Ah, Hillary's got a glow now. She's put away that racist, sexist, xenophobic, misogynistic, bully of an opponent; schooled him on "preparing to be President"; soared with a vision of American values; and, yes, like "her good friend Michelle", affirmed the nobility of "going high when they go low".
But, of course, this is politics and there is the need to make public an opponent's egregious lapses; to twist and shape every phrase; corral every stray word; and hammer each misstep into the collective consciousness. So naturally her oration gratuitously soars high with a few words about "The Tape".
It's not just locker room crudity, she clarifies for those who haven't seen and heard the tape dozens of times : "It's who he is". The subtext is presumably he's a sexist, predatory evil-doer not to be trusted in office or anywhere else.
But, if we're to weigh what's said behind closed doors, what is the litmus test for fitness. How does crude or sexist or predatory or homicidal get weighed and measured when it's off the cuff. Here's Hillary on her own, unscripted, talking about another "evil-doer":
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/clinton-assange-wikileaks-drone/2016/10/04/id/751517/
In fairness, "they" are trying to spin this away suggesting that it's totally apocryphal, a pre-schooler's rumor mongering. I wonder... I really wonder.
But, if it haunts you that it might be true, suggesting "Can't we just drone this guy",, ie, Julian Assange, is hardly suggestive of American values.
If she's President, who else will be in her cross-hairs? Which locker room is the scarier?
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Monday, October 17, 2016
Riding the WAVE of competition...
I've had WAVE Broadband, an Internet provider, for years. A bit pricey but not too bad. Then a few months ago it happened: my mental "radar" seemed to be picking up a small increase in the bill .. "Nah", I reasoned. After all, there had been no notice of an increase from WAVE.
Within a few months, it happened again. Again no notice. It nagged at me...I looked up previous bills. Yep, it was higher. I called WAVE. It WAS an increase and "No, we don't always send out notices of increases".
That was annoying. What if it's a billing error in their favor instead of a stealth increase for instance... what am I supposed to do: trust them to catch it? The seeds of discontent had been watered well before I saw a 3 year $19.95 fixed price from Century Link.
I had endured Century Link's slower DSL offering years ago in their past life incarnation as Qwest. Other than despising their nearly unnavigable website, I had managed well even for full-time employment. So I called and switched back to DSL. Take that, WAVE!
My glee was short-lived. How easily I had crossed the threshold into what suddenly felt like a "third world country" as ISP's go. Rickety infrastructure , communication snafu's, and a slo-mo pace. Kinda like quick-sand but slower.
First there was a paperwork blizzard. I filled a folder with Century Link mail: welcomes, contract legalese, service instructions, etc. Duplicates at times too. Then confusion about install dates. Two installers showed up on different days. There was a problem transferring my phone number.
After getting nowhere with an online chat, I picked up the phone. Ah, a friendly voice. I repeated my name, phone, and address multiple times - three to be exact - during the first shuttle session. All transfers were punctuated with long holds. I was regaled with virtues of CenturyLink's latest bundles, including trying to up-sell me on a faster speed.
The outsourced help line was friendly and their English was only barely accented. They chirped pleasantly through canned scripts. I only had to restate the problem a couple of times. After a couple more calls and slightly choppy seas, my phone number had been "ported" to its new home.
Then the real trouble started. During the first six weeks, there were two half hour outages. Not power outages but slowdown's that were evidenced by frozen screens and a cursor "not moving at all". Kinda like the old 300 BPS in the telephone modem dial-up days. You typed a key and were able to stand and walk around the room before the cursor was ready for the next keystroke.
Even with normalcy restored, my daily news feed that usually took under thirty seconds or so routinely took several minutes now. Google mail frequently whined "Something's not right" over slow transfer speeds. I called the "tech" line and it was "deja vu all over again". Their expert told me to re-try unplugging and restarting. Repeatedly.
Bottom line: I'm back with WAVE. They had wised up with an ad for a phone-internet bundle at $29.95 a month for a full year. So I lept for the phone.
Hah! I had successfully played the field. Ain't competition grand...
Within a few months, it happened again. Again no notice. It nagged at me...I looked up previous bills. Yep, it was higher. I called WAVE. It WAS an increase and "No, we don't always send out notices of increases".
That was annoying. What if it's a billing error in their favor instead of a stealth increase for instance... what am I supposed to do: trust them to catch it? The seeds of discontent had been watered well before I saw a 3 year $19.95 fixed price from Century Link.
I had endured Century Link's slower DSL offering years ago in their past life incarnation as Qwest. Other than despising their nearly unnavigable website, I had managed well even for full-time employment. So I called and switched back to DSL. Take that, WAVE!
My glee was short-lived. How easily I had crossed the threshold into what suddenly felt like a "third world country" as ISP's go. Rickety infrastructure , communication snafu's, and a slo-mo pace. Kinda like quick-sand but slower.
First there was a paperwork blizzard. I filled a folder with Century Link mail: welcomes, contract legalese, service instructions, etc. Duplicates at times too. Then confusion about install dates. Two installers showed up on different days. There was a problem transferring my phone number.
After getting nowhere with an online chat, I picked up the phone. Ah, a friendly voice. I repeated my name, phone, and address multiple times - three to be exact - during the first shuttle session. All transfers were punctuated with long holds. I was regaled with virtues of CenturyLink's latest bundles, including trying to up-sell me on a faster speed.
The outsourced help line was friendly and their English was only barely accented. They chirped pleasantly through canned scripts. I only had to restate the problem a couple of times. After a couple more calls and slightly choppy seas, my phone number had been "ported" to its new home.
Then the real trouble started. During the first six weeks, there were two half hour outages. Not power outages but slowdown's that were evidenced by frozen screens and a cursor "not moving at all". Kinda like the old 300 BPS in the telephone modem dial-up days. You typed a key and were able to stand and walk around the room before the cursor was ready for the next keystroke.
Even with normalcy restored, my daily news feed that usually took under thirty seconds or so routinely took several minutes now. Google mail frequently whined "Something's not right" over slow transfer speeds. I called the "tech" line and it was "deja vu all over again". Their expert told me to re-try unplugging and restarting. Repeatedly.
Bottom line: I'm back with WAVE. They had wised up with an ad for a phone-internet bundle at $29.95 a month for a full year. So I lept for the phone.
Hah! I had successfully played the field. Ain't competition grand...
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