I’ve been so overwhelmed by work and by the state of our country and all the shit that is going on, I haven’t had the time to sit down and write anything and think through it all clearly and concisely. Thus, I will sticky this post until I have time to get to writing a larger post again, editing it when there are new thoughts. These are just going to be single paragraphs or sentences where I voice thoughts, opinion, etcetera. Feel free to comment on them and have differing opinions, as long as you remain coherent and respectful.

I was at the bar for my birthday. A far right man sat down with the group and tried to convince us that there is 100% free and renewable energy already developed, but that the democrats are keeping it a secret. I mentioned the law of conservation of energy and how efficiency works.
^ I probably shouldn’t have visited a bar during a global pandemic, but where I live, I’m insulated from the pandemic, and still feel comfortable enough to go out.

If the pandemic dies down in America immediately following the election, there was certainly political money involved in making sure it was a huge deal. This can swing either way as who’s money was for it. Democrats for wanting to make the virus look serious and the President bad, or Republicans for wanting to make the handing of the virus look adequate.

If this whole virus is a hoax, I very much do not understand how every other country is in on it.

Masks work if made of the correct material and worn properly. I understand feeling uncomfortable and not wanting to wear one for a temporary (few months) amount of time. But if we all just do it and get shit under control, we can go back to being “Free”. I don’t believe there needs to be a federal mandate for masks to be worn, because I expect the general population to understand how this works, or at least listen to the scientists who have put billions of dollars into research on this. It’s not as simple as “being a sheep” or whatever.
I don’t want to wear a mask, but I understand it’s my moral and ethical responsibility to keep those around me alive and healthy. I hope(d?) I could expect the same from those people.
Additionally, when I put a mask on my children to teach them how this school year is going to be, I feel the same as if I’m sending my children out to war.

A friend of mine copy and pasted this status:

The longest filabuster in U.S. history was 75 days.

It took place in 1964, when Democrats tried to block the Civil Rights Act.

It’d be a shame if this went viral.

A few things to note.
1. Sorry, perhaps this is low of me, but filibuster. I see a lot of this right wing stuff like this look like it was written by a 5th grader who can’t spell.
2. The Civil Rights Act was proposed by a democratic President. John F Kennedy, who was assassinated – truly died for his country (conspiracy theories aside, please). Lyndon B Johnson, Vice President to JFK, who was also a democrat (obviously) signed it into law.
3. The Filibuster lasted only 54 days.
4. The democrats did keep the filibuster going on. Most of those people were in the south. Not saying anything is wrong with how the south thinks, but in the past they have been slower to change than the north. Again, I mean no offense to anyone.
5. Why the ever living fuck do all of these posts have their comments disabled? Is it like they know that people will look this shit up and call them out?

I really want to sit down and talk to someone with a different opinion than me and have a real conversation. I don’t want to argue about anything, I just want to understand your views, and see your reasoning or sources for the information you have. I don’t cast my opinion on others and expect them to change their mind, I only expect them to listen and understand where I’m coming from, as I WANT to understand where they’re coming from.

I don’t want Trump as our President any more.
I don’t want Biden as our President to begin with.
If you are far anything, you are crazy. Why do we select these crazies to represent such a large and varying group of people?

“South Dakota has handled everything about the Coronavirus correctly.”
Kristi Noem didn’t do anything, and that’s the correct measure? She pretty much modeled Trump in this and look how the rest of the country turned out?

The difference between South Dakota and the rest of America is population density. South Dakota has been insulated from the virus, not immune. We don’t have businesses or people who are any smarter than other places in the country. We just don’t have enough people in one area to cause a hot spot (other than the whole meat packing plant in Sioux Falls). We also don’t have a lot of visitors from out of state, or business that brings a bunch of traveling parties…

With Sturgis Motorcycle Rally coming up this week, I’m guessing we see a spike in virus cases in our state – I hope not, but I’m willing to put money down on it.

Bottom line, don’t praise a low population density state for being a role model on how to handle a highly infectious virus. Listen to the billions of dollars spent on researching diseases, etc.

With Trump so angry about mail in voting / absentee ballots, it’s showing the nation that he’s scared he’s going to lose the election.

Some people at work have talked about how the Democratic party is going to pull a switcharoo with their nomination for President. Like Biden is going to suddenly drop out of the race and endorse some nobody. Do people really think this close to the election that it’d be a sane idea to even consider that?

There is no way any new nominees will become between Trump and Biden. Our country WANTS to tear itself apart.

I’ll be honest, our testing for COVID-19 is probably flawed, yes. But can we PLEASE understand that false positives are less likely than false negatives? I may not have a whole bunch of knowledge in the world of disease testing, but I do have family that is in the field.

