Vote for the person not the party.

I don't normally like writing two blogs so close together,  mainly because I've learned I'm only allowed two a month but I've had an epiphany today.

So often I criticize Republicans for putting party above principle. I think it's an apt criticism with so many Republicans in Congress particularly the Senate refusing to be impartial and supporting Donald trump even though the evidence against him is overwhelming. I was about to commit a similar transgression. 

I've blogged previously about my plans to vote in Greenville county's Republican primary for sherriff despite being a pretty solid Democrat. I voted absentee on Thursday for Darrius Hall, the only Republican African American in the race. Democratic candidate Paul Guy spoke today at the North Greenville Democrats meeting and I was going to vote for him in the March 10th election simply because he is a Democrat. 

I found Paul Guy to be inarticulate. He made a joke about former sheriff Steve Loftis,  who's son was just wonderful to me when I first started working at Publix. His wife was a frequent customer,  I often helped her to her car with her groceries. 

Paul Guy also repeated the popular misconception that Marijuana (along with cigarettes and alcohol) are "gateway drugs". I smoked cigarettes for 10 years, I've smoked marijuana a handful of times and while I've never been a heavy drinker,  I've had my share of alcohol. And I never once even thought about trying anything else. It's true I've never really put my self in a position to be faced with such temptation, but I disagree strongly with this characterization of drug use.

I looked up Darrius Hall's Facebook page and within hours he accepted my friend request. There will most likely be a runoff in the Republican primary. I'm hoping if it comes to that, I can vote for Darrius again.  A.T. " Tommy" Smith is likely to be the eventual nominee. Even though I think there some dirty doings going on with other candidates signs and acting sherriff Johnny Mack Brown, Tommy graduated from Wade Hampton High School and USC. (That's the real USC--South Carolina if anyone in other parts of the country are reading this.)

I hope people will heed my advice. Don't just vote for someone,  especially a local candidate,  on whether they have (R) or (D) beside their name. Do your research on candidates you are considering voting for. Go to local events if you can, I know it's hard for us working folks but when you have a chance, go. I hadn't been to a NGCD meeting in a long time but I went to hear Paul Guy speak and yes, I was disappointed but I learned. I'm making a more informed decision now.

Why $15/hour is not "burger flippers owning yachts".

So with my "Santa" money I was able to get my oil changed today but that's about all. I had to stop them from the almost $900 in recommended maintenance. I was given a laundry list of maintenance I need to have done on my car. Here's the thing..

I'm certain that if i were able to afford to have more regular maintenance done on my car, not as much would have to be done the next time.

I saw a meme i really liked on Facebook recently.  It's  about the difference between a poor man and a wealthy man buying boots. A wealthy person can buy one expensive pair of shoes and it will be the best and last a long time. A poor person, however, has to save up to buy a new pair of shoes and has to buy a cheaper pair, which wears out sooner so they have to buy new shoes more often.

I've even heard coworkers of mine in political conversations use the "burger flippers owning yachts" analogy when discussing a proposed $15/hour minimum wage saying it's too much. That's not the case at all. It's about things like my current situation,  not being able to have regular maintenance on my car leads to more costs down the road. Being low income is expensive. My tax refund is most likely all going to go to maintenance on my car. 

And when did we decide in America that some occupations are more "worthy" of a living wage than others? There was a time in this country when a fast food job was just a job after school to earn extra money but that's not the case anymore. Those jobs are now how people earn their living. This idea that somehow,  for example,  the fact that I'm "just a cashier" means I'm lazy or did something in my life to deserve to have to struggle to make ends meet is ridiculous. It took me a long time to find my calling in life but I believe I have found it. I like my job as a cashier. I don't see myself doing anything else for a living. Does that mean I should have to struggle to pay my bills? Does that mean someone sitting at a desk is more worthy of a good life than me? I don't think so. 

The cost of living has skyrocketed since the 1970s but our wages have remained stagnant. I used to drink the Libertarian Kool-aid on minimum wage laws but not anymore. Our minimum wage needs to be raised not so "burger flippers can own yachts" but so that people can live a decent life, can afford basic necessities and not "just get by" but thrive.

