The Dog Still Won't Take the Trash Out and other gas station hits

 Your love is like  sushi cooked in the sun for a few days

Your government is getting ready for that $1.9 trillion bailout. Still no word on who is paying for it. The debt is larger than the economy for the first time ever. Congress shows no inclination to do anything about it, other than expand it. You voted for this. This will continue until you do something about it.

Today I identify as  the great flavor of hot oats

Look, there's no surprise we're in an extra-speedy race to the bottom in something called a handbasket.. but...  people are thinking about vaccines. A large percentage are not getting a shot... people are thinking! It's unprecedented. Not automatically getting in line like good sheep. Who woulda thought?  That said, I hope the vaccine works and there are no bad side effects.

Oh yeah, since we've been inside for a year, the next issue will be skin cancer - use your sunscreen when you get the mail.

• The best states to live in list: Washington best, Kentucky worst
• I guess Washington needs some drunken tractor races 

THE BIRDS 

They're making an incredible racket. The dog is not happy. Yes, they got into the air conditioning hose. Now it sounds like there's birds in the bedroom. I'm kinky, but not that kinky. May have to go with a finer-grained approach than shotgun this time.

You know this happened 15 minutes before the alarm went off.

Ghislaine Maxwell's US jail conditions 'are torture' - brother

• no linen toilet paper
• plastic silverware - can you imagine? 
• below one star food
• no sleep number mattress
• constant surveillance  (until it coincidentally breaks)
• everything is decorated in one color
• Two Words: boxed. wine.

Russia has given the finger to NASA, signing on with China for a Moon base.

They are working on a "scientific" station. They are putting the infrastructure in for very high speed internet, so they can both hack the US government together. Countries around the world hailed this as a genuine example of cooperation, and asked for a few tips and passwords. Many countries of Earth look forward to the day when everybody will be in US government networks, equally.

China will also be moving manufacturer Huawei to the scientific station, alongside Russian manufacturer Stolichnetwork. They will trade networking hardware and hack Space Force's scientific station, a sprawling complex of buildings that has been on the Moon since 1960. 

Back in America, the Pentagon has announced a $24 trillion initiative to beef up the US Moon scientific station with new, state of the art weapons, in order to achieve military superiority over any other scientific stations. This was discussed last year at a meeting of the Subcommittee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

On the other side of the moon, the aliens are peeing in their suits and sounding the Solar System Bat Alert because the Earthlings are moving their penchant for tribal warfare off-planet. Pretty soon other alien races will start to orbit the Moon and destroy it, to keep the human virus from infecting anything past its own planet.

NASA bombed the Moon twice: once for Science, to see how long it would ring, and once because it was "damn effin cool to bomb your own moon". Rather than admit aliens blew up the Moon, NASA will say it spontaneously combusted, like a Tesla.

• Psych evaluation ordered for man caught having sex with stuffed animals inside Target. In Florida.
• (ex-)girlfriend told him to go f- a unicorn 

the actual unicorn

I don't want to say my workplace is weird, but there is a mask mandate for all employees. Including the majority who work from home. I don't want to say we like to waste time, but I missed the Women in the Workplace seminar, that I'd get paid to sit through. Still no left handed history month.

• NASCAR driver Conor Daly lost a major sponsor because his father used a racial slur in the 80s.

New gay dad Jesse Tyler is playing Britney Spears and reading books on drag queens to his baby. But he'll love him if he comes out as straight anyway, said on the Ellen show.     @lgbtqnation

"Dad, I have something to tell you. Please sit down. I know you have raised me with all the love and best intentions possible. In spite of that, I need to tell you something. Dad, I'm straight. I'm so sorry. I hope I haven't disappointed you." 

--> Hang on a second... playing Britney Spears for infants is child abuse.

The other day I asked if Derek Chauvin could get a fair trial. Here are the questions asked of potential jurors. They got 14 pages of them. 

Amanda Gorman's The Hill We Climb stole the show at Joe Biden's presidential inauguration but when a renowned Dutch author was asked to translate her work there was an outcry because the translator is not black.

