Social Media Saves the World or Youtubers UNITE!

TeamTrees 20 Million Trees by 2020

     Okay, I know this isn't my usual brand of tating, but this is a movement that I fully support and think that can do an amazing thing.  Not too long ago, the extremely popular Youtuber, Mr. Beast reached the amazing goal of 20 million subscribers.  In response to a massive post barrage suggesting that he celebrate by planting 20 million trees by 2020 to help with Climate Change, Beast did a video where he and his team plus hundreds of volunteers spent two days planting as many trees as they could.  Then Beast reached out to other Youtube content creators to help with his goal.  The response was astounding with a multitude of creators from all walks coming together for this goal.  The result was Teamtrees.org where they partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation Arbor Day to plant the 20 Million trees.  As of this writing, the massive movement has reached almost 4 million trees planted.

     So how can you help with this incredible movement?  Simple, for every dollar donated to TeamTrees, the Arbor Day Foundation will plant one tree.  If you donate $20.00, then that is 20 trees planted.  $100.00? 100 Trees!  It's as simple as that.  I am not a Youtube content creator, but we all can do our part.  Got a facebook page?  Post the https://teamtrees.org/ link!  Twitter Account?  https://teamtrees.org/  If you have any sort of social life, post the link.  Tell your friends!  Tell your family!  Tell your enemies!  Tell complete strangers!  Just tell people.  This is your chance to make the world a better place.

End of Rant

Fairness is not situational or Sauce for the Goose.

 Do wanna know what is the number one thing that really HONKS ME OFF? Pandas with machine guns! The second thing that really chaffs my bunions is hypocrisy. The world of politics is full of it (Well to be precise, the whole dang world is full of it, but that would be a much longer Tate and I really don't have either the attention span or the energy to pull that one off.) and I really am getting really annoyed by all of it. That and Unsweetened Ice Tea drinkers. Really, what freaking planet are you nutters from?

So big in the news recently is rape/sexual assault/harassment. We had Brett “I LIKE BEER” Kavanaugh making his bid for the Supremes, which to me is stupid. I mean whitest dude ever trying to join a legendary Black group? I mean that is just stup...what? Oh Supreme Court! That makes much more sense. Sorry about that. Before that we had Donald “Stable Genius” Trump being accused of improper sexual conduct. Heck, before that we had Bill “There is a Sax in my pocket” Clinton with the numerous accusations of a dozen or so women. I mean, you can't swing a Mitch McConnell without hitting someone who has been accused of sexual misconduct.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not mocking the victims of sexual assault or making light of their claims. Quite the opposite, I believe that anyone whether they be Male, Female or Eggplant should be heard and taken seriously when they claim to be the victims of a sexual attack. (As a side note, I also believe that those who are accused should be considered innocent until proven guilty and treated as fairly under the law.) What I am mocking is the rampant hypocrisy that is being shown over and over again by...well pretty much everyone.

So, the most current contender for “Most inappropriate advances made in a career” Oscar is Joe “King of the Memes” Biden. He has been accused by (at last count) 3 women for making advances that “made them feel uncomfortable.” Nothing has been proven yet and old Joe deserves the benefit of the doubt until proof is found, BUT (My gawd! What a big but!) that is not what this rant is about. (You know I have spent more time telling you what this rant isn't about than I have actually saying what it is about? And yet you are still reading? Well I assume you are still reading. For all I know, you nodded off after the first paragraph or went and got coffee. If you did, make mine extra strong with heavy cream.) As per usual, both sides are up in arms over all of it and as per usual, the hypocrisy is flying higher than Dumbo after somebody mixed his hay up with marijuana. (Cannot believe I spelled that right first try.)

So, before preceding further lets recap in what I like to call A Brief History of Hypocrisy. (All due respect to Dr. Hawking.) Bill “Getting Ahead in Office” Clinton has been accused by a bakers dozen of women of rape/Sexual Assualt/inappropriate actions. Now, none of the attacks have ever been proven, but many of the accusers stories are telling. So Conservatives have pretty much condemned the man as the most evil, lecherous demon that ever walked the Earth even though there is still no hard evidence to prove he did it. Liberals, on the other hand, have pretty much ignored the accusers and even vilified them while raising Billy Boy up on a pedestal so high the man should be dead from nose bleeds.

