You are correct!

Green just makes you think about trees, tree huggers and money, right?

Call To Action

Author: Jay

Congrats, straight white males!

Donald has essentially eliminated the competition for your jobs. You can commence being incompetent, lazy and unproductive.

Not that every straight, white male is incompetent. That is far from the truth, but for those that are, there isn’t any worry that a woman or minority might get paid the same to do the same job anytime in the next four years.

But, you are going to have to start doing some things you aren’t used to. Like hard labor – things that were being done by undocumented immigrants who are no longer here or will be leaving soon. Thing agriculture, service industry jobs, meat-packing, cleaning, and construction jobs to name a few. Since the number of you that will have to come off of disability and re-join the workforce isn’t enough to cover the needed jobs, companies will have to raise wages to attract and retain workers which will cause the cost of virtually everything to increase. Throw in a tariff or two and wonder where your tax cut is (you’re don’t make enough to benefit from any of the tax cuts) and you’ve got a serious problem. Well, can’t women do some of this? No. Sorry – their new job is to be barefoot and pregnant and since abortion is no longer an option, you’ll have several more mouths to feed or a very high level of sexual frustration.

Let’s look at the situation in Iowa, a state that has been struggling with a labor shortage for some time. Iowa’s unemployment rate is 3.2%. There are currently 50,000 unfilled jobs in the state. Now let’s remove 150,00 people from the population (the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the state). Let’s say 1/3 of those people work. Now we have 100,000 unfilled jobs, a loss of tax revenue (undocumented immigrants contribute $29,000,000,000 (yes billion) dollars to state and local government. So the end result is higher prices, higher inflation, slower production of our goods and a decline in population. Iowa is not growing without immigrants. BAD for the economy for sure.

Well, I guess there will be plenty of laid off federal workers that can take up the slack. With an estimated 209,000 layoffs so far, there should be plenty to fill in. I wonder what the unemployment rate is today? And what will happen without these federal workers? Where did they work?

Probationary workers, about 209,000 – mostly younger people have been let go.

The Department of Agriculture

  • Department of the Interior (parks): 2300.
  • Department of Education>: 60 so far, but Trump vows to completely dismantle the department.
  • Department of Agriculture
  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 100, but only because the courts stopped any more layoffs.
  • Department of Energy: 2000, including a lot from the National Nuclear Security Administration which manages our nuclear weapons.
  • Department of Health and Human Services: 1300 from the CDC were fired and additional firings happened at the NIH.
  • Department of Homeland Security: 400
  • Department of Veterans Affairs: 1000
  • EPA: 388
  • GSA: 100+
  • IRS: estimate is 16,000
  • Office of Personnel Management: dozens.
  • SBA: 144
  • US Forest Service, 3400
  • USAID: 10,000
  • Department of Agriculture: 3400

Please note that departments that make rich people richer were not cut: the military. War is always a money maker, we will definitely see war in the next 4 years.

Say Goodbye to the Monarch Butterfly

This next 4 years will have devastating effects on the lives of every living being on this planet for the remainder of our existence on this planet. Every little piece of legislation we will see will harm our environment, make the people poorer and the rich richer.

The Endangered Species Act has saved countless species from extinction, including the hump-backed whale, the grizzly bear and the bald eagle. Now with animal populations decreasing by 60% since 1970, 3 billion birds vanishing and one million other species facing extinction by 2050, Trump has weakened the Act by redefining what a habitat it. By doing so, he will open up lands for oil extraction which we know further harms our existence in countless ways. This is criminal.

But what do you expect from the first elected convicted felon of the United States? This crime will seem insignificant as we sell what else will unfold.

Defective Flip-Flop

Subject: Defective Flip-Flop – Request for Assistance

Dear Reebok Customer Service,

I am writing to express my disappointment with a recent purchase I made from your brand. On June 18th, I bought a pair of Reebok flip-flops, which I was looking forward to using throughout the summer. Unfortunately, I have encountered an issue with the product.

Just a few weeks after purchase, the toe strap on the right flip-flop broke, rendering the footwear unusable. Given Reebok’s reputation for quality, I was quite surprised and disappointed by this defect, especially considering the minimal use they have seen.

