Political Fish

The litmus test for political propaganda swirling tidal waves of raw bull across the internet is as whacked as some of the stories: Is there a photo? OMG, there is a photo… this must be true!

Case in point: some joker out in California claims that he is a postal worker in Ohio in a tweet about shredding absentee ballots. My own sister buys it… argues, “but there is a photo!” She pulls it up on her phone to show me. “Don’t mail that,” she warns. “It will get shredded in Columbus.”

I picked up my absentee ballot application off the table to show her that the envelope is addressed to the local Board of Elections right here in Youngstown, Ohio. Our mail does not go through Columbus. It might get processed in Cleveland, but it is not going all the way to Columbus.

I should wait, just go vote at the polls. No… I mapped the location of my new polling place when I got the postcard confirming my change of address and it is too far off a WRTA bus route for a disabled non-driver like me to walk. Plus, I would have to cross Midlothian Blvd in a high traffic area. I would have to take a cab or find a ride, so I opted to vote via absentee.

If they are shredding in Columbus, they might be shredding everywhere… but, oh? What’s this? They’re only shredding absentee ballots from Trump supporters? How can they tell, with ballots in sealed envelopes? They must be opening them.

Am I dealing with a moron?

No… this is my sister, an otherwise intelligent woman who holds down a full time job, runs a successful business on the side, does volunteer work in her community, serves on committees, does all sorts of things… but when it comes to nonsense on the internet, she believes everything she reads.

Hillary wants to kill off the black population, abort all their babies, that’s why abortion clinics are located in predominately black neighborhoods. Putin will launch nuclear bombs on us if Hillary wins the election. Hillary kills everyone who gets in her way… she killed an airline pilot, she murders women who sleep with her husband, no veterans will vote for her. (Uh, try the vet in the next room… he’s voting for Hillary; I’m the one who has been undecided, considering 3rd parties and Hillary because my candidate of choice – Joe Biden – opted not to run and there is no way in hell that I would vote for Trump, thought he was a pompous ass long before all that “locker room” banter.)  And it’s not just her… I hear other people yak nonsense off the internet.

And ye gads… the rationalizations some people use to support Trump absolutely blow my mind. I’ve heard things like, “we are not really voting for a person… we are voting for a political party, choose the party that most aligns with your views as the president has no power, he doesn’t really do anything.”  Oh… so if we are not voting for a person, then why have a person run? Why not elect an inanimate object, a stuffed animal or a vase or something? Maybe a logo? Yeah, some symbol to represent the party? We could vote for plants… at least they are alive. It might be easier to spot the weeds.

It’s all nonsense. This whole election is kind of whacked. It reminds me of old sayings… take what you hear with a grain of salt… or better yet, it’s like eating fish, spit out the bones.

The last political debate is tonight… viewers might need buckets for the bones.

Thanks for reading!

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Those Guys

Some rockabilly band in Amsterdam stole my online identity.

Well, they didn’t really steal it, they just changed the name of their band to MY internet name sometime between August and December of 2012.

Now I can understand why they changed their name from “Lee and the hillbilly blues combo” to “BARNBEES” as that was quite a mouthful.  Even shortened to “Lee and the HBC” (as on the logo of their old website) is not as catchy or as cool for a band establishing an online presense, growing a fan base, or just plain ol’ being a band. 

I can understand WHY they picked “BARNBEES” as a good name for their band.  They come by it honestly.  Seems the last name of the man named Lee in the Lee and whatever happens to be Barnbee, so it makes perfect sense for Lee Barnbee to call his band BARNBEES.  It is a good name for a band, easy to remember, and googles up easy. 

That’s how I heard about this… I googled myself the other night and found them.

The polite thing for me to do would be to bow out gracefully.  As in quit using it, let them have it.

Afterall, they are a band and I’m just a person… if they hit it big in the music business, achieve global success, people will assume that I am using THEIR name regardless of the fact that I was using barnbees first.

I considered doing that…  then I realized what a pain it would be just trying to remember everywhere I set myself up as barnbees over the years. 

Then what would happen if I did pick a new name, google it out first to make sure no one else is using it before making all these changes and someone else comes along and takes THAT name?  Do it again?

What would you do?

If I do nothing, we will trip over each other. 

Part of me says let them trip, get the “name not available” messages if they want to set up as barnbees anywhere I already am… if they want me to give up barnbees, they can ASK me proper.

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the idea of rockabilly music being popular in the Netherlands.  Barnbees play that blend of country, rock, and blues that’s so American.  They play Johnny Cash.  It seems odd, about as unexpected as a Japanese Polka or an Irish group playing Mariachis.  But, what do I know?

To be fair, they do write some of their own songs.  Oh geez… speaking of which, I wonder if Lee Barnbee would be amused to know that the other “barnbees” on the internet just happens to be a woman twice his size.

Well, not quite anymore. 

I think a distraction is in order. I should get busy, take advantage of low humidity and give that mosaic guitar another coat of cement-less grout.  I love and hate that grout at the same time.  It is nice for big projects as work time is longer, but it takes so long to set up on humid days that it drips out anywhere that is not laid out flat.

I also need to think about what to put in the holes on the headstock once it is done grouted and those straw bits keeping the holes open are pulled out.  The tuners, bridge, and nut were salvaged as parts for making cigar box guitars. 

See? Old music never dies… worthless guitars become art, parts go on to make new musical instruments, and old Cash tunes land in the Netherlands.