Federal Week in Review

On January 9, 2017January 9, 2017 By ls1228In Dirty dealing, headlines, Pisses Me Off, politicsLeave a comment

A.K.A. Things the GOP controlled House and Senate tried to slip past the unsuspecting citizens of the United States of America last week. Hmmmm 😡

Trump fires all Ambassadors and Special Envoys, ordering them out by inauguration day.
House brings back the Holman rule allowing them to reduce an individual civil service, SES positions, or political appointee’s salary to $1, effectively firing them by amendment to any piece of legislation. We now know why they wanted names and positions of people in Energy and State.
Senate schedules 6 simultaneous hearings on cabinet nominees and triple-books those hearings with Trump’s first press conference in months and an ACA budget vote, effectively preventing any concentrated coverage or protest.
House GOP expressly forbids the Congressional Budget Office from reporting or tracking ANY costs related to the repeal of the ACA.
Trump continues to throw the intelligence community under the bus to protect Putin, despite the growing mountain of evidence that the Russians deliberately interfered in our election.
Trump breaks a central campaign promise to make Mexico pay for the wall by asking Congress (in other words, us, the taxpayers) to pay for it.

7. Trump threatens Toyota over a new plant that was never coming to the US nor will take jobs out of the US.

House passes the REINS act, giving them veto power over any rules enacted by any federal agency or department–for example, FDA or EPA bans a drug or pesticide, Congress can overrule based on lobbyists not science. Don’t like that endangered species designation, Congress kills it.

We – progressive, liberal, libertarian and conservative – need to all wake up to what is actually happening to our beloved country.

#UnitedWeStand.

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Feminist Isn’t a Dirty Word

On January 8, 2017 By ls1228In Extreme Blonde Moments, headlines, Pisses Me OffLeave a comment

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of feminism is:

: the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes
: organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests

feminist \-nist\ noun or adjective

feministic \fe-mə-ˈnis-tik\ adjective

Today a friend shared an article from March of last year where a woman was justifying why she isn’t a feminist in today’s society. She starts off by expressing that she believes in equal pay for equal work, a decidedly feminist thought, but in all other ways, she is a 1950’s traditionalist in the duties she believes are hers to fulfill as a woman. She aspires, in all ways, to be June Cleaver:

Have her boyfriend seek her father’s permission to marry her
Absolutely take her husband’s last name, no question
Women are fragile beings and must lean upon the man once she is no longer single
Submit to her husband in all ways: He is head of the household, the provider, protector and leader of the family.
Stay home and have her job be to take care of her husband
Stay home and perform all domestic tasks
Stay home and care for the children

I’m too Type A to be June Cleaver.

I like doing some of the domestic stuff but in no way do I believe that it’s my job, as a woman, to perform those tasks. My husband and I both live in the house and have always had an understanding that we should share the domestic responsibilities accordingly. We did not employ a full time maid, and raised our son to understand that it’s his responsibility to clean up after himself. If he dirties a dish he should rinse and either put it into the sink or the dishwasher. The same goes with straightening up after himself and keeping his clothes clean. When he was a child I, of course, helped him with those tasks, but he is a grown ass adult and it is his responsibility now, not some girlfriend’s, or later, his wife’s.

While the first few paragraphs of this article are fine, the author decides she wants to be June in the rest, submitting to her husband, as the Bible says, and that is fine with her. I can’t buy the rest of the Wilting Flower, I need a man to support and protect me, garbage.

Most of her ideals and role models are likely from the same region of the country that she is in: the South/Southeast. Living is slower there than where I grew up. Half of my family is from Alabama, and I love everything about their traditions and ability to carry on the traditional family roles, but I am in an entirely different style of society in Southern California.

While it’s not impossible to live those values in California, and I’m sure many do, it’s not the way I was raised. My grandmother would be considered a 1970’s feminist without the bra burning and protesting. All of her kids were out of the house by the mid-70’s and she enjoyed the freedom that allowed her:

She worked out of the house and earned her own money
She enjoyed independent leisure activities
She did not bow to the rule of my grandfather, in fact, he took more of the domestic role, he enjoyed cooking and their home was always neat as a pin because they were both quite tidy.

My Mom was definitely the one who wore the pants in my house. Dad was usually on the same page, but Mom made most of the decisions. I know that she got a lot of her confidence from seeing my grandma’s courage to step outside of what was expected of her and try new things.

womens-salaries-01-262x300 With the two of them, plus some mothers of friends and very strong coaches and teachers as role models, I was bound to be anything but a wallflower, so much so that my Mom used to tell me that she wanted to be like ME when she grew up, LOL.

I’ve had the word “Feminist” thrown at me like it’s a bad thing. That is a load of bullshit. As election day neared and friendships became strained with the realization of just how wrong I was about how some life long friends really felt about a woman’s place in society, I began to take stock of what being a feminist meant to me.

From the mid-1980’s on, most of us went to college and expected to have careers. We expected to contribute to our households in ways most of our grandmothers and some of our mothers hadn’t, and the men we were raised beside expected it too. With that in mind, the hurt I felt at the nasty tone taken when I was called a feminist, pissed me off even more.

Maybe I could understand how men might feel like that if it were the late 60’s and early 70’s when men were getting their egos bruised because their wives had to go to work to help make ends meet in the very tough economy, but THAT WAS MORE THAN 40 YEARS AGO. Times have changed but apparently women haven’t come as far as we thought we had. Some of my male peers, who are still under 50, think the little woman belongs at home having babies, cooking, cleaning and waiting to take care of her man. PUHLEEZE! HMMMM

Back to the topic at hand, Amanda Jayne Sankey’s article about not being a feminist. She says that she is content to let the man take charge, make all of the decisions and provide for the family so that she can concentrate on being, “a mom who takes care of her children and doesn’t miss out on their lives.” I am actually offended by that comment more than anything else in her brief post.

