Happy New Year and Nonsense in the News

Well, the New Year has started out well already with a bit of sadness though. Today I spoke to a friend that I had not heard from in a bit. It was nice to hear from him; but, he had sad news. His father passed away in 2015. His father had been in Federal law enforcement and I had the honor of taking him to Las Vegas for the first time in his life. He got to do attend some special events reserved for Vegas regulars because I was one and I am glad that I got to give that to him. He is missed.

I also got a comment from a friend that I knew at work that I had not seen since retiring and texts from some people I have not seen in a while. I had sent out many texts to people wishing them a Happy New Year even though I had not seen them in awhile. A good start to what I am sure is going to be an interesting year. It also appears that I will have a little paid job to do that is my kind of job, a puzzle seeking a solution and I can use the extra money to make life a little easier.

As for the news, plenty of foolishness. While President Obama claims that the Russians hacked this election, it seems not even the most strident partisans are buying it. Lets start with an article.

Rolling Stone - Matt Taibbi - Something About This Russia Story Stinks.  Mr. Taibbi is no friend of Donald Trump; but, he also knows nonsense when he hears it and like me requires proof. He provides it when he writes his stories and no proof has been provided for the claim that Russia hacked the election. Lets face it, the government hasn't even explained what "hacking the election" means. They do not claim that the votes were incorrect or that Russia is responsible for the Constitution creating an electoral college. The sad thing is, a Mr. Taibbi points out, that a recent poll (linked to in his article) shows that 50% of Democrats believe the Russians hacked the election count which was not only disproven by the recounts; but, is not even claimed by the intelligence agencies. If you accept every negative claim made against people you dislike and refuse to accept any negative claim about people you like you willingly allow yourself to be used as a tool.

Fox - Hawaiian cafe backs down over ban on Trump voters.  You have probably heard this story by now, a Hawaiian restaurant owner posted the following sign after the election, "If you voted for Trump you cannot eat here! No Nazis”.  There is a history of bigoted imbeciles posting signs like this, only groups changed. I'm Irish and they used to post signs saying "No Irish" in America. Up until the late 1960s many places had signs saying "No Blacks". We have also had businesses say they don't have to cater to gays, they just don't post signs though there was a bar in West Hollywood that had a sign that said, "No Faggots", it got taken down because of political pressure after West Hollywood with a very gay community became it's own city. Let's be consistent, it is not okay for a business to refuse to serve someone because they voted for Trump, are gay, are black or of a different religion.

QZ.com - The White House predicts nearly all truck, taxi, and delivery driver jobs will be automated.  What a shock, I have only been writing about this for 7 years. That means we expect to lose another 3.1 million jobs over the next few years. There is a link to the White House report in the article if you want to read it. The real question remains the same and nobody is discussing it in public, only in think tanks and at non-public events like the Bilderberg meeting, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tri-Lateral Commission and what is spoken at those eventsis not publicized. Right now you are paying with your taxes to create the infrastructure that will allow this technology to replace you. Notice all those bike lanes and the new style of crosswalks? That is happening across the United States and you have not been told why your taxes are paying for it. Go to YouTube and watch videos of people driving through Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Pittsburg, New York... All across the United States this is being done and it is expensive; but, you are not told why and it seems so local except cities are all doing it at the same time.

Transport and Environment -  Air pollution from ships.

Friends of the Earth - Oceangoing vessels.

Lets start with this, shipping pollutes more than all the cars in the world combined. With little effort we could cut pollution from these ships by 80%. The worst at pollution are the ships that haul goods from China to the rest of the world. If we are so concerned about climate change and pollution why don't we just refuse to allow products to be sold in the west that are transported on those ships until they install scrubbers and make other simple changes? Keep asking yourself that question until you discover the real reason, I have already written about it before.

Funny UPDATE:

So, it is about 2 in the morning and I was listening to music and thinking about my day. Anyways, I decided to read newspapers around the world that I had not looked at today. The front pages were full of stories but not one listed the biggest story the media in the United States is trying to sell us. Why is it that the people of England, of Canada, of Japan, of South America and of Africa aren't screaming to the world that the United States election was hacked? I suspect that if people in other countries actually believed that our election was hacked and that Trump was a Russian agent it might concern our allies and enemies. Israel has a pretty good intelligence group and you think they would be concerned if they thought Trump was a Russian puppet. Think about that.