Tag: Fail

Terminate Everyworstthing

Worst-alternate title: Conservative conservatorium of spite and hate and chip on shoulders and THE FREEDOM TO BE STUPID

No. Seriously. Dear worst-reader! I try. I really try. Heck. I even read one of Matt Taibbi‘s books. But then. Somehow. Something. Somewhere… Yeah. I had to stop admiring this guy. This talented word-smith dropped off my radar years ago. Why? Matt Taibbi has gone to the dark-side. Such a worst-statement, of course, begs a worst-question:

Is the dark-side a right or a left dark-side?

Put another worst-way: is the dark-side some masterbatory idyllic city on a hill also known as libertarianism-ville or free market plumb money village or just plain old welcome to John Galt Ville where everything, including the air, is for sale, etc? #Nomatter.

Just to recap my worst-confusion with Matt Taibbi, here’s a few worst-thoughts. Why would this guy give up such a great gig like writing for Rolling Stone Magazine? I mean. I get it if he feels he needs to move on. But. Is it such a bad thing to play by some rules? Rules… I‘m worst-guessing, is the reason he left Rolling Stone. Rebellious #OKBoomer children, don’t you know. Then there‘s his short stint at The Intercept. Ok. It‘s not so mysterious why he would abruptly leave the world‘s most expensive blog run by the most expensive over-paid bloggers. Since then he’s been freelancing, I guess. Oh wait. He‘s now basting in comfort behind a blog paywall known as Substack. Which is great. And so. Other than reading about him or hearing his name in a podcast here or there, I‘ve lost all interest in what Matt Taibbi has to say. But then. Suddenly. Stop the presses.

Matt Taibbi hit my radar the other day. Yeah. For. You see. Dear worst-reader. Matt Taibbi was given a bunch of emails that are supposed to contain a political news worthy smoking gun. And what does Matt Taibbi do? He preps everybody via two dozen or so tweets that most certainly do not rock anyone’s world. Except. Of course. Former prez pee-pee-hair. And when you can provoke former prez mango-Mussolini…? Indeed. And so.

Based on Matt Taibbi‘s smoldering-gun tweets, #Trump thinks he has enough proof about election fraud that it‘s time to get rid of the united mistakes of #Americant constitution. And so so. Indeed-deed. My curiosity was peeking so I followed up on a few of Matt Taibbi‘s tweets. One of those tweets lead to a pseudo-debate hosted by some libertarian (I‘m worst-guessing) debate society in Canadiastan known as Munk Debates. Matt Taibbi, along with some pro British brexit dippy, were debating two NYT writers about whether the the mainstream media can be trusted. That’s it. A debate by the THE MEDIA about whether or not the media can be trusted. That such a debate exists is proof enough of it being surely organized by Ayan Randian $hitbags. That worst-said, I watched the whole thing (see link below) because I love Malcolm Gladwell. Long worst-story short, Matt Taibbi and his dippy but British brexit-witty comrade won the debate–that The Media is corrupt and can‘t be trusted. For. In case you‘re not in the now. These Munk Debates are about not just who wins the debate but who the audience thinks wins the debate. The trick here is to get the audience to vote on the issue before the debate and then to vote again after the debate is over. But none of that matters because the only thing I got out of the debate was how heavy that chip is on Matt Taibbi‘s shoulder. In fact, it may have gotten bigger since I gave up on him years ago. Worst-wow.

Keep in mind, dear worst-reader, it was just after this debate that Matt Taibbi received the Twitter emails which may or mayn‘t hurt his brand. Why? Matt Taibbi was gifted email correspondence that took place between Twitter execs during the 2020 presidential campaign. I‘m assuming, considering the depths that political campaigns will sink, that someone–from Twitter that is now owned by you-know-who–thought there was something interesting in these emails and only the likes of Matt Taibbi can be trusted to publish that info. The problem is, the only thing interesting that I can find is how these emails show Twitter execs actually putting some worthwhile effort into moderating content. I mean. Ain‘t that a good thing when the content their moderating are dick-pics? It turns out that the material that was supposed to appeal to right-wing-nuts was just more of the same-same from the debunked Joe Biden‘s son‘s laptop story from 2020. And so. Matt Taibbi, I guess, also thinks that these emails prove how a private company can censor speech and thereby infringe on first amendment rights–which, for him, is ultimately what his begrudged The Media do all the time. Need I remind you, dear worst-reader, that a private company does not in anyway have to abide by the first amendment. Only the government has to do that. And so. Some right-wingers, including those ever fake smiling libertarians, especially those on the darker-darkest-side, think, because Twitter censored Joe Biden‘s son‘s dick-pics, the 2020 election is invalid. Former prez Cheeto jeezus now thinks that the constitution should be „terminated“. Go figure.

Wow. You can‘t write this stuff, dear worst-reader. But Matt Taibbi can.

Rant on.

-T

Links that helped with this post:

Settling Family Business, KGB Godfather Style

Wow, dear worst-reader. Can things get any worst–for Russian oligarchs? I bet it can. You know why I’m making that bet? There are quite a few Russian oligarchs out there and it looks like Putin has only gotten to a half dozen of them. You know. Putin is settling family business. Like in the Godfather movie. The invasion of Ukraine is his alibi, don’t you know. Michael Corleone’s alibi was a godchild’s baptism, wasn’t it? Is there a difference between a godchild baptism and invading a country? OK. Let’s cut to the worst-chase. Putin is a wannabe pseudo-godfather nation-state two-bit peasant dictator and the world should hate him. Oh. And. Things are probably gonna get a lot more worst for Putin.

But what about all the dead oligarchs popping up all over the place?

Worst-writer is sure there isn’t a lot of mourning going on for a few dead Russian oligarchs. But I do feel for their families, especially when their children are being slaughtered along side them. Considering how these men got rich in the first place, dear worst-reader… wow. What a $hitshow of greed the sell-off of the Soviet Union must have been. Can you see it? Naked, knuckle dragging white men clamouring up walls of human flesh, grinding and piercing through bloodied skin and eyes and babies, making their way to the top. Obviously, over the past twenty or so years, Putin won the $hitshow of greed. Or did he? Could that be why he’s in such a panic right now? Add to that the left-behind and forgotten peasantry of Russia not being capable of ever knowing the difference between freedom and dictatorship… Yeah. What a f’n mess.

Since the start of the Ukraine war here’s what Putin has accomplished, according to worst-writer:

  • His February 22 speech was so bat$hit crazy, more on that here, history is gonna laugh at him forever
  • After more than two months of fighting he’s gotten himself into a quagmire which might be worse than The Soviet Union’s Afghanistan fiasco in the 1980s
  • He underestimated The West’s resolve to fight against him without committing to a land war
  • If reports are correct about Russian military performance, a well equipped Ukraine might be the least of Putin’s problems

The only worst-question remaining is how much death and damage and misery will this small-Schwanz-man leave behind?

Godspeed Ukraine!

Rant on.

-T

Links:

Crypto Scare Beware Or Maybe Not

Well, there you have it, dear worst-reader. Worst-writer has read through some newz again. And. Don’t you know. I’ve read through something that’s NOT about some two-bit dictator Vlad forcing The West’s hand regarding its comeuppance after having allowed (enabled) Russia to dwindle like a bureaucrats wiener on his dying (last) day of coercive bureaucracy galore. With that in worst-mind.

Did you get a load of recent reports regarding yet another dictator-land and it’s ability to heist crypto? Actually, this sort of newz ain’t even on my worst-radar. I’ve long since given up on crypto, don’t you know. Indeed. Yeah. That day was around 2007-2008 when I tried to setup a mining server but couldn’t get past the tech. I mean. I figured out all on my lonesome back then what the three components of Bitcoin are, and I guess that’s a good thing. Or? Anywho. You need these three things when doing crypto: the wallet thingy, the mining thingy and the blockchain thingy. (Correct me if I’m wrong.) But I couldn’t figure out how to make all of them work. Oh! Those were the days. The days before I gave-in to the reality that, even though I kinda dig all-things tech, I’m no early adopter. And so. Let’s just see how this pans out, I thought.

So many years later I keep wondering if, maybe, I might have actually clicked the right virtual buttons back then and got that mining thing working. Unfortunately that old PC that I had thrown together, including the hard-drive, went to where most of my old tech-krapp goes: the bin. Still. The fantasy does lurk in the confines of my worst-dreams even today. Do I have a bitcoin or two wasting away on an old hard-drive that’s long since filled a land-fill? No. That can’t be.

And so. In today’s worst-newz blog post, we have three articles where The Media is trying to scare people away from crypto. Or can you figure out another reason for what’s being said here (links below)? I mean. Here are three articles from three different sites, all three stemming from the same source, I’m worst-guessing, saying that four hundred million dollars worth of crypto was stolen by hackers in North Korea. I started with the BBC article and got to thinking who the heck cares about something like this? I mean. Talk about fiat–as in: fiat money. Or. Better worst-put: let’s everyone make up our own money on account money-money (standard currencies) are too centralised and thereby controlled and manipulated and devalued–all in the name of protecting the Have-Mores from the Haves–while the Have-Nots have been to dumb-downed all along with a preoccupation for wet t-shirts, dream vacations and wives not putting out on account husbands can’t bring home Have-bacon anymore. But on that worst-thought I die-gress.

My worst-point about useless articles in the newz is this: The issue of North Korea stealing arbitrarily valued crypto means nothing in a world of real-real currency–even if said country may (or may not) finance its war-machine with such activity. If one looks for an essence or subtext of these articles, one might realise that meaninglessness can gain meaning if the true purpose is consciously or subconsciously transcribed. In other worst-words, the essence of this issue is about scaring people away from crypto. Don’t mess with stuff you don’t understand and stay especially clear if a country like North Korea can rip you off. Or is this really about a two-bit dictatorship (North Korea), which has no REAL financial issues on account it’s propped up by big a brother dictatorship (China), using stolen arbitrary digital currency arbitrarily valued at four hundred million arbitrary dollars to finance its arbitrary nuclear war-machine? Seriously? Ok.

And so so. Be afraid, dear worst-reader. Be afraid of all-things new and shinny and digital and don’t squander your savings on making it big over-digital-night on crypto.

Rant on.

-T

Links that motivated this post:

Examples Of End Is Nigh, Or Maybe Not?