The effectiveness and accuracy of a test is highly dependent on how the tests were carried out. A cheek swap, or throat swab is definitely going to throw more false negatives than a deep nasal swab, especially considering that this virus creates an immune response within the nasal cavity. Testing the throat or anything else is just lessening the likelihood of a result you can trust.

Image may contain: 1 person, text that says 'SMOKE PAINTING MINING Pesticides RM The Deadliest Virus in History Radioactive'

Can we discuss this picture quickly?

Smoke – People die in fires from inhaling smoke, rather than being burned (in most cases).
Painting – Don’t want to inhale spray paint.
Mining – Better not inhale that black lung.
Pesticides – Since I’m spaying stuff that kills bugs, I shouldn’t inhale it.
Radiation – Honestly, wearing some type of mask probably helps some, but radiation is another beast on it’s own.

The deadliest virus in history, however… I would prefer to not have to wear a mask that has to filter contaminates from being breathed in, as they are more expensive and far more uncomfortable. Using a simple surgical mask is a great, cheap alternative to mitigate the problems I have with the outside in filter masks. Consider putting a simple mask on the SOURCES on the other items listed than the virus.

Smoke – Aside from, y’know, fire, I bet the mask would “hold” some smoke from blowing out say if I were to sneeze smoke.
Painting – Go ahead and spray paint a surgical mask, see what gets on the other side
Mining – If you wrapped a coal ore in surgical mask material and sledgehammered it, I bet you’ll have less of a mess than if you hadn’t wrapped it.
Pesticides – Again, go ahead and put a mask over your pesticide sprayers and try to cover your crops, I guarantee it’ll be less effective.
Radiation – Once again, this is a different animal all together. A surgical mask, similarly to whatever is depicted above would probably be minimally effective. That’s why the dentists weigh you down with almost a millimeter thick lead blanket when you get an x-ray of your teeth.

Simply put, the problem isn’t that the virus is everywhere and needs to be filtered out from being breathed in. We want to stop it at the source: other people’s mouths and noses. A simple, cheap surgical mask can do a very effective job of not spreading the virus around.

The major issue here is that people just don’t fucking care that they are unintentionally spreading the virus like smoke, paint, mining dust, pesticides, etc. I refuse to even acknowledge the radiation here, because that is a different thing and shouldn’t have even been included in the picture.

Christians who are strong Trump supporters make me cringe. Family members of mine are posting about how God needs to help people find peace and stop hating Trump and this Country. “You aren’t a Christian if you vote Biden” is almost as bad as “You aren’t black if you vote Trump.”

Granted, one of those statements is inferred, the other was actually said. Nonetheless, both are terrible, and are trying to put pressure on certain people to manipulate them into getting votes. What a crock of bullshit these political campaigns have become.

I don’t hate my country, and I don’t hate Trump. I just know there have to be better candidates for people to run this country, conservatively or not; I just want a fucking grounded person in office, please! I also want to stop being manipulated by every single stranger, friend, family member, news outlet, and algorithm I have contact with.

I have a friend who’s political views are, “I just want free tuition, cause my schooling is expensive.” – Well, buddy, you’ve been going to college for 7 years now. You started with accounting (I believe), and ended with something with HR(?), and have now decided to go back for a law degree. By all means, congratulations, I bet you are going to get a great career and make a lot of money and all that jazz. But can we agree that your statement of just wanting free tuition is a very specific, temporary viewpoint? And maybe that’s not bad, as presidents are temporary; but they do have a lot of power to bring a country up or knock them down. Maybe you should think a bit longer and a bit harder on how you decide what is best. Maybe the first 4 years can be paid for, but not all of it, cause I know you would never stop being a college student if given that choice.

I have another friend who’s political view is, “Taxes are the worst- I just want to not pay taxes.” – You own stocks, you have an LLC for rentals, you’re a car salesman, you still get profit sharing from a company you have nothing to do with anymore, you are an entrepreneur of many kinds. You DO pay a lot more taxes than a lot of people, so I understand how you get to this conclusion and want to have a tax cut for all of the things you do. However, do you understand how much money you are still making over the average blue collar worker? Don’t tell me you don’t make enough, you told me how much your make, and you don’t have children to raise.

You own a house that costs $600/mo, and charge $1000/mo rent. You don’t pay for anything at that house, so you are making straight “profit” by simply having renters pay for something they could have easily afforded if only they’d understand how to do it themselves. I understand that house is going to require a lot of work once the current tenants move out; that’s what the $400 a month is for, right? That house is the investment, the $400 “profit” should be for maintaining that investment foremost, followed by profit.

