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Another rant on clothes
Aaaaaargh. This is going to be news to precisely no one who knows a woman or is one, but I'm gonna say it again anyway: womens' clothing SUCKS.
First, and biggest problem: they all assume that if you're a given size in one measurement, the rest of you matches up too. This couldn't be further from the truth. According to a standard size chart, I have the waist of a 12, the hips of a 14 or 16, and the bust of a 16. This makes finding anything with a proper fit basically impossible. You *have* to go with the larger measurements, which means 1) high-rise and mid-rise jeans are too big around the middle and 2) there is simply no way I can wear a dress or other one-piece clothing item without alterations.
Second: why the bloody hell do sizes *differ* from manufacturer to manufacturer?! In some brands I'm a 12 waist, in some a 10, in one a 14 (wtf), and of course everything else varies as well. This varies brand by brand, even if you're shopping in the same store. If you wonder why we take eleventy hojillion items to the dressing room and spend so much time trying stuff on, THIS is why.
Third: pockets. Full stop. Yes, this is getting better, but it's hard to find pants that have the number and size pockets mens' pants do. I know, I know, we're supposed to splash out several hundred dollars on some ruinously expensive branded handbag. Screw that. I don't have the money, and even if I did it wouldn't be spent on a handbag. And good grief are they ugly, with their diamond patterns or repeated monograms or whatever. No, my messenger bag does fine for all my carry-stuff-around needs, and you can't fit a laptop in a $400 Gucci handbag. I may be femme but I'm not stupid, or lipstick for that matter.
In my opinion, the lack of pockets is something more cynical and sinister than just a ploy to get women to buy handbags: it's a deliberate removal of our agency. And false pockets, the ones that are just sewn-on seams with no actual depth, can DIAF.
Fourth: Quality and price. Mens' clothing seems a lot more substantial and I wear what pieces of it I can for that reason. It's also cheaper, aside from suits and formalwear. I can get a men's size L t-shirt (flaps on me like a tent but the M won't fit my chest...) for something like $5 at Shopko. I have *never* seen a womens' shirt for that price outside a very low-end thrift store, and the equivalents are smaller, thinner, made of less-durable materials, and MORE expensive.
Fifth: too much of our clothing is basically candy wrappers. What I mean by this is it exists mostly to imply what's under it, either by showing a lot of skin or, less greasily, indicating by color or pattern that "the person wearing this is demure, defenseless, meek, quiet, and perfectly happy to be basically an object." I really think sometimes that all the pink and floral pattern stuff is some sort of salve to mens' fragile egos, or at the very least a way of firmly separating the two sexes by clothing and letting all concerned know who stands where in the power dynamic.
Now yes, I'm aware 2/3 of the time men are not looking at our clothes specifically. And yes, I am very much aware most of this stuff is done to compete with *other women,* which is another game I flat-out refuse to play. It still pisses me off, and many a time I've been standing in the changing room thinking to myself "Madokami have mercy, WHAT does a girl need to do to get something functional, well-fitting, and decently-priced that *doesn't* tell the world I'm a simpering moron with no aims in life other than to lasso a guy?!"
There's way too much politics surrounding clothing, is what this boils down to. Politics, and something a level or two under it, also. I'm very aware that by not "playing the game" I'm shut out of many social interactions, and for interviews I do the "pretend to be perfectly normal" game with light makeup and the "appropriate" clothes, but what a crock. Do men worry about this stuff? It doesn't seem like it.
Soggy Jobs Now Has a Cafes Section
Both in Washington State.
My Cafe section is only a prototype. I'm going to build out Clark and King - Seattle and Redmond - Counties, Washington, Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington Counties, Oregon and Alameda County, California (for Peets).
Then I'm going to ask Peets' and Starbucks' MIS people to work with me to set up automated data feeds. That way when a new cafe starts hiring, it will appear on Soggy Jobs that very same day. In the unfortunate event that one goes Tits Up, it will disappear into the ether. Fall off the edge of the Earth. Stop phoning home.
It's common for cafes not to have websites, but many of them have either Facebook or Twitter. I could link those but then my table rows would be two wide to fit on smartphones.
Is there a way to make table rows take up two lines without embeddeding a two-row table in a table row?
Some have neither website, Facebook nor Twitter. If there's just one location I plan to provide their street addresses.
I'll be going to breakfast at the Portland Rescue Mission soon.
In other news, late tomorrow morning I'll be setting out QR codes for BitCoin, Ether and LiteCoin so I can accept crypto tips when I sing on the street.
Just yesterday I added Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" to my Set List. Please to be suggesting folk songs, show tunes and American patriotic songs that I could sing. I do it A Capella, so whatever I sing can't have long instrumental sections.
