20161113 Cellar Raid

Cracked open a 2015 Maillard's Odyssey from Sierra Nevada.
This is a Barrel Aged Ale we bought las Christmas at the brewery.

It is very mellow and has a ton of chocolate flavor mixed in with a surprisingly light texture.
Quite good.

5% for Public Funding is NOT Libertarian Hypocrisy

Time to make things clear for those who don't understand simple s**t:

Some people have bashed Libertarians as being hypocritical for wanting to get to 5% in order to get public financing. This is complete horses**t for the following 2 simple reasons:

1. 5% gets you guaranteed ballot access so you don't have to spend valuable campaign money just trying to navigate the barriers that the 2 major parties put in the way of getting on the ballot.

2. The "public" money, is actually PUBLIC! It's not involuntary taxes extorted out of your paycheck and spent for s**t you don't want just because Congress wants to pander for a few votes. It is the $3 that a few people VOLUNTARILY divert away from the Federal cesspool and SPECIFICALLY designate to be used by candidates for President.

Do some research. The parties have managed to subvert this fund to pay for their conventions, but they don't take the campaign money because it limits how much they can get from lobbyists and PACs - remember, Obama promised to take public financing and then backed out when he found out how much sleazy money it would cost him (gross oversimplification, but it highlights how campaigns are only paying lip service to getting money out of politics - what they mean is getting money out of their opponent's politics...but I digress.)

Ray on Brats

I feel as Americans have become a bunch of brats...

...disagree?

Almost every single political figure that had any traction throughout this general election cycle had given us only false promises, anger (both sides), status quo speeches, or entitlement laced decorative words that called to our inner spoiled child and that child said "yes, I deserve that."

Here we are with a social security system destined to fail a generation from now... our longest war(s) in history and a Keynsian mounting pile of debt with a currency that is valued on faith alone.

Faith in a system that continues to let us down.

A foreign policy that is foreign to the remnants of policy and we say just let us keep our wifi up.... let me hold on to my phone and things that I do not need.

Let me eat my over priced over saturated unhealthy frozen meal and tie my kids to their IPad parents.

We've taken so many steps ahead... we are actually falling behind.

Just let me have my Rangers and give me shit... and don't give any one else who I deem is less deserving.

So when we complain about our options know that we created them because no one wants to hear the goddam truth:

1. Work hard
2. Some people have higher barriers to overcome and they are instituted unfairly based on their religion, color, orientation, gender and socioeconomic class... the very fact that these institutions lay hidden in the shadows of society does not mean they do not exist... it means only that they are antithetical to the Constitution.
3. Earn your way brick by brick and call to attention when your countrymen is forced to carry more.
4. There is a God. But He is not at the seat of Government. Any attempt to place Him there will corrupt His message.
5. If you want freedom, share it.
6. Guns are your right, not your toy. Responsible and humble gun ownership is the way to preserve that right.
7. Illegal guns are not registered but there are far too many ways for guns to get in the hands of people who wish only to impede on people's right to live. Strict enforcement of laws already in existence is the first step to greater gun control.
8. No one should be forced to choose whether they should see a doctor or pay the electric bill.... however Obamacare sucks... and so does the whole American health industry.
9. The rich have a right to keep the spoils of their, or their parents, or their grandparents earned wealth. However... are you fucking serious that like 300 families own a good portion of the nation's wealth... what are we Rome?
10. Abortion. Tough one for me for I believe in the rights of Women. However I also believe that life begins at conception and that that person has a right to live. With that said... Planned Parenthood is not full of ghouls and monsters. We should reform standing abortion regulation and not make it an issue of a right... but an issue of the right thing to do.
11. OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IS A JOKE. Less 5 billion dollar jets that are way over budget and mor COMPREHENSIVE school funding.
12. Let people in. Let them in... get over it whitey. Let people have an easier path to citizenship.
13. Bombing doesn't solve problems...bombing punishes problem starters and sometimes we have got to Negan the barbarians because that is the only language they understand... but let's not kid ourselves...if we want to solve problems we better start offering solutions that don't end with swarms of a population dead.

14. Your memes don't convince anybody... they're just sound bytes that make you a little dumber every day.

15. I just want my country to allow me to be the best husband and father and son I can be. Don't give me opportunity...get out of the way and allow me to find it myself. I'll buy my own shit if I want it....

Yet, take care of those who are incapable. Help those who need it and deliver them unto a path that they too can say... get out of my way I'm going to try and be the best person I can.

Educate, empathize, lead, love and do not enable. Let those who are capable suffer their own inability to lay the smallest offering of sacrifice, selflessness and drive at the altar of freedom.

Losing a Billion...

As the Super Tax Genius, I feel a need to dispel a myth about Trump "losing" a billion dollars. This should not be read as a defense of his policies, personality, or honesty.

In the tax world, you lose or gain money on a tax year basis. It doesn't mean the money is gone, just that you spent more in one year than you made. This is common and typical.

