Sorry about all the ads. I don’t make $1 from My Blog

I enjoy writing articles for this blog, and it is like a hobby for me. I’ve long been fascinated with paleoecology and studying scientific journal articles, then translating them into layman’s language is rewarding for me. For many years I’ve noticed little insignificant ads at the end of my articles. I didn’t mind. I realize WordPress needs money to pay for the costs of maintaining their platform. (The platform is easy to use and usually works well.) However, within the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a ridiculous increase in ads, and they are placed everywhere–on the header, to the sides, and most annoyingly between paragraphs. When I try to go to my dashboard, I’m blockaded with an ad until I figure out how to get past it. I apologize for the distracting clutter. I don’t make a cent from this crap, but I’m not against making money, so I looked into how I could profit from these ads. I discovered the business model is grossly unfair to content creators.

To even have a chance to make money from advertisements on my blog, I have to pay WordPress $300 annually. Then, they can tack on a monthly charge for each plug-in a content creator chooses. Some of them supposedly are there just to help people write and promote their blogs. I suspect they are a rip-off. . A fairer business plan would be to share ad revenue with content creators.

For the past year or so, my blog has averaged a little more than 7000 views per month. According to google adsense, a science blog with that many views should make $628 per month in ad revenue. I don’t know if that is true, but WordPress is already running google adsense ads on my blog. I enjoy writing this blog, and I don’t do it for money, but it pisses me off that somebody else is making money from my work, and I am getting nothing.

WordPress is owned by Automattic Corporation, a private company that partners with Microsoft. Automattic Corporation was founded in 2006 and is a growing company. They have 2200 employees and are adding employees to their payroll. The company is worth an estimated $7.5 billion. Though it is not a publicly traded company, they offer shares to their employees, and 2 years ago, they bought back some of their shares for $250 million. They’ve recently raised $288 million in capital, so the future seems bright for this company, but they are exploiting content creators. For most content creators who write but don’t own a business selling tangible products, ad revenue is the only way to make money from their blog. Automattic Corporation won’t let content creators collect ad revenue unless they upgrade their blog to a business plan at a cost of $300 annually. An anonymous nerd on WordPress forums told me this fee was how Automattic makes most of their money, and ad revenue was very little. I don’t believe this, and there is no way of discerning the truth because Automattic is a private corporation that doesn’t have to open their books to the public. It may have been true in the past, but the recent increase in ads suggests they are making more and more money from ad revenue, and content creators are about to get screwed in the tukus.

I looked into how much I could potentially make from ad revenue. According to Google AdSense, a science blog like mine with an average of 7000 monthly views should generate $628 per month. I don’t know if this is true–Google AdSense could just be making this claim so chumps will run Google AdSense ads on their blogs. But if it is true, Automattic Corporation should give content creators a percentage of the ad revenue instead of charging them an annual fee. I think content creators should get 80% of ad revenue. I could use $500 a month. In any case Google AdSense is already running ads on my blog, and I am getting nothing.

I planned to keep writing articles for my blog until I croaked or became too senile to manage it. But the thought that a corporation is making money from my work, while I get nothing is intolerable. I have 3 more scheduled blog articles to publish, then I am putting my blog on hiatus at least for the summer and maybe forever. I’m not going to remove my old blog articles. There are around 1000–I’ve written an average of 1 a week for 13 years. I appreciate my readers, and the purpose of my blog was to share my interest, not to make money. Nevertheless, it’s about the principle. I can no longer take part in the corporate exploitation of content creators.

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My Taxpayer Dollars Pay the Salaries of the Sadistic Assholes who Killed My Favorite Cat

Richmond County Animal Control took my Stripey away from me. She was my favorite cat, and we enjoyed a 4-year bond. She was a smart, loving cat and in the prime of her life when she was captured and shortly thereafter given a lethal injection before I could rescue her. She first adopted me when she was about 3 months old on days when I punched my punching bag in the shack behind my house. She would shyly come to me and let herself be petted while I was wearing boxing gloves. But when I took the boxing gloves off, she would run away from me. Gradually, she let herself be petted with my bare hands. When she was about a year old, she disappeared for 2 weeks, and I thought I would never see her again. One day, I went for a walk and found her trapped inside a vacant house where homeless people occasionally spend the night. I broke the door down, and she sprinted toward water. It was late spring and quite hot. Apparently, she survived 2 weeks trapped in a hot house without food or water. A day later, she was carrying her first litter from that house to our yard. She eventually had 5 litters, and I gave her the nickname Stripey, the Slut. She lost her first 2 litters, probably through inexperience (I don’t know what happened to them). Two kittens survived from her 3rd litter to be subadults, but both were run over by cars. One kitten from her 4th litter is still with me; another was swept up in the Animal Control raid. I think someone from my neighborhood adopted most of the kittens from her most recent litter.

This was my Stripey helping me wash the dishes. I miss the little nuisance. I was determined to try and rescue her from animal control because of the way she used to look into my eyes with love. No human ever looks at me like that. Richmond Animal Control didn’t give me a fair chance to get her. They were closed on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and they counted those holidays as business days. I am so upset.

Stripey always ran inside the house whenever she had the chance. To entice her outside, I would open the door and put food on the step. It was like a game for us. Sometimes, she just didn’t want to leave the house and would explore it, mostly looking for something to eat. She would eat food under the table where my wife sits (she’s disabled and drops lots of food). She would peek inside the trash, and she would jump on the sink and lick the dirty dishes clean.

