UPDATE 2: In late September, the Colorado Attorney General announced plans to not only look into whether Comcast and DirecTV were charging customers a fee for a channel they did not have access to, but also to determine whether other non-sports related fees they were charging were on the up and up. Shortly after that announcement was made, DTV announced they had an agreement with Altitude and the channel was back up and running that very evening. This changed Altitude's tactic from wanting fans to stone the Big 3, into gushing over DTV being amazing and urging fans and bars that want to air the games to switch to DTV. Confusingly, Altitude continues to court Comcast with annoying promos during the games, while simultaneously telling people to switch from Comcast. But then, nothing is surprising in this dispute anymore. Whoever was in charge of the media blitz should be fired, they've handled it so terribly. Fortunately, I have DTV and can watch the games but I still feel for those who can't. Altitude has filed a lawsuit against Comcast, claiming they're trying to put the channel out of business so they can swoop in and buy the TV rights for the Avalanche and Nuggets for themselves. We'll see what comes of that.
UPDATE: Two weeks into the standoff, no progress has apparently been made. And Altitude has found yet another way to get on my damn nerves. They say the Big 3 have been uncommunicative, which leads me to believe the B3 said they could take or leave the original deal they offered Altitude and so the blackout continues. Last weekend, a newspaper headline reported Altitude was looking into a deal with Amazon to stream this season's games, but the text of the article actually said they had talked about it internally but had not reached out to Amazon. I get the impression it is not a realistic partnership they will seek. I'm not sure what to root for now because while watching it on TV would be the easiest route, DTV will want more money from customers for the channel if a deal is struck. Streaming games elsewhere sounds like a headache, but I'll do it if I have to.
As for Altitude getting on my nerves, that all goes back to their social media feeds. I do not follow the channel, but I follow the Avalanche and they are counting down to the start of the season (20 days away now), which includes showing bits being filmed for intermission and pre/post-game segments and the announcement of which games they will be broadcasting, albeit not to most of their fans. The channel is available in many other markets so they will still cover the games, the hometown fans just won't get to see them. On almost every post trying to hype people up for the season, someone comments about not being able to watch the games and whoever runs the Avalanche Twitter responds with, "Correct" or some other such nonsense. Altitude's on air talent continues to do videos social media talking about the blackout, as if surrendering broadcasting to its base for the season. They also point out people can still watch the games on Charter and CenturyLink services, which really grinds my gears because CL is expensive as hell, not widely available and is no longer accepting new customers, and Charter covers literally one half of one county in all of Colorado (that is not an exaggeration). If you don't foresee a way for us to view the games, say as much so we can all make our decisions about what to do. Don't go out and play victim and keep telling us to complain to our providers because obviously they don't care what we want and they've already told you to kick rocks. Furthermore, I don't appreciate news articles that have titles about how to watch the games if the channel doesn't come back, when all they say is that you can still watch them on two providers that hardly anyone can get. I'm even less optimistic now, and I wasn't very optimistic to begin with. But I'm also just so tired of money being the only thing that talks. No one should feel sorry for a billionaire that couldn't get his ducks in a row before they all exploded.
Once upon a time the owner of my beloved Colorado Avalanche decided to start up his own TV network on which to air the games of the Avs and the several other teams he owns. It was called Altitude TV and has been the home of games for Colorado's NHL, NBA, lacrosse and professional soccer teams for nearly two decades. Prior to that, the Avs games aired on a Regional Sports Network, then called Fox Sports. The reason for Altitude and the switch was basically because the team's owner, Billionaire Stan Kroenke, wanted full control over how his teams were presented. The Avalanche are on the verge of what looks to be a very promising season. They made major moves to address their weaknesses over the summer and their biggest remaining issue is signing their last big name player. Imagine my surprise when I opened up Twitter last week to find a post from the Avalanche account stating that Altitude was about to be dropped from all three major television providers because they could not come to terms on a new deal.