Gawd and Footbawl

I originally started to write this as a blog, then I decided it would be better as a Facebook post,  I tried to go back to bed and decided it was worthy of publishing as a blog. 

I'm up early again and while I don't think that is what is keeping me up tonight..I think I slept for a while....I have something on my mind. I started to write a blog because I thought it would be too long for a Facebook post but I changed my mind. It's something that happens during and after sporting events and has occurred several times during the end of the college football season. It's people, including Clemson coach Dabo Sweeney, thanking God for things that if there is an all powerful omnipotent being, I doubt seriously he or she or they would give a rats rectum about. 

Earlier this month during the halftimes of the college football conference championship games,  the Dr. Pepper tuition challenges took place. College students threw (in most cases chest passed) footballs into a giant replica soda can. The winner got $100K in tuition money and the runner-up got $25K. Twitter erupted with many tweets that contained pointed criticisms about the "hunger games" nature of it. Students were basically competing to not be saddled with massive debt. One winning contest implored people who don't believe in God to change their minds.

I'm a secular humanist for lack of a better term. That doesn't mean I take people's beliefs lightly. Most of my friends attend some type of religious service on Sunday. I have friends who are very open about how finding God saved them from addiction or guides their life in some way. Even though I don't believe that power comes from a magical being sitting on a cloud, I do think that prayer and faith have power in and of themselves. 

If there is a God, however, I doubt that he or she or they hands out athletic abilities like candy at Halloween. I also seriously doubt that a being with that much power and influence over life, the universe and everything (slipped in a "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference there) gives a flying fart about who wins an American college football game. Or the Dr. Pepper tuition challenge for that matter.

2020 Vision

I usually wait until after Christmas to write an end of the year blog, but not being able to sleep in the early morning of a day off affords me the opportunity to get it out of the way.

No bowl game for the Gamecocks this year. I'm not ready to give up on Will Muschamp yet (or have USC pay that massive buyout). The win over Georgia was enough to give him one more year.

In a lot of ways 2019 has been an improvement over 2018. I really struggled financially in the summer of 2018 with huge cuts to my hours. That has not been the case this year and even though I still live pretty much paycheck to paycheck,  I'm getting by better this year.

Lots to look forward to in 2020. Vince McMahon is making another (And I suspect much more serious) run at winter/spring football with the XFL coming back. The only real rooting interest I have is former Gamecock place kicker and diabetic superstar Elliott Fry of the Saint Louis Battlehawks, who I am still massively in love with and proud of.

Summer Olympics in Tokyo which I'm always a sucker for, as much more for the opening and closing ceremonies as the athletic events.  

And then there is the election. Or should I say elections. We will have 5 and maybe as many as 7 opportunities to vote here in Greenville County, SC in 2020.

The past two elections I have voted absentee the Thursday before the election. Both times I probably could have voted on election day, especially in 2018, but all I had to do was mention that I was scheduled to work and no follow up questions were asked.

The first is the Republican primary on January 7th to replace our disgraced sheriff. Now as you know if you follow me, I am a Democrat. With a Capital D. There is however only 1 democratic candidate where as there are 5 Republicans.  As South Carolina is an open primary state, we can vote for the primary of our choice. I plan to vote for Darrius Hall, an African American candidate, not only for diversity but Democratic candidate Paul Guy is also African American and we could make a bunch of "Blazing Saddles" references. I know I'm repeating a joke I made on Facebook but....

With 5 candidates in the primary,  there's almost surely to be a runoff which would happen January 21st.

February 29th, a rare Saturday election, is the Democratic presidential primary, and Mayor Pete is my guy. If I'm honest, however,  ideologically I'm closer to Bernie Sanders (I was the proverbial 'Bernie Bro' in 2016), and I'm really loving Elizabeth Warren, however I believe Mayor Pete may be less scary to more conservative voters. My main problems with Joe Biden are his lack of plans to reform marijuana laws and the fact that I just don't see him energizing the young voters that we will need to turn out to rid us of the orange menace. It's obvious the Republican senators are not going to do their job.

