Week of 10/28/2019

You Are Not Entitled
– by David Matthews 2

I have a simple message to tell you all.  It’s something that I’ve been trying to put together for several months now and wondering if I even should.  However, recent activities have given me reason to say what needs to be said.

In fact, the title of this article gives it away.

You are not entitled!

This commentator has seen way too many people going about with an attitude.  And I don’t just mean the orange-skinned narcissist that currently infests the White House and his cavalcade of sycophants and ass-kissers.  I’m talking about people with red hats and those that hate red hats.  I’m talking about people on the road, in the stores, basically anywhere both online and the real world.

All of us.  And, yes, that does include myself.  I won’t pretend to be immune to this.

You are not entitled!

I don’t know about anywhere else, but in the Atlanta area, traffic has gotten worse and worse over the years, and I don’t just mean the volume of vehicles, although it certainly plays a part.  There are way too many people who are following too close, dodging in and out between other vehicles like they’re in NASCAR, and not letting other people merge in front of them.  It used to just be people in the SUVs, but lately they’ve been predominantly people driving pickup trucks.

I’ve seen too many people driving like they’re the next Dominic Toretto from “Fast and the Furious”.  They gun their engines on straightaways, thinking that they’re impressive, not knowing if there is another vehicle around the bend or up over the hill.  I’ve got news for you... you’re not Toretto.  You’re not even Roman!  You are “no-name generic driver #8 who gets smoked by Roman”.

You are not entitled!

I have seen way too many people holding up traffic when the light is green because they’re busy texting, even when it’s illegal to do so.  One idiot even held up their cellphone as though that would excuse their ineptitude.  No, it doesn’t excuse it.  You’re a self-absorbed idiot who is holding up traffic, not to mention breaking the law!

You are not entitled!

How many times do you have to tell a salesperson to stop calling?  I’ve seen salespeople continually call a place of business even when they’re told there’s no sale to be made.  It’s not “no, not right now” or “no, but maybe later on it might be possible” or even “no, but check back in a month and maybe that will change”.  We’re talking “no, there is no possible way we will ever do business like that, please stop calling us”.  If this is a residential call, we’re talking about a situation where you’re threatening to call a lawyer and filing a lawsuit.  But, because it’s a business, you can’t really threaten a lawsuit because now your own salespeople will be pissed at you and now you have to answer to the Human Resources department.

Seriously, where in the hell do salespeople get off thinking they have a right to annoy you even after you tell them no?

And it’s not just over the phone.  Website ads have gotten more annoying.  Website code is being written that harass people who use ad-blocking technology, and then they allow ads that hijack your browser and try to insert malware.  They’re justifying the very need for ad-blocking software that they try to block you from using.

You are not entitled!

Ever go shopping?  Doesn’t matter if it’s a big box store or a little grocery store, there will always be two kinds of people.  The first are the families that show up with the handicap scooter that make it their business to hog the whole isle.  And it doesn’t matter how wide the isles are, that family will make it their mission in life to hog the whole isle ;and put themselves and their carts right in front of whatever product you’re looking to get.  And then there are the families with kids that they just cannot control.  They want to hide and then they want to ride and then they want to walk and then they want something and will scream at the top of their lungs until they get it.

And it doesn’t help when you add to that the employees stocking and re-stocking the isles in the middle of all of that.  So now they’re blocking the isles with their stuff along with the parents with the annoying kids and the families hell-bent on owning those same isles.

You are not entitled!

Then there are the really annoying people... the eternal cellphone users.  The ones that are eternally glued to their cellphones, either playing games or texting, or else they’re talking with people and using the wireless earphones.

Personally I think that wireless earbuds should come with a flag or a flashing light or something to show that they’re in use, because I cannot tell if the person is talking to me or talking to someone on the phone.  I don’t know if they’re asking me a question or asking the other person on the phone a question.  I don’t know if they’re just plain crazy or self-absorbed and stupid.  I’m actually leaning towards both.