My initial reaction to the Altitude news was to be pissed at DirecTV, not that I need more reason to feel that way towards them. But the last week has brought some clarity about where my anger should be directed. It's quite rare for all three TV providers to go to war with the same channel, which leads me to believe some blame lies on the shoulders of Altitude. The last week has seen the channel release a pair of open letters to fans and launch a campaign that's appeared on the internet, social media and newspapers urging fans to contact their providers and demand the channel back. In much of this campaign, Altitude seems to play the victim. "The Big 3," as they're calling Dish, Comcast and DirecTV, have decided to try and take them out and only fans can save them. Or so they want us to believe. The majority of comments on Twitter from fans are begging for a streaming option so people can cut the cord, but the network says that's not possible because they can't afford it. Fans tweet at their provider and get canned answers about the whole mess being Altitude's fault. It's gotten particularly nasty with Dish and Comcast, one not seeming to care if they ever get the channel back and the other claiming Altitude's greed is the only reason it was lost in the first place. I've noticed many other fans realizing there's blame on both sides recently. Altitude's on-air talent tries to talk them to their side of the aisle, but let's face it - if all three companies are having negotiation troubles with you, then you might be the problem.
Of course we don't get the full story on negotiations but the jist of it is that Altitude entered negotiations seeking an increase in the price the Big 3 pay to carry their channel, while the providers sought a 50% reduction in the price they pay, as well as moving the channel to a higher package tier, thus costing customers who keep cable just to watch sports that much more money for the privilege. Altitude wanted the increase to be gradual, not kicking in until next year. When that was rejected, they offered to keep the deal the same as the recently expired one, with no increase at all. That was also rejected. It seems the Big 3 will only agree to what their own terms are and nothing less. We don't know what other offers from either side have been put forth. Altitude's current state reminds me of that of a teenage girl acting on impulse. It's almost like when talks break off and they're not going their way, they release more information on Twitter about how they're being bullied. The thing is there's not much more the fan base can do here. We can all threaten to cancel our service til we're blue in the face but the Big 3 know that a lot of that is probably just talk. People threaten to cancel all the time. And in the case of DirecTV, there's always the 50/50 chance that someone who cancels their satellite service circles back around to their streaming options, so they're not really losing anything. At the end of the day, this is a dispute where fans are the most affected but have no real leverage. These carriers and Altitude need to sit down and figure it out, and they need to do it before October when the NHL and NBA seasons begin. This is not a small, local company fighting the good fight against three conglomerates. This is a network owned by a billionaire who is fighting other billionaires who could not care less about fans.
This whole thing really just bums me out and really is taking away from my excitement for the Avs season. If I can't watch it, what's the point in looking forward to it? I don't like cable providers, I think they way overcharge for what they give you. I got DTV a few years before AT&T purchased them and it has gone downhill faster than any company I've ever seen. They no longer care about DTV customers because they have so many other ways to make money, including their ever evolving streaming options which ATT clearly sees as the future. In fact, the CEO said this year that he doesn't want to bother with customers who are on discounted TV plans because they don't make the company enough money. The only reason I even still bother with them is because of local sports. Altitude does not broadcast on any streaming network and Avs games are blacked out locally on the NHL's streaming service. I don't watch live television at all (aside from sports), so cutting the cord is something I would do in a heartbeat if I could still watch the games. And it's something I will do if Altitude is not back on my television by opening night. I may still be forced to do it if DTV tries to force an upgrade to another package just for one channel. Mind you, they charge an $8 regional sports fee for what amounts to two channels, one of them an RSN that they own and thus don't pay to air. They're basically charging us $4 for their own network just because they can. And the extra $4 that's supposedly for Altitude remains on the bill, even though the network is not available right now. Even if the Big 3 got the deal they wanted out of this, they'd still raise prices. The greed is just disgusting. But I'm also irked with Altitude. Clearly, they knew this negotiation was coming and you're telling me no exec had even preliminary talks with the Big 3 to see what the official talks might entail? You were able to plan a media blitz against your fans but had no contingency plan in place for them to watch your teams if the bottom fell out? Every suggestion fans give is met with a, "No, we can't, it's too expensive" response from Altitude. They say they can't make a deal with a streaming service like Hulu because it's not sustainable. There are a good number of sports teams, NHL and NBA, who stream their games on platforms like this. If anyone is equipped to test the streaming waters and be a guinea pig, it's Kroenke and his billions. If he wasn't so damn stubborn, he could sell the rights to another RSN and let them deal with TV negotiations. Perhaps they could even just stick it to the Big 3 and air games over the air. I find it hard to believe that the handful of options you've been given are all completely un-doable. And if that's the case and you need the Big 3, or even just one of the Big 3, to continue to survive as a network then you never should've taken the battle public. It just makes you look weaker and gives those 3 no incentive to continue negotiating when they know what dire straits you're in. You need them, they don't need you and they don't really care if they piss off their customers. They have nothing to lose.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Monday, March 18, 2019