March 10th will be the general election for sherriff where I plan to vote for Democrat Paul Guy. The nice thing is, there are two college baseball games at Fluor Field the week before (I always look forward to college baseball season). Tuesday the 3rd at 6:00 will be South Carolina vs Furman and Wednesday the 4th at 4:00 will be USC Upstate vs Michigan State. I will certainly know my schedule for the following week on the night of Tuesday the 3rd. I'll watch "Days of our Lives" on Wednesday the 4th then go to county square,  where I always park for free, vote and then head to the game. 

June 9th is the Federal, State and County primary elections,  of course I will vote in the Democratic one. I don't know if there will be many contested races, I know I'm supporting Kim Nelson for Congress and Jaime Harrison for Senate (SEND LYNDSEY HOME!).

Any runoff would be June 23rd but I'm not anticipating there will be any 3 way or more races. There were 5 Democrats running for Congress in district 4 in 2018, however (and 13 Republicans).

And then November 3rd, 2020 will be the day. I have voted Libertarian for president every year since 1992, even last year. In October of 2016 I went on a vote trading website and before I knew what happened it said I had agreed to vote for Gary Johnson here in South Carolina if a voter in North Carolina voted for Hillary. I tried to contact the guy with no result and I now think the website may have been a scam. I also felt because of the electoral college,  a vote for Hillary wouldn't mean anything but a vote for Gary Johnson would add to his national total and get him to the magic 5% to get major party status. It didn't  work out that way. Not going to happen this year. I voted straight (or rather 'Gay' heehee) party Democrat in 2018, the first time I had done so.

(As a side note, I know some people question whether we should vote straight party or not. When we had the old punchcard system,  it was a bit of a problem because people would punch that and not select races with no candidate in the party they voted for or for ballot questions. Now with the electronic voting machines,  it simply preselects the candidates for that party and still takes you through the rest of the ballot. I also don't feel it sends any messge like we can't think for ourselves or anything like that.)

Well if you've stuck with me this long, you either enjoyed this or felt obligated as my friend, either way I appreciate it. I do this just for my own enjoyment,  and also sometimes it helps me sleep if I have things on my mind and can't shut it off.

Merry/Happy Christmas/Holidays and a joyous 2020! 

This is beyond Liberal vs Conservative, this is Good vs Evil!

I've had a blog post brewing in my mind for some time now but I kept putting it off. I can't do it any longer.

Ladies and Gentlemen,  I don't know who really reads my blogs. I only "publicize" on Facebook and maybe Twitter and most of my friends,  many of whom are conservative politically,  probably just scroll past. I have to say this. This is mainly directed at people my age, generally referred to as "Generation X".

We have been lied to our whole lives.

I'm not just talking about Santa Claus and the Easter bunny,  I mean the political party that calls itself the "Grand Old Party".

I've  blogged previously about my conservative past. How I went to elementary school with the son of Carroll Campbell,  who ran for Congress when we were in school and years later would become Governor of South Carolina.  I didn't see him or his family after elementary school,  but the Republican Governor of South Carolina knew who I was.

I remember Jimmy Carter being the butt of our jokes. I was part of the Reagan revolution. There's still residue from the Reagan/Bush '84 bumper stickers on the door to mine and my sister Katie's old bedrooms in my parents house.

We were told that if we cut taxes on the wealthy and ended regulations,  it would magically trickle down to everyday Americans.

We were raised to hate Communists,  Socialists and those big scary "Tax and Spend" Democrats.

The Republican party was the financially responsible party. The party of freedom,  justice and liberty for all.

I came out of the closet as a gay man in the spring of 1991. It became clear that liberty and justice for all promised by Republicans only applied to white, heterosexual Christians. I became involved in the Libertarian Party,  still not wanting to join those "wacko liberal" Democrats.

I still drank the cutting taxes and regulations kool-aid. I don't think I was ever 100% sold on minimum wage laws causing unemployment but I went along with it.