Stress Mother Running Late with Kids on White There is no part of being a powerful, strong, capable woman that automatically results in me being unable to also be a mother who can take care of my children and not miss out on their lives. It’s called multi-tasking. It’s what all women do, whether we are stay at home Moms who “do it all,” or Moms who really do “do it all” by leaving the home to work full or part time, sharing in the responsibilities at home, sharing in the responsibilities of caring for our children, and sharing with our spouses the joys of everything going on in our children’s lives.

Neither life choice is right or wrong. I believe that our lives are largely influenced by how much exposure we have to experiences outside of our community. If we never leave a small town atmosphere where everyone knows each other and no one ventures further than the next town over, then we are highly unlikely to buck tradition. Being from a faster paced part of the country, where women are much more independent, I’d never be able to live a life with someone who expected me to be June to his Ward Cleaver. If that makes me a nasty feminist, then sign me up.

Trump Triumph or Twitter Smoke & Mirrors?

On January 4, 2017January 4, 2017 By ls1228In Extreme Blonde Moments, headlines, Pisses Me Off, TechnologyLeave a comment

President Elect Donald Trump, who refuses to face the press for questions, announced via Twitter how pleased he was that Ford Motors was canceling their planned $1.6 billion dollar expansion of their manufacturing operations in Mexico and adding 700 jobs in Michigan instead.

“Trump has previously slammed the company for plans to move all small-car production to Mexico, and claimed that he helped stop Ford from shifting an entire factory from Kentucky to Mexico. Ford has repeatedly said it has no plans to close any U.S. plants.” – source CNBC HMMM.

In that same CNBC interview, The CEO of Ford, Mark Fields, was very quick to fire back that the change in plans was NOT at all to capitulate to Trumps threat of a 35% import tariff on Ford vehicles produced in Mexico for sale in the United States, but instead that the investment of $700 billion in expanding their Michigan manufacturing facilities was how they regularly do business, always first trying to keep business at home when it makes business sense, and that it was due to decrease in market demand for small gasoline powered cars and their planned move into the “electric car era.”

The Washington Post’s Danielle Paquette laid out in detail the actual reasons Ford canceled the Mexico small car plant:

Fields was blunt about why Ford changed its mind and canceled a $1.6 billion factory slated for San Luis Potosi. “The reason that we are not building the new plant,” he said, “the primary reason, is just demand has gone down for small cars.”
Ford wants to be the leader in Electric vehicles, so they are investing $4.5 billion in electric vehicle production by 2020

They need the electric cars to be assembled near the engineers
Ford currently employees 85,000 workers in the United States, but auto manufacturing at Ford from this point forward WILL become increasingly automated, resulting in FEWER jobs for line workers
“Each iteration of a facility becomes less like old school manufacturing and more high-tech,” Smith said. “THAT WILL ULTIMATELY MEAN FEWER JOBS.” Automation allows companies to produce more using fewer people.

“The Ford engineers, tasked with creating the Electric models, work in Dearborn, MI, 20 miles from the Flat Rock assembly plant. Moving production to Mexico would have made their jobs harder, said Brett Smith, an auto analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.”

For anyone still paying attention at this point, Ford isn’t abandoning production in Mexico.

They currently employ 8,800 employees in their Hermasillo, Mexico plant
They shipped 265,000 cars to the United States from that plant between January and August 2016
They intend to continue making gasoline-powered Ford Focus vehicles there.

The Nitty Gritty:

Mexico is the United States’ third largest trade partner
Imposing a 35% tariff on imports from Mexico would mean tearing up NAFTA, which he doesn’t need Congressional approval to do, but Mexico will fight any change to NAFTA via imposition of comparable tariffs on American imports
Trump would have to get Congressional approval to impose any new international tariffs
International tariffs, in the past, have cost Americans money and hurt our economy

Home Depot LED Tree Lights

On December 22, 2016 By ls1228In Extreme Blonde Moments, Helpful Tips, holiday projects, Pisses Me Off, Product Endoresements, Safety, TechnologyLeave a comment

Word to the wise: when you smell something smoldering, the power goes out in the room you’re in (thank God for GFI), and it’s still there when you throw the breaker…UNPLUG THE CHRISTMAS TREE!

Had I not been home we’d have had a fire last night with a 5 day fresh tree, new double wire strand of 150 lights and water in the stand.

I’d noticed half the lights flickering occasionally while I was decorating the tree and wrapping gifts, but it had stopped. I thought I had a loose bulb and didn’t give it a second thought when the lights stayed on after tapping a light.

Hours later the entire wire fried, was sizzling hot and was starting to heat up the tree…keep a watch on your tree lights people!

Made for Home Depot in China. Home Depot might want to consider spending a bit more on having their branded lights manufactured to safer standards. Perhaps it would be wise to sell lights that don’t endanger people by burning up in 15 hours instead of lasting the “15 holiday seasons” advertised on the box. HMMM!

LED
Uses 80% less energy than incandescent bulbs
Energy Star Compliant
Supposed to last 15 years (not 15 hours)
Connect 30 strings on 1 outlet! I used 1 string 😳

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Lighten Up People!