Random thoughts about this Brave New World.
My daughter just went to a Drag(on) party (sp???):
literally a pre-wedding party for two guys (and there was a stage drag theater contest).
My questions (being an old guy trying to fit into a new world)
1. Is it husband and wife or husband and husband (wife and wife for lesbians)?
2. Why do people do drag? and why don't they dress that way all the time if they like doing it so much?
3. I knew a 'flaming homo' in Toronto (did not know him well enough to ask questions like this): why do some guys act straight and some so feminine to outright flaming in yo' face?
Will probably remember some other questions later... does anyone have a primer?
Honestly asking.... this is all new to the guy who grew up (small town) saying "Ha...you're a homo!" without really knowing what that meant (when told about a 'circle jerk' i wondered why a bunch of guys would want to do that while thinking about women, lol).
Let the flaming begin!
**A side thought:
In the future there WILL be sex bots:
.....there will also be 'child sex bots' (and will/can child sex bots be made illegal?)... thinking about this is kind of disturbing, but i know it IS coming, sooner or later.
Will something like that take care of a pedo's needs or lead to something worse?
If you had a fully functioning sex-bot that looks/feels real with wonderful AI, would you consider never having a relationship (such as marriage) again or just stick with sex-bot?
If my wife died and i had a bot/AI that was acceptable, i might just stick with it, methinks.
Damn, my mind is going tonight!
This week in Trump's crime syndicate: Immunity Deals
Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, was one of the executives who helped arrange $420,000 in payments to longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen to help reimburse him for hush money he paid an adult-film star.
Weisslberg was granted immunity by federal investigators in New York in exchange for his truthful testimony about his role in the payments, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Weisselberg is the person identified in court filings as “Executive-1,” who prosecutors said helped authorize $420,000 in payments to Cohen, one person said. He testified before a grand jury investigating Cohen last month
Federal prosecutors reached an immunity deal with the tabloid executive David J. Pecker, a key witness in their monthslong investigation into payments during the 2016 campaign to two women who said they had affairs with Donald J. Trump, according to two people familiar with the investigation.
Mr. Pecker is the chairman of American Media Inc., the nation’s biggest tabloid news publisher, which was involved in the payments, which prosecutors have identified as illegal contributions made in violation of campaign finance law.
David Pecker, Chief of National Enquirer’s Publisher, Is Said to Get Immunity in Trump Inquiry
I made a Proclamation for Hawaii!!
Folks, this is a VERY SPECIAL time for Hawaii. And they're in our thoughts & prayers. Because there's a very very tremendous hurricane coming, Hurricane Lane. You heard of Tornado Alley, this one's Hurricane Lane. I proclaimed, Disaster Emergency in Hawaii. And I put Brock of FEMA on the job, to make sure everything goes PERFECTO. He's going to do an amazing job. Like he did in Puerto Rico last year, does anyone remember Puerto Rico? Double hurricane, they had two hurricanes. But only 64 people dieing (RIP!!!). Out of so many millions of people. I put Brock on the job. And I flew in to help personally. I went down there, I was handing out Paper Towels. They were badly in need of Paper Towels. So I got on the job, I gave them what they needed to clean up that mess. I went there myself -- that's something you don't hear from the VERY NEGATIVE (Fake) News Media. And they were having tremendous problems with their electric, hurricanes knocked out their electric. But Whitefish Energy got on the job. Great company from Secretary Zinke's home town. From Richard Spencer's home town. Beautiful town called Whitefish. Big job to fix the electric. Because they didn't have Coal. You know, you bomb a pipeline, that’s the end of the pipeline. With Coal, that stuff is indestructible -- like my Presidency. You can move it around on a truck, you can dump it at the plant, you can do whatever the hell -- you can rain on top of it for a long time. It can rain like crazy. You can hurricane. Or double, triple hurricane. You can do whatever you want — snow, sleet, wind. You just dump it. It’s there. You hit those pipelines, they’re gone, and that’s the end of it. You're saying, "man, we better go out and start cutting some lumber, we better Tree Clear." So for national security purposes. I don’t think people talk about it enough -- coal. We love clean, beautiful West Virginia Coal. We love it. Great. And, you know, it’s indestructible stuff. In times of war, in times of conflict, you can blow up those windmills. They fall down real quick. You can blow up those pipelines. They go like this, and you’re not going to fix them too fast. You can do a lot of things to those solar panels. But you know what you can’t hurt? Coal. You can do whatever you want to Coal. Very important. Governor Ige, bring Coal Power to your people! Think of Hawaii with plenty of Coal -- Nice! Fast Federal govt. approvals.
