Alabama

Scattershooting while wondering what happened to honor, courage and integrity as virtues to aspire…

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STUPID, COMPLICATED, WOEFULLY INSUFFICIENT NEW TAX BILL:
The new tax bill does a few good things (such as repeal the horrid Obamacare mandate), but in sum total, is a massive waste of time and taxpayer money. Now, for me personally, it’s a wash. However, unlike most of the electorate, I don’t vote selfishly on what’s best for me, but on what’s best for the country — and I didn’t support this Rube Goldberg mess of a bill. It falls far, far, far short of true tax reform! Instead it’s a half-baked (or less) kluge that’s bad for the nation: maintains extreme complexity of tax code and returns, is not a flat tax, doesn’t fit onto a postcard, is full or pork, and worst of all, adds to horrendous looming crisis of our national debt. Yes, absolutely and without reservation, I am letting the (nearly) perfect be the enemy of the good. Damn right I am, especially since this isn’t very good at all. I actually have a backbone, and ideals. Too bad our RINOs and faux-libertarians in Congress don’t. Forget the boring, old, hackneyed, outdated, repetitive, “steals from poor to give to wealthy” liberal company line. Go grow up and come up with something interesting and original for once, leftist parrots. You’re even more out-of-touch than the RINOs are.

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ALABAMA SENATE RACE and ANTIQUATED TWO-PARTY SYSTEM: If I lived in Alabama I would have abstained or written in a third party option for their Senate election to fill a two-year end-of-term. What a wretched choice they had between a creep (and possible criminal) vs. an endorser of infanticide of the unborn and other destructive leftist policy. This (aside from complex tax-code bullcrap noted above) is what the horrendously outdated and Constitutionally unjustifiable two-party system yields — a choice of bad choices. It’s much akin to last November nationwide, when voters largely chose between an imbecilic and immoral faux-conservative buffoon on one side, and a corrupt, cutthroat, immoral neoliberal criminal on the other.

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A RECENT EXPERIENCE with HOME AWAY CUSTOMER SERVICE: In trying to get overdue information to access a vacation rental, I called customer service for HomeAway, a major company (owned by Expedia) dealing in that sort of thing. My interaction is summarized by the survey results I filled out after completing the third call. The survey questions were worded as if there only were one call, but I had to make three. This is but a sympton of a larger problem with outsourcing and hiring. See this screen capture of my response. Has political correctness gone so far that supposedly English-speaking “customer service” outlets feel they must hire people who are essentially incomprehensible?

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CHINESE OPPRESSION/TORTURE of ITS OWN — AND NOTHING BEING DONE ABOUT IT: Communist red China is setting the horrid example for other nations to follow in using the domestic-spying technological surveillance state (increasingly including artificial intelligence, AI) as a tool of Orwellian mass authoritarian oppression: elimination of privacy, overt and passive-aggressive censorship, blackmail, torture, imprisonment without trial, and killing, on massive scales, especially of ethnic/religious minorities and any in the 91.5% Han majority who dare challenge authority. Yes, nearly every nation has done this since to some extent since 1950…regardless, scale matters. And as surveillance cameras and AI become more common worldwide, more shall follow. Meanwhile the U.S. and other nations are passively ignoring and sticking heads in sand, as China terrorizes its own people in this manner. Why? For one, don’t think for a minute the domestic deep state — NSA, CIA and FBI power-that-be — and their counterparts elsewhere in Five Eyes, as well as Russia and especially Islamic nations, aren’t envious of this ability to technologically control and manipulate the people. For two, money talks. As of June, China held $1.15 trillion of U.S. debt, plenty enough to demolish the economy, easily, at the whim of instantly calling in said debt — in effect, unspoken blackmail of one nation over another. And we have sat idly by and let them do so…

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JERUSALEM IS THE RIGHTFUL CAPITAL of JUDEA (ISRAEL)!: Where two sovereign nations agree to put an embassy is nobody else’s business. The U.N. needs to STFU and butt out. The courageous and correct resolution veto sends exactly that message. This veto is absolutely warranted. Every other Council nation is wrong on this. Jerusalem is the rightful capital of the Jewish people, and of Judea/Israel, and has been for thousands of years. I stand by Israel firmly, unequivocally and without apology. This is nonpartisan! Readers of this BLOG know I have been a huge critic of Trump in many ways, but when his administration does do something right, I will support that. Finally obeying the law passed by a bipartisan Congress, and signed in 1992, is simply the right thing to do. Nikki Haley is spot on in her words here, as was Edmund Muskie of the Carter Administration in 1980 under similar circumstances. More details in this link…

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END of BLOG YEAR: This is my last entry for 2017, much to the relief of leftists and freedom-haters (redundant terms, I realize) everywhere. Regardless, I love even my left-wing friends…it just sometimes has to be tough love. For all: Have a joyous and blessed Christmas and new year!