Fast forward to Trump's push to become POTUS. Another bakers dozen of women come forward and accuse Hair Furrer of rape/sexual assault/etc. Again, no hard evidence to prove or disprove their stories. Here the hypocrisy teeter totter miraculously flips. Conservatives who believed the Clinton Accusers whole heartedly scream, “THERE'S NO PROOF! WHY DID THEY WAIT SO LONG TO COME FORWARD? THEY ARE JUST AFTER HIS MONEY! ITS ALL A PLOT!” Meanwhile, the Liberals who cried, “(Insert previous screams here)” over Clinton's accusers were now on the “WE BELIEVE THEM/HE'S EVIL!” train.

Ok we can skip over “Beer” Brett since we covered him already and move on to Meme Joe Green. (See what I did there?) So, before continuing, I do want to point out that the accusations I have seen so far (May have missed one or two so don't yell at me) against Biden definitely fall under the “Inappropriate actions” section of this rant. His actions do not sound overtly sexual to me, just the actions of a old dude from an old time doing what old dudes did. I don't say this to excuse his actions, just to point out that he (As far as I know) did not rape anyone or even “Grab them by the posse!” (That is what Trump said, right?) However, the Hypocrisy Hour Glass of Doom has turned once again.

Liberals are saying things like “Well, that is just the way things were back then” and “He didn't mean anything by doing that” and even the tried and true “If this actually happened, why did they wait so long to report it?” Conservatives are predictably going with believing the accusers and doing everything they can to destroy Biden because he may well be one of the few serious threats to the Toupee that walks like a man getting a second term.

See, here is my thing (OMIGAWD, put that away!). You can't let your moral compass be guided by your politics. If you think that the accusers in sexual assault cases should be believed no matter what, that is okay. It is not precisely fair, but it is okay. If you believe that the accused should be believed no matter what, that is also okay. Again, not fair, but okay. At least you're consistent. However if your morals flip flops with your politics, then you are a hypocritical piece of crap and that is not okay.

Because of the “why did they wait so long/just in it for money and publicity/etc” groups on both sides, actual victims of sexual assault are often too afraid or too ashamed to come forward after an attack. When no one believes them and they are mocked and ridiculed, they feel safer just keeping quiet and living with the horror and shame some animal forced upon them. It is time we started treating possible victims fairly while still protecting the possibly innocent accused. I made a lot of wise cracks and jokes in this blog, but the actual subject is not funny or a joke. It is high time we started to give the victims the help they deserve and punish the monsters so severely that it shows we care. It is also high time, we remember the truth of “Innocent until proven guilty” and protect the accused until such time as it has been proven they are monsters. I actually let the vast majority of hypocrisy go because it would be just too exhausting to cover it all, but this hypocrisy should not be ignored because either way, some innocent person is going to be hurt.

End of Rant

Yay it's over...wait..3 weeks...WTF or Can we just move to Apocalypse Now please?

 Okie Dokie, so our Brilliant.Ultimate.Lavish.Leaders.Serving.Honorably.In.Teamwork (Most people won't get it) have reached an agreement at over a month of the impasse to reopen the Federal Government...for THREE WEEKS! Pause for a second before reading more and ponder that. 30ish days later with over 800,000 people suffering from lack of pay and the Coast Guard not being paid, the mentally challenged monkeys that supposedly run this country reached an agreement that lasts a shorter time than the freaking shut down!

No matter who you blame for the shutdown, this should honk you off. Can you grasp how ridiculous and useless our elected officials have to be to not even be able to compromise and work together enough just to keep the government running? I mean forget working together to fix our failing infrastructure, lack of decent medical care and education. Forget passing laws that might possibly benefit everyone or getting our troops home from places they should have never been. All that is (possibly) complicated and contentious which might be more than the Reboobicans and Damnocrats can handle. No, how about just working together ever how briefly to give the nation they are supposed to be running enough cash to keep going?

I dunno, maybe I am asking too much. Maybe my expectations are unreasonably high. I mean, maybe there are nuances that I just can't see. I mean it's not like there are dozens of other nations that actually manage to operate despite their political differences on the most basic level of actually keeping their governments open. I mean it's not like the US is one of, if not the only nation that regularly shuts itself down at least once a year. It's not like...wait it is like that? Huh, who knew?
Now it is easy to blame Trump for this (Mainly because a lion's share of the fault is his, but moving on.) or “those people.” It's even easier to blame individuals like Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi because they are the visible and vocal faces you see on TV. It is easy to blame the nutters on both sides for being “hardline” and “Obstructionists,” but a handful of individuals would not be enough to derail everything and let this insanity keep happening. No, the blame must lie solely on the group as a whole.