Off To Never Neverland
When I heard, "Leaving Neverland" was coming out, I knew I wanted to watch it. The Mrs. went back and forth about whether she wanted to because she worried it would make her not want to listen to his music anymore. In the end, we both chose to watch and were both...underwhelmed. Having heard all the hype about it, we expected it would provide at least a hint of a smoking gun. But no. It was just two accusers and their mothers telling their stories. Horrific stories, yes. But no different from the accuser that took him to trial in 2005. And these accounts in LN have the same problem that that case did - no real evidence and questionable parents. Michael Jackson's trial jury acquitted him largely on the basis of no smoking gun and an intense dislike for the accuser's mother. At least one juror has since admitted he believes MJ was guilty of molestation, but that there was not enough evidence to show he was guilty of molesting this particular boy. Part of the reason for that was that one of the LN accusers testified in defense of MJ, which he now says happened because his mom guilted him into it and because he did not know at that time that what had transpired in his youth was abuse. And that's possible. There is no blueprint for how sex abuse victims behave or cope with their trauma. I lean towards believing the other man in the documentary, you can see how what he went through just completely fucked him up. But I don't know if I believe the second one 100%. There's still so much grey area to everything MJ-related, because he was so secretive.
The descriptions of abuse in LN are no doubt twisted and difficult to listen to. No child should have to go through something like that. But what was actually shocking to me was how stupid the families were. There's a lot of, "Oh, but he was the biggest star in the world/he wasn't a normal adult man, he was very childlike". It is rare that someone denied a childhood has the means to build one for themselves as an adult. But, childlike or not, at the end of the day he is an adult man who prefers the company of children. And that would be fine, if not for the fact that he preferred boys to be separated from their parents and behind closed doors with him. I recall the enormity of MJ in his hey day, how larger than life it all was. But my mother would never have allowed us alone with a grown ass man, no matter how famous or childlike he was. Hell, one LN accuser's mother broke up her entire family on half-assed promises that MJ would make her son a star, which fell by the wayside once they moved from Australia to America. Both mothers mention being increasingly isolated from their sons as these "friendships" with MJ grew, yet they never gave a second thought to letting them sleep with him. MJ did the deed, yes, but the mothers get an assist. He didn't even have to groom them or wine and dine the families, he only had to turn on his childlike demeanor. I'd be pissed at my mother if I was either of those dudes.
Although I didn't watch LN until a week after it aired, I did go on Twitter the night it premiered to see what was going on. And it was sad. Most of what was trending were people defending MJ and slamming the accusers. His talent was so great, there's no way he could've hurt children and so on. So many people unable to separate the talent from the actual person that possessed it. No could ever say he was not talented or that his music didn't shape generations of people. But talent does not, or at least should not, be an excuse to do illegal activities. I love MJ's music and will continue to, but I separated the man from the music a long time ago. Do I believe he had a thing for young boys and abused them? Yes. You can't go through the evidence list of things found at Neverland in 1993 and think he was harmless. You don't put ten locks on your bedroom door or have a bell that alerts you when someone is approaching it because you're afraid of a home invasion. There's only one reason for that. I think the accusers in 1993 and 2005 were failed by their parents on an even grander scale than the LN pair. Not only did their parents willingly hand them over, they also were just crap people when it came to getting justice for their kids. I also think people take the childlike part of MJ too far. There was another side there, a calculating side that knew just what he was doing. And it is for this reason that I believe he did not molest every boy he came into overnight contact with. I think if he saw value in certain boys beyond his compulsion, say one who was famous and could be a believable voice that nothing sexual ever happened, he would not abuse them. No one but the alleged victims knows what really happened. And no one will ever move the hardcore fans to believe anything remotely bad about their idol. I just hope those that were victimized are able to find peace someday.
