Random Notes from a Crank

Kristian Ramos has an excellent article in Salon: "The High Opportunity Cost of Trump's Economy." 

The dark irony is that, as he says, "Latinos, as much as any group, are poised to bear the brunt of Trump's corrosive MAGA policies. This is particularly ironic given that Democrats lost ground this cycle with Latino voters because some believed Trump would improve their economic well-being." 

With labor shortages set to happen in the agriculture and construction industries because of mass deportations happening and President Adolf also wanting to impose tariffs on imports, the price of everything is going to go up. 

All of these changes aren't going to affect the rich. They are going to fuck the poor, working class, and middle class (what's left of it). 

Yesterday I was in the men's restroom at work filling up my watering can to water my jade plants. A colleague was at the urinal as I came in. He finished taking a leak and just walked out.

Without washing his hands...

Disgusting. He's spreading dick cells around. 

Also, why the hell do we can call it a "restroom"? I remember back in grad school, one of my comrades, an Englishman, made fun of this term for the place you go to pee and poop. His statement, with a wry smile, was "Yeah, I'm going there to rest." 

I prefer the term "crapper" or "the John." 

At least with "John," it's accurate in that Sir John Harrington invented the flushing toilet. Thomas Crapper, on the other hand, was just an English plumber but a very successful one.  

What's the deal with people backing their vehicles into parking spaces, so they can drive out with the front of their vehicle going first? Most cars nowadays, if it's a more recent one, have back-up cameras. 

Do these people seem to think they're better than the rest of us backing up their vehicles into parking spots. 

In addition, when I came to work today, all the vehicles that were parked that way were pick-up trucks. Is there something going on here with male fragility? 

I've had a hypothesis for decades about pick-up trucks. Unless you're actually a farmer who uses the truck to do chores, the size of the pick-up truck is inversely proportional to one's penis or brain size. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Amid all the gnashing of teeth because of Clinton's emails, the whole deal reminds me of the millions of emails that were conveniently deleted during Generalissimo Dubya's regime: "The George W. Bush Email Scandal the Media Has Conveniently Forgotten" from Salon & "Bush Advisors' Approach on Email Draws Fire" from the New York Times. 

Which leads me to this satirical take about why certain people dislike/don't trust/hate Hillary Clinton: "All the Terrible Things Hillary Clinton Has Done - In One Big List." 

Regardless, both cases make me think about how the justice system is rigged for wealthy individuals with connections. 

Nontheless, I'd rather vote for the Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson than Trump. 

My favorite candidate is Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, but I'm still voting for Hillary. 

I'm behind on getting some new music. The Avett Brothers and Sarah Jarosz have new albums, and I'm intrigued by the new album by Sarah Watkins. 

This article will make you think differently about the hot dog. But why do the good ones taste so damn good? 

I've only read two of of Philip K. Dick's novels, The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, both of which I enjoyed immensely. I had heard he had a troubled background as many artists do, and a new book uncovers his troublesome life. "Philip K. Dick's Divine, Amphetamine-Fueled Madness" sheds some light on the author. It's adapted from the writer's full-length book. 

This morning I was looking at a piece of art from another troubled artist, Jackson Pollock. 

Random Notes from a Crank

If you're a fan of the HBO series True Detective like I am, you'll appreciate this article about the final episode and the series: "Close to Perfection."

As some of you might know, I was once a professor at a two-year college. From my perspective, an article in Salon, "My Hard Lessons Teaching Community College," is a fairly accurate depiction of two-year college work though I think the two-year college where I worked had better metrics of "success" than the ones the author relates. Here are two salient quotations from the piece:

• For many of them [students], why they fail is not a question of talent, or even basic skills. It’s a question so complicated as to be nearly unanswerable. Sometimes, they just don’t want or need what we can provide.
• The other [premise] is much more profound and troubling: that with the right support (the financial aid, the grants, the scholarships, the tutoring, the early intervention, the developmental courses, the disability services, the right counseling, the list goes on and on) anyone can get a college degree. It’s patently false.

This article reminded me of a statistic I've read a couple of times: 12% of students who start at a two-year college graduate with a bachelor's degree after six years. That stat is shocking to most. However, it's not accurate and could be used unethically. Some people who begin at a two-year college have zero intention of getting a bachelor's degree (think of all of the truly vocational programs at two-year colleges), so that stat is skewed for a number of reasons. Also, some people go to a community college to see if college is something they want to try. Some discover it's not for them. No big deal.

Speaking of higher ed, with all kinds of discussion related to massive open online courses (MOOCs), here's some info from this month's Harper's Index: 

• Percentage of students enrolled in massive open online courses who view no more than one lecture: 49
• Percentage who complete the course: 4