When you make an investment, you want to make a better return than you could have if you had just left the money in the bank. The higher the risk, the bigger return you want.

Big businesses spend a lot of money trying to make money, and the returns often take many years to come back.

Trump "lost" money in the tax parlance, but it is a better term to say he spent it. Until he makes the money he spent back, he has no "gain" to tax. Once he makes his billion back, he pays taxes on everything above it.

The same principle works with smaller numbers. You spend $1000 bucks in your business, and if you make $100, you pay no taxes. Make $1500, and you pay taxes on $500, not $1500. It could take a while to make that $1000 back, but, until you do, you haven't made any money.

On a separate note, all those articles about the pentagon "losing" 6 billion dollars are misleading. They can't account for what they spent it on, but they know it was spent and that the very large majority at least spent correctly by law. They just didn't do the paperwork right. Messed up, but the 6 billion dollars isn't just "gone" as some would have you believe.

Gun to the Head Post Update

Reposting this, not because it's 100% accurate, but because it's the reason I changed my Gun to the Head Clinton vs. Trump vote to: Pull the Fucking Trigger!

We have a serial misogynist vs. a rape apologist, and that's the friendliest interpretation you can make unless you are hopelessly partisan.

The two candidates and their teams that you have foisted upon us are so truly awful, so despicable in their attacks and deplorable lack of ethics that we actually have to discuss things like Rape, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment and all manner of other disgusting things in the context of a PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION! Fuck all of you for this.

People I know and care about have been victims of sexual assault, rape and sexual harassment and now they have to live through two of the most evil and disgusting parties slinging mud and accusations back and forth, dredging up the horrors they faced,feared, and thought they might have gotten over.

I didn't need this bullshit to want to vote for Gary Johnson, and I don't care who you vote for as long as it's not the King and Queen of Awful, but this is beyond the pale.

Fuck Trump. Fuck Clinton. Fuck this Election. Fuck You if you think any of this bullshit is helping. I don't care who gets elected enough to engage in this Big Fat Bucket of Fuck.

October Surprises

We've reached that point in the election cycle where my standard of proof goes WAAAAAY up.
Anything damaging that comes up now will likely have no chance of being rebutted effectively, even if it turns out to be completely false.  (Dan Rather/George Bush Killian documents)
Campaigns have been pulling this crap for years, but have lately turned it into an artform.  And the unbelievable levels of scumminess in these 2 campaigns makes it likely to be even worse.  So here's where I am:

1. Someone claims something - not listening.
2. Someone releases evidence from non-solid sources - not listening.
3. Someone heavily partisan releases something - not listening.
4. Someone releases heavily edited or redacted "evidence" - I'm skeptical
5. Someone releases something that looks too good (bad) to be true, but is written or recorded - I'm skeptical, but checking it out
6. Someone releases evidence that might be easily forged or manipulated with no backup - I'm skeptical, but checking it out.
7. Someone releases evidence that's not easily forged or manipulated - I'm listening
8. Someone releases good evidence that's backed up by other testimony - I'm starting to think I might believe you.

Obviously, the reliability of the source and the amount of evidence matters.
Wikileaks falls into category's 5 through 7, but I give them extra credit because they have been remarkably accurate lately.

Sexual assault allegations fall in the first category, which sucks, because if they are true, the assaulter should rot in hell.  That said, if it takes allegations of sexual assault to finally get you to realize Trump is truly awful, you are willfully ignoring evidence.  (Hillary sucks too).

On Racism...uh, oh

This post is ultimate stream of unconsciousness.  It reflects my thoughts RIGHT THIS SECOND, unedited, uncensored, and slightly influenced by alcohol.  Feel free to point out insensitivity, inaccuracy, and stupidity, but try not to hold a grudge.

If you don't think it's a hell of a lot easier being white in America than being black, then you're an idiot, and can stop reading.
If you don't think that blacks suffer indignities and obstructions on a daily basis, then you're an idiot, and can stop reading.
If you're white, and think you can accurately portray what a black person faces...
If you are white, and aren't thankful that you don't have to put up with that kind of bullshit...
If you think racism isn't alive and well...

If you think that because I'm white that I don't have a voice in this discussion, or that you can shut me up by saying, "Check your privilege", then you can join the idiots discussed above.

If you pass the above tests, read on...

If you think the government is going to solve the problems of racism in America, then let's talk.

