Category: News

  • Yes, Of Course Facebook is Lying

    How many out there really needed the whistleblower on 60 Minutes to confirm what you already knew was true? Facebook makes money off of hate, lies about it, and drags its feet when it comes to doing something about it.

    I’m not a religious person, but this has all the trappings of a devil’s bargain; You can do something good with your technology and become rich, or you can ruin the world and become stupidly rich? (Google had the same choice, and we know what their decision was. That’s why they quietly deleted their old company moto; Don’t Be Evil.) Mark and Sheryl and a whole lot of other people chose stupidly rich and evil. We know that’s true because the documents prove it.

    So, how do they sleep at night?

    Somehow, someway, they looked at this data and said, either or both, that it’s not that bad, or it’s not my fault.

    My guess is that they went with, it’s not my fault. I bet they said that people were evil and hate filled to begin with. That people are just using Facebook and social media in general as a platform to spread their self created hate. If they didn’t use Facebook, they would just use another platform.

    Hey, maybe I’m wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.

    But, this platform is out in the world now. It’s being used to do harmful things; from destroying self-esteem, to destabilizing governments, to justifying genocide. Something needs to be done, because the fact is that they cannot be trusted to do the right thing.

  • Getting Fired Over Nothing?

    So… Vaccine mandates are all over the news. And I get it. Not everybody thinks it’s a good idea to force people to get a vaccine, even though we force people to get vaccines all the time. But hey, whatever.  As the security guard at the corner CVS said to the unruly patron he was throwing out of the place, “You do you buddy, follow your heart.”

    I do find one group of people who are objecting to vaccine mandates rather odd, as their upper middle-class privilege is showing.

    See, there are some employers that are mandating that you have to get the shot by a certain date, or you will be terminated. Now some celebrities, athletes, and well, white collar workers are shocked and surprised that it’s come to this; termination for not following a company policy.

    And my first thought is, “Wow, you’ve never had a low paying job before.”

    I remember working at or around minimum wage, and you’d get fired for any reason. Two minutes late; fired. Shirt isn’t starched; fired. Forgot to shave; fired. Boss wants to hire his friend; you’re fired. Need to take a day off to stay with your sick kid; fired. First infraction; fired. No warning; fired. Poor people get fired all the time, and for no reason, or just cause.

    This is how the rest of this country works; in fear. That any day, for any reason, you could get laid off, or fired for nothing.

    And you are right middle-class white-collar workers, it’s not fair, but it is late-stage capitalism. So just go find another job…

  • Cyber Attacks are the New Privateers

    I am sure that you have seen in the news, if not been personally affected by the recent cyber-attacks on the Colonial Pipeline and the JBS Meat plants. Biden is in Europe getting our allies’ support in confronting Putin over this, as most of the hackers are based in Russia, if not Russian. Cyber-attacks, or ransomware, has been going on for a while. I think Gray’s Anatomy did an episode on it, and the company my brother used to work for got hacked, and ransomed. I don’t think its hyperbole when the Director of the FBI and CIA say that these hacks are a national threat to our security and economy.

    But when people, especially politicians, say that the world has never seen attacks on nations like this before; I disagree.

    What I think of is the Age of Privateers, or as it is also known, The Age of Pirates, which roughly was about 1600 to the 1856, when the Declaration of Paris outlawed the practice of privateering. In case you don’t know, a privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war (Thank you, Wikipedia). In practice, it was legalized piracy, provided that the pirates didn’t attack the government that legalized them. Privateering was meant to disrupt trade routes and economically hurt a nation. If you hurt your enemy in the wallet, and make the delivery of good difficult, then you have a leg up on them in war.

    That’s what I see nations, like Russia, doing today, allowing pirates to have safe havens in their borders to wreak havoc, as long as those pirates go after Russia’s enemies. The hackers are taking money from local governments and business, and also showing the weaknesses in America’s cyber infrastructure.

    What I am waiting to see is if; one, world nations sign a new Declaration of Paris that outlaws giving safe harbor to cyber criminals, or two, cyber criminals turn on their host nations, just like the privateers did. There is a reason why privateers become pirates – if you are willing to steal from one country, you can steal from all of them.

  • New Mask Rules

    So, we don’t have to wear masks, pretty much, anymore. That happened a lot faster and sooner that I thought. Not that I am complaining, but if that is what science is saying…

    I am aware that you still need to have a mask on for public transit, and I’m cool with that.

    The funny thing is that yesterday, the kid and I decided to take the subway to a playground because, well, we can do that again. We can go out and explore our city. We found a playground that wasn’t too far away, but wasn’t too close. We masked up on the ride down to the park, and I kept mine on as we entered the playground. I found a bench to sit at, and took my mask off as I can, now. The kid, on the other hand, kept her mask on as she ran around and made new friends.

    We were there for a long time, as it was a nice day, and the kid deserved some freedom. As the time to head home neared, I got up, and put my mask on the cross the playground, and then SNAP! The elastic that fits around my left ear snapped. I was mask-less, and I didn’t have a backup.

    What an ironic conundrum to be in. Only an hour or two earlier the CDC had said that masks weren’t required, but I needed a mask to ride the subway home. The easy answer was that I just had to retie the elastic so it would fit around my ear, but for a minute, I wondered when will we be able to ditch all the masks?

  • Hey NYC Mayoral Candidates, Buy a Home in Brooklyn

    I quote Desus and Mero on this, “Why would anyone want to be mayor of New York?”

    It is a job where 80% of the city hates you, at any given time, no matter what you do.

    Mind you, I have only lived through two mayors in my time here; Bloomberg and de Blasio. Neither one of those guys inspired me to vote for them. But this election cycle, I feel more civically involved and plan on voting this time around. The truth of the matter is that the Democratic Primary for Mayor is the real election, as the Republican candidate doesn’t stand a chance. Full disclosure, I am not registered as Democrat, I’m an Independent, so I will not be allowed to vote in the primary of either party. General election all the way for me.

    So, there are eight people running for the Democrat nomination; Andrew Yang, Kathryn Garcia, Shaun Donovan, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley, Ray McGuire, Eric Adams, and Dianne Morales. I haven’t done much research on any candidate, so I’m not sold on anyone. But, the nomination is out of my hands, so, I’ll have to see who is selected.

    But, there are a few things I do want whomever becomes mayor of this city to be aware of, and that’s how much it costs to live here, which is stupidly expensive. (Not San Francisco stupid which is like a whole other planet of unreasonable stupid.) Donovan and McGuire were asked what they thought the median home price in Brooklyn was, and their answer was in the range of $100,000 and less. So you know, the median price of a home in Brooklyn is $900,000. You can read the story here for more information on what the other candidates said, which was closer to being correct.

    Odds are that Donovan and McGuire, who are not leading in the polls, won’t get the nomination, but still, how did these two come up with that number, which was so far off? Clearly, they are out of touch, but do they think $100k buys a lot, or do they think that $100k homes are still available today, or was that what $100k could buy 40 years ago and they just defaulted back to that number?

    Either way, except for Yang, all the candidates got he question wrong. It doesn’t bode well for us if the person who wants to lead has no idea how difficult it is to live in this town. See, who wants this job?