A United Airlines plane with a Pratt & Whitney engine that failed on Saturday had flown fewer than half the flights allowed by U.S. regulators between fan blade inspections, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

As mentioned in my previous post, dear worst-reader, there is something to worst-say about the dilemma the world is in that is (obviously) lead by my beloved & missed united mistakes of #Americant. That dilemma is nothing less than the status quo that is post WW2 political conservatism run amok that thinks, well, why not not just keep the $hitshow going on and on and on, on account so many inept fools (Das Volk) won’t notice as we (the moneyed interests) have them by the wag-tails. Unless, of course, they start to actually see/recognise the obvious signs. And indeed. So it is. On the other worst-hand, if there were ever signs that the end is NOT nigh but instead we’re actually living in that end, as in, you know, COVID, perpetual wars-of-choice, airliners dropping out of the sky, #Trump, etc.,  would any of the inept fools do anything about it? Of course not. Reason? If they can’t maintain an Airliner how are they gonna maintain a country? I wonder if there are #Trumpers in airline companies protesting the reality of physics that require airliners to stay in the sky? Trying to imagine what intellectually goes on in the confines of corporate boards regarding the reality of seeds sown… Oh well…

I’m gonna buy something new today, too.

Rant on.

-T

Source: United 777 plane flew fewer than half the flights allowed between checks: sources | Reuters

Things Corona

Not sure, dear worst-reader. But it’s everywhere. Here just a few examples. By-the-buy. The house is a rich-man’s house not far from where I live and where I have to pass every day with Beckett, the killer pug. To indicate what they’re doing about the current crisis, they hung up a page from a local newspaper to indicate they’re staying-in. The van is from a local heating, plumbing and solar company. Great name, eh. The guts–or that’s what I like to call it–is a misnomer to me. I wish I could see the animal that coughs this up. Perhaps it represents–to my worst-mind–what lungs look like when Covid-19 turn them to mush. Otherwise. As best I can tell. It’s the throw-up-rest of what was once a frog, probably from the bowels of a prehistoric rodent that lives along the Rhine River. Or maybe not.

Good luck suckers.

Rant on.

-T

New Fav Pic Of All Time, Then Some

clinton blue dress painting.jpg
Screenshot from the interwebnets.

Don’t fret, dear worst-reader. I know I shouldn’t be laughing this much. LOL. LOL. HA. HA. Giggle. But what the heck, eh. And you can be sure I’m not having a heart attack and all that laughter is really choking. Or? I mean,  come on. Some major dusch-bag recently killed himself and thereby has all the automatons of the interwebnet opinion world up in mind-fcuk-arms about who done it. Luckily for you, I know who done it. More on that here. Since that post, by-the-buy, I’ve given the situation another worst-thought or three–which may or may not be part of conspiracy bat$hittery. For example. I suppose I could make this worst-post a bit of an addendum to my previous one. You know, as opposed to making this part two or, perhaps, a re-worst-write. But then I thought: what the heck for? Let’s go with addendum. 

There is so much LAND OF FREE TO BE STUPID in what’s happening with the whole Epstein thing that I’m finding the humour it pulls out of my soul to be therapeutic. Not only is there giddy w/ laugh to be swum in, like a pool of pink jello, but there’s also vindication pure. You know. That whole chestnut where I’ve been bitchin’ & moanin’ for years about why I expatriated? Nomatter. Just heed this: I expatriated because, well, I was reared in all the STUPID that is the NOW. That was thirty or so years ago. Hence the therapy laughter in my gut of guts. And. As all the STUPID has become manifest–whereas when I was young it was more discreet, under the covers, lights out, door shut, all in the ill-will of state and church sanctioned STUPID matrimony–I just sit back from my thirty-thousand foot expat lazy-boy, where I’m free from the likes of faux-newz and #Americant republicanism, and bat$hit giggle, jiggle and ho-ho with my finger pointing… not unlike the finger pointing in the pic above.

When I first saw this pic, which hung in one of Epstein’s über-manhattan mansions, I couldn’t stop laughing. Then I started to read what the automatons of fail-upwards-ness started writing about it, most of which seemed to be conservative sources. Whaaaaa? No liberals writing about this painting? Wonder why. And don’t you know, dear worst-reader, not one of those automatons concluded anything near what I was concluding. In other worst-words, what does such a picture mean, especially while in the hands of a representative of #Americant perversion galore? Well, it means basically this: Bill Clinton is explaining to Newt Gingrich and Ken Starr what the word ‘is’… is. Or? Ok. Maybe it means this: Clinton is telling Newt Gingrich that his moral majority bullshit is nothing compared to allowing Neo-liberalism to run amok albeit with a bit less militarism and, of course, even less religious bigotry. Or? Ok. Maybe it means: Anybody wanna cum on my blue dress? How ’bout you?

Here’s what nobody’s talking about regarding Jeffry Epstein. The man was not just a sex-upped pervert. He was someone who believed with all his being that humans, especially the male types, should be allowed to do anything they want, including, while they’re doing it, to make the rules as they see fit–if they can afford it. Bill Clinton might have been the embodiment of this mantra, at least from a political POV. Then again, as we are now seeing more and more, there are millions of people who think this way–especially males but also a few females, hence the likes of Ghislaine Maxwell. Hail the Bimbos that support #Trump. Anywho. These people are anti-human, don’t you know. And so. Just be safe in knowing, dear worst-reader, that at least I, worst-writer, have informed you thusly. Now. Let’s giggle and wiggle and gag on laughter at the true face of #Americant as it’s reared for all, who are willing, to see… in a blue dress.

And by-the-buy, while I’m on the addendum-thing to a previous post, how ’bout this to add to the chalkboard of conspiracy about Jeffrey? If Epstein was so rich, so connected (some are now claiming that he was an enormous US intelligence asset), so powerful, how is it that it took so long to bring him down if he was such a bad guy? In other words, could it be that there is something else Epstein did that is more monstrous than, gee, abusing children? The powers-that-be couldn’t bring him down for what they consider to be his real crimes–which have nothing to do with child abuse. And that’s why it took so long. Those crimes had to get worse and worse and worse–before anything could be done about them. That’s how maniacal greed manifests, don’t you know. It becomes a monster. A Godzilla, if you will. But how do you bring it down?

As I said in my previous post, Epstein is nothing but a lair. He’s a con-artist. A grifter. Of course, like President Pee-Pee Hair, these guys are grifters of another class. Just go and spend time in NYC. You meet/see lots of them. But that’s neither here nor there. The thing to keep in mind in these days of social and cultural demise, is the big picture. Indeed. The one above of Clinton and the blue dress is as good as any big picture. Plus it’s quite entertaining. But my worst-point is this: Epstein’s true crimes are in and of the thing that holds all meaning for my beloved & missed #Americant, i.e. money. I’m starting to worst-guess (as opposed to worst-conspire) that, even though all the child abuse by Epstein is pretty awful stuff and deserving of a man’s death, there is a far worse crime that he committed that will never be revealed. And that has to do with money. Indeed. What we’re being subject to now is all a cover-up–not a conspiracy. It’s all a distraction. Goodness forbid in a country like #Americant that is now holding political rallies that mirror Nuremberg Rally, there really is little room for any truth.

Good luck suckers.

Rant on.

-T

Link of interest:

The Facade #Americant Revealing More And More

Screenshot 2019-03-14 at 07.06.30
See link below for screenshot source of this great pic showing the truth about how power and influence and privilege really works in the world.

Never before or with each passing day have I felt more proud of the fact that I didn’t finish college and therefore cannot be categorised among those who run, advocate and facilitate the grand $hit$how of my beloved & missed united mistakes of #Americant. Indeed. I didn’t finish college because of I couldn’t handle the learning. No. I yearned for the learning. Still do. I didn’t finish because I couldn’t stand the hypocrisy, the bigotry, the overwhelming nuance of fakeness galore espoused not only by fellow students but also by teachers and administrators. Not only did I quit college but I quite the whole $hit$how. Oh yeah. I ran out of money, too. But that’s neither here nor there. Almost five years of college and more than $15k, most of which are loans that I also paid back, I have the nothingness I deserve from it all. But what of the nothingness that comes from the privileged who actually can afford the $hit$how? If you look close enough, dear worst-reader, you can clearly see the single thread that permeates through the entirety of all the nothingness that is the fail-upward-ness of #Americant in the past fifty (or so) years. The rulers, the makers, the functionaries of the oligarchy $hit$how, baby. Every damn one of them. They are all college grads! The good old days of the good old boy American has long since been replaced by a reality of stupidity privilege run amok, i.e. #Americant. So let me repeat that as only worst-writer can: they ALL have a college education. Whether it’s #Trump and his magnanimous #MAGA idiocy or the local somewhat rich guy (let’s say a used-car salesmen in a town where there are no new-car stores) running through a trailer park waving a hundred dollar bill, the reality is this: if you ain’t privileged or if you ain’t given in to $hit$how as a functionary (aka careerist), you’re fcuked. Trust me. I know this to be direct. I have lived it. Still do (live it). And now, even though it’s waaaaay too late for worst-moi, the privileged who ultimately are proving themselves no different than the trailer-park-trash hordes lusting for that $100, they are all shinning through and through as the $hits & giggles take over. On the other worst-hand, the story linked to below is so f’n Hi-Larry-Us I literally busted a gut laughing this morning while reading it in bed as I woke to yet another krappy day. Yeah, baby. Way to go #Americant. #MAGA #MAGA #MAGA.

Rant on.

-T

Link that motivated this post: Lori Loughlin: US actress released on bail in college cheating scam – BBC News

Shame And Delusion = Everything Goes From Wrong To Wronger, Stupid to Stupider

Yeah, I bad mouth my (home) country. But do I do it more than Zack Mayo? No, of course not. Then again, unlike Zack, I won’t go on to become a fighter pilot that will probably be bombing defenceless people at the behest of really, really, ugly rich white people. And on that note, I digress.

Two pieces of newz blowing my mind today, dear worst-reader, about my beloved & missed #Americant. The first has got to be about the most obvious crime of stock market insider trading ever? And guess who commits it? That’s right, yet another greed-monger, along with his greed monger family. But this ain’t any greed-monger. He’s an elected greed-monger–and on a side note he is also the first US Congressman that endorsed #Trump when he announced his candidacy in 2015. Coincidence? To top things off, would you believe he’s not the only one who got the call from the insider about divesting his stock holdings in an imminently failing company–before that information was made public? No. His son got the call too. Yeah, baby. Keep it in the family.