By the way, Trump International Hotel Waikiki, very well built building. Very luxurious. Great place to stay, beautiful views of the awesome hurricane. Never settle!!! foxnews.com/us/2018/08/23/fema-prepared-with-food-supplies-for-hawaii-ahead-hurricane-lane.html twitter.com/fema/status/1032043444221431810
Smoke-gets-in-your dept
@mrpg is smoking something?
Today's dept headings may be hard to read due to all the smoke, but....wtf he smoking?
Is he a new Canadian running from Trumps America?
Is he smoking what we all think he's smoking?
Is he really Smokey the Bear?
Don't touch that knob...don't touch that dial...and stop touching yourself!
(Seriously....WassHeSmokin'?)
Zombie Conservatives
The Guardian and the BBC report that last year the Conservative Party in the UK received twice as much money in donations from dead people than from living members. The Labour Party received almost £10M more in donations, mostly from living members. The Conservative Party had a membership of 124 000 (living) and Labour 564 443.
Trump Admin Corruption: Manafort guilty, Cohen guilty
A jury has found former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort guilty after a three-week trial on tax and bank fraud charges — a major if not complete victory for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as he continues to investigate the president’s associates.
The jury convicted Manafort on eight of the 18 counts against him. The jury said it was deadlocked on the other 10. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis declared a mistrial on those other charges.
Manafort was convicted on five counts of filing false tax returns, one count of not filing a required IRS form, and two bank fraud counts.
Manafort convicted of 8 counts, judge will declare mistrial in 10 others
President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has surrendered to the FBI in New York as he prepares to plead guilty Tuesday afternoon in an investigation into his activities and business dealings, according to people familiar with the matter.
Cohen is expected to plead guilty to charges related to bank fraud, tax fraud and a campaign finance violation, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. Cohen agreed to the deal after prosecutors claimed he risked more than a dozen years in prison, one person said.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Manhattan. Afterward, Deputy U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami, who has been overseeing the probe, is scheduled to make public remarks.
The plea discussions follow a months-long grand-jury investigation into Cohen’s activities, including his taxi business, as well as a hush-money payment that Cohen arranged to an adult-film actress, Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had a tryst with Trump years ago.
Left and right is wrong, but why is that important?
There are decent arguments in both directions. Left and right, imperfect and imprecise as they are, are not complete nonsense. Realizing that is relatively new for me, and you could say that's the reason for the entry itself. For decades, I thought "this is complete nonsense" and I was mystified that it got traction. Just goes to prove how powerful control of the media/education/military/industrial/government complex is... well no. Not entirely.
There's something deeper here. As inaccurate as left and right are, they are accurate at a level, a particular level that is, shall we say, very close to the gut?
But it's not really an ideological or political divide this corresponds to, it's a *psychological* divide. The left is more psychologically open, to both good and bad influences, the right more suspicious of both sorts of outside influence.
So there is some truth to it, and some rational reason for people to cling to it.
But it's still, essentially, nuts. You need a minimum of two dimensions to make the slightest sense of politics *qua politics*. Right and left, as commonly presented here in the USA, conflates separate poles that have nothing to do with each other. Left is "liberal" but liberal has been a dirty word since they crucified Carter (pbuphn.) And the actual left has virtually no one left that's actually noticeably liberal in any way. Right is 'conservative' but conservative is not the opposite of liberal; and the right-wing party hasn't been noticeably more conservative than the left-wing party in decades anyway.
So let's set 2 dimensions, that means 4 poles. Liberal is the opposite of authoritarian, conservative is the opposite of radical. I know, not a new thought, Nolan will sue me, but at least my labels are correct. What we actually have is two extremely authoritarian parties, one slightly radical and the other extremely radical. There are no liberals, nor conservatives, allowed space on the field at all.
Trump is currently the closest thing that is permitted to exist, per the mainstream media. And they're outraged that he exists. He's not very liberal at all, but there's only maybe 3 or 4 congresscritters to his 'left' in the classical sense in all of Washington!
He's not very conservative either, though I'd think about twice that many congresscritters could flank him there.
As there are ~550 congresscritters, this is a very depressing statistic for a conservative, or a liberal, let alone someone like myself who is tending towards both positions.
And why is this all important? Because as long as they can focus on this artificial division, between ostensibly 'liberal' progressives (whose actual positions range from radical liberal to radical authoritarian, with a heavy bias towards the latter) and ostensibly 'conservative' fascists (whose actual position, in my terms, would range from conservative liberal to conservative authoritarian, with a heavy bias towards the latter *in leadership* but not necessarily in the rank and file) the authentic liberal positions are systematically marginalized and made invisible.