I will let you decide how to make this right.

I’m less concerned with the outcome about my flip-flop complaint than I am in making a statement of dissatisfaction regarding the decline in quality I’m seeing in your products and those of other brands. If this statement falls on deaf ears with you, I have hope that it may have a small impact via social media, where I post the letters I write to companies.

I don’t find it acceptable to make an inferior product knowing that it will fall apart and assuming that the consumer will just buy another. I’m not doing that. Now I will throw these flips away and the machine will have to turn, making another pair and contributing further to the decline in the habitability of our planet. But it won’t be me who purchases them this time.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Jay Larson
3219 370th St
Stratford, IA 50249
jay@jaylarson.com
515-709-3114

HP (not so) Smart

I have been looking for a compact printer for my camper for well over a year without much luck. I ended up buying a Canon Pixma which ended up not being compatible with my version of MacOS. A few weeks ago I found an HP LaserJet Pro M15a at a second-hand store for a very attractive price. The box hadn’t been opened and was marked new and works (not sure how they knew this, but I’m just reporting the facts).

Everyday for about 2 weeks I attempted to get the damn thing to print. I tried it on my home Mac and my work Mac (both running Sequoia 15.1.1) and my older Macbook Air running Monterrey. Nothing. In all cases the printer would appear to be installed, say Ready when looking at the status, would cause Print Center to open and show the document printing, but the printer would do nothing.

I scoured the web, attempted to call HP Support, who couldn’t even confirm that my printer model/product number/serial number was something that existed. I was about ready to give up when something occured to me – I hadn’t asked ChatGPT what to do.

ChatGPT immediately gave me the solution. I carefully crafted the prompt to ensure the assistant had enough information in order to help me. He came back with several things to try and the first one worked. I still can’t find this solution myself anywhere on HPs site or on the web in general. Here was the solution in case someone else needs it:

  1. Open System Settings and choose Printers & Scanners.
  2. Right or Ctrl-Click in the area that lists the printers installed and choose Reset Printing System.
  3. Click Add New Printer.
  4. Choose the printer from the list.
  5. Select HP LaserJet Pro M14-17 in the Use field and click Install.
  6. Open the Mac App Store and search for HP Smart.
  7. Download and Intstall.
  8. Open it.
  9. Click Print Documents.
  10. Browse for the document to print.
  11. Print from the HP Smart Dialog, not the applications or the OSs.

This leads me to a really baffling question: How can Amazon know that I merely thought about a warmer jacket and then display to me repeatedly on its own website and the website of many others ads for jackets for several months when HP can’t even retain what printer I’m looking for support for from one page on it’s site to the next in the same browsing session?

5 Simple Rules to Un-Fuck Congress

Rule #1: Term Limits.Representatives and Senators should have a limit of 2 terms and then give up the seat for someone to have their voice heard.

Rule #2: Congress men/women get paid the median salary in their state. If they want to make more money, then they can work to raise the median salary in their state. This would make them understand the people of their state.

Rule #3: No more travel to DC or oversees travel. There is no fucking reason everyone has to be in the same room in this day and age. We have the technology to do this remotely. These people are representatives of their state, they should be staying in their fucking state rather than traveling to Paris with the taxpayer footing the bill.

Rule #4: All bills voted on should be single issue bills. If a bill can’t pass on its own merit, then it shouldn’t pass.

Rule #5: Anytime a member of Congress speaks in the media to the American people, it should be assumed that they are under oath, and can be charged with perjury for lying to the American people.

These 5 rules would un-fuck congress.

Planned Obsolescence

Planned Obsolescence is defined as the policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials.

Put simply, designers of everything we buy spend a lot of money making sure that our products do not last very long.

I live on family farm and a lot of the stuff my parents and grandparents had is still here. My mother’s Electrolux vacuum cleaners from the 60s (model 1205) have outlived every vacuum I’ve ever purchased. So I use hers. The hoses that my grandparents had on the farm are still going strong as I throw away kinked hose after kinked hose because the are leaking. Even the oscillating sprinkers I bought have been trashed because they fell apart within a year, but the ones my grandparents used are still going strong. I use the copper bottom pots and pans my grandparents got as a wedding gift (thank you, whoever you were). All of the yard tools that have been here for 75 years are outliving every shovel, spade and hoe that I purchase.