The second story is about a twenty-nine year old minimum wage, airport ground facility worker that found a way to fly off in a commercial airline, goof off in the air a bit, and then gallantly crash the plane in a fit of suicide. Ok. Ok. As serious as planes and suicide can be, somehow this one turns my boredom (of it all) into a sorrow-rage. I spent a bit of time this morning listening to the published recordings between the clueless who tried to talk the man down to a controlled landing and the man himself, however slightly, if not stealthily, as he complained about being stuck in the hell-hole that is working-stiff #Americant.

How did he complain, you ask, dear worst-reader? Check this out. He was actually too nice to complain rudely. You know, like worst-writer complains (rants) rudely. The guy was so nice while talking with the air traffic controller that I thought for a moment this would turn out to be some kind of prank gone wrong and the guy would land and everyone on the ground would hug him. The non-pilot pilot admits to not wanting to inconvenience the air traffic controller with trying to help him land because he’ll “just make a mess down there.” Later he even talks about how he doesn’t want to hurt anyone so he shouldn’t try landing at another airport the controller tries to steer him to. Then there comes a few complaints about “minimum wage” and being “white”. He adds “maybe that will grease the gears” of the managers, as though this last mission is to complain, however slightly, about the conditions of being a working stiff. Yeah, twenty-nine years of age and stuck in a minimum wage job! Gee, I wonder how many of his family (who he so nicely apologises to, btw) voted for #Trump, republicans, i.e. those who might not have made the whole #Americant mess but who certainly like the mess staying around for awhile? I mean, seriously. No wonder so many resort to this as their choice of exiting the $hitshow. Quite different than the Vegas shooter, eh? Or?

Good luck suckers.

-Rant on

T

Links that motivated this post:

Doubling Down On Merit As Deception

300x169-R1244_FEA_Trump_A_SML

Still having trouble with an old friend and his/her inability to define fascism in the wake of the racist violence in #Charlottesville, VA. On top of that, my old friend is a bit über obsessed with both-siderism, a common problem for Americans these days that are unable grasp why things have turned out the way they are. After proposing that he/she read Umberto Eco’s fourteen-point definition of fascism, all I got back was this question: “So is this guy a communist?”

Here’s my response.

Your insistence to toe-the-line of the alt-right/alt-left, i.e. both-siderism, is worrisome. But I guess I’ve said that already. Defining fascism isn’t that difficult—unless one is ideologically tainted. Perhaps its time for you to try and separate yourself from the belief that there is merit in “business”, which was obviously such a big part of your life. Any rational mind should be able to see through what’s really going on—that political far-right conservatism, embodied in the Republican party, fox news, Rush Limbaugh, etc.—which has duped so many Americans to the hilt–is the essence of the problem. The quintessence, though, is the ideology of hate, i.e. fascism. Obviously it’s difficult for the duped to wake up to this reality. The reason for that is because it would mean having to admit collusion. But back to your problem of both-siderism. The ideology of neoliberalism embodied by Clinton Democrats is not part of the fascist problem. This is also what makes die-hard republicans so vehement. Accepting the fact that Bill Clinton was the better republican–minus the fascism–is a hard pill (reality) to swallow. That’s why the republicans had to move even further to the right with George W’s stolen election in 2000. Hence fascism. The republican party is and has always been fascist at its core! Just read up on the southern strategy that got Nixon elected. Because Americans are so preoccupied with their inflated moneyed-interests and their minds have been drilled full of merit as a deception, the only answer is for things to explode through the simplest and most mundane form of retribution. In this case, the deep seeded anger and hate which stems out of recognising ones collusion with a system must run amok and it must show its true nature in the simplemindedness of racism. As far as Umberto Eco being a communist…? Perhaps. But at this point, considering the state of capitalism, it doesn’t matter. But allow me to put it another way. How’s this? Fascism is like porn—you know it when you see it. Unless, of course, you live in it. By-the-buy, I just read that Trump is doubling down on his attempt at what you would call re-writing history. He just compared Robert E. Lee and Andrew Jackson (traitors and losers) with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (winners and founding fathers). There is only one side from which fascism can be judged, old friend. That side is not the side that embodies it.

Rant onwards.

-T

Links:

The Moment You Recognise Your Comfy Pillow And Then Are Aghast. Or Maybe Not.

Do you wake up as soon as you recognise the pillow your head’s been resting upon (all your life)? Or do you go back to sleep?

#americant

It is, indeed, a comfy pillow. But let’s call it out all the same, eh, dear worst-reader.

I recognised the fascist pillow I was sleeping on the first time I heard Rush Limbaugh use the words feminine/feminist and, yes, he went there, …nazi. This moment was/must have been about/around the mid to late 1980s. Femi-nazi, or the like. What a vulgar display and place to rest my/your head. I honestly cannot remember that pillow but I do remember the lighter fluid I used to light it up.

I eventually found a way to get out of the madness. I am an expat. I am worstwriter.com.

Good luck suckers.

-T

#UnitedAirlines In Your Monopolies @ 30k Feet Below Laughter Of Automaton Galore Bigly Greatness

Hilarryus, dear worst-reader. Seriously. I’m laughing my ass off right now at #United Airlines gettin’ in the newz. Of course, it need not be mentioned that more than ten or so years ago, I also got booted from a United flight. The good newz is I didn’t actually get booted like this guy did. No. I never actually made it onto the plane that was supposed to connect me to my destination. I got booted from the international transfer terminal because I was so unruly at the ticket counter where an automaton United employee turned on her corporate trained behaviourist defence mode and literally shut down her station to avoid facing reality. I was connecting at Dulles Airport from London to Orlando. When I got to Dulles though there was no record of my ticket even though I had just flown from London on a United flight with a ticket that had a destination of Orlando. When I told the automaton worker that I wasn’t gonna leave the line until she did something about what was obviously her, i.e. United’s mistake, she left the counter and told the people behind me that they should find another line. Of course they all did exactly that. I stood there dumbfounded, angry, but not surprised. I was in #americant. The land of in-order-to-get-ahead you MUST fail upwards. It was/is indeed some God’s country of monopolisation or die trying (to get there).

Long story short.

It turns out that #United had actually allowed me to board in London without noticing that they had put the wrong name on my ticket. By-the-bye, this was post nine-eleven! And so… I boarded in London as Thomas (wrong-name) and flew eight hours to Dulles. When in Dulles the #United automaton said there was no record of me, according to the name on my passport, nor was there a ticket for me from London to Orlando. There was a record of “Thomas (wrong-name)”, though–as printed on the boarding pass I received in London. And because that name didn’t match my passport they said it wasn’t their problem.

“But I just flew with you from London with or without the right name. Now I’m stuck in the transfer terminal in Dulles. What the hell do I do now?”

An airport employee ended up telling me that I had to exit the terminal and deal with United from the outside. The whole ordeal cost me a night in a hotel, a missed flight to my destination and the undue stress of having to deal with corporate #americant where “corporations are people too, my friend.” (Mitt Romney.)

So it’s no surprise to me that a monopoly industry would resort to this type of behaviour in its daily activities. And who facilitated the airline industry turning into a monopoly? That’s right, dear worst-reader. You guessed it. #Americant did. Now go vote your feelings and allow the conservatives to turn your country into the politburo corporate moneyed governing entity that it was always meant to be. And don’t forget:

Make #americant greatness again. Suckers!

Links that motivated this post:

Rant on.

-t

Censorship Nation #WhinyLittleBitch

Screen Shot 2016-06-12 at 08.25.11
Screenshot of a word defined.

Gawk. Wow. There is a difference between the verb and the noun? Don’t you hate it when that happens, dear worst-reader? I mean, gawk as a noun doesn’t sound as bad as gawk as a verb. Or am I splitting hairs here? But then again, now that the world’s greatest experiment in pseudo democracy is pretty much a censored, authoritarian, pseudo politbüro state, what difference does it make if a gawker is awkward or just plain (looks) stupid?

Now that “journalists” are labelling the Hogan/Gawker lawsuit a form of censorship, I’m really confused. I mean, what purpose does yellow journalism serve? That’s right. It makes money. And you know what? I’m all for making money. (Even if I don’t make any!) Yet now that Gawker has lost in its quest to be a source of asshole-dom, it’s a #whinylittlebitch. I mean, come on. Gawker lost fair and square. Does it matter that a asshole billionaire financed Hulk Hogan’s lawyers? Of course not. That sort of thing happens all the time. It’s called lawyering. Did Gawker, on the other hand, go too far with it’s yellow (click-bait) journalism? Obviously the jury thought it did. Maybe democracy does work. Or does The Judicial work? Nomatter. But I digress.

Seriously. Who feels sorry for Gawker or thinks a billionaire has damaged #americant now that we have one less useless pseudo journalism website? I mean. Come on. Won’t it be replaced fast enough by another? Yeah, the whole country is a #whinylittlebitch.

Rant on. -Tommi

Link that motivated this post:

The Dips That Make It So, Podcast Hell, The Smell Of Skunk Road Kill

Screen Shot 2016-06-08 at 12.24.08
This is a screenshot.

Recently subscribed to recode-decode podcast. Have to admit, of all the podcasts out there, many of which I try regularly in search of things-of-interest, there are only about a dozen or so that I remain subscribed to. Shame, eh. I mean, what a waste of bandwidth. Thousands of podcasts out there and only, maybe, twelve of them are any good. What does that say about podcasting? Wait. What does it say about me? Nomatter. To each her/his own, eh?

When I saw who was being interviewed on a recent recode-decode podcast I almost immediately hit the unsubscribe button. If anything repels me as though it were the stench of a dead skunk after two days on the side of the road it would be the people that have made Kim Kardashian “famous”. Of course, don’t get me wrong. The recode-decode podcast, after two or three listens, is actually pretty good. At least, well, it’s a tick better than other interview podcasts that dwell on even more nothingness.

Get this, dear worst-reader. The reason I didn’t unsubscribe after seeing who they interview is because I don’t actually blame Kim Kardashian for being what she is. That would be like blaming an orangutang for being orange. It would also be like blaming PT Barnum for his most famous quote turning out to be truer than ever. And that’s kinda important. Although she is a human dip, we live in times where a lot of people get ahead because, well, they learn to profit from living in a world of dips. If you don’t want to be a dip then you probably won’t make in this world today. Hence, corporatism, automatons, apparatus, etc. I mean, come on, Donald Trump couldn’t be where he is today if it weren’t for a nation of dips. But let’s not get too far off subject.

