Things I think

 Whoopi Goldberg was right and wrong. On one hand, when we think about race, it’s generally skin color and in that respect, Hitler’s hatred of the Jews wasn’t about racism because Judaism is a religion and not a skin color. On the other hand, other than the human race, race is essentially a social construct and many Jewish people consider themselves to be a race unto themselves so it would be a form of racism after all.  The biggest flaw in what Whoopi said was that she made it seem like she was trivializing Hitler’s hatred of the Jews as simple hatred. While I’m pretty sure that wasn’t her intention, her words mattered. Hated is something that can’t be trivialized…people who hate based on skin color, religion, sexuality, or any number of things that aren’t dependent on a person’s character are not good people..but they can change if they choose to. I know my father was bigoted to an extent but he let go of some of that before he passed away. Hatred should be reserved for people who are purely evil…people like Hitler, Putin, Manson, Dahmer, and Trump. A lot of people hate others because of their political views. Maybe it’s because I’m a right-leaning moderate but I think both sides of the aisle have something positive to contribute. 

There are extremists on both sides. On the right, it’s people who worship Trump and fascism. They deny reality and are afraid of education. They're outspoken against Critical Race Theory....which is a graduate level course on history without the whitewashing that most history teachers have taught. On the left, it’s the people who take things to the extreme. Here’s an example…statues of Confederate leaders are coming down from places of honor…statues that celebrate traitors who fought to protect the institution of slavery and were erected to promote the ideology of white supremacy. There is no reasonable reason to stop taking them down. Honoring traitors whose greatest claim to fame was to fight on the side of evil can’t be justified to decent human beings. But where extremists on the left are getting carried away is that they’re going after statues of people who did some great positive things to be remembered for but they had some serious flaws as well. Washington and Jefferson owned slaves…Lincoln freed the slaves but still didn’t see the black man as his equal. Do these flaws need to be acknowledged better? Absolutely…but those flaws weren’t their main attributes by any means nor should their positive accomplishments be overshadowed by the negatives in their character. People who do great things deserve to be honored for them…if you only honor perfect people, you’ll never honor anyone.

I grew up a Republican and loved how Reagan stood up to the Soviet Union, despite his economic policies…how far the Republican party has fallen since then. Their economic policies are still flawed but whereas they used to be strong on defense and against Russia, now they follow a coward who chose Putin and Russia over America…Reagan has to be rolling over in his grave. It’s nice to see some of them siding with Ukraine  now that Putin has attacked them but where was that support when Trump was illegally extorting them to try to rig the 2020 election? Why weren’t they standing against Russia when Putin attacked our democracy with disinformation in 2016 and beyond? Or when Putin put bounties on the heads of our military.  Better late than never, I guess? But if they still support Putin’s efforts in the US, standing against him in Ukraine is just window dressing…nothing more. 

Now, I hate Trump and won’t apologize for that…he’s a career con artist who divided the country I proudly served…his supporters and worshipers I don’t hate. I don’t have a high opinion of them because while some love Trump because he hates the same people they hate, I think a lot follow him out of ignorance and gullibility. They think that because he’s not a career politician, he couldn’t possibly be corrupt. Corruption exists outside of politics though and Trump set new levels of corruption that would make Nixon look saintly And then of course there’s the treason and all the other crimes. The funniest thing about their worship is the insane theory that QAnon has spread that he was sent by God to stop pedophiles. Really? The living embodiment of the 7 Deadly Sins was sent by God? The guy who was BFFs with Jeffrey Epstein and has 26 sexual assault allegations against him, including from a 13 year old girl…who bragged about getting away with sexual assault…who bragged about going into the dressing rooms of teenage girls who were dressing and undressing…is going to stop pedophiles? I don’t hate these people…I pity them…I pity their inability to think and their blind worship of the closest thing to the Antichrist we’ve seen since Hitler. I’m not religious…but more agnostic than atheist and the Bible is pretty clear on followers of the Antichrist. I don’t think anyone worships Biden…we elected him because the alternative was pure evil. The vast majority of Biden voters acknowledge his flaws…Trump worshipers deny his, though. They actually try to claim the worst thing he ever did was mean tweets....it takes a special kind of ignorant to believe that