Her final disappearance was at first a mystery. She disappeared on the Saturday before Thanksgiving along with 4 other cats that my neighbors and I were feeding. They were all breeding age females. I first feared my neighbors had something to do with it. One complained there were too many cats which there were. But then, he would turn around and feed them himself. I dismissed this idea because I couldn’t imagine them being cruel to animals. On Monday I took an edible marijuana product at midnight, and I was too high to fall asleep. I heard a coyote howling in my front yard. Maybe, a coyote got them. But this didn’t make sense either. How could a coyote catch 5 cats in less than a day? The cats run fast and climb trees. I also considered the possibility animal control picked them up. But I thought they had to set traps out to catch cats, and I didn’t see any traps. How could they trap that many cats in such a short period of time? Nevertheless, I called animal control to ask if they had caught any cats in my neighborhood. I discovered they never answer their phones. If I would have just gone in person, Stripey would still be alive today, but I wrongly underestimated their proficiency at catching cats.

My neighbor solved the mystery on Thanksgiving. He told me Animal Control came on Saturday, and he gave them permission to come on his property because he thought I called them. He was as surprised as I was that they caught so many cats so rapidly, and he was missing them. Richmond County Animal Control gives pet owners 5 business days to rescue their animals. I felt determined to save my cat and went to the pet jail the next day. The pet jail is located in a rural part of the county near the people jail. Unfortunately, Richmond County Animal Control was closed on Black Friday, a holiday dreamed up by the retail business, so people will spend money on shit they do not need. I waited outside the locked gate until an employee exited. He told me Thanksgiving and Black Friday counted as business days, but he assured me my cat would be alright. This gave me the false hope she would still be alive on Monday. I felt stressed all weekend, and a salty discharge kept leaking from my eyes as if I was a menopausal woman. I kept imagining how happy Stripey would be to see me after being trapped in a cold cage for 9 days.

Alas, it was not to be. We went again on Monday when they were finally open, but we were too late. The pet concentration camp smelled like shit, and the man in front of me in line was furious because Richmond County Animal Control would do nothing about the dangerous dog haunting an elementary bus stop in his neighborhood. I was directed to a lady in charge of the cats. She was friendly and helpful, and we would’ve been able to take our cat home without any of the rabies vaccination red tape I had unnecessarily worried about. She took us to the room with the captured cats. Most of them looked like pampered fat house cats…not stray or feral cats. I saw 1 cat that resembled Stripey, but it wasn’t her. The cages were spacious, clean, and well-supplied with food and water; but the cats were very vocal and stressed. I asked the lady how they killed my cat, and she told me it was a lethal injection–quick and painless. How would she know? Has she ever felt what it was like to have a lethal injection? If only I had come a week earlier. If only I had detained the cat inside the house that past Saturday.

I still have 4 cats to cherish. Stripey, the Next Generation is just like her mother. She first approached me when I was punching my punching bag and only let me pet her at first when I wore the boxing gloves. Now, she is a little nuisance just like her mother, but she doesn’t run inside the house yet. In addition there is a mellow orange tom cat, and a developmentally delayed cat.

The cat in the foreground is a developmentally delayed runt. I call him roly-poly. He’s from the same litter as the cat behind him.

I call this mellow cat, The Whistler…because he whistles.

This is Stripey’s daughter. She behaves just like Stripey did when she was younger, and I call her Stripey, the Next Generation. She is shyer and must have hidden in the woods when Animal Control captured the other cats. That’s where she came from the next day when I went outside to feed the cats. I miss the challenge of having an older, more experienced cat, however.

Richmond County Animal Control will NEVER have permission to come on my property. I have a poor opinion of them. Years ago, I called about a dangerous dog roaming the neighborhood, and they never sent anybody. The man in front of me in line when I went there was enraged because they would do nothing about a dangerous dog in his neighborhood. Yet, they come into people’s yards and kill their harmless cats. I’m also aggravated with whoever reported us. Maybe it was the police. They are probably supposed to report certain situations to animal control. Or maybe it was just some busybody in our neighborhood who doesn’t like cats. I could live with it, if Stripey had been run over by a car or killed by a coyote, but the thought she was deceived by humans, who I contribute tax money too, makes me sick to my stomach.

Tattooed Yuppies Driving SUVs

Mammoths and saber-tooths no longer roam the landscape. Instead, we live in a world packed with tattooed yuppies driving SUVs and gigantic pick-up trucks. I don’t understand this generation. I may come across as a grouchy old man telling people to “get off my lawn,” but the unnecessary extravagance and the poor taste of recent generations bewilders and on occasion disgusts me.

When I was a kid, tattoos were restricted to a certain subset of tough guys–bikers and sailors. They usually had just 1 tattoo on a muscular arm. Now, tattoos are astonishingly widespread and popular. It seems like every suburban yuppy wimp is covered in ink. I think they invariably look stupid, and I automatically assume a person with a tattoo suffers from reduced intelligence because they don’t have the foresight to realize they might get tired of looking at their tattoos someday. And in fact, the tattoo removal business is booming. People completely covered with tattoos look ridiculous, and they make me think of neon signs loudly advertising poor taste. I’ve seen celebrity chefs covered in tattoos. I wouldn’t want to eat any dish they prepared. Oh, and I’ve seen people my age with tattoos. There are few sights as pathetic as an old man my age trying to be hip by getting a tattoo. Even women cover themselves with tattoos these days. I’ve seen many a beautiful model who has permanently marred her good looks with filthy ink. I just don’t understand why anyone would want to lie down and let somebody draw pictures on them. I guess I have more interesting things to do.

