Americans are idiots thread

[BO]

Because that about sums it all up in a 'nut' shell. And because I need a place to satisfy my misanthropic rantings and save funny videos.

[Mouse]

a mother and child I saw this morning at breakfast, only over the little sea, east of here and east of there.
the baby's blanket in the pram was white and still with red spots, the mother's form upon the ground, blanketed till a moment red head all messed by another rocket from another helicopter. They are so plump, the mothers of eastern Ukraine, bundling their babies onto busses, heading for the border in their summer dresses, crying and praying the guards will let them leave their homeland and their husbands behind.

[waldopaper]

I am an "American" and I am an idiot. 

Went to Best Buy and bought a new Samsung Book 9 plus.  Whee.  I get this card with numbers so I can "Activate" MS Office... ok... no go.  Best Buy is apparently "having issues" with their server.  But I can go back to BB and get a card that will get me a card at WalMart.  I don't want to go to Sprawl Mart.  I have never been in a WM in my life... and have no intention of ever doing so.  So I call the nice Hindu guy at Microsoft "customer service" and spent about an hour trading numbers over the phone.  Somebody is supposed to call me back tomorrow.  

So I am writing this post on my 10 yr old laptop running Windoz XP.  After I diddled with the Sammy to get it to look like a fucking computer as much as possible instead of a tablet.  Touch screens suck ass.  I need a computer to create documents and handle email.  After a whole day at it... Sammy is still not set up to do that.  mmmph.  So after hearing so much about privatization in krakkerland and how great it is... because nobody wants to deal with a "government bureaucracy"  yerdle derdle blah blah. 

After dealing with corporate bureaucracies FOR YEARS... I will take a day at the license bureau any time.   It is bad enough listening to the bible-smackers in krakkerland and their kandy-korn "theology," am convinced the krakkers have the same grasp of business/ economics/ whatever.  BTW... if you are considering watching "Fields of Valor" to learn about the US Civil War... please DON'T.  It reminded me of a "Christmas Program" I attended (long story) at one of our local big-box "churches."  Take any third grade children's book and dumb it WAY DOWN... you get the idea. 

Only bright spot this week was a conversation with one of the young admins at the uni... who was left alone to hold down the ENG office because I suppose everybody was in a meeting eating cookies or something... She was really sick of "all this war shit."  Told her to wait until she had it shoved up the nose for 60 years or so.  I wish every "conservative" in Murkkka had a red-hot iron fire hydrant jammed up their ass.  I am tired of tippy-toeing around their stupid "religion" which is why the fishwraps are not printing my letters these days. 

You want to see an "abomination?"  Try Windoz 8.1. 

[pan]

Just got back from a short backpacking trip in the Lemhis.  We arrived at Buck Lake around 6:30 PM - all by ourselves - set up camp, had dinner, were about to go to sleep when a herd of teen boys and young men arrived and completely engulfed us, turning our backpacking solitude into a KOA kampground.  After searching for alternative sites at the little lake we settled in (though J had to finally go up and try to find a leader "there are lots of leaders here" and tell him to get control of the teens).

We packed up early and left to another lake.  Very nice, no one else there.   A little tense with the thunderstorm after the recent deaths in the Rocky Mountains but it was fine.

Got home.  Message on machine from one of the committee with "news".  Rejected again.  "You know how these searches go.  It was decided to go with someone we are familiar with".  So.....again....I am passed over for someone with less qualifications.  I was urged to resubmit when the position goes up in the Fall as a tenure-line.   I restrained my urge to respond with what I was feeling (I have been having dreams lately where I am completely politically incorrect, saying and doing exactly what should be said in response to all the fucking polite bullshit - they are really quite amusing....I wish I could remember them).

On my third beer.  Not that that will help.  Feeling pretty fucking defeated - what's the fucking use - why keep putting myself out there to be rejected?  I will pull myself out of this funk - there is a call for a pretty cool performance gig in Italy (no stipend but they pay expenses) that is coming up. Bobo the clown.

[pan]

As a side note - pretty certain the 20-30 young "men" who abused the backcountry were all part of a MoWard having an Iron John moment to prepare the soon-to-be-Elders, aggressively recruiting new members for their cult.  If they want to enjoy their testosterone privilege so much, why don't they just fucking join the Army and go kill some brown people for their country instead of fucking it up for everybody else? 

Have I told you how much I have grown to detest the Hive?

[BO]

Might be time to re-read A Connecticut Yankee so you can experience these new dark ages with a sense of humor. (OK, yeah, I need to take my own advice)

Sure seems like things have been going to shit lately. I figure that big hole they found in Russia is the entrance to an underground cavern where the elite are building their escape vessel -- the SS Goldman Sachs. 

Sorry the job didn't work out, P. I surely empathize. I've actually been acting out a lot lately myself -- saying shit I didn't know I had in me. Berating the shit out of AT&T and Best Buy people (long story). It's actually been freaking my son out. But after some recent wars with crooked company reps, my internal PC governor has been tossed overboard. I can't imagine having to cowtow to a boss anymore. Besides, the zeitgeist has gotten so fucking out of wack, I wouldn't know how anyway. So...fuck 'em all. I now display my misanthropy proudly. It's very liberating.

[BO]

I get those spam calls from 'MS technical support' frequently to fix my win doze computer -- which I ain't got. So, I just laugh at the Hindu-spammers now and try to strike up a conversation with the little shits. Let's just say I'm a terrible ambassador for America. 

I think MS just quite supporting Windows XP. Too bad. It was the last operating system they made that actually worked. The touch screen OS thingy only works on pads. MS can't even steal right. 

[pan]

I love those calls:

"Hello, this is Paul"

(five seconds of call center noise)

"Hello ma'am, I am calling about your computer"

"Please take me off your list."

Followed by the guy arguing with me about why I am asking to be taken off the list before I finally just hang up.

[BO]

This made the rounds last week...A guy makes a recording of his attempt to cancel his Comcast service.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ryan-block-comcast-phone-call-2014-7

A rare occurrence? I think not. These snivling little weasels are everywhere now.

[waldopaper]

Greetings from Sammy.  Awesome machine.  Too bad about the operating system, but have spent the past 2 days getting used to it. 

What we have here is the "collapse of capitalism."  Of course it is no such thing.. just as "the collapse of communism" was no such thing.  Not sure what is collapsing now.  The monetary system was toast in 2008-- and most of us saw that coming.  The ecosystem... of course... but only the part that encourages "life as we know it."  We have seen this coming too.  Maybe this is the collapse of "don't take 'no' for an answer" or "if you can't do it, we'll find someone who can."  (dam this machine is cool- where has it been all my life)  Oh yeah... "capitalism." THAT is what is collapsing. 

The loose translation is, "profit maximization," or more precisely, "looting." 

[waldopaper]

Oh look it's the christian left... wow.  What a radical idea.  You mean it's not all about abortions and butt sects and brown people and guns oh my? 

[BO]

Forgive them oh, lord, for reality is a bitch.

I doubt that having religious delusions wouldn't spill over into other aspects of the deluded's life, but who am I to judge? My god is internet porn.

[pan]

The difference between the religious right and the religious left is that one group actually seems to try to model their behavior on what was written in the New Testament about Jesus' life while the other focuses upon enforcing the Mosaic Code from the Old Testament and believes they are "forgiven".