government | Piss and Moan

Priorities matter

Posted on June 14, 2019 by backuphill

grayscale photo of human lying on ground covered of cardboard box

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If you’re homeless in California, you gotta be wondering what the hell is going on in the state.

If you’re political grandstanding, like California politicians, then you know exactly what is going on.

Fund healthcare for young illegal aliens, but continue to allow your streets to fill up with homeless camps and drug addicts, most of whom are legal citizens.

Yeah, that makes logical sense.

This from a state that was in a budget crisis emergency not too many years back, and one that continues to tax people and businesses right out of the state. Oh, and throw in a possible economic downturn in the near future and you have yourself a situation rife for another budget crisis.

But hey, people in the country illegally make a louder splash in the news politically than doing something about the homeless crisis.

As usual, California has things backwards and priorities in the wrong place.

Ask not

Posted on June 6, 2019 by backuphill

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What can you do for me? What am I going to get out of it?

That seems to be the prevailing question these days. No one does anything for free, or because it’s the right thing to do. There always seems to be a catch, or something has to be gained from it. Is it a millennial thing? Is it just a generational thing?

The entitlement generation. A generation that feels something is owed to them – for doing not much of anything.

Contrast that to the Greatest Generation. One who didn’t ask what could be gained. One that didn’t ask what was in it for them. One that didn’t ask if there was danger. They just did it when they were called.

Today, on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, we could use more people who answered the call without hesitation (not just drafted but volunteered) and did their duty without asking for anything. Even today, they don’t recognize that they are heroes. I have been told many times by vets of WWII, “We just did our jobs.”

JFK said in a speech a few years later, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” We have far too many people asking for the country to do something for them. Too many.

It’s time to stop asking for. No one is owed anything. You earn it.

Hard work. Perseverance. Sweat. Time. Patience. Hard work.

Ask not.

Give.

Don’t mix them up

Posted on May 27, 2019 by backuphill

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Here in the US we have a national holiday today. Unfortunately, I am sure there are many people who take advantage of the day off but have no idea what it means or why. Then there are those who get the day mixed up with a different holiday.

Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember those who died protecting and serving our country. These men and women gave everything so that we might be free. They deserve our honor.

But, some people get today confused with Veteran’s Day, which is in November and is meant to celebrate those who have served or are currently serving in the armed forces. Key distinction, Veteran’s Day is for those who are still alive. They too deserve our honor for their sacrifice, but their sacrifice is different than what we celebrate today.

It is irritating, to me at least, to hear people mix the two up. Yes, veterans deserve our respect every day but let’s at least keep the day for honoring the dead for the dead. Their sacrifice was the greatest because after their lives, there was nothing left to give.

We Piss and Moan about a lot of things around here, but we are thankful for the sacrifice of the men and women serving our country to keep us free so we can.

Asking for a friend

Posted on May 17, 2019 by backuphill

black and white business career close up

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So let’s get this straight…generally speaking…

The people who are against the death penalty for murderers, rapists, and child molesters are the same people who support abortion and infanticide?

The same people who are outraged by animal shelters killing unwanted animals are NOT similarly outraged by killing babies.

The same people who are worried about animals going extinct place more value on the animals than on human life?

Is any of this incongruent?

Again, asking for a friend…

Precedent can be dangerous

Posted on May 14, 2019 by backuphill

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Sound the alarms! Everyone to the streets! Crisis! Crisis! Oh my! Let the fear-mongering begin.

Alright people, let’s calm down.

Precedent can be dangerous. The Supreme Court has shown this in the past and is showing it again in the present. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

A court can’t rely solely, or place too much weight on precedent (past SCOTUS decisions), or things can’t/don’t/won’t change for the better.

If the Supreme Court never breaks with precedent, then it isn’t actually doing it’s job and would just continue to “pile on” bad past decisions.

Think of it this way – as a parent, are you allowed to change your mind in how you parent a child if a decision you made previously didn’t have the intended outcome? What if you didn’t have that ability or you were required to maintain the bad decision because that was the way it was always done in the past? Yeah, I don’t think any of us would like that.

The Supreme Court should be no different. Sometimes, the court has to fix its own bad decisions from the past. Prime example: Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). The “separate but equal” precedent was never a good decision to start with and everyone knows for all intents and purposes that it would not be applied equally. For the next 58 years there were lots of challenges to Plessy and that precedent. The court held with precedent. It wasn’t until 1954 that the court finally broke with precedent and decided that “separate but equal” was not equal in Brown vs. Board (1954), correcting a previously bad decision.

Those who protest about breaking precedent now, in essence, are arguing again correcting previously badly or erroneous interpreted decisions. Is that what you really want from SCOTUS? To never fix their errors?

The long road home

Posted on May 9, 2019 by backuphill

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I was returning home last night after dropping my daughter off with her mom.

I knew I was gonna have to take the long road home since the highway in the opposite direction (my usual return route) was backed up because of road construction. It was clearly visible from the other side of the highway that the construction workers had closed one of the two lanes that was supposed to be open to keep traffic moving (it was in the plans to keep two lanes open at all times, posted on WSDOT website). Looks like that wasn’t the case after all.

Anyway, knowing this in advance, I took the long way around.

I found it rather interesting that the people who set up the detour route left a little bit to be desired with the route. I have navigation and already had a fairly good idea around the backup, but it was odd that the detour round ended in the middle of nowhere. It just stopped. I knew where to go from there, but someone who was not familiar of the area would have had no clue what to do next when the “Detour End” sign came up. Seems someone may have run out of signs and just decided to end the route because there were at least two more turns on the route to be back to where someone would have started normally.