On December 9, 2016 By ls1228In election, entertainment, Extreme Blonde Moments, headlines, Pisses Me Off, TechnologyLeave a comment

blazingsaddles Before special interest groups began dictating the tenor of the news, the 24 hour cable news cycle, cell phones (with instant video to internet upload ability), and social media’s ability to take a story worldwide in milliseconds, things that weren’t politically correct were funny. It’s okay, you can admit that you laughed at the off-color humor of the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s everyone did.

Whose dad didn’t come home from a night out with the boys with a bad joke or two?
Who didn’t laugh at the dozens of “Revenge of the Nerds” type movies that filled the theaters?
“Blazing Saddles” and it’s blatantly racist humor?
What about the “Cheech and Chong” movies?
How about the very raunchy stand-up routines of Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Bobcat Goldthwait, Andrew Dice Clay, Richard Pryor and others of the era?
Who didn’t see (and die laughing at) the VERY R-rated Eddie Murphy “Delirious” and “Raw”?

Today if you admitted to laughing hysterically at any comedy of that type, at minimum, you’d be accused of being (depending which comic you were describing) any one of:

Racist
Sexist
Xenophobic
Anti-Establishment
Discriminatory (Against the disabled or intellectually “challenged”)
A Pedophile
Abusive (Spousal or otherwise)
Homophobic
Alcoholic
A Drug Addict (or finding the practice/behavior acceptable)

babes-of-the-sunset-strip Envision your 1980’s party-girl bestie, who years ago would have been laughing beside you. Now she’s among the modern-day helicopter parenting, wine drinking /judgment passing disguised as women’s bible study night, soccer-moms who, rather than just ignore jokes or delete things they’ve decided they “can’t” publicly find funny anymore:

Spread emails publicly shaming a person who shared an off-color joke or meme
Encourage mutual friends to cut a person from social circles for the same
No longer allow their children to associate with the person’s children at or after school
Have contacted Human Resources to report the “inappropriate” behavior at work as harassing, gotten them reprimanded, and even fired
Have spread the gossip to their places of worship, children’s sports teams and other participatory organizations, making the person and their family feel so unwelcome they leave and even more from their home.

All of this stemming from having the nerve to have a sense of humor and realizing that there is still a First Amendment. How one person’s right to share and enjoy humor has gone from people just deleting the offending or not funny email or just giving the person a courtesy laugh or politely asking not to hear that type of joke/language to the extremes above is everything that our society was never intended to be. Our Constitution and protections of the many rights allowed to us within the Bill of Rights is exactly why we have gone to war. #PeopleNeedToLightenUp

You might wonder what made me go Hmmm about this today. Well, it was seeing another stupid headline about Donald Trump’s Twitter war with the way that he is being characterized on Saturday Night Live. #SatireIsProtectedSpeech

snl

When Saturday Night Live was actually funny (from 1975 through the 1980’s) everyone tuned in to see the double entendres that Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radnor, John Belushi, Eddie Murphy, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, and dozens of others over the ensuing decades tossed out that danced just below the censor line.

Based on the personal offense that the President-Elect is taking to the lampooning Alec Baldwin’s almost weekly Saturday Night Live performances are giving him, he must have forgotten the very nature of the show he admitted to enjoying before he actually won enough electoral college votes to earn the job he was seeking. Saturday Night Live has always made its laughs at the expense of the folly of politicians (including past Presidents), celebrities, sports figures and other notorious media personalities.

For a while (read that, when it served his benefit) Trump was in on the “joke.” Trump appeared as a host on SNL multiple times, largely to take the wind out of SNL’s anti-Trump sails. He refused to poke fun at himself and was only interested, when he hosted in 2015, in an appearance that was widely criticized, in downplaying his inflammatory campaign trail statements about Mexican and Muslim immigrants. Now he seems much more interested in wielding whatever power he retains at NBC by making veiled threats that SNL, which has survived 42 years and 7 Presidents, is on the way out.

This quote from the June 10, 2015 edition of Salon Magazine perfectly sums up my feelings on critical opinions of satire and comedy:

Know the performer you are watching on TV, listening to or seeing live
If you’re in the public eye and don’t like what’s being said about you, especially if the truth hurts, #ChangeTheChannel
If you don’t enjoy raw, politically honest, racial, sexual, vulgar and other taboo topics that might be in a show, DON’T GO SEE THAT COMEDIAN OR ANYTHING THEY ARE IN! #FreedomOfChoice
If people you know enjoy that type of comedy you don’t have to stop being their friend, but you don’t have any right to pass judgement on their taste in entertainment. They have no right to choose your shoes, your home, your car or your husband/wife – the same logic applies: #ToEachTheirOwn

Lisa Lampanelli, “The edgy comic wrote a piece in the Hollywood Reporter titled “How Political Correctness is Killing Comedy,” writing “Here’s the problem: Comedy, probably more than any other art form, is subjective. What jokes crack up your mom, your little brother, and your gay best friend will be completely different — unless it’s a video of a guy getting hit in the gonads with a piñata stick. That’s funny to everyone….If you like safe, generic comedy, that’s fine. Go on a cruise ship and crack up listening to the comedian point out the hilarious differences between loafers and shoes with laces. But don’t go to one of my shows and be outraged by what you hear. Going to my show and expecting me not to cross the line of good taste and social propriety is like going to a Rolling Stones concert and expecting not to hear ‘Satisfaction.’”

fpbaar Closing with a return to the theme of #PeopleNeedToLightenUp, if my kid were still small and asked for this toy, I would totally buy it if it was real! As kids we played house in a real playhouse. Mom and dad left for work during the day and went out on dates at night. Well, it’s 2016, dates are now happy hour after work and my girlfriend owns two of the bars I like: that’s real life small business ownership in today’s society people! I couldn’t care less if people agree with my humor or not. #IWouldBuyTheFisherPriceHappyHourPlaySet

“You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!”