• FYI: A smart-speaker box can monitor your heartbeat using high-pitch beeps and a pinch of algorithm – study
• doesn't seem to be any end to what your smart speaker knows....

Matthew McConaughy considers run for TX governor, Geraldo considers OH senate.

Voters write-in Lucy, Mickey Mouse, ManBearPig, Prince Harry

• Florida is the worst state to walk, with more than 17 people per day, on average, being mowed down. We are very slowly coming to the realization of what I've said all along - exercise causes cancer.

Milo Yiannopoulos, gay conservative icon, has prayed his gay away and dedicated  his life to St. Joseph. This is terrible news, both for people who think you can pray your gay away, and fans of the very silly entertainer Milo. He drove campuses apoplectic, with his conservative viewpoints and humor. I watched him once enter on a platform chair, carried by 4 men. The man was truly entertaining and very intelligent; he blew away his debaters (so to speak). He was canceled by social media due to his outspoken conservative views, not his homosexuality.

He is treating being gay like an addiction, mentioning he only slipped once in 250 days. It ain't gonna work, Milo. Unless this is a stunt. [Milo goes back in]

I looked up St. Joseph. Wow. Not the father of Jesus but could have been a contender. Married to Mary, with a chaste marriage. Hey, was it a marriage for show because he needed a beard? Maybe dedicating your life to St. Joesph sounds good and Christian, but it's just affirming you're gay. The Christian hate mail is going to blow up my mailbox.

I guess it's better than that ridiculous womb repatriation where they wrap people in carpeting, sometimes killing them. Whatever happened to good old therapy for depression or bipolar or wanting to off certain people? Being a megalomaniac?

• Parler, right-wing social media dropped from Google Play store, Apple store, Visa, and their hosting, has been refused re-entry to the Apple store. 
• I'm not sure why anyone is confused over this. If they played by the rules, like Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and others, and didn't have any of that nasty hate/free speech, none of this would be a problem.
• Gab, the original free speech network, was hacked a 2nd time. They went offline, cleaned up, and went back online. 
• Re-NOTE: I am for free speech and affirm hate speech doesn't exist - it's free speech. Free speech can mean speech I'm not comfortable with, but that's the price we pay. It is very important to have free speech for all and I'd have featured this same information if the left-leaning sites were being canceled.

I had a pleasant discussion, sort-of, with a gay lady on Twitter. Women have really been pushing the Women in IT topic. She wanted everyone to know she's here and she's queer. Well, I follow her for her tweets. I don't give a rat's patootie about what she chooses to do in her spare time. It's none of my business and more importantly, none of the government's business. Why is it necessary to identify as someone who sleeps with the same sex at home? I don't identify by my sexuality - I'm here, I'm Hetero. She said she does this because of laws. Still no left handed history month.

While I'm on the topic, why does the state government make laws about who you can marry? Why is it their business? The state can act as registrar, and take down the fact that you're married and to whom. Two states just recognized polyamorous marriages. Let your religious institution marry you, if you care. Otherwise, just register.

• No matter how many times a day Penny gets out of bed, she always runs up to me, incredibly happy to see me. You can't pay for this kind of wonderful.

CONTEST 

Using the Comments, tell me something you'd like to see here on ThermionicEmissions. If I agree, you'll win 10 imaginary ThermionicPoints. You still may not see what you want, but at least you'll have the points.

It Continues  

Disney+ pulls Dumbo, Peter Pan, The Aristocats for 'racist' stereotypes

from Giorgio Tsoukalos, on Twitter

Sexism in Hockey

A student activist group at the University of Michigan is demanding a 'No Whites Allowed' space.  Gee, this sounds an awful lot like... hmmm... what's that word? Oh yeah, racism. Martin Luther King is spinning...

• Very interesting article on three types of propaganda (Russia, China, and Milo) and how to counter them.

Someone (I can't get to the link) thinks white men should pay 5% more taxes because of their white privilege. I think we've reached Peak Stupidity. Or at least I hope we have. Personally, I gave up on this when I couldn't get a right-handed privilege tax enacted.