What if a tattooed person gets tired of their tattoos? I much prefer all natural. It looks cleaner.

Roads and parking lots are filled with these tattooed yuppies driving gas-guzzling SUVs and monster pick-up trucks. I am not referring to plumbers or carpenters who need these vehicles to carry their tools. I also exempt from my criticism disabled people who need room for their wheelchairs. But I can’t for the life of me understand why a white collar yuppy would drive such a wasteful extravagant vehicle. I can’t believe how popular they are. It seems like there are more of these monstrosities on the road than regular passenger cars. I hate how they block my line of sight when I am driving. If they are in a neighboring turn lane, I can’t see through them to make my turn, and I am forced to wait until they make their turn. If my car is parked between 2 SUVs or monster pick-up trucks, it is next to impossible to back up without taking a chance of getting in a parking lot fender bender. At least I can laugh at these chumps when they fill up their gas tanks. It must cost about $100. Moreover, many must be paying a car note comparable to a house mortgage. No wonder so many Americans are underwater with their finances. Chevrolet SUVs and Dodge Ram pick-up trucks average $35,000, and they must cost an additional fortune to insure. That is too much to pay for transportation.

I hate the way these monstrosities block my line of sight on roads and in parking lots.

Ditto.

What was wrong with these 1970s style station wagons? They were easier to see over.

I had an encounter lately with a tattooed yuppy, though that is not what inspired this blog entry (this is a subject I’ve had on the back burner for a while). She parked her shiny black truck too close to our car, so that we couldn’t open my passenger car door all the way. My disabled wife was the passenger, and we couldn’t fit her wheelchair between the vehicles. I could have moved the car, but I had a poor night’s sleep, and I didn’t feel like it. I thought I could lift my wife out of her wheelchair, walk her to the passenger door, and squeeze her into the passenger side door without bumping the door into the yuppy’s truck, but I was wrong. The impact caused a tiny 1/4-inch scratch (if it wasn’t already present). The woman who was sitting in the car came out and angrily confronted me. I apologized and offered to give her $20. I thought this was a generous offer for a $2 bottle of touch up paint, but she called me an “asshole” and threatened to call the police. I told her to go ahead. She said, “get the fuck out of my face” and went back inside her car. (She was the one who got in my face.) What a stupid woman.

Causes of Death Among African-Americans: A Rational Review

I’m in favor of everything in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, except for naming the bill after George Floyd. This act, if it becomes law, will strengthen the Justice Department’s tools for investigating police departments, establish a federal registry for bad cops, restrict transfer of military equipment to police, prohibit no knock warrants, and allow police to be sued when they are negligent in an innocent person’s death. African-Americans are still treated unequally by law enforcement, and I am all in favor of ending this discrimination. However, I am against naming the bill after a convicted armed robber. Floyd spent time in prison for sticking a gun in the belly of a pregnant woman. Yet, this piece of shit was given a state hero funeral, and he is about to be posthumously honored by having a bill named after him. I think this is obscene. Sure, Chauvin deserves the long sentence he received for murdering Floyd, but being the victim of a sadistic cop does not make someone a hero. I will never run for office, so I can say something honest that politicians (especially Democrats) can not say–the world is a better place without George Floyd in it (and with Chauvin locked up).

Whenever there is a publicized incident of a cop killing an African-American, everybody breaks into 2 camps–African-American activists who are certain the killing was unjustified, and the police who think they should be allowed to commit police brutality with impunity. The truth is more complicated. Sometimes the police are justified because the suspect endangered their lives or the lives of innocent civilians, and sometimes the police are not justified and become criminals themselves when they kill innocent people. I look at these incidents on a case-by-case basis and don’t always side with 1 camp or the other.

Because these cases get so much publicity, many African-Americans express great fear when they get pulled over by the police. In fact, I’ve heard some state they become “paralyzed with fear” when they encounter a police officer. I’ve heard some claim deaths by police in the U.S. amount to genocide. Chelsea Handler, a white celebrity talk show host, even suggested black people shouldn’t ever cooperate with police, thereby (inadvertently, I’m sure) urging them to commit suicide by cop. I am writing this blog article today to counter this hysteria by showing that the chances of being killed by police are tiny compared to other causes of death.

There are approximately 42 million African-Americans living in the U.S. today. Between the years 2017-2020 an average of 227 black people were killed by the police annually. During this same time period an average of 420 white people were killed by police. But because black people make up a smaller percentage of the population, they suffer a greater chance of being killed. According to a University of Michigan study, black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men. However, this is a small enough number that I would consider it rare. Most were likely resisting arrest in some way. This same study found 1 in every 1000 black men and about 1 in every 2500 white men will die at the hands of the police in their lifetimes but this percentage is surely much smaller for detained people who were not resisting arrest.

For black men between the ages of 20-35 death through the use of police force ranks lower than death from heart attacks. Think about how rare it is for a young man to die of an heart attack, yet there is a greater chance of death from that than from being killed by the police.