And when they’re not talking, they’re texting and surfing and they’re doing it while walking, oblivious to whatever else is around them.  Worse yet, they expect the rest of the world to accommodate them when they do it!

You!

Are!

Not!

Entitled!

Look, I get it.  Technology really isn’t bringing us together.  It’s making us further isolated.  We’re not bound to computer terminals anymore.  We can do our business on cellphones.  We can multitask, or so we delude ourselves.  But, in truth, we lose our focus on other things.  Driving takes a lot of focus and attention; even more so on the highways, where you’re dealing with more and more truck drivers – and more drivers who just got their commercial license.  And now you have those of us who think that we are entitled to drive like maniacs just because we have that overpowered and overpriced vehicle with all the technology in it.  We’re just begging for accidents and incidents.

Let’s get brutally honest here... we need to get more civil in our lives.  It’s not a matter of bringing in “more Jesus” or “family values”.  It’s a matter of bringing in more personal civility.  We have to work with each other.

And, like I said earlier, I’m not immune to this either.  There are times when I fall into the trap of thinking the world revolves around myself.  The problem is, though, it doesn’t.  I know this more than most people.  I’ve had that demonstrated to me more often than other people.

The rules of the road are not suggestions.  There is such a thing as driving too fast.  The right-of-way is not something that you take.  It’s something that you have to give others.  And when you’re driving on the same road as huge semis and idiot drivers who think they’re the next Toretto, then you need all the focus that you can give to make sure you get home in one piece.  Remember: the daily commute is not a sprint.  It’s a marathon.  The name of the game is to get home safe so you can do it all over again tomorrow.  And put down the cellphone and take off that stupid earbud if you’re not standing still.

No, we are not entitled.  None of us are.  And maybe if more of us recognize that, we wouldn’t have so many annoyances.

Week of 10/21/2019

Trump, Hillary, And Other Political Potpourri
– by David Matthews 2

The frustrating part about being a social and political commentator is that sometimes you just can’t find one subject to focus on.  Sometimes they just come one after another, and sometimes I just can’t focus on that one at the expense of the others.

So here we go... another mixed bag of commentary.

Hillary... No.  Just... no.

So Hillary Rodham Clinton peered back from obscurity to take a few jabs at Narcissist President Donald Trump as well as tease a little challenge of her own.

“Don’t tempt me,” said the two-time wannabe loser, referring to Narcissist Trump’s dare for her to run again in 2020.

I’m sorry, but, no.  Don’t get in this, Senator.  Go back to obscurity.  Go back to the sidelines.  Go back to your overpaid private speaking gigs.

There is a reason why some people voted for Narcissist Trump in 2016, even knowing full well the hypocrisy and flaws that he exudes like a festering sore.  It’s not just because of the Russian interference.  It’s not just because of the exposure of the DNC’s dirty tricks to favor Hillary over anyone else.  It’s because of Hillary wanting to be president too damn hard.

I’ve mentioned before how some people treat the office of the President of the United States as though it was an entitlement.  Something that you “paid your dues” and “waited your turn”.  And the ones that had that attitude in at least the recent elections have all lost.  That was Hillary’s attitude in 2008 and it was again in 2016.  She seemed to act as though the office was “owed” to her, just like all the other failed wannabes like John Kerry and Bob Dole and Walter Mondale and Al Gore Jr.  That attitude just turns people off, regardless of gender.

And if Hillary were to dare fall for Narcissist Trump’s trap and decide to run again, that would guarantee Narcissist Trump’s re-election.  That’s why he put it out there in the first place.

Don’t fall for it, Hillary.  Don’t get in this mess.  Go back to your speaking gigs.

