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We Are Getting Dumber Every Day

I saw a headline today that YouTube was going to remove all videos of people eating Tide Pods because people are apparently still eating Tide Pods. I used to laugh about all of the stupid warning labels on products. I thought “Do we really need to tell people not to eat the silica gel packets?”  or “Do we really need to tell people not to iron their clothes while they are wearing them?” Apparently, the answer is yes. We now live in a world where people are eating detergent pods and YouTube is forced to remove videos because. despite all of the warnings, people are still eating Tide Pods. We are now a people who are too stupid to not eat detergent.

It shouldn’t surprise me. We are going on a year of the presidency of a Cheetos colored reality TV star becoming our president. His base believes his “Fake News!” claims and believe that everything negative about him is a “vast media conspiracy.” Our president just spent an evening handing out “fake news” awards. We are a stupid people. Another TV star recently spoke at an awards ceremony and people want to vote for her to become president. “I saw her on the TeeVee! Let’s make her president!” The ruler of the free world has become a reality TV show. More people would vote if they just did away with the election process and had a season long TV show where a potential candidate is eliminated each week based upon a vote on social media. We are all worshippers in the cult of personality. Public service and intelligence is no longer what we desire in a leader. We want tweets and a TV presence. Popularity and fame is all that matters. Our net president might be the person who ate the most Tide Pods.

Of course, I might be part of the problem. I write this blog in the hopes of getting people to read it. I would gladly accept a world where I got paid to post stupid stuff online. Maybe I should eat a Tide Pod…

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Tater’s Late Weekly Wrap Up

This was sitting in my draft box. I added a new one and decided to post it. I will try to be better about getting these back to Friday with more takes on current events. I know y’all are very excited.

 

The Today Show – The Today Show announced on Tuesday that Hoda Kotb would be the full time replacement for Matt Lauer. I was surprised by the news. I thought for sure they would hire a man for the job. I was expecting Craig Melvin or Willie Geist.  I like both of them, but I think going with two women anchors is a good idea. I’m just not sure how I feel about Hoda Kotb. My only reference for her until recently is what I’ve seen of her with Kathie Lee on the 4th hour of Today and I was not a fan. I wonder if CBS will go that route as well or if they will hire another male anchor.

Logan Paul – I will admit that I know nothing about Logan Paul. I’ve never watched one of his videos and I’ve only watched and read what the news is saying about the latest video. I think it is in bad taste to go and film in a place known for suicides and extremely bad taste to film the body and post it.  I think YouTube should suspend his account for a period of time and rethink what they allow people to post. Do I think Paul should be banned forever? No, I don’t. We need to get out of this habit to want permanent repercussions for wrongdoings. There should be repercussions, but I don’t think a lifetime ban is warranted. EDIT: I wrote this before the other video from Japan surfaced. It prbably is better that he not post anymore.

I Have a Giant Mental Stable: I jokingly say that I am a genius all the time. If you feel the need to announce that when you aren’t joking, odds are you are not one. If you feel the need to announce that you are known for your mental stability, you might not be mentally stable. If you feel the need to announce that you are not a racist or a homophobe, odds are you are saying that in response to someone catching you being racist or homophobic. But I really do have the biggest mental stable in the history of mental stables. Just ask me.

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Tater’s Take on Flake

Everyone is talking about Flake’s speech about Trump. Flake even wrote an op-ed against Trump for the Washington Post. While I’m happy whenever someone speaks out against Trump, I’m not impressed with Flake for  couple of reasons.

  1. Flake has voted with Trump 90% of the time. He’s not against Trump policies or political stances.  He’s only upset that Trump’s abrasive personality is damaging the Republican brand.
  2. He only did it when he’s quitting. Is it really that brave to stand up to the president on your way out the door? Wouldn’t it be better to stand up to him and also seek reelection so you can do it from a position of power?  If you work for a toxic person and you are silent until you are walking out the door and then you make a big speech about how you always hated the boss, that’s not brave. Brave would be standing up to the boss while you still have something to lose. Sure, it’s better to say something on the way out the door than to say nothing at all, but I’m waiting for the person brave enough to take a stand when they aren’t walking out the door. Maybe Flake’s speech will empower someone to do this.
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Too Much

I keep trying to decide what to write about, but there’s just too much going on right now to settle on a topic.

Do I write an angry post about Trump? His attack on the first amendment and freedom of press? His threats to pull FEMA out of Puerto Rico? The fact that he is, in fact, a moron? I feel like I could post every day about him and his poor decisions.

Do I write about Harvey Weinstein and the years of people covering up his crimes? Do I write about the fact that too many powerful men(and plenty of men with little power) think this is OK behavior? Do I write about how we elected one of these men president? Do I talk about how sad it is that some men can’t seem to not grope or otherwise assault women and that this is a sign that we need to do a much better job in raising our sons?

Do I write happy news that the Nats once again imploded in the playoffs and will be sitting at home the rest of the postseason? Have I mentioned how much I despise that team?

Or do I go with the option of boring you about my personal stuff? If I do this, do I try to find some funny or do I go with the deep, introspective type of post?

Maybe I can just write a post with a bunch of questions about what I should write about. No, that would be stupid.