The game is to keep the liberals split, with conservative liberals in one party and radical liberals in the other party - while both parties remain safely under control of authoritarians.
And this is why it's important. Because if there is any alternative to dystopia, it must be for the conservative liberals and the radical liberals to unite and overthrow our common oppressors - the authoritarians, the authoritarian mind, and all that resembles it.
We can't do that while we're busy dividing up into right-tribe and left-tribe. We can't do that while we're smacking each other in the head with bike-locks to impress our particular oppressors and curry favor with our tribe.
We can't be human beings while we are slaves to these distorted images of tribes that never really existed to begin with.
Tikkum Olam ("Mend the world"), all of you.
Especially you, Ethanol ;)
-Arik Yehuda (the Lion of Judah.)
I Was in the Emergency Room Again Last Night
"If you're not sleeping, it's an emergency."
-- Psychiatrist Darryl Chagi MD, Soquel, California 1997
I stayed up quite a lot longer than I really had any reason to be
awake. At ten last night decided to buy some ice cream at the corner
store but didn't check for my keys before I shut my apartment door
behind me. Happily I realized the problem before walking out the door
at the bottom of the stairs, left it unlocked, quickly went to the
store, bought a can of Campbells Chunky Soup then right back.
The landing at the top of the stairs is big enough to stretch out on
so I figured I'd be OK until I could get my apartment manager to help
me climb into my bedroom window this morning. Eventually realized
that I wasn't sleeping because my Happy Pills were inside the
apartment.
Had no cash for a cab, busses not running this late. Dialed 9-1-1, as
I attempted to speak to the dispatcher I realized I wasn't just wide
awake but actually Manic. Another day of that and you'll need
butterfly nets and tranquilizer rifles to stop me from lighting up the
whole town with my contagious enthusiasm.
Ambulance comes, took me to a very small ER in Salmon Creek called
Legacy. I'd been there before, figured they'd get me the right kinds
of meds then have a sort of "Wingnut Limousine" - really a Buick but
with a bulletproof window between the front and the back - to a mental
hospital that I'd been in before, Telecare at the VA Medical Center in
Vancouver in the back of the building immediately opposite the lobby
in front.
I made plain to the entire ER staff that I could not _possibly_ sleep
until they gave me Elavil but it was only around 3:30 that I realized
they'd overlooked it. They did gave me a fast-acting Zyprexa tablet
that I dissolved under my tongue. While that stopped the onrushing
Mania, without the Elavil I would have no hope whatsoever of sleeping
so it would not be long at all before I was Manic again.
Elavil (amitryptiline) is an antidepressant which I no longer need but
it's _highly_ sedating so one must gradually increase one's dose at
first to build up a tolerance to the sedation, then after one is sure
the depression won't return, taper back off of it over a period of two
or three weeks. To stop suddenly and I simply _cannot_ sleep until I
can take some again. Three days awake and I'm hallucinating. Five
days awake I'm hallucinating so hard I can't see where I'm going when
I try to walk.
They discharged me with a taxi voucher. In the lobby waiting my cab
to arrive, realize I was having vivid visual hallucinations, got
readmitted to the ER, apologized for not having been more clear I need
_Elavil_ too.
The ER doc who gave me the Zyprexa had just gone home so they assigned
me a new doc. Waited a couple hours, he went home too. Third doc
shows up while generally friendly he was quite argumentative. I was
unable to make him understand that I really _did_ need to be in a
mental hospital. _Nothing_ the ER could possibly do would make enough
of a difference.
He agreed to prescribe my Elavil.
I was able to listen to YouTube for another three hours but still
unable to sleep. At 9:30 finally got my Elavil but they never gave me
any food when I asked for it. To take Elavil on a totally empty
stomach is quite painful.
Five minutes later, nurse tells me my cab is here and I head home.
I Was A Piece Of Work when I got home but at least Bob agreed to park
his pickup under the awning over the front of the first floor.
Climbed on cab, onto awning, very easy to get into bedroom window.
I'm no longer Manic but also no longer sleepy. Many psychiatric meds
are toxic to your liver or your kidney so it's not safe to take
another dose of Elavil yet.
I'll make some pancakes, shower, shave then hang out at Taco Bell -
not for the food, rather the air conditioning, Internet, a restroom
and they'll be cool with just giving me a cup of ice water - until
5:00 or so then will take more Elavil and...
... Sleep The Sleep Of The Dead.
This gets really old sometimes. I Mean It Really Does.
Lucidly,
Michael David Crawford