A University of Michigan study determined African-American men between the ages of 20-35 are over 2 times more likely to be killed by police than white men that age. Nevertheless, deaths from police brutality rank 6th…behind heart attacks. Chart from the University of Michigan study.

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Chart showing deaths at the hands of police by race from 2017-2021. From the Statista Research Department.

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Top 10 causes of death for African-American men. Deaths at the hands of the police does not rank in the top 10. Raising public awareness of the importance of an healthy lifestyle would save far more lives than police reform. Chart from the CDC.

Now, let’s compare the risk of death from other causes compared to deaths through the use of police force. On average 73,000 African-Americans die from cancer every year, so black people are 321 times more likely to die of this than from police brutality. On average 86,520 black people die from hypertension yearly, making them 381 times more likely to die from this than police brutality. I’m all for reforming the police, but putting more emphasis on living an healthy lifestyle would save far more lives than police reform.

An average of 4656 black people are killed in car accidents yearly (26 times the risk of death from cops), and 2100 black people on average commit suicide yearly (7.9 times the risk of death from cops). More than 1 study estimates 200,000 people per year die from medical malpractice. This is likely a vast underestimate. Based on this figure, about 30,000 black people die each year in this country due to medical mistakes. So black people should be 132 times more afraid of doctors than the police.

When I first conceived of this blog topic, I wanted to show that the chances of being killed by police were comparable to being struck by lightning. However, based on National Weather Service statistics, only an average of 5 black people are killed by lightning each year. (This was an extrapolation as was the malpractice estimate–neither statistic is broken down by race). So risk of death from use of police force is higher than risk of death from a lightning strike.

References:

Crosby, A.; S. Molock

“Suicidal Behaviors in the African-American Community”

Journal of Black Psychology 12 (3) 2006

Anderson, J.; K. Abrahamson

“Your Health Care May Kill You”

Study Health Technology Information 234 2017

We Live in a World of Whining Woke and Unwoke wimps

Stacy Abrams.  She is my hero.  Her voter registration drive delivered Georgia’s electoral votes to Joe Biden.  Sensible African-American women saved democracy in the U.S. for now.

African-American women saved democracy in the United States this past election, and at least delayed the Republican attempts to end the democratic vote for President by 4 years.  If it was up to white voters, an Adolf Hitler wannabe would still be President.  The majority of white voters still supported a corrupt racist rapist who after losing the election attempted the violent takeover of the U.S. government.  It was the overwhelming vote of sensible African-American women who put Joe Biden over the top, not the whining woke wimps who declined to support him because he voted for tough-on-crime legislation 30 years ago.  Woke wimps whine about how mass incarceration is racist, but this is ridiculous revisionist history.  I lived during the time period when this legislation was passed, and I worked in low income neighborhoods where the violent crime rate was high.  I was a route manager for a newspaper circulation department, and I had to deliver newspapers in neighborhoods the carriers were afraid to go into.  Gangbangers carrying Uzi machine guns hung around the corners, and they wanted to sell me crack when I delivered the papers.  Pregnant drug addicted prostitutes offered sex.  I often heard gunshots.  People who lived in these neighborhoods were scared.  So when gangbangers started serving long prison sentences, the violent crime rate went way down, and the people who lived in these neighborhoods were glad.  Now, on Twitter, the drug laws are considered racist.  No, they were not.  Suburban white cokeheads weren’t the ones firing machine guns into people’s homes during stupid turf wars.  Most people in those neighborhoods remember what it was really like, and they voted for Biden almost unanimously.

Woke wimps whining about “white privilege” didn’t win the 2020 election either.  There is nothing lamer than a white liberal (and I am a white liberal) whining about the evils of “white privilege.”  I acknowledge discrimination against black people and their unequal treatment under the law is still a serious problem, and of course alleged discrimination against white people is not even remotely comparable.  But use of the term “white privilege” is in itself offensively racist.  The term stokes resentment against a group of people because of their race.  This is the very definition of racism.  At best the term is unhelpful.  Try telling a poor white person in West Virginia they are privileged, and they will laugh you out of their house.

Woke wimps often whine about “toxic masculinity.”  Men are now considered poison.  Associating the word toxic with masculinity suggests there is something inherently wrong with being a man.  I took issue with the use of this term on Twitter, and a scientist insulted my intelligence by referring me to an online definition that stated “toxic masculinity” applied to men who abuse woman, not all men (like I didn’t know what woke wimps mean when they spout the stupid phrase).  She is wrong and the definition is nonsense.  There is nothing masculine about a man who abuses women.  Linking the word toxic to masculinity is an insult to all men because it implies there is something abusive in our nature.

She must have suffered a “microaggression” when I disagreed with the use of the phrase “toxic masculinity” because she blocked me on Twitter and stopped following my blog.  “Microaggression” is a word woke wimps use, if they experience a perceived slight and get their feelings hurt.  Woke wimps don’t like “boomers” (people born between 1946-1973) because we don’t buy their politically correct Twitter vernacular (in other words horse shit).  A “boomer” telling the truth to a “woke wimp” is guilty of a “microaggression.”  Hey, if the word micro is attached to a word, it means it is minor and not important.  Quit acting butthurt and get over it.