On December 6, 2016December 7, 2016 By ls1228In election, Extreme Blonde Moments, headlines, Pisses Me OffLeave a comment

kennedys In January of 1961, President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, moved their young family into the White House. Instead of a lavish mansion, the new First Lady was horrified to find that once beautiful artifacts were worn or broken, furnishings were badly in need of repair, and that the Truman administration had used modern fabrics and commissioned cheaply made knock-offs! Believing that the appearance of class, elegance and grandeur at the White House must be restored immediately, Mrs. Kennedy made it her top priority. She would have extremely limited funds, but was sure that her upbringing, fine arts education and social ties would make that a minor obstacle. In her mind it was paramount that the White House be restored as authentically as possible so that once again the White House would be seen:

Befitting the residence of the sitting President of the United States of America
Honoring Past Presidents of the United States
As an ever evolving, living, breathing testimony of American history

Mrs. Kennedy used her wits and wiles to retrieve era appropriate artifacts and raise the needed funds to restore the White House as she set out to, and did it in record time. She brought glamour into evenings at the White House and helped move protocol out of the stoic 1940’s style and into the modern times. The White House became a place that intellectuals, artists, entertainers, and leaders of the world all wanted to be invited.

ST-218-1-62 (crop) Mrs. Kennedy stepped out of her husband’s shadow and created a position of power for herself as First Lady that lasted well beyond her years in the White House. Although she relished the spotlight the role she created for herself provided, it wasn’t for political gain. Jackie Kennedy was shrewd. She sought connections with people of wealth, influence and international notariety that they would be able to call upon and leverage in the years to come, never knowing, of course, that their time in the White House (and time together) would be cut so dramatically short.

national_organization_for_women_logo The end of the Kennedy era ushered in the Women’s Right’s Movement of the late 1960’s / early 1970’s. Over the next four decades glass ceilings of corporations and governments around the globe shattered and the emergence of women as international executives and world leaders became the norm.

2016 was going to be the year that Americans finally joined the rest of the world in recognizing and rewarding the most qualified and prepared person to ever be in competition for the highest office in our land, President of the United States, and that person was female: Hillary Rodham Clinton!

She’d proven more than worthy of the job by showing strength in International political circles as Secretary of State;
She’d proven she could and would cross the aisle to get things done as a two-term Senator from the state of New York;
She’d proven tenacious when fighting for women and children’s causes in her long law career;
She’d proven a supportive, forgiving and loyal wife when tested beyond the limits most women could take, when publicly lied to and humiliated by her husband’s infidelity under the harshest spotlight one could ever imagine, as the First Lady of the United States; and
She was running against a non-politician, a racist, a liar, a business failure, someone defending himself against many lawsuits including one for fraud (that he lost and paid tens of millions of dollars to settle), a man accused of sexual assault, a man awaiting civil trial for rape, a man on camera admitting to sexual assault – there was no way she could lose to this baffoon…Hmmm

We all know what happens to expectations and assumptions.

Only half of those eleigible to vote in the United States turned out
Of that 1/2: 2.5 Million more than that 50% voted FOR Hillary Clinton BUT
The Electoral College electorates are not distributed equally amongst the states and more electoral college votes were awarded (as of today, but are not yet official) to Donald Trump (the electorates from each state cast their votes on December 18th)

This President-Elect is known to live in homes adorned with self portraits, gaudy trumpapartment furnishings and walls covered in gold, he refuses to sit for daily intelligence briefings, he refuses to follow established Presidential protocol, he has named a white supremacist to his cabinet, is flying by the seat of his pants into one political landmine after another, he is Tweeting bald-faced lies to the American public, he still has multiple lawsuits pending against him, and, to top it all off, he has a wife who isn’t intending to live with him and perform the many daily and ceremonial duties as First Lady at the White House! All of this in less than a month after the election and just six weeks before he is officially to take office! WTF? Will no White House traditions survive?

That sound you hear is Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis rolling over in her grave in Arlington National Cemetery.

Because men have held a majority of the elected positions of political power since the inception of the United States as a Nation, fashion’s influence hasn’t been one of the more focused upon aspects of politics. Of course it has received passing historical commentary that was appropriate for the era and/or if there was an obvious show of poverty or wealth during the campaign, but essentially, aside from times when shown in their military uniforms, men have generally worn some version of the standard tailored formal suit and tie combination and women (mostly in their roles as spouse or hostess) whatever the popular gown of the era.

I am a proud member of the Pantsuit Nation group on Facebook, but I do admit to laughing at the jokes made by and about Hillary and her attachment to the non-descript (but obviously well made and expensive) pant suits she wore on the campaign trail. I also admit that the sometimes frumpy and shapeless pantsuits paired with the vicious #FalseNews stories that the real press wouldn’t de-bunk as loudly as the Trump campaign, the internet, and Fox News/CNN and others spread them, might just have been what ultimately cost Hillary half the public’s trust and the election.

hillary_clinton_official_secretary_of_state_portrait_crop I truly believe that Hillary Clinton not appearing as she did at all three debates, beautifully made up and glamorously styled as she showcased her intellectual and political strengths, contributed to her issues in connecting with people. The likeability factor, that I dismissed, mattered a whole lot more to middle america than I realized. Had she appeared everytime we saw her looking as she did at the debates, there might have been some who would have given her ultimate truths more of a chance to be heard instead of listening to the continual lies Trump-eting from other sources.