As difficult as it was, I decided this morning to press on and listen to a podcast where Kim Kardashian is interviewed about… whatever. I got through about fifteen minutes of it (which is more than I expected) before turning it off (it’s about forty minutes long). The good news? As I write this paragraph I’m still subscribed to recode-decode. The bad news? There was something else in this podcast that motivated me to write this post.

Not only is it excruciating listening to a dip like Kim K talk but it’s also pretty painful listening to the interviewer–in this case a supposedly well respected tech journalist–go about the whole situation as though it has some sort of journalistic merit. And then there’s the issue of who/what is sponsoring this well produced podcast. The first thing that caught my attention when the podcast started was the reference to a particular sponsor. Guess who/what is a sponsor of a podcast that has a “legitimate” tech journalist interviewing Kim K about her ability to exploit technology? Wait. Before you answer that, answer this: Who/what are Kim K enablers?

Ok. The answers to those questions are irrelevant. But the questions aren’t. A sponsor of this recode-decode podcast is a company that refinances student loans. Now. With that in mind, here’s another question for ya. Who are the people that have made the united mistakes of #americant not only the greatest debtor nation in history but also  a nation of college educated dips that, literally, perpetuate everything that is wrong in western society today? The tech industry of silicon valley–that is the enabler of this podcast–is every bit a part of what’s wrong with #americant these days–and absolutely nothing about what should be right. Or maybe not. Whatever.

#failupwards

It’s a good thing I wrote this post. It helped reevaluate what I’ve done. Unsubscribing to  podcast now.

Good luck suckers.

Rant on. -Tommi

Link that motivated this post:

When Investors Cash Out, Mitt Already Made A Killing And Bankruptcy Is Not On Your Side

sports authority sucks and mitt does too

Hi-larry-us, dear worst-reader. I mean, I don’t mean to mock all the people that will ultimately lose their minimum wage jobs. But then again, maybe they should be mocked. For the life of me, I’ve never understood why people work at a store like Sports Authority. I understand that due to #americant democracy equalling stupidity times a gazillion that only makes a few people rich, all others seem to enjoy working for crumbs. And while I’m on the subject of crumbs, why don’t they go out on the streets and

  1. vote out political conservatism (which is obviously the cause of #americant)
  2. demand some fcuking dignity?

Oh well. So much of this world is beyond me. Then again, #american’t almost voted for Mitt Romney a few years back. Anyone remember Mitt? Anyone know why Mitt appears in yet another worstwriter blog post along side a really krappy retailer that deserves to go out of business? Well, now that one of the worst retailers in history is going bankrupt, perhaps a bit of history about where this company came from is due. Or maybe not.

Simply put, Sports Authority is a product of the likes of Bain & Company. Bain is Mitt Romney’s shell company where he was able to rob american’t of so much of its resources via M&A deals galore stemming out of the 1980s. Mitt’s great contribution to #Americant, in turn, was that M&A bull$hit turned into private equity über-bull$hit. For you see, dear worst-reader, this is how the smart-asses from Wall Street really screw you. Seriously. They don’t screw you by providing you with loans that you are too stupid to realise you’ll never be able to pay back. Nor do they screw you by being bailed-out because, well, there were millions more suckers than anyone could dream of who were willing to take loans that they didnt know they wouldn’t be able to pay back. Indeed. The likes of Mitt/Bain/private-equity screw you buy taking advantage the corporate needy and the corporate desperate–and let’s not forget the children of capitalist pigs who have now, pretty much, inherited everything post ww2 if not the ill-fated DotCom boom. Inheritance, btw, is the true culprit of the Dubya Bush tax cuts that have bankrupted the country. But on that issue I digress and wish all the suckers out there: good luck–you haven’t earned it.

Rant on.

-Tommi

Links that motivated this post:

When It Rains It Goes Kaputt – #AWS Letter And Power Outages From Hell

AWS instance retirement email redacted pic

A post about how sh*t happens when you move to another world.

First. The power goes out in India–a lot. And I don’t mean it goes out during a storm or something. The friggin power goes out all the time. At our new place it goes out ten friggin’ times day. It’s not like we’re living in an old dilapidated house, either. We’re the first residents in a house that was built about three years ago. Obviously the place has been empty for a few years but it’s still brand friggin’ new. Of course, in India, there are supposed to be failsafe solutions to the third-world infrastructure e.g. power. The diesel aggregate for electric support is on the other side of our direct neighbours. Obviously I’m glad they get all the diesel noise and smells when it kicks in. And there’s the problem. When India can’t deliver electricity these generators are supposed to kick-in within seconds. Ours, I think, not unlike the aggregate in me, drinks a bit too much and, well, can’t really kick-in when it’s supposed to. Which wouldn’t be worth complaining about if we weren’t paying extra for power support. And so. The power goes out while I’m working on the Interwebnets and I scream “F*ck the world!” and it takes at least two or three more power surges for things to get going again in our house. Yeah, that sucks.

Second. I got an email the other night from AWS (pic above). AWS is the system I run my blog on. As you may or may not know, dear worst-reader, AWS is, other than Kindle, probably the most profitable part of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon. When I moved my (this) blog to AWS before our move to India, the idear wasn’t about getting a blog host for as little money as possible–which is this service is. Instead I wanted to move as close as possible to being able to host my own web presence someday. You know, have my own web server, my own IP address, my own my own. After getting through all the BS of setting up an instance (their fancy word for a “server”) on AWS I was kinda proud of myself. Wow, I thought. I actually pulled that off. I set up a Linux server. I installed Apache, MySQL and PHP. And then I installed #Wordpress. There were a few burps that didn’t totally turn me off and in the end, well, worstwriter.com has been running ever since. Ok. Almost ever since. At least three times a month I have to reboot my servers to keep my blog running. I realise that there is a configuration problem with the AWS instance and the webserver and wordpress, but, to be honest, I don’t give a sh*t. As cheap as AWS is, this is starting to be NOT WORTH IT. I moved to AWS because I thought that this part of the digital world had its shit together. Obviously it doesn’t. This part of the world still requires the mindset of the morons and automatons that gave the world the likes of Microsoft. These people, just like me, can’t set themselves free. Which means: why should anybody else be able to set themselves free?

With that in mind, all I can say is: Oh well. At least no one reads this blog that could actually be insulted by being called an automaton and delivering sh*t products.

Looks like I’ll have to start paying for my web presence again. Probably will go with wordpress.

Rant on.

-T

Superficial Question Of The Day: What Should 7B People Do According to Mr. Jensen?

the face of god arthur jensen

The question:

What should 7 billion useless eating bottom feeder lemmings do if they are not achievers–but think they are (achievers)?

Ah. The tried & true response to a grand issue stemming out of the sophomoric mindset of a pseudo (master)debater and an unbeknownst polymath (wannabe).

The answer from she/he:

It doesn’t really matter.

But , dear worst-reader, have you listened to Mr. Jensen’s speech to Mr. Beale in the movie “Network”? Here’s the thing about the few & far between that fail to understand the intricacies of what makes life the dismal piece of shit it is. (Btw, most people fail to understand because they can’t remove themselves from a mindset. Remember, it’s important at least once in a lifetime to get up on that desk and sing-whisper Oh Captain My Captain. Or maybe not.) The problem with questions that should reflect a senior (if not graduate) mindset–as opposed to the sophomoric–is that most people are vested in a system for which they have no answers even if they are able to ask the right question(s). This is the result of the amoral and delusional dependencies of the teat that is being sucked. With that in mind:

What does Mr. Wizard and all-knowing Tommi, aka worst-writer, think should happen to 7 billion people that he considers useless lemmings, automatons and compulsive behaviourists–aka careerists, corpos, and/or those who think they’ve actually “worked” for what they have(not), etc.?

First, are you serious, dear worst-reader? Asking me what I think should happen to 7B people just because I’m critical of 300m #americants because they are incapable of seeing how their behaviour (very, very bad behaviour) is the reason the world is in the situation it’s in? Just because I’m arrogant and stuck-up and on a pedestal in my ranting and raving, the only question you can ask me is a question that not only changes the subject but also steers the debate away from the subject?

Gee, dear worst-reader, it seems we’ve come to an impasse. If that’s the case, allow me to interject (in the debate without sustaining negative points for going off subject):

What’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? (That’s from another well written movie where nuggets of wisdom would not only entertain the automaton lemmings but also provide a bit of fodder for (almost deep) thought.)

Sorry, but I prefer to at least try to go beyond the sophomoric in my quest for knowledge. But since I’m in a good mood this morning and all I got is the sophomoric surrounding me, I’ll create this blogpost to, at the least, amuse myself.

The question that should be asked regarding why the world is the way it is isn’t about what I or anybody thinks 7b people should do? In fact, my ranting is, at most, about 300m Americans (or, as I like to put it: #americants). I suppose 300m compared to 7b doesn’t really matter to anyone that can’t see beyond the knotted shoelace that represents her/his life. Yet, because I don’t see things in terms of banks and corporations and government and politicians, there is no way that I can provide a vested answer to a sophomoric question–from someone who thinks being an automaton is synonymous with being an achiever. But, again, I’m feeling amused this morn–which is synonymous with indulge-me.

Things like Big-Brother and double-speak (oh no, that’s stuff from a book that wasn’t written by a nutjub) have moulded the mindset of so many that, again, people can’t tell the difference between reality and delusion. My ranting isn’t about 7b people nor is it about the 1%, yet we are dealing with an issue of major social and judicial implications. (Btw, social and judicial in the same worst-written sentence could be construed as synonymous with right and wrong, truth and lie, pomegranate and toothpicks, etc.) Simply put, my ranting is about the behaviour of those who think they have achieved something in their measly lives simply because something has trickled down to them. I could use the term neo-feudalism at this point but it’s probably better if I just breath. There. Done.

Reminder. It doesn’t really matter.

