Why wait till the election to start rigging things?

A lot of people seem to be getting their panties in a wad about the possibility -- check that -- the likelihood of vote fraud in the upcoming election. What these people seem to not realize is that it's already begun. At least, I think it has. And, I suspect you know it, too, whether or not you think much about it.

Isaac Schrodinger was one of the ones pointing out that the polls are all conflicting:

...one poll has Clinton up by 10 while another has Trump up by 6.

Of course, they both can't be correct. It's likely that they're both wrong.

So, what's the truth?

The truth is, I think, that if enough polls showing Hillary in the lead make that the expectation, then one of two things will happen:

1. Those opposing Hillary won't bother to vote, since they figure she's going to win anyway.
2. If Hillary loses, they'll use the rigged polls (accepted as truth) as evidence that the Republican must have cheated.

What evidence do I have? Well, what evidence would satisfy you? Obviously you don't recall those same arguments in elections in the past. Not wide-spread, but they were there?

Didn't see or hear those? Maybe you weren't paying attention.

The polls are rigged. Many of them, any way. And that's important in perception, because people put a lot of faith in polls.

An honest, scientifically accurate poll will give a good indication of how things stand at a point in time.

Polls are a tool for research. The problem is they are used as tools of manipulation. By tools.

Monkey Hillary Clinton

I got an odd search result the other day. Let me explain what I'm talking about for those that aren't familiar.

Google does the stats for this little blog. That includes page views (totals and per blog post page), audience (where, what browser, etc), and search results that led to the page. And that's what I noticed as a little odd.

Google said that the third most popular search result this week that people used to find this little blog was, and I quote, "monkey hillary clinton" -- no I am not making this up.

I don't think I've ever used the phrase "Monkey Hillary Clinton" ever in my life. Until now.

I'm not sure if it refers to this image of one of Hillary's Flying Monkeys:

This one where we wonder who wore it better:

Or this (which means we can do monkey pictures of politicians again):

I'm not sure why anyonw would search for "monkey hillary clinton" or why such a search would turn up here.

But, if it's my destiny to be the one-stop shop for Monkey Hillary Clinton images and other items, so be it.

Of course, maybe they were searching for a monkey named Hillary Clinton. But why would someone name a monkey Hillary Clinton? I wouldn't. There is already a jackass with that name.

All better now

Everything's finally back to what passes for normal at la casa de Basil. The power was finally restored this afternoon, and Comcast service resumed tonight. The tree is out of the tree, thanks to a neighbor and some hired help. Missed work in the process, so there's that still to make up. But, that doesn't really matter.

A lot of people had it a lot worse. Some houses in the neighborhood has electrical boxes torn off the side. One other had a tree in a tree. Only, it was a full tree in a tree, not a partial tree like I had. And that one is still there. A neighbor's pine tree didn't fall on another neighbor's house because the pine tree got stuck in an oak tree. That could still turn out bad, so despite my silly rants, I actually had it pretty good.

The things I've experience most during and after Hurricane Matthew is a lack of misfortune. And I'm not complaining. Lacking severe misfortune is a good thing.

My sister wrecked my mother's car, complete with my mother inside it. Something about running into a tree that fell on the road in front of them while they were taking a two-lane back road at nearly midnight the night the hurricane hit. They're all okay. Well, apart from making decisions to be on a two-lane back road near midnight in a hurricane. But that's just them. The car's being repaired. They're counting their blessings.

Yes, we got through it all without injury or major damage to residences. Some inconvenience, but that's all.

We are truly blessed.

I really need to get my tree out of the neighbor's tree

Hurricane Matthew came by for a visit this weekend. Friday, actually. I was out of town anyway, and had events in Perry on Saturday and Millen on Sunday, so it was Sunday night before I got a chance to see what all Matthew had wrought.

I did know that the power went off at 8:36 Friday night, because, well, I have it tell me things like that. And here it is Monday afternoon, and the power isn't back on yet. Georgia Power says I'll have service by 10:00 tonight. They, as well as the local EMC, have had workers out all day and all night working on things. I have no complaints. Sure, I wish my power was one of the first back on, but I can understand them focusing on nursing homes, restaurants, grocery stores, and such. Or so it seems.

Now, we've had hurricanes before. When David came through in 1979, it hit closer, but it had already weakened by then (thanks, Florida). When Hugo came through in 1989, it was more powerful than David, but further away. We even managed to get in some football during that Thursday night strike.

Matthew, though, was more of a problem than either of those. At least, it seemed to put down more trees and tree parts in very inconvenient locations. Driving out of Millen, for instance, there were several traffic lights out on U.S. 25 in Statesboro. Most people knew to treat such circumstances as a four-way stop. But some didn't. You know what you call dumbasses like that? Dumbasses.