Unless there is a great moral and ethical shift within the voters who comprise the Electoral College on December 18th, in which they could decide that what they have seen and heard so far, in the first 6 1/2 weeks since the election, is just more than the United States bargained for or can sustain for 4 years, and decides to #VoteTheirConscience and swing their votes to the better qualified Hillary Clinton, I’m afraid that the long way that we appeared to have come from 1960 to 2016 might just take some steps backward. Hmmm indeed.

Organize This Chaos

On November 12, 2016November 12, 2016 By ls1228In election, Extreme Blonde Moments, headlines, Helpful Tips, Pisses Me Off1 Comment

hatecrimevote

This Blonde has had enough of the hateful personal attacks coming out of the woodwork, the attic, crawling out of the sewers and the swamps, falling from the skies, and everywhere else.

Many people who claim to be your friends aren’t. They hold racial, gender, sexual, and religious biases that differ with your beliefs. Deal with it, erase them from your life or learn to agree to disagree if that’s possible, but you are not going to change them anymore than they are likely to change you.

America, because tens of millions of people seem to need a refresher course in U.S. History, was founded on a few basic principles that are stated quite clearly in The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The government of the people, by the people and for the people is clearly outlined in the Declaration of Independence, “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

All that said, this Blonde has a few things to get off her chest: lamarch

Peaceful protest is a First Amendment right
Vandalizing property, assaulting citizens and committing other crimes of opportunity are not
Peaceful protests and petitions can result in desired change: A Texas Electoral College Member (a state that was awarded to Trump) has publicly stated he is considering a change in his vote on December 19th, and a petition circulating on Change.org, asking the Electoral College #VoteYourConscience and follow the will of the Popular Vote to award the election to Hillary Clinton, has (as of 12:30 PST) gathered 3,620,136 signatures.
Protests that stray from the intended purpose and spiral into lawless riots turn people against your cause

Police in the cities where days of protests have been happening are being supportive of Constitutional rights and doing what they can to keep the protestors safe, but when they turn the switch and become thugs and criminals they are playing right into the playbook of the voters whose votes they are protesting.

antitrumplapd

Instead of inflicting damage which will cost cities money to clean it up, think about other ways to protest that may get the point across.

If a company where you regularly shop, dine at or otherwise patronize supports values, laws and lawmakers that you don’t, then change your spending habits. Shop, dine and spend your money with companies that share your values.
If the house of worship you pray in has deviated from the righteous path that you try to follow, then join another congregation that more closely aligns with your beliefs.

Major sports leagues, the NCAA, corporations, organizations, recording artists and others have moved their events away from states that enacted legislation that was Anti-LGBTQ. By doing so, hundreds of millions of dollars in spending was directed away from those economies. In the end the almighty dollar is a much greater sword to wield when the intention behind the loss of revenue is known.

The estimate in lost revenue to North Carolina alone was a HALF A BILLION DOLLARS. Several companies intending to move their corporate headquarters or build regional facilities canceled their contracts costing jobs, tax dollars and they still did not, and have not, changed their Anti-LGBTQ legislation. In fact, they have diverted $500,000 from the state’s disaster relief funds (funds that are sorely needed to repair massive storm damage) to fight litigation against their Anti-LGBTQ legislation! HMMM

If you don’t like that your City, County or State voted to elect a Councilman, Mayor, Commissioner, Assemblyman, Senator, Representative or yes, President, then let your money, as well as your voice and future vote do your talking.

Enough with causing chaos in the very cities you claim to be speaking for
Don’t contribute to your party the next time they come calling
Write letters to your representatives
Send letters to the editor of your local and regional papers
Start a grassroots movement “Bernie-Style”
Remember that mid-term elections are only 2 years away

In 2018, 33 of the 100 Senate seats are up for re-election. Currently Republicans hold 52 seats and 8 of those will be up for grabs: Arizona, Nevada, Mississippi, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, & Wyoming. If any Senators die in office or are otherwise unable to serve before that, there can be special elections, so there is no reason to wait until then to get involved if this really matters to you.

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Benefits of Backing In

On October 30, 2016October 30, 2016 By ls1228In Extreme Blonde Moments, Helpful Tips, Pisses Me Off, SafetyLeave a comment

cars-in-parking-lot How much time do you spend in your car circling to find somewhere to park? If you live in a crowded state, like California, where people tend to drive everywhere, it’s probably a lot of time.

Inevitably, once I find a spot, there are cars like me waiting, turn signals on, anxious to zip into any empty space to get on with whatever task, appointment or meeting has caused the need to fight for parking. Once the spot opens up in we head, nose first, squeezing in to a spot barely large enough for the car, let’s not even talk about the need to open a door to get out or unload anything or anyone that may be accompanying you from the car.

Once your tasks are completed and the time comes to leave the same perilous journey begins again in reverse. You are virtually stalked by drivers who, anxious to acquire your parking spot, creep along behind or beside you as you make the trek back to your car. God help you if you do not immediately load your car, get in and, as fast as possible, start and slam the car into reverse so that they are not caused any delay in getting their car into your spot. It’s amazing how much road rage you can encounter when you don’t move quickly enough in to or out of a parking space.

blind-zone-chart Sometimes, if I am not in my large SUV where I can see over everyone, or in my husband’s larger sedan with it’s myriad of cameras, it’s really hard for me to know that it’s safe to back out of a spot. If I am in my very small sports car and there is a large truck, SUV or other longer vehicle beside me, I am virtually blind when backing out. Other drivers can become quite impatient and nasty as I creep out to make sure that I don’t get hit by anyone and don’t hit pedestrians or any vehicle that may be darting by without looking for me.