All those years that I bitched and moaned about being a failure because I couldn’t cope with the corporate world or the convention of family life, etc., were really about questioning the life of all the lemmings that I followed. But that’s how the lemming-thug-life is, right? While everyone else trudges along, no one notices what they are actually doing thereby the only thing that has really trickled down to them is greed, narcism and insert your favourite (or all) of the other deadly sins here. The saddest part about my ranting and all-knowing arrogance–and thereby getting into sophomoric debates–is that through out my life I have never met a single person that didn’t achieve above and beyond their ability to behave and/or suck up to someone else. That is the true loss of this life that I have to die with. I know that there are achievers out there. I’ve read about them, I see them in the news and on the interwebnets. But to have met someone that is an actual achiever? No. Nothing. Nada. Kaputt. As sad as that is, I laugh about it now because some (who debate me) think I am all-knowing when in fact I’m just not delusional. I’m not delusional because I’ve never been able, via the trickle down of something, to afford it. Wow, Mr. Beale, aka worst-reader, you might be right. You have seen God.

Rant on.

-Tommi

PS

Below is the transcript from the movie “Network” of the speech that Mr. Jensen (the 1%) gives to the delusional Mr. Beale (300m automaton non-achieving #americants). Although written over forty years ago, this speech should be studied by the compulsive behaviourists that make up the lemming automaton workforce who actually think they achieve on a daily basis as they suck on the teat of mother trickle-down. And on that note…

But I digress.

The Speech

Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it! Is that clear? You think you’ve merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!

You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and inane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquillised, all boredom amused.

And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

Beale: But why me?

Jensen: Because you’re on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

Beale: I have seen the face of God.

Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

-end transcript-

Prince v Metallica, Deposing The Middleman, Boxsets In Heaven

worst boxset

First A. This post is NSFW. First B. The window of opportunity has closed. We are screwed because moneyed interests are the new Gods of art, creativity and life. Or. I would really like to see a change in the music industrial complex now that Prince is gone.

Second. I am a child of two mothers. The first mother is the cold fucking war. And what a cold bitch she was. My second mother was the fucking music industry which, to this day, I wish I would have never suckled her teat.

Third. Not that it matters, but here are a few artists that disillusioned me in a grand way.

– Elvis (he never gave me a Cadillac and I met at least three of his illegitimate children and they were all assholes)
– Charlie Chaplin (communist bastard)
– David Mamet (boy is this guy a loon in reality)
– Prince (I even refused to copy his box set–don’t see pic above)

Fourth. Not that it matters even more, here a list of artists that illusioned me.

– Elvis (because if god was a man (and she wasn’t) this is what he would sound like)
– Charlie Chaplin (you fucking communist)
– David Mamet (thank you mother may I have another)
– Prince (short guys need a break too sometimes)

Moving on.

It took a lot of years for me to be a able to afford music. Reason? Well, money, of course. I’m sure, like many others, in my youth I had to prioritise expenses. That meant that through my late teens to early adulthood the only music I ever owned was a few vinyl albums and a small collection of cassette tapes. Indeed, through this “ownership” I was able to enjoy Elvis, Kiss, Barbara Streisand, Johnny Cash, etc. The only way to listen to new music was to listen to radio or, get this, share with friends. Eventually listening to vinyl was replaced full-time by cassette tape. Reason? Friends. And. I couldn’t copy vinyl–in order to do something as simple as listen to music. And get this. I listened to cassette tapes until my late 30s–well into the 1990s. Reason? You guessed it. Money.

By the mid-80s I was living here or there and trying to go to this college or that college and all the while being influenced, whether I liked it or not, by music. Music was everywhere. Once, while enjoying an evening out with a bimbo on a cheap date at some dive-bar, I asked her: “how is it we can listen to the music in here without paying for it but if I want to listen to it at home it costs me an arm and leg?” (I know. It’s a naive question. But go with it for now.) She didn’t understand my question. At the time I was in a second year economics course where the music industry and its profits was our topic of study. She was learning the science of space engineering–or something like that–which was kinda cool since I can claim to have spent some time at a college that produced two NASA astronauts.

The reason I asked such a question about music was because, other than fucking really smart college bimbos, I liked listening to music. Yet I couldn’t understand why, if music was everywhere, it was so expensive to have with me at home? Indeed, dear worst-reader, my bitterness at not having any money to afford the simple things in life (other than really cheap dates) started early. I guess being an American I was spoiled. (No duh!) I had to put gas into my car so that I could drive to work but I when I worked I didn’t earn enough to pay rent, gas, college and have the luxury of music at home? Seriously? I never liked the idea of music being a commodity. Obviously it wasn’t food or water but it was part of life. For that reason, I hated radio because it was more a bombardment of boredom and redundancy than it was a medium of artistry fucked by commerce.

Cassette tapes at the time cost somewhere between $5-$10 but you could get them real cheap used or, better yet, pay nothing by copying them from friends. Anyone out there remember those double cassette decks? Needless to say, by the time I skipped town on the freak show–i.e. jumped the ugly blossoming #americant ship of Reaganomics–I had a nice collection of cassette tapes with music from the 60s, 70s and even the confused 80s. Cassettes, btw, are the reason I prefer albums over singles. I feel as though, from the 70s on, certain musicians cultivated the album almost as though they were writing a novel. To me, buying singles is just stupid. Fucking Buddy Holly, bless is soul, is dead, man. I want an album that tells a whole story. But I digress.

By the time I was a young adult–scavenging through this consume to survive life–I had become so disillusioned with the bullshit of the music industry that I practically gave up on it. I was satisfied with my old collection of tapes–including a few tapes by Prince. When I moved to Europe in 1989, the only stuff I took with me, other than clothes and a bunch of used paperback books, were, among others, the Batman soundtrack.

Throughout the 90s I was working and traveling in Europe. During this time I entered into what I call my dead music years. That is, I can’t remember buying one album or artist during the whole period. By the late 90s, though, there was something happening that beckoned my return to music consumption. One cool thing about working and traveling around Europe was that jazz bars were usually pretty easy to find in all major cities. I fell in love with live jazz music whether in Stockholm, Madrid or Paris. Once the traveling started to wane (by the end of the 90s), I yearned for this music evermore. Having met some audiophiles here and there, I quickly had a collection of burned CDs of jazz galore. I think I got my first CD player and stereo system in 1999. Enough about my stingy music preferences.

Like I said, when it came to buying music–actually paying for it so I could listen to it while in the bathtub or jogging or fucking some bimbo–I was skewed. I gladly paid money to hear music live but when it came to the ridiculous cost of owning it and then having the means of actually playing it through a decent sound system–fuck that! By the turn of the millennial my skepticism and cynicism for the music industry was at a pinnacle. The music business was more of a scam than ever before. I mean, come on, here’s a question for ya, dear worst-reader: how often has music been paid for twice (if not more) as people moved from analog to digital? What? Never thought about that? The music industry certainly thought about it. Ka-ching!

Cassette tape was my favourite way of listening to music for more than twenty years. All the while, it never crossed my mind that I was in anyway duping a musician when I copied a cassette–or made one of those fancy compile tapes. Did I care that ultimately music was/is a business? Fuck no. It’s just fucking music and if you don’t play it so that people can listen to it, well, go make your money elsewhere. Do I espouse an arrogant point-of-view? Damn right I do. But I assure it’s no more arrogant than those rich middlemen or lame-ass “artists” that think getting out of bed requires a price paid. My point is, damn right I’m arrogant about how the music industry has screwed us (all). But as I write this, I stand by it. And in my re-awakened anger, I’m also getting ahead of myself.

Maybe a third of my cassette tape collection up to the point of giving up analog music around 2005 was copied music. That meant that well into the era of Compact Discs, I was still listening to analog music–most of which I paid for. As far as what I didn’t pay for (directly), I no longer copied cassette to cassette but CD to cassette. The itch of digital was there; the itch of convenience, as well. In the early 2000s I think I downloaded three songs from Napster. The mp3 quality at the time sucked. Then Apple bought SoundJam which they turned into the music greed monster iTunes. When Apple declared that one song download would cost .99c, I quickly started to hate Steve Jobs for changing the music industry the wrong way. Do you know how many .99c I would have to pay to download my music collection? In fact, the whole music industry, with the help of Jobs–as far as I’m concerned–is the first human endeavour to actually immortalise what should have been a dying middle-man, top-down driven industry where the price of an album or song is the same as it ever was (if not raised) yet the costs of distribution has been moved to almost nil. Indeed. The old-economy of music won. The rest of us lost.

For most of my life I got to listen to a lot of music by ways other than compensating the middleman of comfortably contracted musicians. Does that make me a criminal? In the eyes of certain musicians, I am most definitely a criminal. In the eyes of misconstrued law making by government that is owned by moneyed interests, I am also most definitely a criminal. My response to being labelled a criminal, though, is thus: fuck you. With the recent passing of Prince, I feel compelled to say it again–but this time not out loud and not, out of respect, to him.

Allow me to interject a new fiend: Metallica.

I recall vividly Princes’ fight with the company he signed a contract with. This fight was so stupid that he even changed his name to a symbol in order to avoid that contract. Even though I was and will always be a big admirer of him and his music, he really lost me when he did this krapp. It’s not that I don’t think he deserves ownership of his music. Of course he does. But he, like so many other artists, signed it away. I suppose I could have some sympathy for him if he were an artist that came out of nothing. But his “career” started at a very young age. He was well schooled and learned in the industry by the time he signed with a record company. When that record company decided to sell boxsets of his music–because it was trying to greedily offset what it considered losses from internet downloads–he suddenly took a stand. A stand for what? As far as I’m concerned, the stand he took against his contract ruined his musical career. Or maybe he had already peaked. Whatever. He should/could have enjoyed his days but the bitterness ate him up from the inside. Or maybe not.

Of course, Prince is not alone. The other musician(s) I love to hate because of their reaction to file sharing, the Internet and modernity: Metallica. Talk about jerk-wads and greedy little cock-suckers that play their guitars and wave their long hair as though their dicks are their mouths! Since I won’t say it to Prince right now, this goes out to musicians who put their bank accounts before the ears of those who will listen. Fuck you Metallica for being the pricks you are when it comes to kids just wanting to listen to your music and don’t give a shit about what contract you signed with the devil to make you popular! Fuck you double!

One last thought. I hope Prince Roger Nelson sees the truth about the music industry and how it screwed not only him but everyone who deserves to admire his art without the coercion of greedy middlemen. And fuck Metallica thrice.

