Tag: politics

CNN done fucked up

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When I was a kid, I was always under the impression that the news was just the news; reporting on facts, with no bias or leanings.  Maybe a little bit of personality from the anchors, and on snow days, waiting for the weather people, otherwise, waiting until the last 5-7 minutes of the show for sports, so I can see which team was the latest to fall to the Chicago Bulls or what Cal Ripken, Jr’s consecutive game streak was at.  But that the FOX5 10 o’clock news was just news, the same as all other news outlets, and really nothing more.

I don’t think it was until the 2000 Presidential election did I realize that news outlets were far more capable of things other than just, the news.  Regardless of what one feels about FOX News, there’s no denying their involvement in the 2000 election, about how they declared a victor a little too precariously early and their overwhelming support for the Republican party.

This experience opened my eyes that news sources were not as neutral and unbiased as I had grown up thinking they were, and that there were most definitely rosters of various sources taking difference sides and positions in political spectrum.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that I lean left when it comes to most facets of life, and I like to believe I’m a pretty liberal thinker, open-minded to lots of logical things.  That being said, I used to often read the Huffington Post, because I appreciated their want to broadcast positive and uplifting stories, especially in a media-driven world hell-bent on reporting all the stories of violence, hatred, gunfire and war; if it bleeds, it leads, and there’s really only so much of it I can tolerate on a daily basis without feeling like I’m losing my humanity.

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A political blurb

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Yeah, I know, nobody really likes to talk about politics, and frankly I don’t really either.  But thanks to the world around me, I’ve become more aware of politics, even if I can’t necessarily believe that the decisions of people so high will ever affect me at my ground level, but it matters to a lot of people in my little world, so I acknowledge a lot more than I’d really want to admit to.

Anyway, a big deal is being made about the recent Georgia 6th Congressional District race; and how it ended in a manner very disagreeable to the vast majority of my friends as well as the Democratic liberal people primarily of my general era of likeminded peoples.  Basically, in spite of all the social media activism, lobbying and celebrity involvement, a Republican defeated a Democrat, and nothing at all seems to have changed.

In short, a woman who has gone on record and went viral for saying she does not support a living wage won an election for a Congressional seat.  The majority of American people also voted for a man with no military or political experience who has said similarly deplorable things and has a laundry list of sexual deviancy allegations as President of the United States.

If elections were decided by the internet and on social media, Democrats would probably steamroll every single one.  Liberals love to talk a big game, and post and share and retweet all the virtues of their preferred candidates and just how bad the Republican candidate is, with all applicable factoids.  But when it comes time to deliver, quiet conservatives are still the ones with the tenacity and drive to get out of their houses, get on the roads, and pack the voting stations and cast their votes, and the proof is in the results, whether they are liked or not.

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=/

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

That emoji is kind of how I felt when I read about Mein Fuhrer deciding for the whole country and pulling out of Paris Climate Agreement.  I don’t really know how to explain why I felt sad by it, it’s not like I’m the greenest person on the planet either; I don’t go out of my way to recycle, although I am cognizant about turning off lights and shutting down electronics that aren’t being used.  That’s the kind of person I am when it comes to climate concerns, if that paints any picture at all.

I think it’s more a sense of dissatisfaction at a situation where pretty much the vast majority of the American public can agree that, not even for just the sake of the climate, whether it’s believed in or not, there’s nothing really wrong with trying to reduce pollution and find simple and efficient ways to not be so wasteful, but the guy in unfortunate charge of the country seems to operate at this seemingly predictable reverse psychology methodology, so whatever the people wants, he simply does the opposite.  So when the vast majority of Americans are saying to not leave the Paris Climate Agreement, he decides to leave, joining like, two other countries as the only countries in the entire fucking planet that isn’t a part of it.

And then to add insult to injury, there’s always the tagline at the end that claims to “be for America’s best interests,” that I can’t even believe for one second that those who say it can believe it.

By now, I’m entirely convinced that if Twitter started proclaiming that they hoped that this administration would never end, the Comemeder in Chief would resign full stop right then and there, because he’s so accustomed to doing whatever it is the American people don’t want.

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OH GOOD WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

In case the passing of Campus Carry didn’t make it clear enough, the AJC wants people to know that guns will be allowed at tailgating events in Georgia.

Look at the picture above: after July, a tailgate in Athens will still look like that, except that concealed behind strategically placed articles of clothing will be shitloads of guns.  What could possibly go wrong when oceans of alcohol are introduced, and when audacious opposing fans on the premises trigger instant animosity?