Am I the only one that is infuriated with this?

I make it a point to write reviews for every product I buy, whether it be good or bad. If it’s bad, I complain to the company, return the item and stop purchasing anything from that company. If you call and complain, 95% of the time the company will send you a new product. If that one also breaks, I will call and complain again. I’m tired of paying for shit that falls apart a week after it was purchased.

I think a lot of poeple have become complacent about this type of thing and have come to expect that the crap that they buy will fall apart. I wish that more people would complain. The only way this will change is if we don’t accept it the way that it is.

I also write to the Better Business Bureau and complain when companies don’t stand behind their product. I have gotten resolution to my liking 100% of the time.

I don’t think planned obsolescence will ever fully go away. But there are some things you can do to send the message to companies that you are not willing to accept it. And we shouldn’t accept it – it’s contributing to global warming, excessive dumping and growing landfills, labor inequality and resource depletion. Here are some things you can do to fight back.

  1. Return things that break too quickly. Know the warranty and return the item to the store where you bought it. If they won’t take it back, contact the company for a return or an exchange.
  2. Write product reviews on consumer websites and the website of the stores where you bought the product.
  3. Make a commitment to repair when possible.
  4. Tell your friends about brands that fall apart and ones that stand the test of time. Word of mouth referrals go a long way.
  5. Complain to the Better Business Bureau.
  6. Don’t unnecessarily upgrade products that still have a useful life.
  7. Shop at second hand stores.
  8. Pass along items for which you have no more use for to others who do have a use for them.

Maybe a pipe-dream but I’d like to save a little money rather than having to replace all of my stuff all of the time.

Dairy Queen

If you know me, you probably have an idea about what this article is about. Well, I’m here to tell you that…..

YOU ARE WRONG

You are wrong.

This article is actually about Dairy Queen. You know the place. I go there a lot. I was there the other day and got a blizzard. They are probably my favorites because they can actually satisfy my need. The sundaes just don’t do it for me.

You’ve probably noticed that they do a funny thing before they hand your blizzard to you. They turn it upside down and look at you like “See?!?” What I don’t really get is what point they are trying to prove. See what? That your frozen treat defies gravity? That the desert Im about to put in my mouth is made of super-glue?

I’ve thought extensively about it and come to the conclusion that it probably is their way of letting you know that they just made it, it hasn’t melted cause if it had been sitting around it would be liquid by now and would fall to the pavement.

So I was at Dairy Queen getting a blizzard. The girl flips open the window, turns the blizzard upside down and it all falls out down onto the pavement. Like a sloppy bowel movement. She looks at me in horror and I’m already pissing myself I’m laughing so hard. She runs off to make another one and this time delivers it without attempting to turn it upside down. She just hands it over and shuts the window.

So whatever it is that they serve they want you to see that it behaves like ice cream. But you should know that no where on any menu, sign, document or drive through window will you find ice cream on the menu at Dairy Queen. They don’t serve ice cream, you see. It’s an ice cream-like substance but it’s not ice cream or you can bet that it would be on their menu. Look next time. It’s a Buster Bar Parfait, a blizzard, a dip cone, a cup, but it doesn’t say ice cream. Cause it’s not.

Do you feel a little deceived? Yeah, me too. Here are some other things that aren’t what you think they are:

  • Truffle Oil
  • Olive Oil
  • Maple syrup
  • Honey
  • Anything with vanilla
  • Wasabi
  • parmesan cheese
  • instant coffee
  • crab meat

It’s called food fraud and it’s rampant. We are not eating what we think we are eating and what we are told is healthy is making us fat, lazy but much less likely to start a rebellion or over throw the government.

Did you know we are the ONLY species to drink the milk of another species? Most people are actually lactose intolerant, so the fact is that we take pills so that we are able to drink thed milk of another animal which is unnatural in the first place! Amazing what marketing can do.

