organization and you hire someone. (cough cough Manafort) And let’s say that someone had a criminal history, and it was determined that you knew this information or maybe you were incompetent and didn’t do a thorough background check even though you hired this person to a position of extreme importance to your organization. Normally wouldn’t people question the judgement of the CEO or other chief?  Normally? Especially the people (Republicans) that rely on this person to lead the organization. Are the followers so desperate to have their own ilk lead that they cannot see how bad is their own judgment?  And what is really funny their leader is not one of them. He just plays the part so all the other billionaires will like him.

There is the hedge fund manager that says Bannon is a real smart guy, one of the brightest. Says Bannon is the one person who really understands the wealth divide. Yeah, maybe so, but who is benefiting from his knowledge of the wealth divide. Hmmm? Sometimes you can serve yourself more pie when you are the one doing the cutting.

People wonder why the Republicans and Democrats passed the bill that allows internet providers to mine and sell your information. And they wonder why this passed even though most of the Country was against this bill. Why would anyone do that? Oh wait, maybe the Democrats and Republicans plan on using this information for themselves. Conveniently a great way to learn more about the habits of the people that vote for them. Well so they know more how to get them to vote so they can stay in power. And what is funny is how many people are saying the same thing I am and nothing is being done about it.

My apologies to Mick, Keith and the boys and a few old friends, but our politicians seem to have re written an old song:

“ you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you can royally screw over the people you represent.”

Maybe we are past time for Republicans and Democrats to run our country? Maybe? Over time anyone can wear out their welcome

Happy Easter

Peace be upon you

Dallas World Sports or currently lack thereof

Well Sports in Big D is not up to the usual stuff.

The Mavs and the Stars are not in the playoffs. And the Rangers seem to have joined them in trying to raise their level to mediocrity here at the start of the baseball season.

As you may have surmised I am more of Mavs fan than of the other two teams, yet I give credit to the Stars for winning their last home game.  The fans definitely got their money’s worth with OT and a shoot-out. Maybe too much of their money’s worth, but everyone was happy at the end. Stars won. The Mavs laid a brick. I watched both last games in the American Airlines Center so I feel comfortable saying the Stars showed more class this last weekend.

Yes, I know we all had Tony Romo fun and it was interesting and a bit enjoyable to watch Mark Cuban pull something together for Tony. I have always been a fan of his. He has upset my Cowboy fandom a couple of times in his career, yet overall I think his lack of winning the big games wasn’t all his fault. He finally had an offensive line that meant business in his last few years and then spent the last two on the bench. A sad way to end his career. Especially since they were robbed in Green Bay with one play and they just didn’t have the defense to keep Rogers in check overall. Tony made some mistakes, yet all quarterbacks do, even the greats. Tony never really had the defense or offensive line to win championships on a regular basis and then when he finally had enough to win, along comes the Dak. It is the way of professional sports, sooner or later you will get old and someone else will come along and make the best of their opportunity. In the long run, I am glad he retired. I do not think his back and other assorted injuries would survive another season without real help and there would be no guarantee he would have the line he had here somewhere else. He would definitely be too exposed at this point in his career. So, good luck Mr. Romo in your future endeavors.

As for the Mavs, disappointment was the name of the game this season. They never got started, never meshed at first, yet it did get fun for part of the middle of the season. So, we will hope that this youth movement that came about does build a future we can all be proud of going forward.  So, with that said and I know nothing about the Stars except they fired their coach, I am going to be one of the first to post next year’s potential line up. MFFL madness.

Anyway, obviously, Dirk if he doesn’t retire will be on the team, however depending on what happens in the off season, maybe he might become a 6^th man candidate. Yes, he will probably start, well because its Dirk, but realistically and depending on what happens Dirk playing 15-20 minutes many games off the bench to score 15 or so points may be in the Mavs favor.  Now somewhat different from the last few years, we do have a few carryover players we can keep and look forward to seeing play. Harrison Barnes has stepped up and will be part of the future, yet there is still some decision making as to how he is played. Starting 3? Starting 4 some? It will be interesting. I hope we keep Wesley Matthews through his current contract at least. Seth Curry will be in his second year of a two-year deal and if just plays as well as he did this year, what a steal and we will need to find a way to figure out how to keep him and play him to our best advantage. Is he a max player yet? Next year will be huge for him. Nerlens Nole is the wildcard in the whole situation. How big of a contract does he get or can we wait out his restricted year and get a better idea of what he can do? I doubt that, so it will be interesting to see what happens. He can be a keeper and with work can have a bright future here.