If you’re a Trump worshipper and reading this…wake the fuck up.

missing the Bills opener

I got Bills season tickets in 1996 and for the 1st time in all those years, outside of what happened last year, I won't be going to the home opener...and why? Loneliness

When I first got seasons, I had a pair and my buddy and I always had people coming along. When he dropped his, he just came along with me and it was like that for 6 years minus a few games here and there. In 2006, it all changed...he quit coming to games altogether even though I had already bought the seats. I sat alone most of that year but I knew plenty of the people around me and I had my work with the Jills. When I dropped the extra seat in 2007, I saved some money and the aggravation of trying to find someone to go with...but I still had everything else. When I switched seats in 2011, I still had my Jills work and I already knew some people in my new section. It started going downhill the following season after the Jills director slandered me...the work was a little less enjoyable and then when she shut down the squad after allegations of mistreatment came to light in a lawsuit, it dried up completely. Interesting that the mistreatment started after I was gone but that's another story. I still knew people around me so I could still enjoy the games...to an extent. As bad as the team was, the games got less fun.

In 2018, I dropped my seasons for a variety of reasons...taking time off work was getting harder..I was buying a house...the rising costs weren't in line with the actual value of the tickets...and it was getting less enjoyable. I still made a point the next 2 years to go to a few games but while the team was better, the experience in the stands was worse. I rarely knew who I was sitting near so I felt more alone than I do when I'm actually alone. 

This year, with Covid and how isolated I've felt from my tailgating crew, I just didn't think much about checking into going. I wanted to go to the preseason game but checking on tickets, they were a little higher priced than I felt they were worth so I didn't bother.

Will I go to a game again? At some point, I will probably go but as to when, I have no idea. I have always been an introvert and a bit of a loner but I feel the loneliest in crowds.

Supernatural finale

15 seasons came to an end Thursday night and the reviews haven't been kind from most fans. Here's my take though.

The 1-hour retrospective show was nice but rushed. It should have been a 2-hour piece. Yeah, they gave love to several recurring fan favorite characters but where were Ellen, Jo, and Ash...Rufus, Charlie, Meg, and Ruby...Lisa, Ben, and Samuel...Gabriel, Billie, and Eileen...Claire, Alex, and Donna? I honestly hoped for the last 3 most of all. Twice, they looked at doing a spin off series. The first attempt, in season 9, focused on clans of monsters running the Chicago underworld...it didn't garner much interest. 4 seasons later, they tried again and instead of focusing on monsters, they focused on family....and instead of introducing a pack of all new characters, they used established fan favorites...Jody Mills, the Sherriff of Sioux Falls, South Dakota...Donna Hanscum, the Sherriff of Stillwater, Minnesota. Both had established themselves as allies and skilled hunters over the years and were to be mother figures to a quartet of young women...Claire Novak, whose father had agreed to be the vessel for the angel of Castiel, Alex Jones, kidnapped as a child and raised by vampires...Claire and Alex became proven hunters and the additions of Patience Turner and Kaia Nieves made it a promising group to focus a new show on. Krissy Chambers could have been a great add to the show as well, the child of a hunter who was killed by a vampire between her 1st and 2nd appearances on the show. But CW didn't pick it up. Anyway, out of those women, only Jody got her due in the retrospective...Donna got mentioned in the finale. Now, I know Kathryn Newton has been a busy lady in Hollywood the last few years but she still appreciates her Supernatural family and I'm sure would've been happy to film an interview for the retrospective. And I know Katherine Ramdeen would've jumped at the chance to portray Alex again.
As great as it was to give love to Mary, Bobby, Castiel, Crowley, Rowena, Chuck, and even Lucifer....I think they shortchanged the fans by not including more...in a longer show, obviously. An hour just wouldn't have given the characters and actors justice.