• Cool program alert: Privazer. This runs under Windows (boo) and cleans up a lot of garbage, from the Recycle Bin to temp files to Win and IE history. There is also a portable version, which doesn't technically install, for PCs you don't have install rights to (of course we never do this).

Over 820,000 user accounts were exposed, as well as potentially every voice communication recorded by a breach at CloudPets. Why?  An unsecured (no password!) database was discovered. The company was alerted multiple times from December 2016 onwards and did nothing.

Hmmm... what happens when you connect something (for children) to the internet and ok it recording everything you say? It records everything you say and sends it up to a server, which gets hacked, whether from gross incompetence (like not passwording your database) or general hacking.

I. Told. You. So.
It gives me no joy to say that.
Who am I kidding... there's nothing quite like an 'I told you so'.

Whether it's kids' toys, Alexa/Echo/Siri/Google stuff you put on your table or in your house or your cell phone to talk to.. this is what is going to happen. Also, every bit of data will be mined and used 'to make advertising more relevant'. And possibly mined by 'other' companies.

• What's next on the Fail Parade?  Air France, with its login password being 4-6 characters, NOT to include special characters. 4-6 character passwords? That's a Nope, Captain.

Ack - FURRIES!

It is not ours to judge.

It is ours to point and laugh hysterically.

• Congrats are in order for Carlos Santana and Joe Walsh, who won Vintage Guitar Magazine's User Award.

Actor Bill Paxton passed, from complications of an operation.

• A car plowed into a Mardi Gras parade in Gulf Shores, Alabama, sending eleven children from the marching band to the hospital (3 critical). I am not fond of marching bands either, but I just don't watch them. It never occurred to me to mow them down.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I'm relating this strictly for amusement. All will be well:

It's been a highly interesting few weeks/months. With all the drama surrounding my mom and the Furry One, it's been a whirlwind.

• Marshall has had ear issues for months. We finally got him to the Doggie Dermatologist, who scheduled a procedure under anesthesia. Marshall went under and his O2 sat dropped (technical thingie meaning Something Bad Happened). They brought him back up, having barely started on an ear. Now he needs diagnostic work from the regular vet to figure out why this happened, then back to surgery again. He has pain medicine, which works well.
• The hole in the large pipe in the basement was patched in short order and remains solid.
• Car #1 went for inspection, will take a week, cost half what we expected.
• Car #2 waits for inspection, runs flawlessly
• We now have an 'interesting' leak in the roof. Insurance will take care of it.
• Mom is a bit fragile, but nowhere near as batshit as before.

What doesn't kill you probably makes you hurt a lot.

Happy Monday is an Oxymoron

Why is our president and some of his staff still using a private email server? Or are they? Trump and some of his staff still have accounts on a RNC server that may or may not have been hacked, depending on what day of the week this is. Oddly enough, this is the same server used by the Bush administration to communicate during the Iraq war (let us pray... that it has been upgraded since then). Professional liar and former and present CIA head James Comey claims there was limited access to a non-used server.

Security experts are also worried about the president's use of an Android phone. The reason given is that he could be a target on insecure wifi. Yes, any of us can be a target - that's why no one should use any old wifi at any old coffee shop or at the airport. Use a VPN if you absolutely must access these services. Trump's own staff would like him to turn in the phone, especially as concerns Twitter.

Speaking as an alleged Security Dude, these people have a point. Virtually no one bothers to secure their phone, including alleged Security Professionals. Even the previous president had a custom-secured cell phone. Is the device encrypted so no one can get into it? Is there a password or PIN code that automatically locks the device? Is it accessing a secure system? Is there any actual secure information on the phone in the first place?  I'd prefer, as you would expect, the device be locked down to hell and back.. you know.... like mine. Even if there's nothing interesting there, less to attack is always better.

• Over in Iraq, the Islamic State's chief executioner, who has beheaded more than 100 people, has been knifed to death. I believe this is what they call irony. Or just desserts.