Not surprisingly, a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in 2001 and 2002 found that 14 percent of all damage claims involved crashes in parking lots. More seriously, there is a whole category of crashes, often fatal, tracked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, called “backover crashes”: These typically occur in driveways and parking lots, often involve children, and happen most often to drivers of SUVs.

Considering all of that, it occurs to me that backing in to parking spots is a far safer way to park than head in. Apparently there are many reasons to consider backing into spots instead of parking head in:

1 in 7 vehicle accidents occur in parking lots
There is a smaller field of vision when backing up
If you are at work, or at home for that matter, and there is a need for emergency evacuation, it’s much quicker to get into your car and drive straight out. You can also see the faces of other drivers parked similarly and can wave to each other and maintain order.
If your car won’t start it’s easier to get a jump when you are backed in
If you back into your garage at home, there is far less likelihood of backing over a bicycle (or God forbid a child) in the driveway, because you have a larger field of vision through the windshield

In my own experience, I much prefer backing in:

Spots are particularly narrow in a business parking structure – this way I can put the passenger side of my car closer to the passenger side of the car on my right so that I can give myself more room to exit my car and give the same to the driver of the car on my left. With any luck this will cut down on the risk of me getting a ding from the door of the car beside me.
If there is a solid (especially concrete) wall that I will be parking against. My parking assist will help guide me close enough and, with the very narrow spaces and very large cars that generally park on either side of me, I will feel more secure pulling straight out of the spot.
If there is no parking barrier in between two stacked spots. I will pull straight through to make exiting easier.
If I am attending a sporting event, concert or other event where there will be a large crowd and traffic exiting at the same time, which could make backing out difficult.

Had my husband taken the time to back into his parking space, or even done a pull through to be facing forward in the spot in front of him, he could have avoided being hit by a FedEx truck which resulted in $19,000 worth of damage to our car. Even more distressing, had a friend backed into his driveway, he might have been able to see his child playing there and could’ve avoided backing over him. His son survived, but his injuries were severe and the incident was terrifying.

It’s worth the few minutes of time it takes to have the best view possible when you are leaving to assure your safety and that of others you might not even know are there.

reverse-parking

It takes only a couple of seconds more and goes a long way to making everyone safer – especially by keeping you safer from those who aren’t paying attention! Hmmm

Post Vacation Stress Busters

On October 28, 2016 By ls1228In Extreme Blonde Moments, Helpful Tips, Pisses Me Off, Product Endoresements, SafetyLeave a comment

I love traveling:

Seeing parts of the world, or even the country I live in, that I haven’t seen before;
Unplugging from my far-too-technological existence;
Disengaging from my too-many-things-to-do not-enough-time-to-do-them days;
Escaping reality for days in the sun and sand with a cocktail just a waiter call away

But there are so many things about coming home that can make me hate traveling too:

chaos that occurred in my absence
pets that weren’t cared for in the manner that I care for them
chores or tasks that weren’t tended to
mail or deliveries that went askew
perhaps a weather or other catastrophe occurred
break-in, theft, vandalism or other casualty related property loss

I don’t know about you, but every time I get back into whatever mode of transportation will be returning me to “the real world” I instantly begin feeling less relaxed and begin wondering what “treat” will be awaiting me at home.

Some past coming home mishaps have included:

Returning from a weekend in Oklahoma to find the entire living room and master bedroom under 2 inches of still running water with my brother sound asleep on the living room couch amid the flood!
Returning from my 2 1/2 week honeymoon to find that my wine rack had been raped & pillaged (including a bottle we’d saved for our 10th anniversary), my son had spent most of the time next door instead of with the person I’d hired to stay with him at our house, and that my cat had disappeared for 3 days!
Returning from a 2 week trip to Hawaii to find out that my girlfriend had left my son “on his own” for 3 days during which time power had gone out (unbeknownst to anyone?) and food in the freezer and refrigerator had gone bad.

There have been many more experiences like these (and a few worse) and we’ve certainly learned our lessons on who to call for travel caretaking help. Thankfully I’ve also come across some really handy things we can all do to make coming home to the inevitable post-vacation surprises a little less stressful.

Fill a cup with water, put it in the freezer until it’s solid, then pop a coin on top. Leave it in there, and when you get back, check. If the coin is on the bottom of a now-frozen cup of ice, the power went out—long enough for the ice to melt back to water in your freezer, the coin to fall through, and then the power came back and the water re-froze. If the coin is where you left it, the power stayed on, or only went out for short periods. Obviously if the coin is at the bottom, you need to throw out all of the perishable food in your freezer and refrigerator. Thanks Lifehacker!
Let’s face it, our friends and family are well intentioned, but can be flakes! Guarantee that your furry friends won’t be neglected by buying a self cleaning cat box (they have one that self-cleans, uses the toilet to rinse/dispose and you don’t d anything with it except refill bio cartridge every 3 months!) and automatic pet feeders of all kinds that guarantee your furry friends aren’t left to starve in your absence. If they show up and provide companionship, exercise and empty the collection bin/scoop the yard, that’ll just be a bonus!
Although it’s always nice to have your kids in the comfort of their own beds, but leave them at the grandparents or at the home of the person responsible for them. It makes it much more likely they are being supervised.
Leave your lights on timers that are set to different times on different days and have radios set to come on loud in rooms near the front door as well. Many home security systems have this option in their user panels.
Let the newspaper, post office, UPS/Fed Ex and any other routine delivery services know that you will be away. Tell the drivers in the weeks leading up to your vacation so they can note it on their route charts.
Take a bottle of wine or two to a trusted neighbor and ask them to check your driveway/porch and mailbox daily for any errant deliveries. Ask them to also put your trashcans out on trash day and to return them to your storage spot so things look normal.
Invest in a RING or other doorbell system that allows you to “answer” your door from your smartphone. I have one at two of my homes and swear by it! I have answered my door in LA from hundreds of miles away as if I was just cooking there in the kitchen and couldn’t get to the door. No one was the wiser and the people left. It does interface if you are an ADT customer, but you do not have to be. Do it for your peace of mind!
Have your gardener come on the regular schedule and arrange to have your housekeeper come the day you are coming home, have her make sure trash is emptied, plants watered, and dishwasher emptied so you return to a clean house.

