Enjoy my mind wanderings. Thought provoking. Serious humor. Stimulating thought since 2006. Nathaniel Hawthorne-"Easy reading is damn hard writing." Tertullian-"Credo quia absurdum", I believe it because it is absurd. John Lennox-"Nonsense remains nonsense, even when talked by world-famous scientists." George Burns-"Someone who makes you laugh is a comedian. Someone who makes you think and then laugh is a humorist." Willy Wonka-"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."
Monday, April 29, 2019
Tell Me Again Exactly Why I Should Buy Your Medicine
Saturday, April 20, 2019
When Did Russia Start Trying To Interfere Electronically With The Good Ole USofA?
I don’t like having people who are ill informed reading my silliness. If you were in agreement as you read through the above paragraph, maybe my blog is not for you. May I recommend People Magazine or Comic Books?
First of all, you are way off with your thinking that Russia started electronically meddling in the last 3 years. How much way off? Don’t get your feelings hurt because you have a lot of other people believing this 3 years estimate but you and your other people are about 40 Years Off.
Ø A Keylogger is a particularly insidious type of Spyware that can record and steal consecutive keystrokes (and much more) that users enter on a device.
Ø Using a Keylogger can allow Cyber Criminals to eavesdrop through your System Camera or through your Smartphone’s Microphone or through your Keyboards.
Do you remember the Typewriter? Go a step further. Do you remember the IBM Selectric Typewriter? The Russians started meddling with the IBM Selectric Typewriter in the Mid-1970s.
Way back then Soviet spies developed an amazingly clever hardware Keylogger that targeted IBM Selectric typewriters in the US Embassy and Consulate buildings in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Once installed, the Keyloggers measured the barely detectable changes in each typewriter’s regional magnetic field as the print head rotated and moved to type each letter.
In those days we were smarter than Russians because we figured out what they were doing and we thwarted their sneaky efforts by opting to use manual typewriters rather than electric ones for typing classified information.
We showed them. We made them crawl back into their dark places and say to their collective selves, “Selves, those Americans sure are smart! We are never going to ever try that kind of sneaky thing again!”...Or were they going to not?
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Monday, April 15, 2019
Let's Go Ahead Because We Now Have The Go Ahead...Or Should We Wait Before We Go Ahead?
Friday, April 12, 2019
I’m Going To Sue The Heck Out Of Snickers Candy Bars
Monday, April 08, 2019
Your Wife Is Going To New York City To Buy A $3,000 Dress And You Quickly Realize That That Dress Is Going To Cost You A Lot More Than $3,000
Saturday, April 06, 2019
Making It All Better
There is an article in the Wall Street Journal that starts off with a Big Bold Promise...
“All Americans would be able to get care from their chosen providers without having to pay premiums, deductibles or copayments.”
I will not attempt to explain all of what the author of the article says to get to the point where he talks about Taxes. I’ll just lay out the Taxes part because that is the part we fear the most and understand the least.
Eventually the author says that the government would need to take about $1 Trillion out of what businesses and families now pay to private insurers.
(Here I go again but this time in more depth... Remember $1 Trillion is 1 Thousand Billion Dollars and $1 Billion is 1 Thousand Million Dollars.)
Where is the $1 Trillion to come from? The author says it will come from a Confusing Array of Taxes and Fees (another word for taxes)...
Ø He proposes that all businesses that currently purchase health insurance for their employees be mandated to pay into Medicare for All 92% of what they now spend to purchase that health care insurance.
Ø He proposes that larger firms that haven’t provided coverage for every worker would pay $500 for each uninsured worker.
Ø He proposes that small businesses would be exempt from these premiums. (This makes me wonder how many currently small businesses will strive to stay small because they will not be able to “afford” to become big.)
Ø He proposes that after two or three years, this system could make a transition to a 1.78% Tax on Gross Receipts.
Ø He proposes the possibility that the above 1.78% Tax on Gross Receipts could be bypassed in favor of an 8.2% Payroll Tax.
Ø He proposes a National Sales Tax of 3.75% on nonnecessities (Congress will argue over what is a nonnecessity forever).
Ø He proposes a Wealth Tax of 0.38% (after exempting the first $1 million of all families’ net worth).
Ø He proposes taxing Long-Term Capital Gains as Ordinary Income.
The Bottom Line: The sum of these revenue streams will allow Medicare for All to operate with a 1% Budget Surplus.
How in the name of heaven can these many New Complicated and Confusing Taxes be imposed on a Fluid and Volatile Economy and this man has the gall to look into our wide disbelieving eyes and say, “All of this will result in a 1% Budget Surplus”?