The descriptions of abuse in LN are no doubt twisted and difficult to listen to. No child should have to go through something like that. But what was actually shocking to me was how stupid the families were. There's a lot of, "Oh, but he was the biggest star in the world/he wasn't a normal adult man, he was very childlike". It is rare that someone denied a childhood has the means to build one for themselves as an adult. But, childlike or not, at the end of the day he is an adult man who prefers the company of children. And that would be fine, if not for the fact that he preferred boys to be separated from their parents and behind closed doors with him. I recall the enormity of MJ in his hey day, how larger than life it all was. But my mother would never have allowed us alone with a grown ass man, no matter how famous or childlike he was. Hell, one LN accuser's mother broke up her entire family on half-assed promises that MJ would make her son a star, which fell by the wayside once they moved from Australia to America. Both mothers mention being increasingly isolated from their sons as these "friendships" with MJ grew, yet they never gave a second thought to letting them sleep with him. MJ did the deed, yes, but the mothers get an assist. He didn't even have to groom them or wine and dine the families, he only had to turn on his childlike demeanor. I'd be pissed at my mother if I was either of those dudes.
Although I didn't watch LN until a week after it aired, I did go on Twitter the night it premiered to see what was going on. And it was sad. Most of what was trending were people defending MJ and slamming the accusers. His talent was so great, there's no way he could've hurt children and so on. So many people unable to separate the talent from the actual person that possessed it. No could ever say he was not talented or that his music didn't shape generations of people. But talent does not, or at least should not, be an excuse to do illegal activities. I love MJ's music and will continue to, but I separated the man from the music a long time ago. Do I believe he had a thing for young boys and abused them? Yes. You can't go through the evidence list of things found at Neverland in 1993 and think he was harmless. You don't put ten locks on your bedroom door or have a bell that alerts you when someone is approaching it because you're afraid of a home invasion. There's only one reason for that. I think the accusers in 1993 and 2005 were failed by their parents on an even grander scale than the LN pair. Not only did their parents willingly hand them over, they also were just crap people when it came to getting justice for their kids. I also think people take the childlike part of MJ too far. There was another side there, a calculating side that knew just what he was doing. And it is for this reason that I believe he did not molest every boy he came into overnight contact with. I think if he saw value in certain boys beyond his compulsion, say one who was famous and could be a believable voice that nothing sexual ever happened, he would not abuse them. No one but the alleged victims knows what really happened. And no one will ever move the hardcore fans to believe anything remotely bad about their idol. I just hope those that were victimized are able to find peace someday.
Sunday, January 13, 2019
So Long, Farewell
I've written a lot lately about "90 Day Fiance". And that's actually a good thing because it means the demons have been exorcised and what's swirling around in my brain is all mindless, minor stuff. It's nice to be in such a place. But this may very well be my last 90 post. I think I'm done with the show. It's been on for six seasons now and I've watched them all, except for season two (I don't remember why). As the show has gone on, I've been uncomfortable with how certain things have been handled. I know "reality" is not really a thing on these shows, there's always manipulation behind the scenes. But it's become more of a competition between cast members to get onto other incarnations of the show, than a chronicle of people from different countries in love. Season one was the most organic and most of those couples had spent more than a day together before applying for their K-1 visa. The point of the visa is that you already know you want to marry this person. But the more recent couples have spent very little time together and frequently complain that 90 days isn't enough time to know if you wanna get married. And no, it's not. That's not what you're supposed to do, use the 90 days as an audition. It gets tiring to hear them constantly talk about not being ready for the marriage. There's also the fact that at least two guys in the past two seasons have been borderline pedophiles. One was 26 and married an 18-year-old who he had been "talking" to since she was 16 or 17. Someone this season had been making regular trips to visit a 16-year-old in Mexico, who he married when she was 19 (he was in his mid-30's and they have since split). Obviously, the producers know the ages prior to casting and I think it's irresponsible to be glorifying this type of thing. These girls were underage and groomed by older men prior to marrying. But the main reason I think I'm done has to do with recent events that made national news.
Larissa and Colt were, admittedly, one of the main reasons I wanted to see season six. In the previews, I had trouble figuring out if Colt was a man or a woman because we didn't yet have names and he has a lot of womanly curves (seriously, I've never seen a man shaped like he is). Once the show premiered, it was revealed he lived in Las Vegas and was bringing a woman from Brazil to the U.S.. When Larissa landed at the airport, Colt did not greet her with flowers and she let it be known that was a misstep. Then, on the ride to the home he shares with his mother, Larissa learned there was no air conditioning in his car and no plans to fix the broken AC. Larissa would later go on to ask for a new couch, peruse new cars and shop for a wedding dress, getting denied funds by Colt (or his mother, who he shares a joint bank account with) at every turn. She was harassed by Colt's cousin without provocation. Even when Colt proposed, it was not a happy moment because he took a deathly afraid of heights Larissa to the highest point in Vegas. Even though she was visibly uncomfortable, he ignored it, sipped his drink and then proposed anyway. After much back and forth about whether they would marry, they got hitched in a wedding that saw her sporting a dress from Goodwill and guests wearing board shorts and flip flops. Not exactly living the dream.