Regarding the finale itself, I thought it was fitting that it finished with a hunt on the most classic monster...vampires....even bringing back a victim turned monster from season 1. THAT was a great touch. The fact that Dean died fighting monsters....fitting....but impaled on a piece of rebar? Come on! Seriously? The one positive to it was that he was given the chance to talk to Sammy when he knew he wasn't going to make it. 
Sammy going on to live a normal life after a final hunt seemed fitting...he had been trying to live a normal life before the series started and gave it a go again when Dean was in purgatory. They didn't show his eventual wife except from a distance....I would imagine it was Eileen. I do wonder what happened with the Bunker, though. Also, when Jack took over for Chuck, he restored the people in the world....did he bring back the people from the apocalypse world as well? Alternate world versions of Bobby and Charlie became beloved characters and allies.
Lots of questions left unanswered

Hatred

Hatred....It's an ugly emotion. President Obama had a goal of eliciting hope among Americans. Trump, on the other hand, has worked to elicit hatred from Day one. His most ardent supporters hate minorities, liberals, and simple human decency. Now, keep in mind that I said his most ardent supporters...he does have supporters that aren't so filled with hatred...they just either don't pay attention or they buy into ridiculous conspiracy theories. Trump's supporters aren't the only ones who Trump elicits hatred in. The rest of us hate his corruption, his racism, his history of sexual assault, his attacks on the Constitution and those of us who swore oaths, fought, and died to defend it. 

Regarding Trump's worshippers however, many of us do hate them because of their allegiance to him. I don't hate them however. Trump is the closest thing to the Antichrist we've seen since Hitler and while I'm not religious myself, most of them are...and the Bible is very clear on what happens to followers of the Antichrist. I don't hate Trump worshippers...the ones I don't know don't even register as being worthy of eliciting my hatred. When it comes to the Trump worshippers that I do know, though...It's complicated. I don't hate them...I'm disappointed in them and if there's a heaven and a hell,  I feel sorry for them and hope they wake up before It's too late.

no family left

I've always been a bit of a loner but I have to admit, with my father having passed during this pandemic, this is probably the most alone I've ever felt. My brother is a racist and I don't care to ever see him again so the only family I have left are Jared and Jensen.

Why do we refer to Trump worshippers as stupid?

THIS WAS ON A FRIEND’S PAGE: An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’

THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:

That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/04/10/trump-university-settlement-judge-finalized/502387002/)
That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay." (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hotel-paid-millions-in-fines-for-unpaid-work)
That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem." (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410)
That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/)
That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you exclaimed, "He sure knows me." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/23/president-donald-trump-could-shoot-someone-without-prosecution/4073405002/)
That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, "That's cool!" (https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-howard-stern-story)
That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-criticized-after-he-appears-mock-reporter-serge-kovaleski-n470016)
That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-first-post-text-president/549794/)
That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/19/what-trump-has-said-central-park-five/1501321001/)
That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!" (https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-campaign-protests-20160313-story.html)
That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!" (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-orders-protesters-coat-is-confiscated-and-he-is-sent-into-the-cold-a6802756.html)
That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/why-cant-trump-just-condemn-nazis/567320/)
That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be." (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-insult-foreign-countries-leaders_n_59dd2769e4b0b26332e76d57)
That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!" (https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/12/29/138-trump-policy-changes-2017-000603)
That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!" (https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-05/how-is-donald-trump-profiting-from-the-presidency-let-us-count-the-ways)
That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/26/the-very-big-ocean-between-here-and-puerto-rico-is-not-a-perfect-excuse-for-a-lack-of-aid/)
That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!" (https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/donald-trump-dictators-kim-jong-un-vladimir-putin/index.html)
That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.” (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-5-400-children-split-border-according-new-count-n1071791)
That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise. (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/06/04/451570/confronting-cost-trumps-corruption-american-families/)

What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.

Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.

- Adam-Troy Castro

(To all who agree with its content, I ask that you PLEASE SHARE IT on your own post, and ENCOURAGE OTHERS to do the same.)

Will this offend some? Sure...but consider this. Trump has shit on the Constitution with the talk of a Muslim ban during the 2016 campaign, with his daily attacks on the free press, insulted POWs, and made a mockery of everyone who lost his/her life fighting to stop Hitler, the man whose rise to power that Trump modeled his campaign after. Siding with him offends those of us who value the oath we swore to defend the Constitution.