Back to the political side of this. Of course with all of your business endeavors, all you want is lower taxes. You aren’t wrong to want that. I just find issue with how you view taxes. You are selfish in the fact that you don’t want your money going to a family in need, simply because a portion of that money might go to a family or individual who is a criminal, or drug user, or a leech on the governments programs. I understand you not wanting your money going to those people, but you need to do some research and come to the conclusion that the number of people gaming the governments “handouts” are significantly less than the number of people using that money for it’s intended purposes.

I also think you’re completely blind to your hypocrisies here. Remember, you do drugs, you are a criminal for that time you were a drug mule, and you’ve used every possible avenue to get the things in your life the cheapest way possible (again, not wrong), by using government programs. You had your girlfriend buy your guy’s house because she was eligible for the first time home buyers loan, and you already used yours on a house you’re now using for a rental. You gamed the system, and said, “Smart, right?” when talking to me about it.

Fuck, man. Just try some self reflection.

You know what I want? I want my health insurance to cover mental health. I know I have issues that need to be addressed, but they will not be because I cannot afford the amount of money in therapy and antidepressants that I would need. I spent my time in a mental facility. Do you know what happened after I got out? The hospital wanted to charge $1x, insurance told the hospital it could charge up to $2x, so the hospital does just that, and insurance paid $1x. What in the fuck was the point of that? I was extorted for money by the hospital and insurance company for a MENTAL STAY, largely due to FINANCIAL STRAIN among other things.

And a few months after I get out, we have conversations about depression, and all you have to say is, “If someone is suicidal, they should just do it. If somones wants to kill yourself, they should do it. Stop begging for attention and do it” You may have not realized it, but you essentially told me to kill myself that night.

Fuck you, man.

I want a government program that allows me to use tax money to help me achieve the mental well-being I need in order to have success in my life, and what I hear when you talk about just wanting to “not pay taxes,” is, “I don’t care about you, go kill yourself.”

“I don’t care about your family, you can all starve.”

“If you can’t afford a house, you’re doing something wrong and can go homeless”

“You ruined your life with drugs, no help for your addictions”

“You made a mistake and got pregnant. You’re now forced to raise that child, and raise them right, but I’m not helping”

This is the selfishness of capitalism that saturates me with fear, anxiety, and depression. I’m sorry I don’t currently have the ability to think that way, and I know I’m not alone. I want to see more humans caring for others in the future. I’m not asking for anything crazy, I just want some change.

Image may contain: text that says 'don't country came from. You came to United States of America! You are free to share your customs, holidays, dress, your foods. put mine away for you. If you are offended my customs, my religion, holidays, my foods, my flag and expect me to remove them in my country you WRONG! down to ways, will not lose my rights for you, WILL my flag, WILL knee during the WILL Pride, will honor the Lord Jesus you DO is all about what it STANDS TO LEAVE!!!!! will worship the then you are FREE UNAPOLOGETICALLY AMERICAN'

Here’s another good one to dissect. A few notes:

I was born in this country. I didn’t come here, and still somehow I’m shocked by this.

The most American thing about this picture is that it captures the stubbornness of our citizens.

So foreigners are allowed to share customs, holidays, dress, and food. No mention of accepting other religions, weird.

However, when you say that foreigners must accept our customs, religion, holidays, foods, flag, I start to see the asshole that is our people.

Let’s reduce this down, so get rid of customs, holidays, and food. What are we left with? Dress, Religion, and Flag.

Now, I feel like dress was a slight oversight by the writer of this obnoxious post, so I won’t read far into it.

Religion, however, youuuu bet I’ll read into it. Religion is very much a thing that people base how they live their lives, the values they have, and how they treat other people. If you require others to accept your religion, and refuse to acknowledged theirs, does it help clear the air about why some people might be upset by the “apologetically american”

The flag isn’t too much to complain about, I mean, it is our country’s symbol. I won’t hate on it much, but what I do want to point out is the placement of it in this statement seems to be using it in an aggressive way, y’know, cause he WILL NOT hide his genitals flag. Which is fine, sheesh, be proud of our country, I guess.

I just feel that placing religion next to the flag in this sense, is trying to solidify that America is strictly religious. Probably Christian, because farther down it shows he’ll warship worship the bible and Jesus Christ.

I take offense to this picture because I am American, and I am accepting of people and everything that comes with them, but I am not going to try and blur the lines between patriotism and religion. Fuck that, and it’s stupid that this crap even gains traction on social media.

Forgive me if this might be too obscene, but I would like to see a president who is an atheist. can we just put the bullshit aside and look at the world for what it is and not put a religious spin on things? I understand this may be unpopular considering that the majority of the world is Christian or religious in some faction, I just think a person without that religious obligation might be better suited for a position of power. Atheists are well-equipped to deal with issues both integrating and concerning religious peoples. I myself am an atheist, and I do not believe I am partisan to one person over another when concerning their religious beliefs.