Narcissist Trump, Turkey, and the Kurds

President Richard Nixon, far from a good man but certainly a thousand times better than the current White House inhabitant, thought he would do something good by getting American troops out of the Vietnam conflict.  We didn’t win that conflict.  We just “declared victory” and left.  We left the South Vietnamese and our own soldiers held prisoners to fend for themselves as the Soviet-supported North Vietnamese marched in and took over and won the conflict.

Granted, how the Baby Boomers treated the returning soldiers was unforgivable, but it was how that conflict ended that was the true crime.  Yes, it was a conflict that seemed to have no end and spilled out to the neighboring areas and it really didn’t seem winnable in any definable sense.  But Nixon’s solution was abhorrent.  We supposedly “won all the battles”, so that was it.  All the hard work and sacrifice and the people still left there were tossed away by simply saying “we won the battles, we’re going home”.

We would later repeat that tactic with the Gulf War.  We had power, momentum, the whole world - including many of the Islamic nations - on our side, and yet we didn’t stop Iraqi madman Saddam Hussein when we had the chance.  We didn’t bring him to the Hague for war crimes charges like we promised we would.  We just said “we freed Kuwait and spanked Saddam, we’re done”.  Worse yet, we even let Saddam shut down the uprising from his own Iraqi people that would have removed him from office.

Yes, this commentator is well aware of “the bigger picture” of the time.  The deal with House of Saud that would keep Saddam in power because “the alternative would be worse”.  The fear that if we removed Saddam, there would be an insurgency that would force us to stay there indefinitely... which ended up being true no matter what we did.

So now we have Narcissist Trump doing it with the Kurds in Syria.  He pulled our forces out of there, thinking he’d be doing us all a favor.  Then Turkey marched in like Saddam did with Kuwait.

Nice going, President Orange Stain.  You pulled a Vietnam with our soldiers.  You pulled a Gulf War with the Kurds.  You let the Muslims in Turkey free the extremist terrorists that the Kurds were holding for us, so you potentially screwed over our national security.  Oh, and since many of the Kurds are actually Christians, you also screwed over your own evangelical base!  Yahtzee!

And I “love” the rationality he used... “They didn’t help us in Normandy.”  So said the chickenhawk narcissist with five deferments. Yeah, the Kurds didn’t help us with Normandy because they were busy keeping Nazis out of the Middle East.  You remember the Nazis, right?  Goose-stepping torch-wielding nationalists in Germany that hated anything not white or Christian... bearing a striking resemblance to the goose-stepping torch-wielding nationalists in America that hate anything not white or Christian that follow a certain orange-stained hypocrite.

That’s your guy, Trumpets.  The “very stable genius” with the “great and unmatched wisdom” who just disgraced the United States.  Winning!  Bigly!

Narcissist Trump’s G7 Plans

So Narcissist Trump really, really, really wanted to host the next G7 Summit at his Trump National Doral resort in Doral, Florida.  He really, really, really, really, *really* wanted it.  He was selling it even during the previous G7 summit in France.

But now, that’s not going to happen.  Because there’s this thing called the Emoluments Clause, and even conservatives are saying Narcissist Trump was violating the United States Constitution when he named his own resort for the G7 meet.

Just in case you don’t know what that means, here is Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 in the Constitution:

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

In other words, if you’re a government official and you hold an international function with world leaders in a place of business that you personally own and/or benefit from financially, then you’re violating the Constitution.   Unless you get “consent” from Congress, but I don’t see that happening.

I remember when the GOP made such a fuss over President Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy, who really couldn’t succeed in business, but kept on using his family connection to the President for credibility.  Anyone remember Billy Beer?  Yeah, I guess those were different times.  And that was the GOP... not the Trump Party, where anything Narcissist Trump does is perfectly fine by them.

“Get Over It.”  Screw you!

So up until this past week, the script for anything concerning Narcissist Trump has been this long string that went from flat-out denial to an acknowledgement but saying there wasn’t anything illegal, to an admission but saying “everyone does it”, to admitting it but saying there was “nothing wrong” about doing it.