The number of actual hardliners in each party is relatively small. The majority (IMNSHO) is reasonable (Word used very loosely) individuals that could prolly find some common ground to work together at least on the simple stuff. The problem lies in that these reasonable people are too afraid to buck the others or anger their constituents out of fear of not being reelected. So they refuse to be seen “Colluding with the enemy” and generally keep their mouths shut. The few that do speak out are ridiculed or ignored.

Over the 38 years I have been voting (and yes I have voted in every election), I have seen my expectations diminish about what I expect from our “Government.” The innocent dreams of my halcyon youth of a strong, decent government working together to make everyone's lives better has pretty much eroded down to “At least keep the damned thing open and running.” Despite my cynical, snarky and abusive appearance (The scientific term is CSA syndrome), I really do believe that most people are decent, moderately intelligent and caring individuals (For the record, I also believe in Santa, the Easter Beagle and the Tooth Fairy who still owes me $5.00 for that last tooth.) and that we could all work together for the common good. However, how can we even begin to hope to work together when our most visible representatives spend more time flinging (metaphorical usually) feces at each other than actually doing their jobs?

As stated many times in the past, I don't like Republicans or Democrats and I am leery of Libertarians simply because Rand Paul's hair is just too perfect. (I suspect he is an android or maybe a Space Lizard in a human suit.) I think “Liberals” and “Conservatives are too blinded by their own political dogma to actually agree on anything. I think, in its current condition, our government is destined to collapse completely unless all of our “leaders” can stop being morons and get their crap together. Hopefully, this will happen or things are only going to get worse.

End of Rant

GIANT METEORITE IN 2020!

We'll be back! or Are You Syrias?

So the current uproar is over the proposed removal of US troops from Syria and perhaps Afghanistan too. Both sides are all a tither about it and the Liarberterians are all "WAHOO!!! GOOD START!" Whereas I personally lean towards that attitude myself, I am greatly amused by all the hullabaloo over it? Why, do you ask? (Doesn't matter if you actually asked because I am gonna tell you anyway. I am kind of mean that way.) Simple, because even if we pull out every single trooper/trooperette from everywhere in the ME, it won't last.

Anyone who actually believes that we have massive amounts of troops and materials stationed in Sand Central Station (see what I did there?) out of some sense of helping keep peace in the globe (Or disk depending on your personal beliefs) or out of some grand fear that these small nations (Seriously, most of the ME could fit inside of Texas and still have room left over for England.) might someday overwhelm us with their massive forces prolly owns at least one bridge in either Brooklyn or California. We have continuously invaded, bombed, shot and hockey pucked the ME for as long as we have for one reason, resources.

Whether its oil or rare metals or Wodan knows what else, we have been “intervening” in the Middle East for a very long time. We have installed more puppets than Jim Henson and could finance Universal Health care for...well the Universe with all of the money we have spent on these wasted wars. We have invaded, “liberated” and pulled out over and over again but after occasional and very brief periods, we just rushed back in and did it all over again. Really doesn't matter who has been in charge or which party was running things, somehow we always find an excuse to go back. I mean, look at Obama. He was hailed as a peaceful man and promised to get us out of the ME conflicts, but he continued and increased old W's drone strike program and kept troops on the ground.

The problem the “Get our troops out of there” groups are facing is simple. The ME has something we want and even if we don't need that something right now, we MIGHT need it in sometime in the future, so our troops WILL be going back prolly sooner than later in the latest Enduring Liberating Free Somethingornother. (ELFS in military lingo.) So IF Trump does pull troops out and bring them home, enjoy the respite, but don't really count on it lasting longer than a Big Mac on his desk.