Last night’s tornado event across Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee was thoroughly warned by all the local NWS offices involved. It was contained in the preceding day’s national severe-weather outlooks from SPC, and in tornado watches too.

The news of casualties from the tornadoes is terrible; but those deaths did not happen due to an absence of warnings!

Now, via this link to James Spann’s Facebook page, watch Diane Sawyer tell a baldfaced whopper to the entire nationwide viewing audience.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150546942749936

“No warning”? ABSOLUTELY WRONG! I resent such misrepresentations and join James in calling them out.

Even if some lazy ignoramus behind the scenes wrote the script for her, she–of all people–should know better than to regurgitate it, facts unchecked! That violates the fundamental core tenet that every journalism student learns in high school and college.

This has to stop. And Diane Sawyer needs to perform an on-air retraction of her false claim.

James Spann, for those who don’t know, is a highly respected TV meteorologist in Birmingham (at an ABC station, no less!), whose courage I hugely admire for publicly calling attention to it. Folks, James was on the air all night last night, tirelessly and continually delivering the warnings and updates of all kinds to his viewing audience, and doing so with clarity and purpose. I saw this for myself, real-time, as part of a regimen to remain situationally aware as the outbreak was unfolding (and as I was analyzing and forecasting the event in the short term).

For the sad truth of the casualties that did happen, the other side to the truth is that the NWS and outlets like James’ saved many more lives last night. Then here comes Diane Sawyer, blurting out a gross falsehood and, in doing so, denigrating the hard work and dedication of the entire Integrated Warning System (including national and local forecasters, spotters, and conscientious, hard-working media members such as James). He has every right to be upset; and I am also.

The sort of “hit without warning” stupidity, in on-air reporting of tornado events, is nothing new. It has been going on for many, many years. When you hear such statements, challenge them. “It hit without warning” almost never is true anymore for strong and violent tornadoes. It is possible that a killer tornado can hit “without warning”? Yes. Rarely, it can and does happen. But it didn’t happen last night.

Those tornadoes were warned and warned well. If the victims didn’t get the warning, it wasn’t because there was no warning! It is up to everyone to make sure he/she can receive warnings when they are issued–whether by having a weather radio, an automated alert system via phone alarm or app, or tuning in to their own local version of James Spann who is providing the life-saving information–to make sure sturdy shelter is accessible in seconds when a watch is out, and to make sure elderly and infirm loved ones are not left vulnerable. And don’t depend on outdoor sirens; they’re for outdoor use, and often sound far away from the threat.

I’m glad that James called attention to this, and am glad to join him in doing so–because maybe, just maybe, this is the event that finally motivates on-air TV personalities and reporters who are not meteorologists to get their facts straight with regard to whether the tornadoes had warnings.

[EDIT] That wasn’t the only bogus information ABC News propagated either. According to this entry in the FEMA BLOG: “This evening, ABC mistakenly reported that individuals can sign up for weather alerts through FEMA. We’ve seen a lot of interest from the public following that report and we wanted to correct that point: FEMA does not send out alerts as this is a local responsibility. ”

Wow. As James said, don’t let facts get in the way of a good story…

[EDIT 2 Days later] Something good came of all this–largely thanks to James Spann and his multimedia followers, I suspect. I found out secondhand, through a friend who watched, that Diane Sawyer did do another story noting the goodness of the warnings. James also got some airtime in the story. While not a retraction, per se, that should suffice to set the record straight. Next time, Dianne, don’t go blurting unsubstantiated and potentially libelous (to the forecasters) rubbish to begin with!

Scattershooting 171220

Diane Sawyer Lies to America