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: If you want to read the entire article for yourself, click below, however, I warn you, if you think what I wrote in this Blog Posting was confusing, the confusion you just read was the tip of the iceberg… https://flipboard.com/@WSJ/the-case-for-medicare-for-all/f-89912b738f/wsj.com
Tuesday, April 02, 2019
Are We Headed For Our First What’s His/Her Name President?
If you are to become President of the Good Ole USofA, should not someone have heard of you before you are sworn in?
I recently saw a news clip on my TV which showed pictures of 9 Presidential Candidates. There were 5 pictures on the top row and 4 on the bottom row. The Unseen Talking Head said the names of the 5 on top in a sentence that contained this kind of wording...
...of the announced presidential candidates, Warren, Sanders, Booker, Gillibrand, Harris and others...
Since I am a Accomplished Noticer I noticed the “and others” part of the sentence. I thought to myself, “What chance does one have of being elected if the Talking Heads of the Good Ole USofA don’t even mention your name during your presidential run?”
Do voters go into the voting booth thinking to themselves thoughts like...
Ø I would be really impressed with that candidate if I knew anything about him.
Ø I am ready to vote for that guy on the bottom row but I can’t remember his name. I am almost certain that it began with a “P”. I’ll just go down the list here and see if there is a name that begins with a “P”.
Ø Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…
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Not only do I Notice but I also wonder. I started wondering how many people were actually running for President. I searched the Internet and came up with an article in USA Today that listed a lot more than the 9 I talked about above. That means there are some that have even less of a chance of being elected than those 4 on the bottom row.
Below is an alphabetical listing of the people who have officially announced their Candidacy or have formed an Exploratory Committees (whatever that is)…
Ø Cory Booker
Ø Pete Buttigieg
Ø Julián Castro
Ø John Delaney
Ø Tulsi Gabbard
Ø Kirsten Gillibrand
Ø Kamala Harris
Ø John Hickenlooper
Ø Jay Inslee
Ø Amy Klobuchar
Ø Beto O'Rourke
Ø Bernie Sanders
Ø Elizabeth Warren
Ø Marianne Williamson
Ø Andrew Yang
I never heard of some of these candidates and, some of the ones I have heard of, I have only heard of because I heard they announced their candidacy for president.
I could Google the ones I do not know but I’ll just wait for a bunch of them to drop out and save some Googling Time and Effort.
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Every one of these candidates claims that they can “Bring People Together”. They usually say this while they are swirling around in controversy.
John Hickenlooper stands out from the crowd because he is the first candidate in the history of the Good Ole USofA (probably the world) who has puffed out his chest and said, “You should vote for me because I took my mother to see Deep Throat”.
I found an article on the Internet about Hickenlooper that years ago would have immediately caused a candidate to Drop Out Of The Race. It appears John is so proud of his “accomplishments” that he put his “accomplishments” in his autobiography. The article’s headline is... “Hickenlooper offers something different in crowded Democratic field: A detailed history of his sexual conquests”.
The first 3 paragraphs of the article are...
If Democratic voters are struggling to see what sets John Hickenlooper apart from the 2020 pack they need to look no further than his autobiography, which outlines in excruciating detail his quest to lose his virginity and, seemingly, every sexual exploit since.
The candidate's book, The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics, outlines the journey from a child in the Philadelphia suburbs to the president of a brewing company, mayor of Denver, and then governor of Colorado.
Sprinkled throughout is the minutiae of his angst-ridden relationships with women, named and unnamed. A Washington Examiner analysis totaled Hickenlooper's declared sexual partners at seven, including his two wives. Even his experience of the 9/11 terrorism attacks is viewed through the prism of whom he was in bed with at the time.
Where were you when you heard the news of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks? Yes, my Dear Readers, John knows where he was...
At one point, Hickenlooper's romantic desires eclipsed one of the gravest moments of American history. He devotes four paragraphs to his experience during the 9/11 attacks, when he was 49, which he introduces by saying that he "was visiting the intriguing Helen Thorpe in Austin Texas" that day.
"On September 11, 2001, Helen and I were just getting out of bed in Austin when we heard the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center."
Last but not least, I prove my contention above about Bringing People Together by offering you the last paragraph of this Internet Article...
"I believe that not only can I beat Donald Trump, but that I am the person that can bring people together on the other side and actually get stuff done". (Yea, I did the underlining.)
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: I just watched a promo video about Hickenlooper. At the end of the video a Former Hickenlooper Strategist says, “…I think he can speak his mind and do so in an unscripted way but with core values that more align with the country”. Silly me. I always thought Core Values and Detailed History of Sexual Conquests were not that closely related.