Child Prostitution by any other name...or Sauce for gooses

So I have seen no less than 5 of my "friends" here posting pieces about an 11 or 12-year-old Drag Queen who "stripped for pedophiles at a Gay club for money." (Taken verbatim from one of the "news stories" posted.) The wording of the best of the pieces was so ridiculously biased that it hurt my headparts just to read it and the worst offender (which the quote is taken from) was about as anti-LGBT as you can get.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a little disturbed by a child performing burlesque in front of adults, but you folks are just frothing at the mouth disturbed. But, believe it or not, your posting of inaccurate and in two cases outright lies (Chaz Carsten, you don't count. Your history of trying to honk people off and make the yell precedes you.) is not why I am writing this little missive. No dear reader, I am writing this because of the SHEER HYPOCRISY of some of you.

The lady who posted the article that the quote is from is my perfect example. If you go to her page and scroll far enough, you will find lots and lots of posts featuring clips from such shows as "Toddlers and Tiaras" and "Dance Moms" where "loving parents" essentially prostitute out their underage children in hopes of fame and fortune. If you check YouTube, you can find loads of videoes showing little girls ranging from ages 4 to 12 parading around in brief outfits and acting in a very sexualized way towards judges and cameras. Hells the one of the 6-year-old dressed up as Madonna "singing" Like a Virgin made ME blush.

The hypocrisy in this is mind-blowing. Not only is this sort of child prostitution accepted as normal, but it is actually encouraged. So if you are okay with a 6-year-old little girl prancing around the stage in a tiny two-piece bumping and grinding for the judges but you are offended when an 11-year-old does the same thing for other adults, then congratulations, you are a hypocrite. Now eagerly await all of the people trying to explain how its "different" and how I am "wrong."

End of Rant

Us against Them only benefits Those people or This blog will prolly bomb.

Whenever a crime or atrocity occurs, the knee-jerk reaction of all sides is almost always to blame everyone who fits into the same group as the person committing the crime. A madman who also happens to be a Liberal walks into a school and kills kids and immediately Conservatives scream about how evil all Liberals are. A Nutjob who happens to be a Conservative shoots up a Planned Parenthood or attacks a pizza place and POOF Liberals are all over how bad Conservatives are. Any time someone does something bad, people will do this. It is like there is this almost pathological mindset that forces these people into blaming the whole for the actions of the one. Conversely though, when one of their own does the same thing, they immediately state that all of them aren't like that.

See, here is the thing. (No I won't put it away. It's my thing and I can wave it around if I want to. See? WAVE! WAVE!) As a general rule (There are a few exceptions historically speaking) “People” don't commit crimes. All of the Liberals in the country didn't snatch up a gun and walk into the school to shoot people. All of the Conservatives didn't try to shoot up a pizza joint because they believed it was the headquarters of a Pedophile ring. In the majority of these cases, it was a person with a tenuous grip on reality who committed these crimes and THEY are the only ones who should be blamed for them.

Take the most recent instance of this sort of thing. Bombs are being mailed to various Democratic/Liberal figures. So far none of them have done any harm but at least a half dozen have been found so far. Immediately, both sides are pointing fingers at the other and saying it is some sort of conspiracy to make the opposing side look bad. Damnocrats are saying this is a deliberate attack by the Cantservatives to try and frighten them before the elections. Cantservatives are saying this is a conspiracy by Damnocrats to make them look bad and sway people away before the election.

Now I have no idea which side is right. This might well be an attempt to make the Republican party look bad to hurt them during the election. It might also be an attempt to scare off Democratic voters and supporters for the same reason. Heck, it might just be Bomb Season and no one mentioned it. The only thing I am moderately certain of is that if and when the actual identities of the bomber/s comes out, they won't be part of some grand, nationwide conspiracy funded by George Soros or the Penis brothers. (I am sorry but ever since I heard how their name is pronounced, I have neither been able to type or say it with a straight face. Of course, I still giggle when someone pronounces Uranus.) If the truth comes out, I bet all of Ben Baker's best jerky and any donuts that John McDuffie has that he/she/it are more than a little disturbed with few friends and possibly living in their parent's basement. (Unless they are actually from Florida as some reports are suggesting. Not a lot of basements down there.)

What we need to do is stop blaming the Whole for the actions of the few and start focusing on the people actually committing these crimes. The fact that a school shooter might have been a Liberal Democrat is just one small factor into why they commit the crime. The fact that some old White dude that shot up Planned Parenthood happened to be a Conservative Republican is much less important than exactly what mental illness drove him to do it. Once we stop trying to blame everyone we dislike for the actions of individuals, we might just make progress into being a better nation.