Keep a video inventory, as well as a digital camera photo disk inventory of your valuables, what the inside and outside of your home looks like and update it when you make any major purchases, receive any expensive gifts, get a new car, boat, or RV that you may store at home.

Put both in a fire and waterproof safe/document box. You can get these kind of boxes at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Amazon.com, or other stores of this type.
Also include in this box irreplaceable jewelry, spare keys to all vehicles, RVs, boats, all properties you own, etc., take pictures of the bottles of all prescriptions your family takes, insurance policies, passports (if you aren’t traveling abroad) photocopies of all credit cards, ID for all family members, social security cards, original birth/death/marriage certificates, military records, etc.
Put that box in your attic or in the rafters of your garage. The idea is to put it someplace that burglars wouldn’t look. This is not something you are going to access very often at all. Do not put it in a closet. Also put some cash in case banks are temporarily affected by power outages and ATMs are unavailable.
Engrave your Name and Cell Phone Number on the Box, and that of your emergency contact as well, in the event the box is separated from your home (i.e. flood or hurricane). Do not use ink! Even permanent ink can wash away with high pressure fire hoses and lashing storm waters. Engraved letters and numbers are a much better option.
In the event of a break-in, catastrophic fire or other home damaging disaster while you are gone, there is every likelihood that the box will survive and you will have proof for insurance adjusters

If these also look like good ideas for things to do in case of a natural disaster where you might have to evacuate, it’s because they are – they’re a great reminder as we enter the stormy winter months.

I’ve Had it With The 2016 Election!

On September 30, 2016June 16, 2022 By ls1228In election, Extreme Blonde Moments, Pisses Me OffLeave a comment

election2106 I have had all I can stand of the 2016 Presidential campaign! There were stories today that the people of America needed to hear more about before they make a moral and ethical call on the candidate who will be best suited to lead us into the next four years and beyond, but the television media didn’t cover them.

Yesterday the media uproar was all about Donald Trump calling Miss Universe 1996 a slob, pig, etc., and how he fat shamed her well before it became a “thing” on Twitter and Facebook, instead of covering Newsweek’s bombshell on Trump sending an advisor to Cuba and spending money there during the embargo then trying to cover it up after the fact as a catholic charities trip.

Today, instead of continuing on the illegal Cuba spending coverage, the media has shifted to Donald’s intent to smear Secretary Clinton with the decades old story of her responses to getting blindsided by her husband’s affair (s), instead of covering another bombshell that hit the wires last night regarding the legitimacy of The Trump Foundation.

Two weeks ago all any news channel was doing was hunting up John & Mary Q. Public to see how they feel about Hillary not sharing that she went to the doctor, got antibiotics to clear up the nagging cough & congestion in her chest (a.k.a. the “walking pneumonia”) Friday, then ignored her doctor telling her to take the weekend off, so John/Mary Q. Public went on the record stating “that” makes her untrustworthy.

Hour upon hour of coverage listening to pundits interpreting “what she was thinking not telling America she has what is equivalent to a really bad chest cold!” We have HIPAA people! With her permission, her doctors have given the results of her most recent physical, which was obviously before her doctor appointment last Friday, and he provided the press and all interested parties a report of overall good health. Sometimes people are going to get sick, sometimes people go to the doctor because they have an infected ingrown toenail, sometimes they need an antifungal cream, Viagra, prescription strength vitamins, etc. There is no reason that routine visits to or by the doctor are anyone’s business but hers and her doctor. Once Mr. Trump’s doctor has given his report of his overall health and fitness, he is under no obligation to hold a press conference every time any minor ailment comes up for him either. HIPAA protects us all from those intrusions in our privacy!

Married or single, gay or straight, and with or without children, women in the 21st Century wear many different hats. They can be:

stay at home mothers or homemakers;
members of the 9 to 5 work force;
members of the military;
single parents working multiple jobs;
students;
owners of corporations or small businesses;
politicians;
volunteers, or community activists;
part time employees;
unemployed and looking for work;
unemployed by choice;
or retired and loving it.

No matter what hat they wear, they all are highly likely to have one thing in common: they burn the candle at both ends to make sure that everyone they are responsible for is clothed, fed and happy before they even consider taking care of themselves. Does no one consider that this is likely the case with a woman who happens to also be running for president of the United States of America?

Apparently Donald Trump, Mike Pence, the vast majority of the media covering this Presidential election don’t want you to consider it to be the case and they want as much doubt to be cast Secretary Clinton’s way as possible so they have just a tiny bit more hope that they can somehow convince the voting public that someone who has easily handled the responsibility of being, among many other things: Lawyer, Children’s Advocate, wife, mother, grandmother, First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of The United States of America, Senator for the State of New York and Secretary of State for the United States of America; somehow is just not mentally qualified or able to stand up to the physical requirements of being President of the United States of America.