Just stop for a minute…

I rarely write or talk about politics. I think that the topic has become so divisive that it has become a threat to our well being. Our communities are being torn apart as we are almost forced to choose between two sides that encourage us to hate each other. We all know (or I hope that the majority of us are smart enough to realize) that this is being executed as designed. The two major parties pick a topic that engages our emotions so strongly that we forget that if we step back and take a look at things, we all want the same things – a safe place to live, enough food on our table, good education for our kids, and a little bit left over for some fun. Nobody can argue against that.

This machine that divides us has infinite power. Some how Trump has learned the secret to loyalty, his followers will do anything he says and nothing that he does can turn them against him. Let’s look at some of the things should turn any normal, semi-intelligent being to think twice about this horror of a man:

  • His association with Jeffrey Epstein, the sex-trafficker who killed himself after being found guilty. Trump called him “a great guy” and a “lover of beautiful women, sometimes on the young side.”
  • His attempt to turn the US into a dictatorship, throwing democracy to the wind. This, alone should be enough to turn any US Citizen who spends their time quoting the constitution regarding the right to bear arms to be afraid that the document they hold so dear was almost shredded into nothingness on that 6th day of January.
  • His statement to Iowans after a school shooting in Perry “get over it and move on”
  • Fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.
  • Telling Americans to inject disinfectant to kill Covid-19 on national television.
  • His statement that the Civil War could have been ‘negotiated’, his praise of artwork by White Supremacists and pandering to the far-right wing Christians.
  • The fact that he faces 91 charges in several cases across several states.
  • His promotion of conspiracy theories, racism and misogony.

I could go on, but I shouldn’t need to. Not only is this person not a good candidate, he’s not a good person. I’m certainly glad that when my great-great grandfather arrived here from Sweden that someone like him wasn’t in office claiming that we were “poisoning the blood” of America.

Now I’m no Biden fan either, but one cannot ignore the following facts:

  • Unemployment rates are at a historic low of 3%.
  • There are more new small businesses than any other time period on record.
  • There are over 11 million new jobs.
  • We are on track to rebuild our failing infrastructure of roads, bridges, electrical grid, passenger rail system and are investing in cleaner energies that will have to replace our dependence on coal.
  • Women and Black Americans have made historic gains in pay equality.
  • Paved the way for the legalization of marijuana by pardoning all prior Federal convictions of possession, encouraging governors to do the same, and by creating a panel to re-class and re-thing the approach we take on the drug.
  • Only 8% of Americans remain without health insurance.
  • Wages have risen
  • Inflation has decreased.

Ideally a third party candidate could win the election. I think I’m done voting for any party who’s goal is to divide and conquer. We should be about uniting a nation rather than dividing it.

Religious freedom, government jobs and individual rights

Recently the clerk of Rown County Kentucky lost a court case in which she was sued for not signing marriage licenses of same-sex couples due to her religious beliefs. She was ordered to pay $100,000 to the couple along with court costs.

This brings up several issues – individual freedoms, religious freedom, and separation of church and state.

Should this clerk be allowed to have religious beliefs that contradict her civic duties? Yes, of course – the constitution allows for religious freedom. This concept is one of the reasons why the US sought and won independence from Great Britian. Does this permit her to deny another US citizen their constitutional right to get married? No. Should she leave her religious beliefs at home when she comes to work at her government job? Absolutely. The separation of church and state disallows the government from adopting a single religion or favoring one – religion has no place in government.

This is a no brainer. It’s very clear and although the media states that it is a complex issue, it really isn’t. It’s very. clear. Perhaps if your beliefs contradict your job duties you should find another job. In this case the voters took care of that for her. She wasn’t re-elected.

Sometimes the justice system does work.

Navigator Update

So Navigator finally gave up on the negotiator that was working with us and assigned us a third person. This one was awesome. She came to our house and shot the shit straight out. She was down to earth, human and told the story as it was.

We worked with her for a bit and actually finally came to an agreement. She sent the paperwork off to Navigator and then we heard nothing. And a whole lot more of nothing.. And then? More nothing. NO AND THEN.

Turns out that Navigator scrapped their pipeline plans for Iowa altogether. I guess they were having issues with permits and getting enough landowners to sign on that they trashed the whole project. BIG WIN!