End of Rant

Crunch time, People or "It's the End of the World and We know it."

So I have really been losing pretty much all hope for this country for well over a decade. Illegal wars disguised as righteous fury in multiple countries ground down my hopes. Terrorism in the form of drone strikes and bombs that killed 1000s of innocent civilians dashed my dreams on the rocks of reality. Blatant and poorly disguised racism and hatred suddenly becoming the norm set fire to the bloody corpse. Nothing I saw really gave me much hope for the future of America. I have pretty much reached the point where I am ready for it all to go to Hell, burn down so maybe it can be rebuilt again with fewer mistakes. I have pretty much decided that this mid term election will be the tipping point where I either reserve some blind and foolish hope that people actually care or just say EFF it and break out the marshmallows.

“Why this mid term election,” my earnest reader may ask (HI STAN!)? Why no the upcoming 2020 election? The answer is simple. See right now EVERYONE is pissed off. The Right is pissed off at the Left, The Left is pissed off at the Right. Moderates are pissed off at everyone. Damnocrats are screaming, “IF WE DON'T RETAKE THE HOUSE AND SENATE, WE'RE ALL DOOMED!” Reboobicans are screaming, “IF THE DAMNOCRATS RETAKE THE HOUSE AND SENATE, WE ARE ALL DOOMED!” Moderates are...well Moderates are worried if someone doesn't refill their coffee they are doomed. The important thing to take from this is that both sides are absolutely convinced that if “The Good Guys” don't get up off their asses and vote in November, then “The Bad Guys” will gain/keep absolute power and totally destroy the country.

So if EVERYONE on both sides is convinced and riled up about their precious MERRICA! Being destroyed by “those people,” then come that happy day in November everyone in the US capable of voting (Don't worry the dead folks have people voting for them.) should get up off their plastic covered couches and take the hour or so needed to cast their votes. I mean, if y'all are really convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that this might well be the end of “your” way of life, it only makes sense that (Loving America the way you do) you'd do your civic duty (Heh I said civic) and try to stop it from happening.

When the Great Orange Dope got elected, Damnocrats spent months screaming that he would destroy America and that he had to be stopped. Reboobicans spent months screaming that he was the only hope America had. (I spent months screaming for fresh jerky, but that is another story.) Still, when election day came, voter turn out was truly abysmal. Admittedly there was a moderately higher turnout in the Angry and Unreasonable Old White People bracket (AUOWP for short), but for the most part what should have been a monumental turnout was more like the turnout for Donnie Dumpsterfire's Inauguration Day. (Sorry couldn't resist.) People proved that, despite all of the rage and screaming, they really just didn't give a fugg.

So now, we have had twoish years of Hair Furrer and his cronies being in charge. Some people think he is destroying the country and dragging us all down with him. Others think that he is the second coming of Anita Bryant (What? She REALLY liked Orange stuff!) and will save the world. We have had two years of both sides stoking the fires of hate and volumes of unreasoning diatribe preaching doomsday if THEY aren't defeated in the Mid Terms. If you believe Social Media and other sources, the whole country is riled up and ready to do something. (Cannot believe I just said “believe Social Media” with a straight face. Meh, blame the drugs.)

So if it is true that the Dims and the Boobs are both honked off and ready to do something, then that means the voter turnout this November should be truly EPIC. It means that we won't see voter participation levels since Tennessee voted to make Whiskey the national bird. If all of y'all are truly worried about the fate of the nation, then that means we should see 60%, 70% or even 80% voter participation and mean on all sides Damnocrat, Reboobican, Liarbertarian, Mooderate, Martian. If, however, all I see are the same pathetic numbers we have seen in the past, then it will tell me all I need to know and will pretty much drain the life out of any real hope I have for America.

It is simple. No matter what your political beliefs are, vote. No matter what direction you think the country should be headed, vote. Even if you don't like the candidates, vote. (Write in your own, vote for the Green Party, make some name up, hell vote for Mickey Mouse) Voting is both a right and a privilege that a lot of good people laid down their lives for you to have. It is your (albeit limited) chance to have some say in just how the government is going to screw you over and whether or not they will use lotion when they do it. Prove to me that the outrage is real and not something for show. I will vote this November just like I have voted in every Local, State and National election that has happened ever since I turned 18.