And after this though things get debatable. Yogi probably should be kept, yet as the backup point guard, which makes JJ’s and D Harris situations interesting. How much has Brussino and DFS come along to keep? Dwight Powell and Mejri will need to be critically assessed.  Hammonds is playing tonight and last night, where does he stand since he is younger and bigger than Dwight. There are a couple of others on short contracts right now. Can they step up in preseason if we bring them back. There is still much room for improvement going forward so that is why I think it will be important to keep some of the veterans, and finally do we find a gem in the draft? If so, we should keep that person. So yes, I said here is the potential team next year with a whole bunch of ifs.  This is what happens when you must rebuild. We did start the process this year and hopefully we find improved players or the right trades, draft and maybe and I said maybe free agents to fill some of the holes so we can be competitive with Dirk for his probable last year in the NBA.

Anyway, much more fun to talk about than Trump right now. Got one question for him, but will save that for another time, because it is a doosey.

And let’s hope the Rangers get their act together and we are patiently waiting to see what happens with the Cowboys next year with our two superstar rookies entering their infamous sophomore year in the NFL. 

A past written moment says much about the present

“Cold and misty morning, I heard a warning borne in the air
About an age of power where no one had an hour to spare,
Where the seeds have withered, silent children shivered, in the cold
Now their faces captured in the lenses of the jackals for gold.
I'll be there
I'll be there
I will be there.

Suffering in silence, they've all been betrayed.
They hurt them and they beat them, in a terrible way.
Praying for survival at the end of the day.
There is no compassion for those who stay.
I'll be there
I'll be there
I will be there

There must be someone who can set them free:
To take their sorrow from this odyssey
To help the helpless and the refugee
To protect what's left of humanity.
Can't you see
Can't you see
Can't you see

I'll be there
I'll be there
I will be there;

To heal their sorrow
To beg and borrow
Fight tomorrow.”

This is from First Impression Karn Evil 9 ELP

For some strange reason this song blasted into my head this afternoon. And if you know the song saying it blasted into my head is perfect phrasing. And for what has happened in Syria over the last 6 years these lyrics are almost perfect phrasing. Yep a song from over forty years ago, speaks partially well of events of today

What is and has been missing is the: I’ll be there part. For six years people have suffered, created a refugee crisis so big it changed the political dynamics in our country, and yet no one on this planet wants to step up and solve the problem.  And even with Mr. Trump’s early morning missile attack, no one has really stepped up to come to the rescue of all the innocent people caught up in this terrible civil war.

And an interesting factoid, have you noticed civil wars are always some of the bloodiest and ugliest wars that occur? The only two that have topped them are the two World Wars, especially WWI where gas warfare began.

The whole western world wants to run from this crisis. Unfortunately, this leaves a very unusual mix of players including a small band of true civilians fighting the Al-Assad regime, but not really tied with some terrorist groups supported by Sunni factions in the Middle East fighting a whole host of nations and groups more interested in their own agenda that includes three other benefactors who have a hand in destroying this country: Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah. And this assorted trio have three very different reasons for their involvement. So yeah, easy to see why the Western World has tried to avoid this quagmire. Even Obama ran for cover when the Russians offered him a way out. Of course, that way was out and the Russians toasted well with their vodka that night.

And now along comes 59 tomahawk missiles and just as many questions. As you well know, I am not a fan of Mr. Trump, nor do I trust him. Yet I find myself trying to decide if I support this action. I really don’t, yet at some point someone does have to do something. (Oh yeah, here comes that I’ll be there thought again). Is he “being there”? Not really in my eyes, but again at some point someone does have to do something. I am with him when he feels for the babies that died on Tuesday. Now of course there have been hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths and hundreds of thousands fleeing the country, just no one trying to fight for them. Who has been there for them till now? In 48 hours, the man that convinced a whole country to elect him that said we have no business being there, all of a sudden: is there. Again, the questions overwhelm the mind.

Yes, I know I am not adding to a solution and quite frankly no one seems to have one. Too many interests that do not benefit anyone and especially the people of Syria.  And if you know the words to Impression 2 you know it does not speak well of humanity, and like the song the current situation in Syria does not speak well of humanity. Again:

                                                                “There must be someone who can set them free:
                                                                To take their sorrow from this odyssey
                                                                To help the helpless and the refugee
                                                                To protect what's left of humanity.”