This past week, when faced with charges of extortion, White House acting Chief of Staff Nick Mulvaney skipped right to admitting there was quid pro quo, then told the world to “get over it” before turning around and denying it.  And this, I am told, is the new Trumpet mantra.  “Get over it.”  They’re even getting t-shirts made that say it.

“Get over it.”

Screw you!

You want to break the law?  You deal with the consequences.  You want to abandon the Kurds to their slaughter?  That’s on you.  But you do not get to tell the rest of us to “get over it”.  All you are really doing is further driving hate and division into the American people and invalidating any concept of rule of law.

This last part is going to be a bit contradictory, but it still needs to be said.

Be More Than Your Politics

There’s a meme that was going around that says there was a certain word for the Germans who voted for the Nazi Party in the 1930’s but didn’t subscribe to everything they stood for.  A word for those who voted for the Nazi Party because they opposed the other parties and thought a change was needed.  That word was “Nazis”.  They were all Nazis.

Of course, those who lived during the Nazi occupation of Europe were forced to become Nazis, even if they didn’t want to.  That was by law.  So retired Pope Benedict XVI and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s father were both Nazis in their youth, even though they didn’t have a choice in the matter.  The one thing that separates Nazis from the die-hard followers of Narcissist Trump is that we are not forced by law to join the Trump Party.  (That’s subject to change, of course, so don’t bring that up around the narcissist.)

I follow a variety of people in social media.  Not all of them think the way I do.  Some mistake me for being a liberal.  Others mistake me for being a conservative.  Outside of social media, I am surrounded by people with varying degrees of conservative positions.  Some have long drunk the orange Kool-Aid.  Some haven’t but still see something in the Orange Stain that they like.  Others have not just drunk the orange Kool-Aid but are mixing more and serving it. 

It’s not easy being a practical libertarian and live where I do.  In many ways it’s like being a Gypsy in 1930’s Germany.  There are so many forces around me and I have to be mindful of what I say in certain company.  I still have to live here and work here and buy things here.

Having said that, I know that people voted for Narcissist Trump for different reasons in 2016.  Not all of them because they support his insanity.  As I mentioned earlier, some people voted for Narcissist Trump because of Hillary Rodham Clinton and her presumptive entitlement attitude.  If it was anyone but her, I have no doubt that person would be President of the United States right now and not Narcissist Trump.  Not because of her gender, but because of her attitude.  This is why I hate the binary zero-sum attitudes of our political system.

So I have to constantly remind myself that not everyone that voted for Narcissist Trump is a full-on orange Kool-Aid-chugging cult follower.  Some just didn’t want Hillary to win.  Some didn’t fully know how bad things would be with Narcissist Trump in charge.  Some didn’t know just how inept and incompetent he really is.  And maybe we can get some of them to vote for someone else in 2020.  Or, at the very least, have them realize that they made a costly mistake in 2016.  But we can’t do that if we just lump them all in as being red-hats.

Let’s get brutally honest here... we need to be more than just our politics.  We need to be more than just red hats and slogans and bumper stickers.  We need to be more than just nationalities and racial backgrounds and what language we speak and where we go on Sundays.  Because, at the end of the day, we still need to work with other people.  We still need to go shopping and talk with our neighbors and go pay our taxes.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t go to my local grocery store and check to see which political party the cashier voted for in the last election or if they have a flag pin on their lapel.  I don’t ask the waitress taking my dinner order for their party card.  It doesn’t matter who they voted for if they can ring up my groceries or serve me my dinner in a timely manner.

I’m not here for a debate.  I’m not here to challenge people as to whether or not I’m right.  I’ll let the past and the present prove me right, and it usually has.  I’m just here to give you my view of the world around us.  I’m not going to pretend that it’s universally accepted.  I know that it isn’t.  I just know that at the end of the day we are more than just our politics.  We are individuals.  We need to recognize it if we are going to continue to function in a community.