Anyway, same was true for Claxton (the place famous for fruitcakes -- the kind you have at Christmas), Glennville, Ludowici, and Jesup. Yes, those are all real places. Brunswick, where my son lives, is in pretty good shape. They have power, at least.

Me? No power. But I do have a tree in a tree. The tree that's in the ground is actually the neighbor's. It just hangs over into my yard. Free shade!

The tree in that tree is my tree. Well, actually, it's part of my tree. A good chunk of it, at least. And, I need to get it out of the neighbor's tree. The neighbor isn't there, so the neighbor doesn't know my tree is in their tree. I'd kinda like to keep it that way.

So, any tips on getting a tree out of a tree? I've tried offering it treats, but it just won't ... leave.

Taking a stand

All of the "protests" going on during the National Anthem has achieved the goal of getting people talking. Only, the talk is about the protests, not what they say they are protesting. And that doesn't seem to be a problem to the "protesters." Why is that?

Texas Fred has the answer:

So, take a look at these pictures and tell me what the difference is. These folks are ALL standing for their race, their pride, their nation, their beliefs and what their hearts tell them to do.

Sadly, none of them are standing for the United States of America.

They stand for Black Power, Black Panthers, NAZI’s, neo-Nazi’s, the Ku Klux Klan and the supposed Black Oppression they suffer.

After you see those pictures please see the LAST picture and you’ll know where, and for WHAT I stand, as do ALL of MY friends and family.

I didn't wear my country's uniform so some jackass could act like those protesters. Except, I did. I wore it so they could be a jackass.

Folks acting like jackasses is actually okay. It's helpful for me to know where I don't want to spend my money.

Football weather

A hurricane

There's a storm coming.

Oh, I'm not talking about when things finally come to a head and the revolution comes and 3/4 of the politicians are lined up against a wall. Yeah, that's coming. But I'm actually just talking about the weather right now.

Some hurricane is bearing down on the southeastern United States. And, since that's where I live, I'm impacted. And maybe you are too.

But, what about this storm? Well, it's gonna hit somewhere in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, or something. But we've had storms before.

Matthew is a Category 4 storm as I write this. What it'll be when it hits the U.S. mainland I don't know. But, I'm not too worried.

You know what we call hurricanes around here?

Football weather.


[The YouTube]

I was at that game. I'm a season ticket holder for Georgia Southern, and, if they were playing in Statesboro Saturday, I'd be at the game if my nephew wasn't getting married. But he is, and GSU is playing Wednesday night in Arkansas anyway, so no football in the rain for me this weekend.

If you're out in the storm, stay safe. Take a canoe with you if you must. Have fun, but be smart. Or not totally stupid.

Avoiding Google's links penatlies

I haven't posted blogging tips in quite some time. One of the reasons is I haven't had anything new to offer. Well, that I got around to writing about.

Anyway, I ran across an article the other day about what Google has done to penalize Websites, particularly blogs, that are doing things that Google considers improper. The article is actually a couple of years old, but it does have some good information. I remember when Google started doing some of the things mentioned and the uproar it caused. However, Google's intent for this is, I believe, correct.

Some of the things that you shouldn't do include:

Link exchanges

Truth be told, I got away from that a long time ago. My links policy is, and for years has been "We don't do that." Here's the full policy.

Google came to this conclusion because it artificially raised a blogs' status. This little blog even benefitted from that. However, I began to get requests for link exchanges from, well, all kinds of blogs. Some were pretty much useless and were for the sole purpose of showing ads.

I finally decided that if someone was linking to me simply because I was linking to them, then my content wasn't something they'd normally link to. If they were legit, a link to my blog was actually a disservice to them. And, of course, the same was true from my end. So, my policy became I'll link to you if you want, whether or not I link back. And I won't promise to link to you. If I want to, I will, and if I don't I won't. Treat me the same way.

My reason wasn't exactly the same as Google's, but the result was the same. No link exchanges.

Don't do it.

Blog networks

Google doesn't like blog networks. They feel it artificially raises the members' status. And they're correct.

Some networks were created solely for the purpose of raising blog status. Some were for other reasons. I've participated in both.

A network for the sake of helping readers interested in certain topics easily find other blogs of interest is, I think, a good thing. But, those networks still do artificially raise the status of members. I understand Google's reasons for this. It's unfortunate (for interest networks, not links networks) but it's a reality.

There are 15 more items the article talks about. It's actually a pretty good read, despite being over two years old. Read it here.