Colt and Larissa had arguments and scraps before the wedding even happened and it was apparent his mother did not want this whole thing to happen. He's her only son and his father had passed away a decade before and it seems Mother Colt has placed him into her late husband's role in some ways. She was visibly jealous of the attention her 30-something son gave his fiancee. Larissa, who had not gotten anything she'd asked Colt for since her arrival, wanted to move into a place of their own and extricate her husband from his mother's bosom. But Colt wanted none of that. I never cared for anybody in this equation. Colt comes off as a manipulative, co-dependent Mama's boy who thought he was ordering a living, breathing sex doll from Brazil, rather than a wife. Larissa made mention that his only way of showing affection was sex and he thought they should have it frequently and whenever he asked. I didn't care for Larissa because she was a bit high strung and when it came out that she left behind two children in Brazil, her defense was that her ex was a bi-sexual crossdresser who she just couldn't deal with. Mother Colt seemed low key vindictive, never outright starting shit but certainly not shy to get involved once it was going down. They were all just kinda garbage people. And then came news that Larissa had been arrested shortly before the wedding, after posting a series of things on her social media about Colt stealing her phone and asking her followers to call 911. Allegedly, she assaulted Colt and that's why she was taken in. Her next social media post showed her playfully posing against a cop car and the pair appeared to move on from the incident. But appearances are rarely what they seem on social media, aren't they? Last week, Larissa posted videos and photos of Colt baiting her into a fight, followed by pictures of her with facial injuries she claimed Colt inflicted. Colt posted his own photo of a busted lip he said she inflicted. Police were called, people were patched up and Larissa was taken in after the cops supposedly determined Colt couldn't have left the marks on her because he bites his nails and thus has no nails to scratch with. That seems flimsy, but okay. Currently, Larissa is awaiting a February court date and Colt is awaiting her response to his divorce petition. What happens with her visa remains to be seen.
The pattern of abuse here is clear as day; they fight, they make-up and everything's hunky dory, they fight again and cops are called. I genuinely hope they go through with the divorce because I think they may legit kill each other if they remain together. This is how it begins. And what really sticks in my craw about all this is that it's not the first case of abuse TLC has aired. To be fair, no physical altercations between Colt and Larissa have been aired. But a few seasons ago, there was a case where the female half of a couple shoved her fiance on a number of occasions, on camera, and TLC did nothing about it. Another woman literally beat her husband, taking swings at him with open and closed fists, on at least two occasions and TLC just kept filming. You know if this had been men hitting or shoving women, something would have been done. I don't know why that double standard still exists. There have been other incidents of violence, most of them much less violent than the Larissa and Colt saga, described by cast members as having happened off-camera. I started watching this show to see the cultural difference (which, as it turns out, I didn't need to do because I get to live it now with the Mrs.). And yeah, I stayed to watch some of the trainwrecks. But it's gotten out of hand now. It's not, "haha, these people are making stupid decisions" anymore. It's violence and children being preyed on and children being cast aside by their parents. There's enough of that in real life. I don't need to tune in to watch it every Sunday. All that said, there is supposedly a version of the show being filmed where the American partner moves overseas and that's intriguing. I'll probably wait until it all hears and get feedback about whether it's as bad as current 90 Day or closer to the better seasons of the show before I watch. I've wasted enough of my time watching this last, horrible season.
Larissa and Colt were, admittedly, one of the main reasons I wanted to see season six. In the previews, I had trouble figuring out if Colt was a man or a woman because we didn't yet have names and he has a lot of womanly curves (seriously, I've never seen a man shaped like he is). Once the show premiered, it was revealed he lived in Las Vegas and was bringing a woman from Brazil to the U.S.. When Larissa landed at the airport, Colt did not greet her with flowers and she let it be known that was a misstep. Then, on the ride to the home he shares with his mother, Larissa learned there was no air conditioning in his car and no plans to fix the broken AC. Larissa would later go on to ask for a new couch, peruse new cars and shop for a wedding dress, getting denied funds by Colt (or his mother, who he shares a joint bank account with) at every turn. She was harassed by Colt's cousin without provocation. Even when Colt proposed, it was not a happy moment because he took a deathly afraid of heights Larissa to the highest point in Vegas. Even though she was visibly uncomfortable, he ignored it, sipped his drink and then proposed anyway. After much back and forth about whether they would marry, they got hitched in a wedding that saw her sporting a dress from Goodwill and guests wearing board shorts and flip flops. Not exactly living the dream.