Google found and quarantined some brand new malware on a customer's android phone. Yay, they caught the malware!  Now stop for a second and think about this.... Google remotely accessed the phone to quarantine the malware. While this capability isn't news to some of us, it should be news to everybody. iDevice users, don't get all smug - your phone can be remote-accessed by Apple too. In fact at one point, programs 'disappeared'. E-books have also gone bye-bye. It's a PITA, but possible to disconnect from Google (it's beyond the scope of this paragraph). The other message here is to be very careful what you download from Google Play. Since there's very little to tell you whether the program is clean, avoid programs with few reviews, few downloads, non-English or broken English text or reviews, and authors you don't know. Stick with the majors. Also stay away from cleaners/memory boosters/speed boosters; they're not needed on android anymore.

• Ransomware knocked seventy percent of the Washington, DC, spy surveillance cameras ahead of the inauguration. Some cameras had more than one piece of malware. The ransomware was introduced via a spam email that some high-functioning, security-minded government worker opened. This affected a server with all sorts of documents. The fix to ransomware is to have good, frequent backups, of which it appears there are none. Perhaps we will be spared some aspects of the Security State by its own incompetence.

Cocker Spaniels are notorious for separation anxiety, or at least the three rescue cockers we adopted have been. Marshall prefers his people around the house at all times. I had to go somewhere today and he saw me put on my coat. He sat down and gave me this look. They have big, expressive eyes to begin with, and when they're upset, you know it. Marshall was upset. Small wonder I don't like to leave the house... poor little guy. When I got home, he was anchored to me.

Speaking of Marshall, the little darling continued his weekly visit with the vet for his ear infection, which has been going on forever. Healthy all his life, he has had problems since his cat died (grief-related illnesses?). Cockers are prone to ear problems due to their flaps and closed ear canals. The current diagnosis is antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They referred us to a Doggie Dermatologist. This little diversion cost $200, plus the new consultation. Even his parents have never seen a dermatologist.

guess who...

• How do you know when the driver in front of you is going to make a turn? His turn signal is not on.

Pasta: Yes, there's an app for that! I can't make the pasta until I charge my phone!

• Netgear routers have yet another flaw that would allow hackers to get into it remotely. Check to see if yours is listed. Disable remote administration regardless.

A popular new joke is that the Statue of Liberty is going to be deported. I suggest whoever gets it has to take the UN too.

• Yesterday we had sun, gloom, snow, and sun in the span of about an hour. This is not normal, even for here.

John Wetton, bassist and vocalist for King Crimson and Asia, lost his battle with cancer. He was 67.

• As if you didn't think I was totally tin foil hat, this should do it for you. You can be ultrasonically tracked while using cell phones, to build up a profile of you across devices. There is an android and a Chrome patch to disable it. My feeling is that if people can't hear the sound, the speaker in the phone can't put that high a frequency out. Apparently my feeling is incorrect. Further, I believe one can avoid this via turning off javascript, but time will tell.

Hey, I think I need some Magnums.

Magnum ice cream bars or Magnum large condoms?

I'm buying both to make it an extra special weekend.

• The People's Republic of Berkeley had to cancel a talk by a gay Jew who likes black guys the other night, due to rioting on campus. Yes, the tolerant students for free speech (only when it agrees with them), demanded the event be canceled. One of the ringleaders was ok with the violence and said it was 'self-defense'. So the people calling the speaker a nazi are themselves behaving like nazis. Students need to be protected from words. Remember when students protested war? Non-violently?
• Make no mistake, the students had every right to protest. Violence, however, is illegal and not the way to make one's point.
• The Associated Press and USA Today's coverage consisted of peaceful people marching with signs. There were fires, assaults with pipes, two groups protesting, an ATM smashing, cars damaged, and a live band.
• These Students of Public Relations who are essentially protesting Trump are doing a wonderful job of keeping him in office.
• The Berkeley Police ordered the students to disperse several times. They were extremely helpful in keeping order. Other police departments move in to restore order and stop further crimes. Why didn't this department?

A recent small study has revealed that black humor a sign of high intelligence. Finally-vindication!