There are plenty of unwoke wimps who can’t endure “microaggressions” either.  Trumpanzees unfriend my wife and I on Facebook, if we dare criticize their demi-God.  Trumpanzees are so brainwashed they worship Trump and act like he is some kind of deity.  This cult of the brainwashed reminds me of the German people before and during World War II when “Heil Hitler” replaced the words “Hello” and “Goodbye.”  Now instead of free thought, all they can do is shout out “Fake News” and “Make America Great Again” and “Build that Wall.”  Trying to engage them in a rational conversation is like talking to a mud puddle.

Another group of whining unwoke wimps call themselves “incel,” meaning involuntary celibate.  Good grief!  These sexist assholes whine about how they can’t get laid, and they blame women.  I want to tell them they should try and improve their social skills.  When I was in my 20s I had a hard time getting laid–maybe because I was a short nerdy dude with low self-esteem–but I never joined a woman-hating club of losers.  I blamed myself and worked on my social skills and eventually did get laid.  Today, there is no reason to be a bitter woman-hating loser.  A man can have virtual sex with the most beautiful women in the world to their liking for $1 a minute.  (See http://www.manyvids.com ) It may not be as good as the real thing, but it is a nice substitute.  If virtual internet sex had existed when I was their age, I would have never gotten off the computer.  Some of these nice enterprising ladies even offer the girlfriend experience.  I’ve been married for 27 years, and I don’t need this–if I want the girlfriend experience I can get off the computer, go in the other room, and get in an argument with my wife–but some of these “incel” losers could use it.  Their social skills might improve, and they might really get laid.

Last week, I wrote about our evolutionary ancestor–Heidelberg man.  It’s hard not to see the contrast between Heidelberg man and modern day woke and unwoke wimps.  Heidelberg man was probably satisfied with a full belly of whatever roots or dead meat they could find, a little stone or wood shelter, and raggedy furs to wrap around themselves and keep warm.  Modern day wimps can have just about anything they want at the tips of their fingers when they go on the internet.  Instead of being happy, they go ape shit when a 20 year old video of a celebrity making a politically incorrect comment is discovered.  Brainwashed idiots, incapable of critical thinking, storm the capitol because the sore loser they voted for conned them into an insurrection.  Don’t let anybody tell you economics had anything to do with the insurrection.  These unpatriotic fascists were able to afford to take time off work and travel across the country and participate in an hysterical temper tantrum that will end up forcing many to serve long prison sentences.  They could have stayed at home, got drunk on wine ordered from the finest vineyards, consumed edible THC, ordered home-delivered pizza on a phone app, and had virtual sex with a woman who measured 40-30-40.  What would Heidelberg man do?

Trump-Supporting Christians are a Bunch of Full of Shit Hypocrites

I have no respect for the stupid pieces of shit who voted for Donald Trump.  Their gullibility is astounding.  They believe every word this clownish con man says, no matter how ridiculous or easily fact-checked and debunked.    Indeed, they disregard facts and reality as “fake news” and would rather live in an alternate reality where they think Trump is carrying out orders directly given by Jesus.  Deep down, they may not actually believe everything Trump says, but they like the way he re-affirms their hidden and usually not so hidden racism.  They just love the way he demonizes brown-skinned people.  80% of white evangelical Christians support Trump, making this group his most steadfast supporters. They are colossal hypocrites.  During the Clinton impeachment hearings 60% of evangelical Christians thought poor moral character disqualified a candidate from being president.  Now that Trump, the most immoral man on the planet, is president, only 20% think poor moral character disqualifies a candidate from being president.

On NPR a few days ago, a journalist was interviewing wavering Trump supporters about their reaction to the Republican National Convention.  Some jerk from North Carolina said Trump won him over again when Trump invoked God as the savior who would solve all the current world problems.  (Incidentally, this jerk said he was to the right of the Republican Party which would classify him as a fascist.)  What?  Trump doesn’t believe in God.  Trump has broken at least half of the 10 Commandments.  He’s committed adultery with Stormy Daniels and numerous beauty queens and porn stars, and over 50 women have accused him of sexual assault.  He’s regularly broken the commandment against stealing, and he currently is still breaking that commandment.  He ripped off college students with his phony university, and he often didn’t pay the construction workers who built his buildings.  His entire family used a charity as a campaign slush fund.  And currently he is using the White House to enrich his business in violation of the emoluments clause of the constitution by continuing to own hotels used by diplomats and lobbyists attempting to curry favor with him.

Trump also violates the commandment against idolatry when he names buildings after himself, and laughably he asked how he could get a graven image of himself added to Mt. Rushmore.  Trump bears false witness on a daily basis–he’s told over 20,000 documented lies since he’s been president.  This is an astonishing number, even for a politician.  Trump has indirectly violated the commandment not to kill.  His incompetence has led to the deaths of over 180,000 people from Covid, and his policy of de-regulating environmental protections will lead to the premature deaths of tens of thousands more people.  When Trump invokes the name of a God he doesn’t believe in, he is using the name of the Lord in vain.

Look at the fanatical cult-like support Trump has among evangelical Christians.  Note also the sea of white faces.