Colt and Larissa had arguments and scraps before the wedding even happened and it was apparent his mother did not want this whole thing to happen. He's her only son and his father had passed away a decade before and it seems Mother Colt has placed him into her late husband's role in some ways. She was visibly jealous of the attention her 30-something son gave his fiancee. Larissa, who had not gotten anything she'd asked Colt for since her arrival, wanted to move into a place of their own and extricate her husband from his mother's bosom. But Colt wanted none of that. I never cared for anybody in this equation. Colt comes off as a manipulative, co-dependent Mama's boy who thought he was ordering a living, breathing sex doll from Brazil, rather than a wife. Larissa made mention that his only way of showing affection was sex and he thought they should have it frequently and whenever he asked. I didn't care for Larissa because she was a bit high strung and when it came out that she left behind two children in Brazil, her defense was that her ex was a bi-sexual crossdresser who she just couldn't deal with. Mother Colt seemed low key vindictive, never outright starting shit but certainly not shy to get involved once it was going down. They were all just kinda garbage people. And then came news that Larissa had been arrested shortly before the wedding, after posting a series of things on her social media about Colt stealing her phone and asking her followers to call 911. Allegedly, she assaulted Colt and that's why she was taken in. Her next social media post showed her playfully posing against a cop car and the pair appeared to move on from the incident. But appearances are rarely what they seem on social media, aren't they? Last week, Larissa posted videos and photos of Colt baiting her into a fight, followed by pictures of her with facial injuries she claimed Colt inflicted. Colt posted his own photo of a busted lip he said she inflicted. Police were called, people were patched up and Larissa was taken in after the cops supposedly determined Colt couldn't have left the marks on her because he bites his nails and thus has no nails to scratch with. That seems flimsy, but okay. Currently, Larissa is awaiting a February court date and Colt is awaiting her response to his divorce petition. What happens with her visa remains to be seen.
The pattern of abuse here is clear as day; they fight, they make-up and everything's hunky dory, they fight again and cops are called. I genuinely hope they go through with the divorce because I think they may legit kill each other if they remain together. This is how it begins. And what really sticks in my craw about all this is that it's not the first case of abuse TLC has aired. To be fair, no physical altercations between Colt and Larissa have been aired. But a few seasons ago, there was a case where the female half of a couple shoved her fiance on a number of occasions, on camera, and TLC did nothing about it. Another woman literally beat her husband, taking swings at him with open and closed fists, on at least two occasions and TLC just kept filming. You know if this had been men hitting or shoving women, something would have been done. I don't know why that double standard still exists. There have been other incidents of violence, most of them much less violent than the Larissa and Colt saga, described by cast members as having happened off-camera. I started watching this show to see the cultural difference (which, as it turns out, I didn't need to do because I get to live it now with the Mrs.). And yeah, I stayed to watch some of the trainwrecks. But it's gotten out of hand now. It's not, "haha, these people are making stupid decisions" anymore. It's violence and children being preyed on and children being cast aside by their parents. There's enough of that in real life. I don't need to tune in to watch it every Sunday. All that said, there is supposedly a version of the show being filmed where the American partner moves overseas and that's intriguing. I'll probably wait until it all hears and get feedback about whether it's as bad as current 90 Day or closer to the better seasons of the show before I watch. I've wasted enough of my time watching this last, horrible season.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Land of Illusion
I did not watch the Idiot's speech earlier this week, but saw the cliffnotes after the fact. I perused Twitter to see reactions and was...not surprised, but dismayed. There were plenty of people calling a spade a spade and pointing out his lies, that the speech was a televised tantrum and accomplished nothing. But for every one of those posts, there were two or three congratulating the Idiot on a great speech and hashtagging that we should build the wall. These same people responded to the sane ones with their delusions about how much danger lurks at the border and how many people are dying. None of these Idiot supporters cared when children were put in cages and died there. None of them really seems to care about the government shutdown. It's tunnel vision over the wall. And it's really becoming apparent just how racist and stupid some people in this country are.