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Tater’s Weekly Wrap Up 8/24/17

Eclipse2017 – This was the week of the eclipse.  I had the option of going to the area of totality with a free place to stay. I didn’t do it. That was a mistake. There was no reason besides laziness and that is a poor excuse to not do something like that.  I was fortunate that I had decided a couple of months ago to take the day off in case I decided to drive to Kentucky and to just enjoy the eclipse away from work. Working at a place that had eclipse glasses for the public threatened to ruin the experience for all of us. I see posts on Facebook where people say they wish people would prepare for the second coming of Christ the way they prepared for the eclipse. If they did that a good portion of them would be at their local library demanding to know if he was there. Regardless, it was nice to sit on my porch and watch the eclipse. The weather worked out and we had plenty of clear skies.

America’s Got Talent – My daughter and I still like to watch the show. We enjoy the audition phase much more than the live shows, but we still watch and vote for the acts we like. It is very frustrating to watch these days for a couple of reasons. I hate that once we get to the live shows and the public starts to vote the majority of the acts going through are singers. There are so many singing shows around. It would be nice to see people with different talents going through. We enjoy the magicians and a good stand up comic and get bored when the entire shows is people singing. The other frustration is that the judges can’t really give a contestant constructive criticism, especially if they are a kid. Last night Mel B tried with a kid singer and the crowd starts booing her and the other judges and the host jump in to stop her and keep talking about how she’s only 9 years old. If she’s too young to hear constructive criticism she’s too young to be on a talent show with such a big prize. I miss the days when they had a mean judge.

Louise Linton – The Treasury Secretary’s wife posted a photo of herself getting off a US government-owned plane. She was dressed in really expensive clothes and tagged the designers in the post. Some random woman commented “glad we could pay for your little vacation #deplorable” which led to Linton going off on a rant about how much more she has contributed to the country via taxes and service.  It seems everyone is against Linton on this one, but I have a different take: 1. It likely cost no more for her to be on the plane than it would have if it was just her husband. I have no issue with her traveling with him. I travel with my wife when she goes to conferences. If she were flying on a government plane and I was offered a seat, I would not say no. 2. She’s rich. She will wear nice clothes. Everyone posts stuff online that makes them look good. 3. She’s right in her response in saying that maybe responding with positive message would be better, but I disagree that the positive would get more traction. People who post negative comments in situations like this get more publicity and I’m sure that’s what the commenter wanted. 4. I agree that the wife of a government official should think before responding to the public. It’s probably a good thing that she set her account to private now.

ESPN – ESPN has made the decision to move announcer Robert Lee from the UVA game to another game because his name is too similar to Robert E Lee. I don’t know what they think is going to happen. Do they really think people are too stupid to know that he has no connection to the statue? Especially since he isn’t white? Would anyone even notice? Half the time I don’t even know the names of the people announcing the games. When they put them on screen when they show them during breaks I will likely forget them when play starts(unless they are famous). This was a non-issue that ESPN decided to make an issue and all they’ve done is make themselves look stupid.

Weekly Trump Check – Still a horrible human being? Check. Still a bad president? Check. Still lying? Check. Still attacking the media? Check. Still an embarrassment to the country? Check.

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The Newer Colossus

Given recent events, I’ve decided the poem at the Statue of Liberty needed an update

 

 

Like the yuge orange guy of Apprentice fame,
With tiny hands grabbing  from bleep  to bleep;
Here at our (giant wall coming soon) shall stand
A vetting process, whose clipboard
Is the imprisoned red tape , and his name
The Donald. From his tiny-hand
Glows you’re not  welcome; his crazy eyes command
The (giant wall coming soon) that twin cities frame.

“Keep, off our land , you rapey Mexicans ” cries he
With pursed lips. “Give me your English speaking, your rich,
Your entrepreneurs  yearning to make more money,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Keep these, the homeless, the brown people away from me,
I’ll build my wall with a  golden door!”

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Yet Another Political Post

There are a lot of troubling news items coming out of DC recently. So many that a lot get lost in the shuffle.Someone created a website to help people keep track of the happenings.

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/

I know some will be offended by the profanity in the title, but it isn’t any more obscene than some of the news listed. So, with all of this going on I decided to write about the three recent things I have found most troubling lately.

  1. Trump is more concerned with the fact that there were leaks than the fact that the leaks revealed his National Security Adviser had lied about his phone call with Russia. Flynn lied to the FBI. Flynn lied to the Vice President. Trump knew this and only fired him when it was made public. He’s not angry that Flynn had inappropriate talks with Russia. He’s not angry that he lied to the FBI(a crime) and the Vice President. He’s angry that the press reported it. That’s like a cheating husband saying his adultery is not the problem and that the real problem is that the wife looked at his phone and found out he was cheating.
  2. Trump adviser Stephen Miller made the rounds on the TV talk shows and his performance was praised by Trump. During these appearances he said the following “the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.” This was in response to the judiciary ruling the travel ban illegal. Apparently the Trump administration believes his power should be absolute and the system of checks and balances in place should not be recognized. This sounds like a dictatorship, not the United States. The president(regardless of party) should be questioned by Congress, the judiciary, the public and the press. Being elected president does not give you absolute power to do whatever you want without question.
  3.  Representative Lamar Smith,  the Chairman for the House Committee on Science said in a speech on the House floor that it is “Better to get your news directly from the president. In fact, it might be the only way to get the unvarnished truth.” This, along with Trump’s constant use of the term “fake news”, is an attempt to get the public to disregard any negative news regarding the administration. If the public ignores the news and only listens to the glowing reports from the president himself then he can do whatever he wants with no repercussions. The cowardly GOP congress will do nothing to stop him so if they can get us to disregard the press and the judiciary they have absolute power. This is scary.

Do your part. Stay informed. Support the press. Subscribe to newspapers. Question what you hear from any source and get multiple opinions. Speak up. We the people are what makes America great.

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