Rant on. -Tommi

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out, Or Pass Me The Popcorn As The Sh*t Show Implodes

monopoly board

Having fun in the game of life yet? No? Gee, why not? Not enough ice-cream? Not enough cheap gas? Not enough free money in the form of credit you’ll never pay back? Not enough of someone thinking for you? Not enough of all this too much? Oh well. Moving on. Look what happened today (in the news). After reading about this one, here my first thoughts:

Yeah. Ok. I get it. I know why this is happening. I played the game once. Now everyone else plays it. I sit back and watch–like the voyeur I am. And so. I thank you dear worst-reader for playing the game so that I can watch. And laugh.

With that in mind, after reading that the mega (wannabe) monopoly corporation Intel is laying off twelve thousand employees, a cynical smile overcame me. This is where I like to reveal the inner workings of my worst-heart. What are the inner workings? Simple. Fuck all twelve thousand! May the twelve thousand rot in the cesspool of greed filth that they work for. May all their useless families and children and whatnot-dependents eat the eyeballs of the dying corporatist patriarchy that is the evil that they work/live for. For, dear worst-reader, corporations like Intel are pure evil. Twelve thousand employees are sh*t outta luck and they worked for the (THE!) computer chipmaker extraordinaire Intel–and none of them knew they worked for pure evil? Twelve thousand? I suppose, if one worst-considers the amount of employees that have been let go over the past thirty or so years in this world of fail-upwards corporatism, twelve thousand is a drop in the bucket. Yet, I love it all the same. Why? Because, well, Intel. What better example is there of the failure of society, of the failure of government, the failure of employees, of humanity. Just worst-writing the word “Intel” makes me sick to my stomach. Which means I have to get through this post toot-sweet. Seriously. And not only that. Fuck all the auto workers, the steel workers, garment workers, etc., etc. Fuck them all and… Fuck all workers and automatons and corporatists that have enabled and facilitated the times we live in. Times that history will tell equal the times of the past when slaves worked and the few & far between were the lucky ones–you know, like kings and queens and emperors and pharaohs and their jesters (which are now called employees), etc. Welcome dear twelve thousand former Intel employees, welcome to the neo-feudalism that you helped enable. Or am I over doing it? Have things improved much since, gee, I don’t know, the pharaohs? What? We got better health care now? We all got a car and an iPhone? And let’s not forget that we all get to have teeth after the age of fifteen. Or? Full stop. I am over doing it? I’m over doing for the sake of dramatic effect. Right? Am I coming across as a class fighter? Is the tendency to read and mis-read Karl Marx seeping out of the pores of my skin? Yeah, I might be over doing it. But I’m only over doing it with the cursing–and, maybe, the reference to Marx. The rest? I stand by it. Seriously. Never before has the premise behind Tim Leary’s “turn on, tune in, drop out” been more relevant than in my entire life time (born at the end 1963). Except, maybe, the entire premise of the game Monopoly–which we seem to be entangled in and YOU! don’t even know it. Even though I don’t care much for drug induced, hippy-fied political ideology–i.e. Tim Leary–I have to admit that his saying has stuck with me most of my life and whenever I hear about huge layoffs, like this one, I just snicker and laugh and think: where’s my Monopoly game? I gotta break out that board again. It’s been so long since I’ve played. And then more thoughts enter (my cortex). Wow, I think. Those dipsh*ts at Intel got laid-off and I can think of no one else more deserving. When you live your life as a blood sucker, as most corporatists do–because no one actually does any “work” anymore–instead we live life like compulsive behaviourist mosquitos–this is what you get. Twelve thousand layoffs. Greed. Fail upwards. Greed. Societal dysfunction. Greed. The Donald. Greed. #Americant Conservatism. Greed. Greed. Greed. And now that the bottom has fallen out for dipsh*ts and I’m gonna sit back and watch the clusterf*ck that is this board game that everyone (except me) doesn’t even know they’re playing. With that in mind, my worst good luck wishes go out to twelve thousand suckers.

Rant on. -Tommi

Links that motivated this post:

Know Who You're Competing With For Life, Liberty & The Pursuit Of Spendable Income

the greatest

Competition is the opposite of cooperation and is perfect for sport, games and getting laid. What else has it proven to be good for?

Not sure if I got the right article. But I’m gonna go with it. See below. §Gave a listen to comrade Wolff this morning. See other link below. As usual, and unfortunately, Comrade Wolff doesn’t provide links to the articles he references during his podcast. That means I have to go out and source what he references myself. Good thing I worked in information services for a few years. I guess Comrade Wolff’s budget doesn’t allow for someone to just codify and post the info he references. I mean, through the first half of his podcasts he’s always talking about this article or that article or whatever thing he or his staff finds in the news. If you don’t listen carefully then you miss the source of what he’s referencing and it’s kind of a bummer to go back and fiddle though the podcast to find it again. Nomatter. §Today Comrade Wolff talks about how Generation Y, i.e. those born after 1980, is royally screwed because parents and grandparents are nothing more than a bunch of greed mongering schmucks. Well, he doesn’t quite put it that way. Comrade Wolff even goes so far as to claim that the progenitors fought and, I guess, died for things like worker benefits, pensions, retirements, etc. Did they? Whatever. The thing is, I agree with Comrade Wolff–except for one thing. It’s not only Generation Y that is screwed by previous generations. If you ask me, and no one should, there is a pattern in humanity that this situation follows. Or maybe not. §The generation that fought WW2 and the children of that generation, i.e. baby-boomers, are the ones Comrade Wolff talks about. I take issue with blaming only one generation. Reason? I was born in 1963. If I’m not mistaken I am right in the middle of the baby-boomer generation and Generation X. Being generationally positioned as I am, I can easily claim that I too have felt the greed-pain of previous generations. The problem is, according to The Guardian, there seems to be only figures and stats for Generation Y. It’s as though they’re the only generation that’s been screwed. And so I say: Where are my stats? Where’s proof of my economic demise? As far as I can tell, I’ve been just as screwed as Gen Y and Gen X and Gen forevermore. Or maybe not. §I should also include in this rant the fact that I saw the sinking ship that is also the train wreck that started in 1980’s #americant. I knew very early on that if you don’t inherit some money, have parents that can afford to support you, or find a way to get a clean education beyond graduate school–and then become an automaton programmed to live-to-work–you are gonna be screwed, screwed, screwed. Not only was it next to impossible back then to get a start in a career coming from the broken-ness of middle-class suburban hell, but the hoarding of life, liberty and consume-to-survive was already well underway. That is what Reagan unleashed! Heck, I remember my parents (born at the end of WW2) buying houses on equity loans in the early 80s. They also bought a second pool (because the first one wasn’t new enough). And then there were all the new cars every few years. And while they were consuming to their heart’s content, I couldn’t get student aide or even a student loan because Ronald (the dipshit actor) Reagan changed all the benefits for the underprivileged. Although I was raised in #americant’s low middle class, my stepfather never felt obligated to assist in my life start. Since I had no relations with my biological father, where were the resources for the beginning of life to come from? Oh yeah. It’s America. The land of opportunity. Dish washer to millionaire. The problem is, I never believed in fairies, easter bunnies or fucking santa claus after the age of six. Which means, once I turned eighteen and my mother wasn’t around to stop him (she was visiting Germany at the time) my stepfather literally threw me out of the house because I wouldn’t subject myself to economic conscription and go off to  support a war machine owned by rich people. As I walked out of the door of the house I had grown to hate anyway, the pseudo patriarch of go-nowwhere, suburban hell #americant said, to crown his grand achievement: good luck and thanks for all the fish you smart ass. I flipped the fucker the bird and was off to a life of happy failure. Boo f’n who, eh! But enough about worst-writer. §My point is this: both The Guardian and Comrade Wolff have it wrong. It’s not so much about whether a particular generation has less earning and/or consumer (cap)ability. The issue is: what is humanity capable of? That is, we are all competing not only against each other but against a globalised world owned and run by rich people. Because no one–at least I’ve never met anyone–can recognise their place on this planet, how are we supposed to circumvent our own demise? We’re competing with the same generations who never knew Starbucks, TV and Lego in India and China. Every time you buy a Starbucks, Lego or a TV you add to the weight of children unborn–which is no different than the weight I carried. We compete to our doom because we know no better and for some us–yours truly–it worked out fine. My parents generation, my generation, generation x and y, and generation unborn are all the source of what’s wrong. Does that make me a misanthrope? I hope so! If Comrade Wolff really believes that the world can be changed by a new generation just because they can’t buy enough krapp… Well, good luck suckers… And thanks for all the fish. Rant on. -Tommi

Links that motivated this post:

Everyone's Day In Court Will Never Come

justice FBI apple

Subtitle: Juxtaposition of Hope v Change v Consuming v Survive v Gee, I don’t know, …Orwell?