So if this offends you, I'll tell you one of the things that we get told...SUCK IT UP! And that's one of the nicer things we get told.

5 things I think

1. This will be the 1^st time in 3 years I’ll watch the Super Bowl live. After the Cheatriots won in 2017, I told myself I’d never watch again if the Cheatriots are playing. Watching them get away with BS calls and the way the announcers suck them off got disgusting as well as an affront to the game. I did watch the halftime show the following season but didn’t watch the game until the following week because the Cheatriots lost. Haven’t watched a minute of last year’s game.
2. When did it become a bad thing to get a compliment? Some female members of the media seem to hate compliments whether it be about their looks or whatever else. Now, in some cases, yes…some “compliments” have a misogynistic undertone to them if a viewer only notices their looks. My favorite reporter, Erica Brecher, got a rather misogynistic comment early on in her Buffalo career….some guy complaining about her glasses. As I told her, the only person whose opinion really matters on her looks is her…and, to an extent, her fiancé (now husband) but I did tell her I thought she was cute with or without the glasses. Now, she’s not my favorite because I think she’s cute…she’s great at her job…gives stories the appropriate feel no matter if they’re light-hearted or heavy-hitting. She’s also got an engaging personality, loves cats, and is a Penn State alum. Her looks are #5 on the list of things I like about her…and sometimes, I’ve seen her look more amazing than cute. More often than not, I think most viewers can notice looks as well as the job being done. To be fair though, when a new face comes on the newscast, it’s human nature to notice that person’s appearance right off the bat. If that’s all a person notices then, well…then that’s not a positive thing. There’s a number of very attractive women on Buffalo TV and I realize I’m only speaking for myself, but I rarely compliment them on their looks unless I’m complimenting them on the job they’ve done as well. But even then, some see the comment on their looks and just ignore everything else being said.
3. It’s time for the GOP to go the way of the dodo. It’s not unheard of for a political party to die off, either…the Whigs, the Federalists, the Free Soil Party, the Democratic-Republican Party. Friday, the Senators in the GOP chose to make the impeachment trial a total cover-up by blocking witnesses and documents that would further incriminate Trump as having committed impeachable acts in violation of the Constitution. These Senators all swore oaths to uphold that Constitution but they put their own political careers first. Senators like McConnell and Graham should follow Trump to prison when all is said and done.
4. It’s past time for the 2-party system to go away. Too often, people assume your party and your political leanings based on how you view Trump. There are Republicans who saw him for what he is and Democrats who were taken in by the career con artist. It’s ignorant to say the least and it says that there are people unwilling to think for themselves, to look past party lines into who the candidates actually are. I’ll admit that at one time, I was kind of guilty of that. I voted Republican every time through 2000. Until I moved to NYS in 1999, I was a registered Republican and didn’t pay much attention to politics. A lot of people are like that and quite honestly, uninformed voters are more dangerous than people who don’t vote at all. So many people automatically believe anything their party spreads without thinking about how it sounds.
5. Abortion…I think the very idea of it is disgusting…but it’s also disgusting to let the government tell anyone what they can do with their body….and let’s be honest, until the fetus is viable, it’s a part of the mother. The whole thing is kind of misogynistic to be honest. The majority of people wanting to ban abortion can’t have them anyway. I think they’d have a different tune if the idea was posed to force men to get vasectomies until the time comes that they and their partner decide to have a child. Overturning Roe V Wade won’t stop them from happening…but it’ll make them more dangerous. Education is the best way to curb abortion. Oh, and to those who think supporting Trump is the Pro-life way (pro-birth is the proper term), you’ve been conned. He’s on the anti-abortion bandwagon for votes...nothing else. There have been reports that he wanted Tiffany aborted. And considering his proclivity for cheating on his wives and not using protection, odds are there are more than a few abortions that happened because of him. BTW, I have to wonder how awkward that must be between Ivanka and Tiffany….Trump lusts for Ivanka but wanted Tiffany aborted