I said shortly after the election that I was giving some leeway to people who had voted for the Idiot, but were upset that he won. I still believed these people were dumb; "I didn't think he would win/I just didn't wanna vote for her" aren't exactly great excuses and illustrate the way voters don't take their votes seriously. But if you realized your mistake now that the world was being penciled in to end, I got that. However, after only a few months of his shenanigans and racist/sexist/anti-anybody-who-isn't-white rhetoric, I changed my opinion. Anyone who still supported him after that was as bad as he is. They were as racist as he is. I don't care if you have family or friends who are people of color and think you aren't racist because of that. How do you have those people in your life, who you clearly deem to be worthy of love and friendship, yet support somebody who thinks they are less than human? I've never been able to reconcile how these people do that. And less than a year into this circus of an administration, I hit my limit. I unfriended people who defended him, or themselves for defending him. I had nothing left for that negativity and stupidity. All of that was bad enough. But now we've come to the point of a blatant, outright lie, that the sane among us knew was a lie all along, of The Wall. This fucker has shut down the government, left families without basic living expenses, over something that is not needed and would not do a damn thing to stop illegal immigration. He has been offered chances to get security money, sans wall, and reopen the government. Any decent president makes deals in this situation, they don't throw temper tantrums. The problem is he has nothing to offer the other side. He's been told opening the government won't get him a wall, keeping it shut down won't get him a wall, yet he chooses to continue the shutdown. And it all goes back to his hateful promise that he would get Mexico to fund a wall. That's what got him elected by similar small-minded sheep who didn't do their research and blindly believed his BS. And he apparently believes if it's not in the process of being built by 2020, he won't get re-elected.
This is not how adults function. Adults do not sit in their office and refuse to move until they get what they want. Adults don't plug their ears to block out their opponents point of view. The Idiot is not an adult. He's a child doing a very poor job of masquerading as a president. Actual children can be reasoned with, he cannot. Hell, if we even survive the next two years, it will be a miracle. The Idiot has always been out for only one person - himself. He wants what he wants and surrounded himself with yes people his entire life. The problem is that's not how the government works. It is not a system that revolves around him, and that's why it's been such a problem for him. And clearly what's a problem for our country, besides him, is racism. Undercover racists love to say that racism can't exist anymore because of Obama or because of civil rights (which the Idiot also wants to roll back, btw), but we know that's not true. Every four years we hear about the family life, the past, the religion, the qualifications of presidential candidates. People were desperate to dig something up on Obama so he could not run for office. What did we hear about the Idiot? He's a misogynist who likely sexually assaulted women, he has no religion, he has no qualifications, he dodged military service and has been married multiple times. He refuses to give up tax returns, likely because they'll show he's not as rich or business minded as he claims to be. Obama walked through fire, released everything required and then some during his election campaign. People with nothing to hide, who aren't snake oil salesmen, hide nothing. This spiteful, stupid Idiot suckered a lot of stupid people and we're all paying for it. And it really is cult-like, the way his followers defend every single move as if it's right. I didn't always agree with Obama, who I voted for both times, and I didn't strike out on the interwebs to defend his every action just because he was our first minority president. Yet Idiot supporters seem to go all in defending his lies just because he's as racist and hateful as they are.
There's a woman on "90 Day Fiance" from Indonesia with a shady ass past. She's unpleasant, reluctant mother of a young son who expects her American husband to ditch his own family and solely focus on raising her kid. Because he's an Idiot, he's doing just that. She claims to be a doctor, lawyer, beauty queen, mess of other professions. She posts on her social media photos of her holding up random products, as if she's an ambassador for the brand. In reality, none of these brands are paying her, she's just trying to bait them into "discovering" her so she can have her 15 minutes and, maybe, some free stuff. She posts about her "charity" organization that needs money to, "help people who need help". She uses Jewish last names because she believes they sound moneyed. She posts boudoir photos for all to see and claims her body is great and people are jealous of her life (and 2 points for body positivity here, I guess). She has Idiot syndrome. She lives in a land of illusion, the exact same way he does. And she gets far more hate than he does and all she's doing is trying for fame on a reality tv show. He's running the fucking country. They both think if they say something enough times, people will believe them and take it as gospel. How is it people accept that from a sex offender, but go all in on derailing the lies of a TV contestant? Ass backward thinking. And it has been an ass backward, long two years.