You know, recently, before our move to India, I floated the idear that we should probably update our ageing digital devices. My wife’s iPhone 5S was looking pretty beat up and my iPhone 4S was almost a brick due to Apple’s draconian iOS updates. It only made sense to consider updating this stuff before our move as India is a pretty expensive place to buy tech krapp. My wife half-joked not to worry about it because we could just take a flight from Bangelore to Malaysia. “It’s a only quick flight”, she said. “Malaysia’s the cheapest place to buy tech krapp,” she added. But all worst-bourgeois joking aside, my floated idear was taken seriously and we ended up buying, without contract, new digital devices before our move. I bought my new iPhone 6S in the US during a recent visit and my wife bought one too while we spent a last weekend in Europe, albeit in London. All in all, with trade-ins, selling of old devices, exchange rates, we’re pleased with our status as über-consumers. And let me add that we got these devices without those crazy-as* phone cell contracts. Which means, we paid full price for this krapp! Does anyone know what full price is these days as we finance, lease, perpetually rent everything? But I digress. §Recent developments in the tech world have made me worst-think twice about our purchase. Conclusion (so far)? There is, obviously, another immense hidden cost of owning a piece of The Digital World. Let’s face it. Beyond the reality of there being a tech cabal out there made up of a few companies who have managed to monopolise everything–screwing consumers royally–what is the real cost we’re paying for having a connection to The Digital World? Enter the recent debacle of the FBI v Apple. It’s one thing that we are forced to pay such manipulated, unjustifiable prices for this krapp. I mean, come on! How much does it really cost to make this stuff? I’ll wager it costs next to nothing to make an iPhone. Considering that incremental updates to the device have been taking place since its intro, and the profits Apple has made since then, yeah, Apple has to create the illusion that it’s expensive. Apple is good at illusion (and distortions fields). But, again, I digress. §So what about the issue of whether or not government will use these devices as tools of oppression? I mean, how far are we away from the retina scanners of Minority Report? Isn’t that what the whole debate is about right now? In the movie Minority Report we see retina scanners doing their thing in order to sell us krapp. Of course, when a rogue agent is being hunted by religious and conservative nutbags, those retina scanners serve a completely different purpose. That “purpose” is so immense that people even gouge out or replace their eyes to prevent government spooking. And so. When I hear the FBI–the largest and best funded police agency in the frickin’ world!–bitch & moan like a spoiled girly in spring-time that it can’t crack an iPhone 5C, I start to tear up. On top of that, just watch the mongrels from the FBI laud their reasoning for breaking some seriously good encryption that the private sector has spent a pretty penny developing. Indeed. As much as I hate the technology cabal that manipulates markets, subverts free commerce, treats consumers like dirt, the encryption technologies that have been developed are worth every bit of praise. Encryption for the masses is supposed to be part of being free–not just preventing hackers from accessing your paypal account or your sexy selfies. And so. It’s not tears that come out of my eye ducts when I hear govt./FBI bitch & moan like only conservatives can, it’s puke that comes out. Or, put another way–after taking a deep breath–I’m flabbergasted at what’s going on between the federal government and a private corporation in the land of the free. Or course, as we all know, it’s the land of the free to be stupid, right Donald Trump followers? Which means, it’s not expected that the masses actually comprehend what’s going on in our digital world. That’s why I believe the FBI went public with this issue. The FBI knows that #americants are stupid and will react to this issue based on populism, patriotism or who yells the loudest. These lemmings have long since been driven off the cliff’s edge or rational thought. In fact, when you consider the forum in which a debate about privacy and freedom is taking place, i.e. the united mistakes of #americant, where The Donald, a psycho maniac, is leading the republican party down the path it was always meant to traverse, it’s no wonder that a legal precedence is about to be made regarding liberty and individualism? A precedence that favours government power and the collusion of big tech. Wow. With all that in worst-mind, I’m wondering if 2016 will go down in history as a moment of truth. Based on what we’ve experienced from government up till now, combined with the greed mongering of monopolistic industries who obviously haven’t paid off their government reps enough, we already live in the Minority Report future. Time to figure out how to remove your retinas, baby. Rant on. -Tommi

Links that motivated this post:

 

News ECB German Real Estate Bubble

 

ecb-german-real-estate-bubble
This is a screenshot of google search.

Reason I googled it? Overheard my better-half’s morning news show while she was preparing for her day. She props her iPad on a shelf under the mirror in the hotel bathroom. She streams the news from Germany. Even though we’ve been away from Das Vaterland for just over a week, the saying holds tried & true: you can take her out of her country but you can’t take her country out of… Anywho. During the newscast the word Blase (bubble) was used several times in the context of the German real estate market. This woke me out of my drowsy state as I had a rough night of sleep, got up around 2:30am and tried to worst-write to compensate–but nothing helped. A big segment of the German newscast was the announcement by the ECB of lowered interest rates, which are now near zero, and the consequence that may have on real estate and the suckers who bought in the last few years. Of course, the real reason my eyes popped open was because the news report said only what I’ve been saying for the past three or so years. Vindication is a great source of wake-me-up. Not only am I worst-writer, dear worst-reader, but I’m also an arm-chair economist, a pseudo news debunker and an all-around wannabe polymath. That said, I love it when I’m proven RIGHT. §We started looking at real estate in Germany around seven years ago. Four years ago we moved from Wiesbaden to Cologne where the search continued. One thing held true the whole time we were searching to make the purchase of life-time. Etwas stimmt nicht im Land der über Optimismus. The whole time we were looking to buy a house or a flat it felt as though we were competing with others who purchased on the basis of now or never or panic. I kept getting the feeling, with every agent we spoke to, that something was wrong with the real estate market in Germany. My better half, of course, being the optimist that she is, would have none of my nonsense. She held that the over-priced market (at least she did admit to prices being very odd) was the way it was because Germany was a stable economy and there was Ordnung and the daffodils that bloom during the few days of sunshine in spring look the same in the dark-grey days of the rest of the Germanic year. She never believed me when I told her that the reason we couldn’t fulfil her dream of owning a home (which is still a pretty big deal for most Germans) was because, although we are well-to-do, the housing market in Germany is not. It is in fact inflated, over-valued and preoccupied by a bunch of wannabe real estate sharks name Manfred or Heiner or Bierschen. In order to buy a house in Germany for the past (my worst-estimate) 20 years, you not only had to over come all the ridiculous costs of the bureaucracy and the mafia-like state that made laws that guaranteed that they would also get a share of your dream, but you had to compete with the bubble–and don’t forget all the real estate sharks. No one believed me when I said that there is no justification for the prices of real estate in Germany today. With globalisation and down-sizing rampant in the country, with all inheritance value from the wirtschafwunder used up, where is the money supposed to come from to buy all the real estate? Heck, VW just announced, in the wake of its ridiculous smoke screen that is supposed to hide managements choice to over produce, it’s gonna lay-off over three thousand people by 2017–most of whom are office workers. “Office” workers are supposed to be the ones that can afford to buy real estate. Or? §But like I said, the real estate market hasn’t felt right in Germany for years. Stuff is being built like crazy. It not only felt like there was an over supply of new houses but there was also an over supply of old houses that were being sold for the same price as new houses. Hello! Are you fucking kidding me. And get this. We made an offer on a house two years ago just south of Cologne. After several meetings with the agent we met one last time where I made my offer. I mean, we considered our offer for a few days. We spoke with people about how to do it. We thought we offered a fair price where we hoped negotiations would begin. Yet. We got absolutely no response from the agent. When we finally called him back, although he was supposed to return our first offer, he just said that the owner had decided to rent the place. Rent the place? For real? Ok. Fine. I guess if the owner can’t sell it–because he’s priced it waaaaaaaay to high, he has to then, at the least, rent it–to stop the bleeding of cash he must pay to maintain the mortgage. I turned to my wife and said: this is bullshit, its all a bubble. As of our leaving Germany to move to India for a few years, the guy still hadn’t sold the house. With that in mind, I feel bad for anyone in Germany who bought a house within the last few years believing/thinking that low interest rates were the reason to fulfil the dream. This most recent lowering of ECB rates means buyers will never get any equity out of their house and the price paid was a lie. Good luck suckers. Rant on. -Tommi

Links that motivated this post:

Phallic Symbolism Of Colour Bias And Other Taunts

uncle sam bathing suit

Moments that tell all? Or points in the time-space continuum that hide from view but are always there? One thing stands out from all the 2016 GOP debates. There is something seriously wrong with the mindset that has produced the current iteration of the republican party in the united mistakes of #americant. Double seriously. I mean, this shit’s no longer funny. Or is it? Even to worst-writer, who thinks only in terms of WORST, there are moments where I think things can’t get any…. Enter NOW. Not only is the true face of the republican party being shown in all its ugly, hate-filled glory–along with its blatant racism–but the entire world has now been indelibly impressed with a new level of incivility, #americant style! American men can now dangle their private parts in a show of presidential prowess that has never been witnessed before. I mean, that’s it. The American electoral process can go no lower. Or? Ok. There is the race thing. Which means we can’t go any lower than racism and dicks when it comes to our democracy. No. Wait. That’s can’t be true. Maybe it’s always been this way. What’s new is that The Donald has opened up the secret door where this behaviour has been going on all along. But I digress. §Even though I hate what Reagan did with America one has to admit that thirty years ago isn’t enough time to claim that civility once ruled. Thirty years isn’t that long, now is it? From New Delhi to Hong Kong to Paris to Moscow–this is what people around the globe can talk about when discussing the 2016 election for US president: dicks and unmitigated racism. With that in mind, where else can #americant politics go from here? Through out these modern times of human greed ruling everything and being the sole source of action one can witness other governments, parliaments, democracies hammer out there differences–but have they’ve gone so low as America? Haven’t Russian politicians slugged it out with their fists at times on the floor of their parliament? Haven’t south American elected officials thrown water in each others faces while disagreeing? Well, I guess there are some Americans who feel that we have to put something out there to challenge all those other governments–and their civility. Thank you Donald Trump. Thank you GOP. Now we have dick hanging–thanks to not just my beloved #americant but to those voters who played this game for the last thirty years. Oh my. As a kind of pseudo diplomat I’m gonna have to start thinking of new ways to change the subject when I’m at dinner parties in Bangelore or Bangkok and people ask me about America. Rant on. -Tommi

Links that motivated this post:

Useless Eater From 30k Feet First Class Adoring The View Of #Trump2016 Rampage On…

first class useless eater
I’ll always consider it a fluke being upped to first class last year but I’ll never forget it. What a grand bourgeois experience it was. But I’m almost always fine in eco. Or maybe not.

As I’ve worst-said before, #americant doesn’t deserve #Trump2016 but it has earned it/him. With that in mind, dear worst-reader, I really enjoyed reading the news this morn about the Bush family dropping out of the 2016 race. For that I’m forever grateful to The Donald. And here’s my (ir)rational as to why I’m grateful. As far as I can tell, the Bush family has done at least two generations of damage to my beloved #americant. Alone dipshit Dubya’s tax cuts for the wealthy–an astonishing political achievement when one considers who, i.e. blue collar white people, voted for this guy (twice). The reason two generations are screwed is because–along with these batshit tax cuts–we are stuck in a perpetual war in the middle-east. The reality of paying for both has yet to even be approached. If millennial’s are angry about their future because they are ridden with student debt and can’t get jobs valued enough to pay-off those debts, well, that’s screwed generation #1. Screwed generation #2 is anyone under sixty working for a living. “Prosperity” for the masses who work for a living is simply non-existent. Of course, since I jumped ship over twenty years ago where I said out loud that the results of Reaganomics is an unmitigated disaster, I’ve learned to live a life of comfort, be a father to my son, take care of my hard working wife and live comfortably within rational, debt-free means. Does that make me better than anyone else and worthy of the feeling I’m trying to transcribe in this silly blogpost? Of course not. But it does make my 30k foot flight over my beloved #americant that much more painfully sweet. I found refuge in socialist states on pastures that are less green and thereby the whole time kept peeking out that fuselage window to the grand happenings below–always with tears running down my face because of how much I miss home. And so. All I can (still) say is this: how the hell do the same people that elected dipshit Dubya twice, i.e. angry white blue collar workers + greed monger baby-boomers, now think that The Donald is gonna save them? Seriously? Really? (Short pause.)