Too many times in the history of mankind these words ring out all too much.

There are many demons out there, anywhere from the demons in the head that led Mr. Emerson to commit suicide to the millions of demons worldwide who lead people to destroy each other, there has only been one man who has said given us the simplest of answers, love one another as you love yourself.

Boy we must really hate ourselves.

Yet somehow we have gotten this far, lets hope we find the best of humanity so we can continue.

And what if Mr. Trump is right?

Well that would make some people happy. Probably not too many that read this blog, but there are people who still feel strongly for Mr. Trump.

Personally, I am no fan of drinking polluted water or breathing polluted air which leads off a whole list of concerns I would have if Mr. Trump is proven right. There will be no end to the major changes that will be made that will benefit the 1% or so.

Yes, I call myself a conservative, maybe a contrarian conservative in some eyes, but I have a hard time saying giving large tax breaks to billionaires and opening the flood gates of the rape of our natural resources for the benefit of a few is conservative policy.

I do believe in a free market and capitalism, yet being successful is not a pass on respecting the whole of the planet and respecting people in general. Remember the root word for conservative is conserve. That though is a discussion that has been done and will be done again. For now, though, what happens if Mr. Trump is right.

Well the democrats and elite liberal press are going to hear about it for one. The term fake news to describe the overall press establishment will be heard ad nauseam.  Mr. Trump being proven right on the current scandals will pretty much guarantee a Republican majority for many years to come. He will green light everything Wall Street and the Industrialists want to the detriment of the working and middle class. Democracy will be a historical footnote in what few history books are still being written.

If the Democrats/Obama actually overstepped and did tap Trump Tower or whatever, the irony is we will become one hell of a police state. The so-called libertarians in Congress will go nowhere even if they try to attempt holding back the amount of freedoms and rights that will be whittled down faster than you can say midterm election.

The far right will be even more emboldened. Many more will run for offices. Local government will become a nightmare for some.  You can expect more prisons, more deportations, more bans, and real contradictory trade policy. Mr. Trump will continue to champion to his followers he will bring back jobs, all the while letting the current industrialists and capitalists go around the government to take more and more jobs overseas. He will rail aloud screaming he needs people to support him to keep jobs, but very few jobs will stay. Most people will become even more underemployed service workers and the wealth gap will increase at an even faster pace than what we are seeing now. 

And if you believe in education, you can pretty much believe in a myth. There will be schools and some trade schools, however, education so the working and middle class to get ahead will continue to diminish year over year. Yes, some good schools will exist and the cream of the crop will rise, yet they will be indoctrinated into the upper crust world or eventually fall back down.

Not very hopeful, am I? And hopefully I may be wrong, yet the writing on the wall screams differently.

I could go on about the centralization of wealth and power. You will have to buy into the philosophy to survive. All those nightmare scenarios that run around in the back of your head will start to materialize. If Mr. Trump can find even just a shred of evidence to support his rantings, bringing his followers back to reality will be difficult. If proven anywhere close to right, you better change sides or leave.

No one wants to admit including myself that a President of the United States is so far removed from reality he cannot function as President or may have benefited or is benefitting from an adversarial power, yet him being right may bring about much worse than him being guilty.

Neither outcome is good. If guilty, the elite liberals really need to look at themselves. Their attitude is atrocious. They need to stop insulting the Trump supporters and start walking them back away from the ledge. How can you call someone ignorant when you haven’t done much to improve education over the last few decades? One thing to complain about name calling, but another to look down your nose at people when you are not behaving any better. The average Trump supporter is American and has rights, too. They also need jobs, education, retraining, and much more. This is part of how we actually keep America great; building for the future. If Trump wins, then we have a much harder way to forge. To keep our Republic great, we will need to rebuild from the ground up. We will need to work at every turn, in every election to get the right people elected before the elections become shams. An immediate rise of new parties will be needed because the credibility of the Democrats will shoot out of the cannon of Trump’s wave of tweets. Real credible people will be lambasted as frauds and every attempt to right the ship by Democrats will be stepped on. It will not be pretty to have a “D” by your name. And people who are called RINOs will also be thrown aside in the new wave of extremism. Politics will be ugly and dare I say even more vindictive than what we saw in the Republican primaries. The truth will become a fantasy of who can shout the loudest and degrade the opponents the most. Yep making America great again is not exactly the reality, yet will be the rallying call.

Sorry to rain on any parades you may be enjoying this evening, but sometimes you should be aware of when right ain’t right.