I’ve been unfriended on Facebook by a few of my peers that I graduated from high school with because of my criticism of Trump and their support for that pig.  I’m sorry to say most white suburban men my age (I am 58) still support Trump, despite his obvious incompetence, failures, and inability to handle the job of presidency.  These Trump supporters are evangelical Christians who constantly post biblical scripture on their Facebook pages–it is “Praise Jesus this and Praise Jesus that.”  Their hypocrisy is disgusting.  Trump goes against just about all of Jesus’s teachings.  Jesus said it is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven.  Trump’s tax cuts benefitted the rich and increased the tax burden (especially in the long run) on the poor working class people.  His recent proposal for a payroll tax cut will bankrupt Social Security in 3 years.  Rich people don’t need Social Security, but poor people sure do.  Trump also wants to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act which would take health care away from tens of millions.  What would Jesus do?  Deprive poor people of health care?  Would he be for separating children from their parents and putting them in cages?

Trump deliberately incites strife, pitting groups of people against each other–certainly another action Jesus would not approve of.  Instead of working with big city mayors to quell civil unrest, Trump is blaming them and sending thugs in unmarked vans to abduct peaceful protestors, thus pouring gasoline on the fire.  Instead of a plan to bring police and protestors together to discuss their differences, Trump openly sides with police brutality, encouraging them to slam car doors on protestors heads.

One of my former Facebook friends told me he likes the way Trump is working to block illegal immigration because he doesn’t want them to bring drugs across the border.  This is another example of hypocrisy.  I enjoyed doing drugs with this Trumpanzee in college, he once bird-dogged a drug deal for me, and he was arrested by the DEA on a college campus where he was doing drugs in the open.  But now, he wants to stop undocumented people from crossing the border because a tiny minority of them might be drug dealers.  The bible says we should welcome immigrants whether they are legal or not.  In Hebrews 13:2 it says strangers shall be welcomed and even entertained.  And in Malachi 3:5 it says God will pass judgement on those who turn aside strangers.  My ex-Facebook pals probably think that only applies to white immigrants.

Trump’s following is cult-like.  I think he literally could shoot someone on 5th avenue and his support would not fall below 40%.  The absurd Qanon conspiracy theory is spreading most rapidly among evangelical Christians, and this is not surprising.  Shmucks dumb enough to believe in a bizarre end of the world cult are dumb enough to believe Trump is battling a secret deep state group of cannibals and child molesters.

I’m confident Biden would beat Trump in a landslide, if the election was fair.  Trump’s presidency has been an embarrassing failure, and thankfully enough smart people can see through his re-election strategy of blaming Biden for the civil unrest occurring during Trump’s presidency.  No president has ever been re-elected with an economy that includes a tripling of the unemployment rate, and Trump should have already been removed from office for asking a foreign leader to interfere in our elections.  However, I’m afraid the seeds of sabotage have been sown.  An overwhelming number of mail-in ballots sent in by Democrats just won’t be delivered in time because Trump’s crony is now in charge of the postal service.  Instead of a crushing defeat like Trump deserves, there will be a disputed close result, and it will be up to the Supreme Court.  I don’t really believe in prayer.  Nevertheless, I’m praying for John Roberts to side with decency.

 

The BDS Movement is Ignorant Anti-Semitism

I need a periodical to read when I sit on the can every morning.  Lately, I haven’t been able to settle on any particular magazine or newspaper.  For a while I subscribed to  The Nation, but I got tired of reading their articles unfairly criticizing Israel.  By subscribing to  The Nation I got on the mailing list for a periodical known as  The Progressive Populist. I am a progressive but not a populist.  Populism gave us the likes of Trump and Brexit.   The Progressive Populist also publishes articles unfairly critical of Israel written by Juan Cole–a regular contributor for them.  I never heard of this jerk, but the Wikipedia entry for him notes he espouses the stereotypical anti-Semitic trope that Jews hold dual loyalty to the U.S. and Israel.  (Incidentally, Trump expresses this same belief.)  The column he wrote for  The Progressive Populist that I read was nothing but a grotesquely distorted version of Middle Eastern history.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was an ally of Adolf Hitler.  Cole didn’t mention this fact in his column glossing over the history of the region.

Juan Cole is considered by some to be an academic fraud.  They say his research is unoriginal and from what I have read merely parrots the ridiculous anti-Semitism taught in Arab schools.  In the column of his that I read he skipped 30 years of history and started with stating how Jewish militants attacked Arabs in 1948, making it sound like the Arabs were innocent victims.  Arab murderers had been attacking and even wiping out Jewish settlements for decades prior to the birth of Israel.  Jews were finally defending themselves, but much of the world considers it a war crime when Jews fight back.  The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, an ally of Adolf Hitler, began a war of anti-Jewish terrorism and violence during 1947, and when Israel declared independence a year later the entire Arab world declared war against them and started an invasion.  The dictatorships of all these Arab nations were patterned after Nazi Germany.  So Israel was battling for its life against Arabs influenced by Nazis.  Cole never mentions this.  Despite an enormous manpower advantage, the Arabs were defeated.

Juan Cole, an anti-Semitic professor on the faculty of the University of Michigan.  The University of Michigan should be renamed anti-Semite University.  John Cheney-Lippold, another professor on the faculty, refused to write a letter of recommendation for a student who wanted to study in Israel because the professor supports the BDS movement. This professor was sanctioned (he had tenure and couldn’t be fired), but 200 professors on the faculty signed a letter supporting him. Other professors host blatantly anti-Semitic guest speakers. Perhaps not coincidentally, there are more anti-Semitic incidents on the campus there than on the campus of any other university in the country.