Having nothing substantive to say about their candidate, the Trump campaign pounced on a grainy video showing Secretary Clinton losing her footing getting into her vehicle as she left the 9/11 15th Anniversary gathering at the former site of the World Trade Center. She’d been battling the cough, as we’d all seen reported, for a few weeks and, the warm day, large crowd, highly emotional retelling of the terror and sorrow of September 11th, 2001, combined with dehydration made her feel dizzy, so she sought out her secret service team after 90 minutes so she could go to her daughter’s nearby home to rest. Obviously, she waited just a few minutes too long, as her dizziness caused her to stumble as she stepped off the curb to step into the vehicle and the stories spun from there. Once she reached her daughter’s home drank some water and cooled off she began feeling much better. Conspiracy theorists suggested a body double replaced her. COME ON! Maybe her hair looked different because she took a cool shower to refresh. WTF People?

It’s no big news that people get sick occasionally. But, according to the Trump Campaign, Mike Pence, some within the Republican National Committee, many of the talking heads on the cable news networks and pundits across the internet, Hillary Clinton is not only not allowed to get run down and catch a common cold or the flu, but if she says she has, the RNC says there must be a giant Democratic Party conspiracy to hide a much more serious ailment (cue the body double LMAO). This woman, the first in modern history to be the candidate of a major party for the highest office in the land, is under a scrutiny that is unprecedented and bordering on violating her rights!

If Secretary Clinton’s campaign, when announcing her weekend schedule, had simply made a statement mentioning the visit to get a prescription to knock out the lingering cough and mild related upper respiratory irritation, the stumble getting into the vehicle might have been a non-story. The truth, that she was dehydrated (antibiotics can be very hard on the body while helping it heal) and just needed to get out of the sun and get something cool to drink, might have helped to avoid the excessive speculation and negative coverage today.

If, on the other hand, Mr. Trump had been overheated/dehydrated, showing signs of fatigue from the grueling schedule that is being maintained by both candidates for President in this election, and had lost his balance stepping down from a curb and up into his vehicle, it would have been highly unlikely that there would have been the wild speculation that he has some unrevealed or terminal illness. He’s a man and an excuse would have been made that he tripped, it would have been laughed off, lampooned by the late night hosts, and the topic would have been dropped. We saw that truth when Trump sniffled and gulped water during the first Presidential Debate when he was getting schooled by Secretary Clinton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWq0M85xMyM

The late night guys got their jokes in, the mainstream media suggested he was coming down with a cold, internet conspiracy theorists deduced that he had “obviously” snorted Adderal or Cocaine, and then a couple of days later the subject was dropped.

Secretary Clinton has been campaigning on her merits as a stateswoman of experience and knowledge of the players and situations that are challenging the World and the United States, while Mr. Trump’s campaign has utilized attack ads, negativity and divisive social issues that bring out the hate and ugliness in his supporters.

Trump focuses on racist fears, he accuses others of improprieties without concrete proof: he implied that Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs (like those perpetrated by the thrice married Mr. Trump himself, about which he pled the 5th 97 times during his 1st divorce deposition, and documented in a recent book ) are somehow a negative reflection on Hillary’s potential as a President, he goes off on rants and makes wild accusations, and he applies ugly monikers (“Crooked Hillary“) hoping that his ugly reality show performance will keep the attention of the haters and “conspiracy theorists” long enough to get them to come out to the polling places and cast their votes for him in November.

His campaign’s lack of clear agenda & his frequent change of message and campaign staff turnover has been a sideshow:

No Republican Heavyweights, including former Republican Presidents and Vice-Presidents, will give him their endorsements, nor will they campaign for him;
They have had multiple changes of Campaign Leadership Since June 2016;
Fact checking mistakes are a common occurrence in live speeches and interviews;
His current Campaign Manager, a former Pollster, continues to perpetuate a known falsehood by quoting a poll that is known to have been fabricated two weeks ago by the Trump Campaign, and yesterday she admitted on The View that Trump spent money in Cuba during the time of the Embargo (admission of illegal activity!);
Evidence of an illegal payment to Florida’s Attorney General four days after she publicly expressed consideration of joining other states in suing Trump University/Donald Trump for Fraud;
Evidence of intent to commit tax fraud when the above payment of $25,000 was shown to be entered on his tax form as an entirely different payment made to an organization he had (and has) never given a single cent to;
Allegations of Campaign Contribution Fraud when he repaid his foundation with funds from his personal account after being fined for the alleged error in entering the illegal contribution and fundraising event he hosted and attended for the Florida Attorney General at his Mar-A-Lago Resort;
yesterday, the Attorney General for the State of New York announced that The Trump Foundation does not hold the Certifications necessary to solicit cash donations; and that’s just a small sampling of the last month or so.

Because they don’t want to defend the actions noted above and have nothing to say defend their candidate’s lack of knowledge of world affairs, experience with international diplomacy, or ability to lead our nation with 6 weeks to go before election day, the Trump Campaign is instead heading back into the gutter and continuing to fight for electoral votes as if they are lobbying for viewer votes on a reality show.

In the end, I have to believe that knowledge of what is morally right vs wrong is going to lead Americans to make a decision against hate, racism, sexism, and every other ugly thing that Trump stands for, by voting against him. I do know that I am done watching another minute of the horrific media coverage that is attempting to sway voters by refusing to give viewers an unbiased, unsensationalized look at the candidates!

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feministic \fe-mə-ˈnis-tik\ adjective

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