As usual, I find many people (mostly liberals) have a keen and empathetic eye to the many ills that African Americans (and other minorities) face in this country.  It's their solutions that I have issues with.  But we'll get to that.  First, let's talk about some very current racial issues:

When a Black man (Note 1) is imprisoned for a drug crime, he is imprisoned by the government.
When a Black man is unfairly prosecuted, given inadequate representation, prosecuted for a crime a White man would not, given a harsher sentence than a White man would get, this is done by the government.
When a Black man is stopped and frisked, he is stopped by an agent of the government.
When a Black man is pulled over for DWB, he is pulled over by an agent of the government.
When a Black man lives in substandard section 8 housing, he is living their at the behest of the government.
When a Black person contributes to Social Security for 30 years, but dies before reaching 62 (as is all too common compared to Whites) it is the government that gives those contributions to a White person. (Note 2)
When a Black person can't get a job because he doesn't have the skills to earn minimum wage, it is the government preventing him from working. (Note 3)
When a Black family's property taxes are raised again and again so that he is forced to sell his property and move to allow gentrification of the neighborhood he grew up in, it is the government raising those taxes.
When a prosecutor refuses to charge (or tanks the grand jury) when a police officer murders a Black man, he is representing the government (I know not all police shootings are murder - but some are) (Note 4)
When Ferguson Missouri decided that policing for profit was a good idea and ultimately created debt slaves out of it's Black citizens, it was the government making that decision.
When a Black man is shot by a police officer, he is shot by an agent of the government.

I can go on...

This may seem anti police, but it's not.  It's anti government.  Most police are honest people put in an impossible situation by an out of control government.  When we go to war, we understand, and seem to accept, that innocent people will die.  When you go to war on drugs and crime, we should not be surprised that innocent people die.

I can't change the hearts of racist people.  Neither can the government.  I could make the argument that government actions are a major cause of racial tension, but I won't do that.  Instead, I can provide a list of pretty obvious things that may not solve racism, but will certainly make the lives of African Americans (and a lot of other Americans) a whole lot better.  I don't have all the answers, but I think it's high time we took some concrete steps to improve the lives and prospects of minorities in America, instead of making empty promises and spewing empty rhetoric.

What to do:

1.  End the War on Drugs.  Period.  This doesn't mean we have to legalize everything, but legalizing pot would be a good start.  Other drugs need to have, at a minimum, possession and use decriminalized.  (I would favor full legalization across the board.)  Take the billions saved and put it toward drug treatment and better mental health services.
2.  Work towards privatizing Social Security, at least partially, while preserving the benefits of older retirees.  Allowing African Americans who die young to pass along some of the taxes they've paid into Social Security to their families, rather than giving them to middle class whites, will help break the cycles of poverty.
3.  Freeze the minimum wage.  It was originally passed to prevent minorities from getting jobs, and it still works.
4.  Make a lot of stuff that's illegal, especially victim-less crimes, legal.  The less interaction police are forced to have with "criminals" the less fear they will have that they might be shot.
5.  Independent reviews of all police shootings.
6.  All fines, penalties and civil asset forfeitures go to independent (preferably non government charities) rather than the agency that seized the asset.
7.  LOTS more training of police officers regarding de-escalation and the sanctity of our constitutional rights.  (If we eliminate a ton of crimes we might find the time and money for this).
8.  Limit property tax increases for long standing homeowners, or some other creative method to ensure property taxes don't run poor people out of their homes.  (This is a lot more complex than a blog post can cover - so bear with me.)
9.  Reform qualified immunity for prosecutors, making them more accountable for their actions.
10.  This one's a fantasy, but bring back the 4th through 7th amendment.  Rights come first, and police, prosecutors, judges, and everything else come second.  Stop and Frisk is BULLSHIT - and it's just the start of the crap we put up with.
11.  Serious education reform, as opposed to doing the same shit over and over would be a big help.

The main theme is that racism in effect, as opposed to racism in the heart, requires power to truly affect peoples lives.  The government has WAY too much power, and thus, racism is exacerbated and perpetuated by the government.  Just doing 1 through 3 would have enormous positive repercussions for minorities.  Political bickering and pandering will do nothing.

NOTE 1: I use "man" a lot in this, but it isn't meant to ignore the plight of Black women.
NOTE 2: Eliminating Social Security (SS), particularly disability and survivor benefits, would be devastating to minorities, at least in their current status, but forcing minorities to contribute to Social Security, with very little potential for receiving any benefit, is about as racist in effect as it gets.  Here's a discussion from a left-leaning institution...feel free to do more research: URBAN INSTITUTE
NOTE 3: I am a vicious opponent of minimum wage increases.  I read a TON on the subject and post numerous links on my Facebook page.  It is REALLY hard to argue against because it sounds SOOOOOO Good.  But it's not.  All other things being equal, making something more expensive causes there to be less of it.  We can argue about it for days, but, fundamental laws of economics say, "minimum wage bad."  If you disagree, the burden of proof is on you.  (I don't advocate elimination because the current minimum wage is "priced in", which means elimination would cause undue disruption of the economy.  Freezing will do the trick pretty quickly.
NOTE 4: When a prosecutor takes something to a grand jury, they get an indictment...PERIOD.  A prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich (this is an accepted legal axiom.)  When a prosecutor doesn't get an indictment - he didn't want one.  Prosecutors use grand juries as cover when they don't want to take flak for not indicting a police officer.