Many Arabs living in Israel left their homes during Israel’s war of independence, hoping to come back after the Arab armies wiped out the Jews.  Cole accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” but the only real “ethnic cleansing” that would have occurred in this region would have happened if Israel would’ve lost that war.  This left many Arab refugees who were forcibly kept in refugee camps by their fellow Arabs.  Instead of helping their fellows, Arabs wanted their misfortune to fester, so they would feel hostility toward Israel, and the world would become sympathetic toward the so-called Palestinian fate and not Israel.  But there is really no such thing as a Palestinian.  There was never a country known as Palestine.  Zahir Muhsein, a founding member of the PLO executive committee, once admitted as much.  This is what he said: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.  It is just an Arab tactic for the destruction of Israel.”  The so-called Palestinians are just Arabs who happen to live in the region.  They are no different from any other Arab.  Arabs who remained in Israel and didn’t flee are now Israeli citizens and can vote and hold political office.

Omir Barghouti, a citizen of Qatar, has lived in Israel since 1994.  He founded the BDS movement in 2006.  The BDS stands for boycott, divest, and sanction; and the goal of this movement is to economically strangle Israel.  Barghouti admittedly doesn’t recognize Israel’s right to exist, and he wants to see it completely destroyed.  The movement has been a colossal flop–Israel’s GDP has doubled since 2006.  Nevertheless, many liberal academic professors and brainwashed students support the BDS movement.  It is nothing more than ignorant anti-Semitism.  Why are they singling out the Jewish state?  There are hundreds of countries in the world with a worse human rights record than Israel.  For example why don’t they boycott Chinese goods to show solidarity with the Muslims in China who are oppressed by the Chinese government?  It is a moral double standard.  The call to boycott Israeli made products recalls the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses during the 1930s in Germany.

It is popular among critics of Israel to accuse them of “apartheid.”  This is just ridiculous.  Jews live side by side with Arabs throughout Israel.  Israel does restrict movement of Arabs living in occupied territories, but this is self-defense.  Those Arabs have started countless wars of terror against Israel, and many still want to see Israel destroyed.  I would like to ask these people critical of Israel, if they would let someone live in their house who has threatened to kill them.  If not, they are practicing apartheid.

Arabs unhappy living on the West Bank should just move to Jordan.  The West Bank was part of Jordan until 1967 when Israel won that land fair and square in a war.  West Bank Arabs were not clamoring for an independent state when the territory belonged to Jordan.  Over 20 years ago, there was a deal on the table that would’ve given West Bank Arabs an independent state, but they rejected it because they didn’t want to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

The BDS movement is the left’s version of anti-Semitism, but there is plenty of anti-Semitism on the right as well.  Whenever right wingers start talking about George Soros conspiracies, they are engaging in age old accusations that Jews control all the money and power–a classic tool of anti-Semitic propagandists.

Republicans are Evil and Must be Destroyed

Republicans believe in 3 principles: tax cuts for the rich, punishing brown-skinned people and poor women, and letting polluters pollute as much as they want.  With their overwhelming support for Trump they have completely lost any claim of having the moral high ground.  Trump is a racist rapist who incited a mass shooting.  And he is a colossal crook.  There is plenty of credible evidence that this racist rapist is guilty of bank fraud, insurance fraud, tax fraud, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and money laundering.  He is unconstitutionally profiting from the office.  Everyday, he says and tweets ridiculous lies in a way that demonstrates a mind that is falling apart.  Yet, the Republican Party of crooked pigs rarely dares to point to the emperor who wears no clothes.  Trump is a fake president.

My blog focuses mainly on natural history, so I will limit most of this essay to a couple of recent decisions by the Trump administration that will harm innocent animals. Killing the innocent furry creatures is a perfect example of evil.  The Interior department, now unethically led by an oil company executive, decided to allow the use of cyanide bombs to kill predators.  This decision is stupid, unscientific, and mean-spirited.  Studies suggest this type of predator control program does not work.  Coyotes produce larger litter sizes in response to human predation, and cyanide bombs often kill everything except coyotes, including endangered animals and people’s pet dogs and cats.  The Trump administration discontinued studies on the effectiveness of cyanide bombs because they know the science will prove they are wrong.

Trump administration pigs will allow the use of cyanide bombs that indiscriminately kill a variety of innocent animals. How disgusting.

The Trump administration has also decided to roll back protections found in the Endangered Species Act.  They are eliminating protections for threatened species. It will allow industry puppets who now work within the administration to list species as threatened rather than endangered, and they just won’t bother to protect them.

A minority of Americans support the Republican Party, but they enjoy outsize influence.  There are 3 steps that must be taken to politically destroy the Republican Party.  The electoral college must be replaced with a popular vote for the president.  Over the past 20 years the Democratic candidate for president has received more votes than the Republican twice, yet has lost the elections because of this archaic method that harkens back to the days of slavery.  This effects 2 branches of government.  With a popular vote instead of the electoral college, the Democratic president could have picked liberal justices for the Supreme Court.  Liberals would have a 7-2 majority on the Supreme Court, more accurately reflecting the wishes of the American people.  Instead, there is a danger that conservatives could have a 7-2 majority soon, if some of these elderly liberals pass away.  Another change should be a reduction of Senatorial representation in small states from 2 to 1.  The Dakotas, Montana, and Idaho have too much political power for their size.  Is it really fair that rural mostly white people have hundreds of times more political power than inner city mostly black people?  Finally, gerrymandering must be eliminated.  Districts are drawn in many states that give Republicans far more power than they deserve.  Wisconsin and North Carolina are 2 examples of this unfair representation.  The racist Supreme Court recently decided they weren’t going to do anything about gerrymandering because it was a state issue.  Talk about Catch-22.

