May 6, 2025

"Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?"

Somebody on Quara asked this. A writer in the UK, Nate White, an articulate and witty writer in England had this response - (The whole article is worth a read, here is an excerpt.)
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/satire/why-do-some-british-people-not-like-donald-trump-135275/

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.

I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.

May 6, 2025

It's like they don't realize CBS itself does not have a license.

Only the individual CBS local stations have FCC licenses for their over-the-air signals. I believe the FCC would have to hold hearings on every CBS affiliated station in the US: That's 251 of them. They would have to show some kind of reason to jerk their licenses. TV stations lawyers could keep this in the courts for years and years.

Trump and his lackeys think they're some kind of royalty from the 16th century.

April 7, 2025

An American tries to buy a gun in Germany.

Too bad we don't have 1/10 of these regulations...

&t=100s

March 27, 2025

So. April 2 is 'Liberation Day' I guess April 1 would have been too ironic or something. Maybe too apt.

April 2 is also:
World Autism Awareness Day
International Children's Book Day
National DIY Day
National Ferret Day
National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day
and soon -
National Stupidest President in History Day

December 13, 2024

Their propaganda was super charged with nearly unlimited billionaire resources.

This is magnified by the right wing media structure that they've been putting together since the 80s. The lies are repeated over and over and pretty soon voters start believing we are in a recession and the price of eggs is the fault of Joe Biden. Traditional corporate media has been cowed into both-siderism afraid of being accused of the dreaded "Liberal Media" insult. This is exacerbated by media owners pulling the reins back on news departments so as not to jeopardize political favor or tax cuts.

Voters were told that the economy was the best in the world after the recovery from covid shut-downs and other good news and positive things were campaigned on. It's just that the RW noise drowned it out. It isn't a matter of listening to fly-over country, it's a matter of being able to get a message out that they will actually hear. And have it repeated over and over.

October 31, 2024

The Ad the repubs HATE:

Julia Roberts Reminds Us - Your Vote, Your Choice

July 25, 2024

If I might make a suggestion...

First of all, that's quite a story. You seem to have a wonderful family and have had a pretty darn good life.

My suggestion is that you have these precious old pictures that have faded and colors dimmed with age. Unless our folks or friends used Kodachrome back in the day, almost every picture that is decades old could use a little TLC.

I've been going through my old family and work pictures and have been scanning them to make an electronic record when the paper and the slides will inevitably be lost or destroyed from age or neglect.

I discovered just using a scanner on my printer was less than satisfying and even programs like PhotoShop only did so much and were time consuming and difficult to use. And I have a bunch of family slides and the printer scanner is worthless for scanning them in.

Anyway, I found that Epson makes a scanner and the software it come with is just amazing. Basically, you scan your photo or slide and click on the color restore box and maybe tweak it a little more with other adjustments and voila:

(Late 70s photo I took of our TV station's helicopter with an obvious Before and After)

I'm using an Epson V600 but other makes might be available. There may be some snazzy models in Germany I don't know about. But the one I'm using works like magic.

Thanks for sharing your story. It is very interesting.

June 29, 2024

No. To me the camera was square-on to both of them. Biden wasn't looking at the camera when

he should have been. Many times he was addressing the moderators who were on the right side of the camera. On TV you have to look at the audience - the camera not people in the room. Trump has had years and years of experience doing this. And Biden should have been coached to do it too.

Speaking of the Biden debate team: They made a big - huge - mistake asking for Biden to be on the right side of the set and therefor the right side of the "double box" during the broadcast. TV stations and networks all know that you put your on-air talent, anchors, hosts almost always on the left side and the guest on the right. The left side is a position of authority, the position where the questions are being asked the position of the person who is the leader of their show. If you don't believe me just watch any local or network broadcast.

June 19, 2024

And don't start off with "Thank you for taking my call." It's a waste of time.

You are actually doing the host a favor by calling. It fills the time for his/her show. They should be thanking you for calling and giving them free content.

"First time caller, long time listener." Frankly I don't care. Get on with your topic.

Also a waste of time is, "How are you?" If you've actually been listening you would have heard the host answer that question about a dozen times so far.

There are others that drive me crazy. I was going to write a whole post on the topic of radio show calling but haven't gotten around to it.

June 17, 2024

I've known about this show for years and

was pretty sure the evil Trump in the show was a direct parody of the real evil Trump - Fred.

But I didn't realize how much the show producers picked an actor that looked so much like the real evil thing.