I can’t shake my head enough at the stupidity of Campus Carry.  It is something I can’t get over, and I feel extremely fortunate and safe that I am not in college anymore, much less in Georgia, and that I do not really know anyone who is still in college anymore these days.

This is not a matter of if, as I’ve probably already said before.  It is most certainly a query of when, the first shooting incident and/or fatality is recorded because guns are allowed on campuses throughout the state of Georgia.  Provided there is no gun-related incidents prior to the start of the college football season, I’m looking at two dates in particular as high-risk for shootings: October 28, when Florida rolls into Athens and November 25, at the annual Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game, which will be played at Tech, in Downtown Atlanta.  I will not be the least bit surprised if an incident(s) of gun violence breaks out at one or both of these events.

Who knew how loudly money spoke?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Shocker of the year: I-85 announced to be opening Monday morning, tremendously ahead of schedule

Funny how predictable things become once money is introduced into the equation.  Back when the bridge originally collapsed, there were rumblings about how it would take until Thanksgiving to repair.  Eventually people realized that cities can’t necessarily operate efficiently with a massive chasm in the road, so the timeline to repair was suddenly bumped to early June. 

And then the Georgia Department of Transportation put a big fat $3.1 million dollar incentive reward in play if the contractors responsible for the bridge repair could finish before Memorial Day weekend, May 26-29.

A surprise to nobody at all, the bridge repairs are not only going to beat the Memorial Day reward deadline, they’re going to beat it by nearly two full weeks.  How interesting that a potential reward has sufficiently motivated people to do their jobs.

Whatever though, regardless of the pathetic display of greed exhibited by this whole debacle, I’m just glad that I-85 is going to be repaired sooner rather than later.  I know other people have had it way worse than I have, but it’s definitely made some trips way more tedious and time-consuming than they should be if GDOT weren’t such irresponsible slugs leaving their flammable shit underneath bridges with the crackheads.

This is the plot of Resident Evil 4

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Las Plagas came into play in a similar fashion: as the fable of climate change miraculously becomes reality, bacteria and viruses long-trapped in ice, are coming back to life as they are being melted free

Now I don’t want to get too political and be all like see, this is why climate change is a real thing, but this is pretty much the plot to Resident Evil 4, and all subsequent Resident Evil games that utilized Las Plagas.  But instead of evil Umbrella/whatever evil corporation actively digging and seeking out long-dormant bacteria and viruses, in this case it’s kind of scarier in the sense that it’s not being controlled by man, but are kind of unveiling themselves discreetly and unaccounted for on their own by virtue of being melted out of whatever frozen confinement that had been keeping them locked away for however long they’ve been out of play.

Sure, it’s starting with strains of anthrax, smallpox and the Spanish flu revealing themselves from melted graves, but at this rate, one of these days it’s only a matter of time when the real Las Plagas parasites melt their way out of rural Spain and begin infesting in modern humanity leading to the eventual downfall of mankind.  The difference is that Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine don’t actually exist, but there are very much crooked corporations like Umbrella out there that would gladly nefariously try to weaponize and control such terrible things.

I’m just saying, this is pretty much the backstory to the plot of Resident Evil 4, and if Ivanka goes missing while on a humanitarian appearance/fashion show out in Europe, then fiction will have a pretty scary time becoming an action-packed reality.  The real-life Leon Kennedy better start training up for his eventual mission of saving the world.

Well that’s one way to counteract enrollment because of the HOPE Scholarship

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Gotta lean right again every now and then, I guess: Georgia governor Nathan Deal signs off of House Bill 280, thus making it official that licensed gun owners can now legally carry concealed weapons onto Georgia public college campuses

Welp, marking Cinco de Mayo 2017 as the date is fairly easy enough to remember when to start the count of days until a pretty senseless and preventable gun-related death on a Georgia college campus happens, at least.  Mark my words, this is not a matter of ‘if’ this happens, it is entirely a matter of ‘when’ it does.

Believe me, I’m more than willing to eat crow and put in writing that I was wrong, if it turns out that an incident of where a licensed gun owner prevents or stops crime from happening happens first, but I wouldn’t put money on it.  The invention of firearms in the first place is inherently negatively connoted, and no measure of regulating or attempting to control them changes the fact that negative intentions are always the reason for firearms being inserted into any equation.

Ironically, of course, I just love how stupid all the terminology and word selection that led to HB 280’s original failure and eventual success; like how originally it failed to pass because of the concern that without text and legalese, then licensed owners would be allowed to carry firearms into “day cares, disciplinary hearings and faculty and administrative offices.”

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