Then I joined Facebook. And started getting different perspectives on things. I saw how deficits went up under Republican administrations and fell during Democratic ones. For all the negativity hurled at the Clintons....Bill had a budget surplus. He lead this country through one of the greatest economic recoveries ever.

I've watched how Republicans try to blame social security and Medicare for the deficit but those are paid with a separate tax, it has nothing to do with the deficit.

I've watched as state legislatures across the country try to gerrymander legislative districts so despite Democrats getting more votes,  Republicans still get more seats.

I've seen Republicans, namely "Moscow Mitch" block legislation that would better protect our elections and make it easier for people to exercise their right to vote.

And today I'm reading posts on the internet on how the Republican legislature in North Carolina took advantage of Democrats attending a 9/11 memorial ceremony to override the Democratic Governor's veto and pass a budget that strips 500,000 North Carolinians of health care.

That is downright evil.

I used to believe that Republicans were just being financially responsible.  They opposed social security and Medicare and other social services because they were just too expensive. I was wrong.

Our Republican leadership in South Carolina is still pushing the "lower taxes and ending regulations " agenda. If this was the answer,  South Carolina would be one of the richest states in the country,  but it's the opposite.  Instead of lifting people out of poverty, they oppose any social programs that will better our lives. They want you to believe that if you're a Christian,  you can't vote for those "Godless" Democrats. You have to hate gay people and immigrants and you have to oppose women's reproductive rights.

Anyone who knows me or follows me on Facebook knows I'm not religious.  I'm suspicious of organized religion. I know, however,  I was raised with "love thy neighbor", "do into others as you would have done unto you" and "judge not lest ye be judged".

As far as I see it, it's not the Republicans who are fiscally responsible, protecting freedoms or following Christ's example.

I've seen the light. It's not Republican Red....it's a big blue Democratic one!

Business is picking up.....on Wednesdays!

With tomorrow being my 49th birthday,  I had several idea for a birthday blog. I thought about a political rant, but I'm about to burn myself out on politics.  There have been some recent developments in my guilty pleasure of professional wrestling and I thought what the hell that's a decent topic that shouldn't cause any controversy.

First of all I would not describe myself as a "hard core wrestling fan". I think a term that best describes me would be "wrestling aficionado". I know the outcomes are predetermined,  even the industry admits they are. The fun is much the same as watching a soap opera....what happens next, etc.

Growing  up, I would commandeer the TV from my mother's room and move it into mine on Saturdays to watch "Doctor Who" on Saturday afternoons on UNC-TV and then stay up at night to watch WWF Superstars,  Rollergames, American Gladiators and the like. I didn't get to watch Monday Night RAW (or WCW Nitro for that matter) unless my parents were out of town. It wasn't until 2002 that I got my own DirecTV account at my little house after moving here in November of 1999 so I missed most of the "Monday Night War". I did enjoy the documentary series on it on the WWE Network,  one of the few non in-ring shows I've watched. It looks like we're on the verge of a new war this time on Wednesdays.

The first big move in the wrestling world came when WWE announced that "Smackdown" was moving from the USA Network on Tuesday nights,  where it's been for a while, to Friday nights on FOX (as in the broadcast network). Apart from the fact that this will change my viewing habits from YouTube TV on my Google chromecast to watching over-the-air this doesn't change much in my life.

The next big move came with the announcement by Cody (known as Cody Rhodes in his days in WWE but WWE owns the rights  to the 'Rhodes' name) and his cohorts of the formation of the new "All-Elite Wrestling" company (AEW). After several months of speculation it was announced that their new show on TNT will air on Wednesday nights. This lead to speculation about what would happen to WWEs developmental brand NXT, which airs on Wednesday night at 8:00 for one hour although it has been taped.  We got that answer yesterday, as NXT will now go live with a 2 hour show on Wednesday nights on the USA Network.  I'm somewhat surprised because rumors had it moving to FS1 as well as the fact that it will first air live on September 18th, two weeks ahead of AEWs debut on TNT on Wednesday October 2nd as well as Smackdown's move to FOX on Friday October 4th.