I guess with navigation you are really never lost.

Take the long road home once in a while. You might see something you didn’t expect. Plus, do you really need to be in a hurry all the time?

Just ask Venezuela

Posted on May 3, 2019 by backuphill

man wearing mask sitting down and holding newspaper with fire

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Here’s something to think about when it comes to politics and who controls the system…

Republicans, generally, are accused of getting political donations from Big Business and rich individual donors. These donations are usually made to benefit themselves in some way in the future, but they are made from choice. For the most part, when it comes to taxes, the Republicans leave people alone and allow the market forces to do the work of choice. In essence, they stay out of the pocket of the little guy so the little guy can become a big guy. As such, prominent Democrats have flourished and benefit from the system they say they dislike because it is unfair to the little guy.

Democrats want to tax everyone and everything in sight, including those Big Businesses and rich donors that donate to the Republicans, as well as Democrats, so they can give all that money to the little guy to help them get ahead. Unlike money given to the Republicans, it isn’t given willingly rather it is taken from everyone by coercion of penalty.

Here’s the weird thing though…said taxes usually end up hurting the little guy the most and actually keep them from being able to get ahead and moving up a level to become “the big guy.” Instead, the little guy becomes dependent on the government handout. And that, my friends, is where control of the population begins…

Just ask Venezuela, she’ll tell you.

Do you know who is in your pocket and why? Who is really after control?

Freeloading

Posted on April 24, 2019 by backuphill

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You know that song by Tom Petty called “Free Fallin'”? In case you aren’t familiar with it, you can see and hear it here.

It’s a good song. Catchy and all.

However, someone is missing the boat by not rewriting the lyrics to “Free loadin'”. I am sure it would be a huge money maker. Ok, maybe not huge but it probably would make some. I am not that musically inclined, or poetic, so I am not sure I can do it. There has to be someone with a gift for this sort of thing.

Why, you ask? Well, because we live in a society that has a whole bunch of people who are free loadin’ off of the rest of us and it kind gets a little irritating. Those free loaders should have a theme song. At least we would know what they were really up to or we could see them coming before they get here.

Oh, and while we’re at it, it looks like the 2020 presidential race is going to have a few people running for the office that could also use the song as their campaign theme song as they promise to give people everything for nothing. A whole society of free loadin’! Good golly, Miss Molly, won’t that be a utopia worth singing about?

Perhaps Tom, if he were still around, could be convinced to rewrite it himself.

Maybe he would be into that sort of thing, social commentary and economic systems. Seems like a hit to me.

What other songs do you think could be rewritten so that it more accurately reflected the current events?

Moving and grooving

Posted on March 27, 2019 by backuphill

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It’s that time of year again folks. What time you ask, there are lots of those “that time of the year”s you could be referring to? After a winter like this last one, I am sure you are familiar with following description.

You’re like a race car on the track before the race. You are getting your motor warmed up and you weave back and forth quickly, getting the tires warm too. You haven’t seen the green flag to start the race yet, but you are hoping eventually to get one and all these people will get left in the dust as you speed away.

Ok, so hopefully that painted a relatively vivid picture for you. Now, imagine you are that car, weaving back and forth…

…around potholes.

After a winter like the last one, the dang roadway is filled with potholes. I swear I have to weave back and forth like that race car sometimes. It’s ridiculous that you have to weave so much while doing 75mph on the highway. The roads up here in the NW are full of potholes.

My car is in gonna crack an axle or for certain I am gonna need an alignment after this spring driving.

What out for those potholes, folks! There are a few that might even swallow a small car.

How are the roads looking in your neck of the woods? I guess this is really for the readers in the northern states, since the southern states just don’t have the severe winter weather like the north.

Time for a face palm

Posted on March 26, 2019 by backuphill

As if the nation didn’t hear a collective groan from pundits, media personalities, celebrities, and just Democrats in general upon the submission and conclusion of the Mueller Report.

A large segment of the population has waited with bated breath for a conclusion of collusion. What they got instead was their “worst nightmare”? Not sure how the public can openly root and cheer for the demise of a sitting president, but that’s what has been happening.

A whole host of people have waited so impatiently to get dirt on the president so they can kick him out of office. They despise him so much they are willing to perpetuate lies (yes, we know he lies too) and spin information with no reliable source. They have undermined their own democracy for an agenda they can’t justify.

No one deserves a bigger face palm than those who have waited and waited only to find their hopes and dreams dashed with the truth. The problem is, the truth isn’t what they wanted in the first places to the immediately parse, spin, and suggest more conspiracy theories. The hate and vitriol has been astonishing, and quite frankly embarrassing.

I am glad this is over but come on people, it’s time to move on and do the work of the people! The media needs to stop commentating and editorializing everything they “report” and be more transparent about their sources so that information can be vetted and verified.

I am a Trump voter but not necessarily a supporter. I voted the way I did because he was/is better than the alternative, sad but true. I am not happy with all he does and says, but I am happy with some. Did I wonder if the collusion was true? Sure. Did I hope it wasn’t? Yes. Do I want him to be success? Heck yes! I don’t want any president to fail.

So, for those of you out there having to eat a whole flock of crows – get to it and be honest about it!

If you deserve a face palm, I have a palm available if you need it. I would be happy to help you out.

In the meantime, I will continue to do my own face palm as you act like children because you didn’t get what you wanted. You aren’t that three-year old in the cereal aisle at the supermarket, so stop acting like it.