I know these steps will be difficult to take, but it’s the only way to get rid of the evil Republicans who make up a minority in this country, yet have far more political power than they should.

Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space?

My favorite segment of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO is his New Rules.  A few weeks ago he was critical of the ridiculous aspiration some chumps have that humans should go to Mars.

He’s right.  Wasting money on a manned trip to Mars is really a stupid idea.  Humans can not live in space.  Humans can exist in space for awhile, using very expensive equipment, but I wouldn’t call that living.  Some nerds expressed their outrage toward Bill Maher on Twitter, but I defended him and got into an argument with Max Fagin, an aerospace engineer who works for Madein Space Aerodynamics–a company that manufactures optic fiber and other products in micro-gravity.  On his Facebook page Fagin claims that he is going to be one of the first people to land on Mars.  Yeah, right.  Traveling to Mars is extremely difficult.  Even unmanned missions to Mars have had a high rate of failure.  There have been 28 failed unmanned missions to Mars compared to just 19 successful missions.  And these are unmanned missions.  Just imagine how risky a manned mission could be.  Moreover, being trapped in a space capsule for that long is akin to some kind of cruel and unusual punishment.  It would take about 7 months to get there and 7 months to return–about as long as the longest space station mission ever.  (A Russian cosmonaut once stayed in a space station for 438 days.)  So for over a year, the astronauts would not be able to go for a walk in the woods and hear birds singing.  They wouldn’t be able to do any outdoor activities, and there are many indoor activities they would miss out on as well.  There is no sex in space.  When I suggested to Max Fagin there was no sex in space, he responded by telling me I hadn’t thought this through, and he then ended our discussion.  No, he  hasn’t thought this through.  Sex in microgravity would be difficult and uncomfortable.

It is against NASA’s regulations to have sex in space…even to masturbate.  Bodily fluids might float around inside the capsule and foul their expensive machines.  But let’s say NASA allowed sex as an experiment.  There would still be difficulties.  In microgravity the blood that normally goes to the sex organs rises to the head, making it hard to achieve and maintain an erection, and this can cause an headache during sex as well.  Even if an erection can be established, the partners would float apart.  A suit with Velcro has been designed that would hold the coupling pair together, but really…does that sound sexy? The lack of privacy is also not particularly sexy–I know I wouldn’t want professional colleagues watching me have sex.  Astronauts experience lowered testosterone levels in microgravity, and this too would likely dampen desire.

Nerds dream about establishing colonies in space, but reproduction would be a real problem. A fetus would be exposed to high levels of radiation, resulting in increased rates of mutation, and most mutations are harmful.  NASA has experimented with rats in space.  Rats impregnated in space suffer higher rates of failed pregnancies.  Humans would eventually become extinct, if forced to live in space, even with advanced technology.

I’m all for unmanned missions and super telescopes because scientific knowledge is never a bad thing.  But manned space missions are an expensive boondoggle that humans can’t afford when there are so many unsolved problems on earth that require loads of cash to solve.

Irksome Pundit Speak: That said at the End of the Day he Doubled Down and It is What It Is

I watch too many cable news shows.  News networks that strictly report news get killed in the ratings, so most are 50% news and 50% opinion.  News networks hire pundits who comment on the news of the day.  Most pundits are has-been politicians or former aides to has-been politicians.  Almost all use annoying clichés that drive me crazy.  They can use a whole string of clichés to complete a sentence that in essence is completely meaningless.  Pundits can have entire conversations with each other without saying anything.  Here are some of the clichés they use that are the most irksome.

That said. Pundits use “that said” after they make 1 point and want to address a counterpoint.  The phrase is extraneous.  It is unnecessary to say “that said” because they already said something, and the viewers know what they just said.  I’ve even come across this phrase in written editorials.  I want to tell them “you didn’t say it, you wrote it, you idiot.” Whatever happened to the good old fashioned “however” or “on the other hand.”

At the end of the day. Pundits use “at the end of the day” to conclude their point.  Again, this is a completely unnecessary phrase.  When a pundit is finished making their point all they need to do is shut up and let somebody else speak.  Besides there is never an end to a political argument–they go on forever, long past the “end of the day.”

He doubled down. Pundits use this to describe a politician who makes a terrible gaffe, but instead of apologizing or admitting they misspoke, they defend their idiotic statement.  For example a politician could claim there was such a thing as consensual rape. (A Missouri state senator actually said this a few weeks ago.  What is it about Missouri politicians and their absurd views about “legitimate”  and “consensual” rape?) Instead of apologizing or admitting he misspoke the politician might say “there is consensual rape and 15 year old girls should be drafted to serve as sex slaves for our patriotic soldiers.”  Politicians who refuse to admit they said something dumb are not doubling anything.  They are just stupid.

It is what it is. This is perhaps the most meaningless cliché of all.  It means absolutely nothing  I can’t even explain what people are saying when they use this phrase.  It was what it was and could if it could but it would what it would.  What? I suggest to anyone with the urge to say “it is what it is” to just shut the hell up.

Hardball with Chris Matthews is my favorite cable news show.  He asks the tough questions.  Usually.