I guess let’s talk 9/11, cause that’s when I’m writing this.

I’ll probably come off extremely callous about my thoughts on this, but understand that I’m trying to be a counterweight to the hypocrisy that revolves around this terrorist attack.

Today is a day that we will not soon forget. A day that horrific things happened and many people perished because of actions of others. Still to this day I remember where I was that day and when I first heard about it. Never in my mind would I ever witness something so crazy and so terrible. I hope to never witness such an event happen anywhere in the world. But anything is possible with today’s evil. Anyways, I pray the families of the victims found comfort after all these years but no one forget that fateful day.

This is a quote from someone I’ve known most of my life. A past friend, and a generally good person. I respect and encourage his character, because he is a good person. Don’t make it seem as if I’m burning him at the stake for what he has said, because that’s not what I’m doing.

I just have issue with the fact that he’s against wearing masks. During a pandemic; albeit, a much less deadly pandemic than previously thought, but a pandemic nonetheless. Why do I have issue with him saying this during such a time?

Specifically, the line where it says, “many people perished because of actions of others”. By saying that, you are being a hypocrite; your actions may cause others illnesses and death. It’s certainly incorrect of me to compare not wearing a mask to a terrorist attack, absolutely. But lives are lost in either case.

Looking at numbers, 2,977 people lost their lives in a matter of a few hours that morning and the following days, which is horrific to say the least.

As I write this, I looked at the data: 196,000 total deaths in America due to COVID-19. Which is awful. I know that not all of those deaths are complete COVID-19 alone deaths, so let’s take away the comorbidity deaths, even through that does make the numbers inaccurate as far as a fatality rate.

“For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.“

So, 196,000 multiplied by the decimal of 6% (0.06) equals….

11,760.

11,760 dead over the course of 9 months and 11 days. It might not be the same as a losing almost three thousand people within the span of a day/week. COVID-19 definitely isn’t a terrorist attack, but it’s killed as much as one… two… almost three.

So, why am I being so up-tight about this? Because nearly all the people I have seen so far today mourning 9/11 are also strong anti-maskers. If these people truly cared about others lives, they might wear a mask to prevent spreading deadly disease.

I’m not saying don’t mourn 9/11, like I said, it’s truly a tragedy that will stick with this country for a long time. I also mourn those who died, and their families who have been forever affected by the attacks. But please, take this day to mourn, and pick up tomorrow with what you can do to stop the spread of this deadly virus and just wear a mask.

Hot take: If you think sharing shit on Facebook or other social media outlets is going to -actually- make a difference, you’re playing into a façade. You feel less guilt because you made some people more “aware” of this worlds and it’s peoples shortcomings. You haven’t done anything. You’ve made no difference in the world. You need to ACT on what you preach, or you’re nothing than a hypocrite. I’ve made a point in my life to stop being a hypocrite and do what I promise, live as I speak, and ultimately be a good human being.

If you’re unsatisfied with what sort of life this “life stlye” gives you (spoiler: I am.) then there is a fundamental issue in our way of life. Figure it out the rest of you.

I’m not a business man, per se, but please allow me to divulge what I am familiar with and have experienced.

Rapid expansion in business can be a fantastic thing, as well as terribly detrimental. If you don’t have a solid, robust way of handling upscaling or expansion, you will fail.

I’m watching the vice presidential debate, and Pence keeps talking about how fast the Trump administration has brought up the economy (which is true) from the slowest economic growth then they first came into office (also mostly true). I’m just saying that with how fast our economy has grown, it’s highly volatile, and can level itself out in no time if anything goes wrong. At least when we has slow growth it was built upon a stable foundation. Give it time, it’ll be better over all.

Even if I don’t see it in my life time, I know my children’s lives will be better off.

(Forgive how unethical or insensitive my wording is here, but I have no way to make my point this clear without something to catch the attention)

HEY Y’ALL RETARDS! The freedom of press exists for the times when people who are involved in deep shit and disagree want to escape. You think all this shit that you hear from FAKE NEWS outlets are complete bullshit because the fucking reality star Commander in Chief says so? Think again. Life is so much more complex and gray than that. Open you’re black and white mind and fucking think for yourself.

Opinion articles are also one of the worst ideas any newsworthy center has ever decided to create, support, and popularize.

Politics needs to work as simple as this: The game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

People beats the Government, but loses to Corporations

The Government beats Corporations, but loses to people

Corporations beats people, but loses to Goverment.

I’ll leave it up you to you to decide where our current game of Government, Corporations, and People is sitting.