I said shortly after the election that I was giving some leeway to people who had voted for the Idiot, but were upset that he won. I still believed these people were dumb; "I didn't think he would win/I just didn't wanna vote for her" aren't exactly great excuses and illustrate the way voters don't take their votes seriously. But if you realized your mistake now that the world was being penciled in to end, I got that. However, after only a few months of his shenanigans and racist/sexist/anti-anybody-who-isn't-white rhetoric, I changed my opinion. Anyone who still supported him after that was as bad as he is. They were as racist as he is. I don't care if you have family or friends who are people of color and think you aren't racist because of that. How do you have those people in your life, who you clearly deem to be worthy of love and friendship, yet support somebody who thinks they are less than human? I've never been able to reconcile how these people do that. And less than a year into this circus of an administration, I hit my limit. I unfriended people who defended him, or themselves for defending him. I had nothing left for that negativity and stupidity. All of that was bad enough. But now we've come to the point of a blatant, outright lie, that the sane among us knew was a lie all along, of The Wall. This fucker has shut down the government, left families without basic living expenses, over something that is not needed and would not do a damn thing to stop illegal immigration. He has been offered chances to get security money, sans wall, and reopen the government. Any decent president makes deals in this situation, they don't throw temper tantrums. The problem is he has nothing to offer the other side. He's been told opening the government won't get him a wall, keeping it shut down won't get him a wall, yet he chooses to continue the shutdown. And it all goes back to his hateful promise that he would get Mexico to fund a wall. That's what got him elected by similar small-minded sheep who didn't do their research and blindly believed his BS. And he apparently believes if it's not in the process of being built by 2020, he won't get re-elected.
This is not how adults function. Adults do not sit in their office and refuse to move until they get what they want. Adults don't plug their ears to block out their opponents point of view. The Idiot is not an adult. He's a child doing a very poor job of masquerading as a president. Actual children can be reasoned with, he cannot. Hell, if we even survive the next two years, it will be a miracle. The Idiot has always been out for only one person - himself. He wants what he wants and surrounded himself with yes people his entire life. The problem is that's not how the government works. It is not a system that revolves around him, and that's why it's been such a problem for him. And clearly what's a problem for our country, besides him, is racism. Undercover racists love to say that racism can't exist anymore because of Obama or because of civil rights (which the Idiot also wants to roll back, btw), but we know that's not true. Every four years we hear about the family life, the past, the religion, the qualifications of presidential candidates. People were desperate to dig something up on Obama so he could not run for office. What did we hear about the Idiot? He's a misogynist who likely sexually assaulted women, he has no religion, he has no qualifications, he dodged military service and has been married multiple times. He refuses to give up tax returns, likely because they'll show he's not as rich or business minded as he claims to be. Obama walked through fire, released everything required and then some during his election campaign. People with nothing to hide, who aren't snake oil salesmen, hide nothing. This spiteful, stupid Idiot suckered a lot of stupid people and we're all paying for it. And it really is cult-like, the way his followers defend every single move as if it's right. I didn't always agree with Obama, who I voted for both times, and I didn't strike out on the interwebs to defend his every action just because he was our first minority president. Yet Idiot supporters seem to go all in defending his lies just because he's as racist and hateful as they are.
There's a woman on "90 Day Fiance" from Indonesia with a shady ass past. She's unpleasant, reluctant mother of a young son who expects her American husband to ditch his own family and solely focus on raising her kid. Because he's an Idiot, he's doing just that. She claims to be a doctor, lawyer, beauty queen, mess of other professions. She posts on her social media photos of her holding up random products, as if she's an ambassador for the brand. In reality, none of these brands are paying her, she's just trying to bait them into "discovering" her so she can have her 15 minutes and, maybe, some free stuff. She posts about her "charity" organization that needs money to, "help people who need help". She uses Jewish last names because she believes they sound moneyed. She posts boudoir photos for all to see and claims her body is great and people are jealous of her life (and 2 points for body positivity here, I guess). She has Idiot syndrome. She lives in a land of illusion, the exact same way he does. And she gets far more hate than he does and all she's doing is trying for fame on a reality tv show. He's running the fucking country. They both think if they say something enough times, people will believe them and take it as gospel. How is it people accept that from a sex offender, but go all in on derailing the lies of a TV contestant? Ass backward thinking. And it has been an ass backward, long two years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)