Hold a sec. Cough. Gurgle. Chip off shoulder. Go…

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…

I’m just glad that this morn some pretty bad people with a track record of being awful and ugly and evil and war-mongers and murderers… are gone. Hopefully it’ll last and the evil womb of the Bush family can fade away. Go Donald. Go Bernie. Go Hillary!

Good luck suckers.

Rant on.

Links that helped motivate this post:

A Pattern Of Doom, Learning How-To Video, New Refurbished MacBook Air

Reviewing the news this morn. Bored of all the election bullsh*t. When I’m bored of the news I always find myself turning the dial (aka clicking other links). In this case, instead of gawking at pretty cars and pretty sailboats, I clicked through tech news feeds. In it I found something akin to a pattern. But before I get to that, this first. My better half gave me a GoPro for Xmas and with it a note: “Merry Xmas. Love you. Blah, blah, blah. This camera is for our scuba adventures–so no more excuses.” The problem is, I’m a text guy. I don’t know anything about video. But I have complained once or thrice about how we go to all these great dive places around the world and we’re the only ones without a camera or GoPro. Heck, if it weren’t for cellphone cameras I would still not own a means to take pictures. With that in mind, I take threats from my better half very serious. And so. In order to figure out how video works in this digital age and the fact that I won’t be scuba diving for at least another six months, I decided to find something else to do with my new toy. For starts, I made an unboxing and review video of another recent new toy, a 13″ MacBook Air (above). Why? Well, I’ve seen so many of them recently–on account I’ve been shopping for a new laptop. I thought that making a video, then getting the video from camera to Mac, editing it, adding audio/voice-over, is as good a project as any when it comes to learning how to do deal with future scuba material. The first result you can see above. But let me move on. §Allow me to rant about having just purchased yet another Apple product. My previous 2010 13″ MacBook Pro was the last of the Core2Duo, and it served me very, very well over the past five+ years. I was actually hoping to be able to replace a laptop with an iPad. Boy was I wrong. I bought a refurbished iPad4 about eighteen months ago. It came with iOS7 and it was great. (Stop giggling.) At first I was really tickled with the iPad. There was a short period while using it that I thought I could replace my ageing laptop with it. But then I followed Apple’s updates and by the time I got to iOS 8, doom set in. Also, I’ve been reading lately that Apple is having some problems selling iPads and iPhones. Allow me to thread this (see links below). The bad news is, I don’t give a hoot if Apple swims or drowns at this point. I’ve thrown so much cash at them over the past ten years, it’d be worth it watching them implode. Seriously. Apple is only the best of the worst (of a horrible industry). Second, I think I can tell you why Apple is having trouble (even though it’s trouble any modern corporation wishes they had). First, Apple screwed the pooch not recognising how the iPad should be more than just a digital consumption device. Second, OS updates constantly degrade the user experience to the point of not wanting to use it all. Third, because of the closed eco-system that supplies the iPad (and all iOS devices) software, I’m even more turned off. Today my iPad4 serves as a Kindle reader and an Amazon Prime video streamer. With iOS 9 the iPad is so slow it reminds me of my iPhone 4s–which I just replaced with a 6s–but I won’t do the same with an iPad. Obviously it cannot replace a laptop. Oh well. §The iPad debacle does raise a question: what should replace my old MacBook Pro? Long story short, I bought a refurbished 2015 13″ MacBook Air w/i7 cpu, 8GB ram and 250 super fast SSD. Fine and dandy, eh. So far so cool. Yet I couldn’t help but notice one thing through out the buyer’s process. I’m a bit of stickler for making these kinds of buys. Hence I really dig Apple’s refurbished website. I regularly watch both the US and German version of it. For at least two months I constantly watched the website to see if I could make a deal. Heck, I remember last spring that the US Apple refurbished site offered three and four year old 15″ MacBook Pros with up to $1000 off. I just couldn’t justifying buying such a workstation-like device. Unfortunately I didn’t get that lucky with the German site while shopping for something a bit more affordable. But I did notice that, of the 13″ MBAs that I wanted and were offered during two months prior to my purchase, they were always available. Could that mean Apple was unable sell Mac hardware through 2015? Or were there really that many people returning their new purchases? I won’t get into whether or not Apple is on its way back down the corporate rat-hole–but I do remember the 90’s before and after Steve Jobs. It’s just that, as far I’m concerned, iPads really suck these days and the only way to get you to buy one is if they make your old one obsolete. The same, btw, for iPhones–although I think Apple put more effort into making sure battery better controls those sales. Hence, the Apple Watch is a joke, the new iPhone battery case is an embarrassment and I also read that they already have AppleTV4s in the refurbished store. Yeah. Maybe things have peaked. §There is something odd going on in the tech world these days. I did a lot of shopping around before making my choice to buy an MBA. I looked at Dell’s XPS, Lenovo Thinkpads and even the Microsoft Surface. I was VERY impressed with Microsoft’s Surface device–until I looked at pricing and battery life. Almost two grand for a pseudo laptop slash tablet hybrid? $2000? Hello! In fact, for my use, the most competitively priced device that fit my needs is the refurbished MBA with high-specs and a 300€ discount. Ok, the monitor isn’t the newest thing around but it is more than adequate. And don’t get me wrong. I’m not a spec nut. I don’t need the latest and greatest processor, screen, ports, etc. Yet I was really surprised at the pricing and quality of laptop equipment out there. Which brings me to the pattern I think I saw this morning while going through recent technology news and figuring out whether or not I’ll be able to edit scuba video. §What the hell is going on with this industry? Is it in the middle of a flux, a paradigm shift, a cough and burp? Surface devices from behemoth Microsoft are plagued with firmware errors and they are priced as though Microsoft just invented computing. Dell devices are still boring as hell–although I thought the XPS was cool except for that 16:9 screen that looks like it belongs in a view finder of a video camera from 1994. I don’t trust Lenovo anymore as they’ve gotten too far away from the mystique they once had when I used Thinkpads while working for the man. The Google is manipulating https in order to secure future ad revenue. And then there’s the news that Twitter is in trouble? Really? Twitter? A company that allows the digital world to communicate with 140 characters can get itself into trouble? Ok. With that in mind, I need to get out of this post. I digress.

Rant on.

-Tommi

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The Authoritarians

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After (proudly) watching (left-wing biased) highlights on the youtubes from the latest freak-show aka the republican party debate, a new thought popped into my head this morn. Well, actually, two thoughts popped in. The first: Winners. Not winners in the sense of winning but winners in the sense of everyone wants to be winners when there is no winning anymore. To be really, really honest, I don’t know if there ever was winning in the system that political populists have curated over the past thirty (or so) years, but certainly a few people have profited from the freak-show. What does it mean these days to be a WINNER? It almost reminds me of Charlie Sheen’s WINNING period (see vid link below). The whole country is running around hiding its AIDS (of the mind) but proselytising that it can’t lose. It’s so obvious listening to republican candidates blab on and on and on that the thing they are selling, while embodying the complete opposite, is the fact that everybody is and still can be a winner in this system if yet another republican is elected. The candidates and the voters are so clueless to the level of failure that they espouse it’s as though they were on top of a crowd of people stuck in a well in the middle of a barren desert and no one below them can give it a second thought whether or not they’ll get out. §The second thing that crossed my mind: Authoritarians. I know. I know. It’s an adjective so it doesn’t need to be capitalised. But go with me for a sec here. Among other (political) things, America is an authoritarian system. The authority in that system is not specifically a person, though. I mean, America doesn’t have a Putin or a Franco or a Mugabe (see link below). No. America has something better. In fact, America’s something-better is so powerful, omnipotent, that people give in to it as though they need it to breath. Now don’t get me wrong. I can’t emphasise this enough. Americans and the American way of life, say what you will about their/its destructive nature, probably has the best thing out there–compared to other countries. Yet the people of America bow so deeply to this authority that one need not even ask the question regarding who it is they bow to. It’s obvious the people of North Korea bow to a supreme leader. Even Russians love the mystique of Vladimir Putin. But do Americans love these republican candidates? Did they love Dubya? Do they really hold Ronald Reagan on such a high perch? Americans might feel some passion for The Donald but do they really want to be below him as he tries to get them out of the well and onto the barren desert? Oh wait. The Donald wasn’t even in the debate last night. Or was he? Listening to the top polling candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio is a mind boggling thing. These bed-wetter men represent better than anyone before them, even dipshit Dubya, the potential to bow before authority as if there is no tomorrow. Yet, it’s still not a person that Americans submit themselves to. Indeed. Ideas are powerful things. And so. I’ve concluded in my morning thoughts–perhaps a form of therapy after listening to republicans–that Americans are ALL Authoritarians. But. Again. I’m not using the word as adjective. No. Americans are nouns. And that’s not all. What I got out of watching the debate–together with what I’ve seen from the other republican debates and listening for years at how liberals are demonised–is that Americans want few things above and beyond money, money, money. In order to get any of that money, Americans want to be subservient to (an) authority. They want an authority to rule over them–because there’s some money it. It is the only way for (republican) Americans–especially those whose brains are so tainted from right-wing-talk and conservative ideology–to be able to grasp the world that they have subjected themselves to that is solely defined by money–and that they clearly cannot understand. And. Again. It is not a person that Americans want to worship as an Authority. It is something much simpler than a living, breathing, corruptible sinner that they lust for. Indeed. Americans are Authoritarians because they want to be ruled, controlled, guided by the almighty greed-dollar. What is clear after all these years of conservative rule (considering that conservative rule has dominated government for more than thirty years irrespective of who is president), it must be extremely difficult for people to accept so much failure. Following conservative ideology, whether given by talk radio on things like taxes, small government or abortion, etc., or facilitating the election of people who are just like the ones on last night’s debate stage, it must be noted that it takes much longer to burn this house down. In that vein, I guess it’s good thing there are so many ditch-diggers who still vote after listening to Limbaugh and faux news twenty-four-seven. The people who will continue steering America on its steadfast path will go down with the ship, they will burn down the house, they will destroy the school yards sandbox before they give up what they’ve done. Yes. They will burn the fucking house down. And with that in mind, I should take better care about thoughts popping into my head in the morning. Now it’s time to say something about democrats. Or? Rant on. -Tommi

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