The question now is do I watch NXT live on Wednesdays,  or do I go with AEW. To be honest it's really a moot point.  I have an unlimited cloud DVR with my YouTube TV account so I can watch anytime I want as can most people around the world. I think my loyalty to WWE will win out in the end. It's possible I may watch AEW's first episode on October 2nd. With Thursday as my day off, it's not like I'll have difficulty finding the time to watch.

So wrestling is about to go through somewhat of an upheaval coming up. I think it will be good for the business to have some competition but I think with DVRs and time shifting when people watch things, it's not as big a deal as we may make it out to be. If you've read this, thank you,  I know it was boring, I just felt I should post something around my birthday. I'll get political again soon enough.

The evolution IS televised

I'm having trouble sleeping tonight because I have a blog in mind and my mind keeps turning over and over so I'd better start this part of it.

There are three subjects I blog on.

Politics...you get enough of that from me on Facebook.

Sports......usually my thoughts are short enough to post on Facebook.

And television and my continuing evolution on cord-cutting.

I said goodbye to DirecTV last year. It was just too expensive and since I don't get AT&T internet where I live, and was paying Verizon for internet, phone and tablet,  it just made sense to go with streaming for my Live TV.

I tried a lot of free (and not so free) trials and the only service that wasn't affected by my internet speed was YouTube TV.  The downside was the dispute between Google and Amazon means no official YouTube TV app on Fire Stick.  I had limited success with an unsupported app I sideload but I since reconnected my Google Chromecast and it works almost flawlessly with YouTube TV.  The only real problem is occasionally my Mifi device will sometimes restart on it's own but I just wait for it to reload and it (the picture and feed) comes back.

I am also relying less and less and my Amazon Fire Stick mainly because when I reach my high speed data limit...22GB.....things won't load or stop in the middle and i get a message that i don't have enough bandwidth.

In addition i am quickly discovering new over-the-air channels. I have long been disappointed that i could not receive retro tv at 50-2 because they show classic Doctor Who nightly.  2 episodes weekdays at 8:00 PM and 4 on Saturday from 6:00 to 8:00 and Sunday from 7:00-9:00. After looking up ways to improve my signal I did a re-scan for channels and BOOM! I get the channel and 3 others at 50. The bad part it I don't get great reception,  which as a teen growing up who fiddled with rabbit ears to watch Doctor Who and other shows on UNC-TV I'm somewhat used to poor reception but back in the analog days this meant a fuzzy picture. These days with digital, a bad signal is pixelated, skips and freezes making it not very enjoyable to watch. So I have ordered a new antenna with a longer range to try and see if it can be improved.

On a second re-scan I was also receiving channels at 28. My favorite is 28-6...Decades. Check out this weekday afternoon lineup

2 episodes each

2:00 The Mary Tyler Moore Show
3:00 The Bob Newhart Show
4:00 Newhart

The latter was a later series set in Vermont whose infamous finale featured Bob Newhart's character being hit in the head with a golf ball and waking up in bed with Susanne Pleshette in the character of his wife from the previous "The Bob Newhart Show". One of the funniest moments in TV history.  The trouble is if I move my antenna to try to get better reception of 50-2, it affects 28, etc. So also trying to remedy that.

I recently downloaded an app called "No Cable" which gives local TV listings plus advice on antennas.  According to one feature with an amplified indoor antenna I should also be able to receive 33 (UNC-TV) and 40 (My Network TV) and their subchannels.  So I have ordered an antenna with 140 mile range as opposed to the 50-60 mile range I have now. One thing keeping me up is I can't wait for it to arrive.  I will post now and try to get some sleep but I will come back tomorrow and post the results.

So the update is i wasted my money. The new antenna didn't pick up as many channels I finally hooked the old one back up, repositioned it a few times and finally got the 39 channels I was receiving before. All channels going in good-great and channel 50-2, etc. Was still choppy. I guess the range of the antenna isn't the issue it's just my location.  I could look into outdoor antennas but it seems like a lot of work with no guarantee.  Lesson learned.