Throwing white power gang signs at the White House

No Uber for me...

I downloaded the Uber app once, but never bothered to use the service because I didn't have to.

I only got it because my wife had jury duty and the court offered one free Uber ride to go along with it. Well, for one reason or another, we never bothered to use that ride.

After that, I didn't give it another thought, I'd rather we drive ourselves around.

Recently, there's been quite a few news reports about problems with the service, such as shady business practices and poor treatment of drivers, causing a high turnover.

The other day there was a story about problems with the app itself, almost causing Apple to drop it from its App Store. That was it. I deleted the app myself and had privately pledged to never patronize the service.

I'm making that pledge public right now.

I just read a story about an employee who recently committed suicide, apparently from the stress of working in Uber's toxic work environment. I can't say that I'm surprised that this has happened. My sympathies go out to him and his surviving family members.

I've come to the conclusion that Uber is a bad actor. Not because of its basic premise, but because of the negative and harmful way that the premise is being implemented.

I'm sure that others may not see it the same as I. After all, I've never used Uber and some others may stand by it. So be it.

But I can't abide by it. Not in this day and age.



R.I.P. Joseph Thomas

America Is More Religious Than Other Countries Due To Its Proximity To The Gates Of Hell

I have a feeling that future historians will label this period as "The Great Unraveling."

That is, if we survive this period. The future looks particularly bleak right now and there doesn't seem to be enough general consensus to stop what could be an insurmountable, self-created global crisis from happening.

Especially if Le Pen gets elected in France and then proceeds to help dismantle the EU. That will be one of the biggest nails in this coffin that we're all currently building for Western Civilization. What then, another European war? Why?

War on the Korean Peninsula? Whatever happened to maintaining the peace which allowed the freer nations of the East Asia to prosper? Are we going to throw that all away now?

Trump is going out of his way to withdraw from trade and defense agreements that have shaped our world of the last sixty years. What good will that do for everyone?

If anything, he's turning the United States into a weak, isolated giant that's dying from within, and so few people are willing to notice. The voices who are speaking out about this possibility are being ignored.

There's nothing "great" that he's done so far, except pad his own pockets with our tax dollars. Our greatness had always been based on both the strength of the Middle Class and our prominence as a economic, diplomatic and military superpower. What he's doing is cutting off two legs of that three legged chair in order to make the remaining leg the longest.

It's insanity.

We're turning into a failed state and the world is becoming more disarrayed. All because the corporatists, proto-fascists, nativists and those in the electorate with an authoritarian streak have taken over.

Given what's at stake: The global economy, the environment, nuclear weapons, general sanity... Who knows if we'll make it through to the other end.

I haven't been this concerned about anything before in my entire life.


FDT.

There are so many memories that I have of posting with Pinboy3niner, here's my favorite one:

I know that it's all speculation at this point...

But it seems to me that when Republicans take over most, if not all, of the government, that except for a very few, we're all much made worse from it. I can't be the only person who sees it that way.

I just don't see why anyone who's made worse from Republican policies would want to vote for them and then blind themselves to the situation. Perhaps we're just that self-destructive of an overall society. Maybe we just want to cut off our own noses just to spite our own faces. The idea that we have an inalienable right as American citizens to be assholes.

Yet, if everyone saw things differently, we wouldn't be in this pickle we're in right now. We'd have national healthcare, less clinical depression, less drug addiction, less gun violence, less income inequality, little if any wars overseas and an infrastructure that's not crumbling in on itself. We simply don't seem to be a society that even likes ourselves right now. We say that we're "The Greatest," but no one can tell you why we're better than, let's say, the Danish, for example. At least the Danes seem happy with their own lives.

Personally, I blame the fact that we're still a society that's based on unresolved institutional white supremacy. Why else would wanting to undo everything accomplished by the black guy get so much traction that some incompetent, unqualified, lying white dude get enough accommodations even be considered electable?

White folks, who didn't identify with that black guy with the funny sounding name and who was in the White House for eight years, had heard the white guy's spiel, identified with him and said to themselves, "That's the guy for me," of course. We had it too good before, so now let's just trash all of that and be assholes again. Thinking, being nice to people unlike themselves and being generally caring was just too much hard work and it really wasn't the American Way.

Things are deteriorating right before the very eyes of these people, but because the white guy from the white power party tells them otherwise, they're just going to refuse to see the deterioration. Such is the result of these voting for the white guy just because he's white.

I'm sure that most of us have come across someone who doesn't think that anything's wrong with it. Fuck those people, and...

FDT.

By the way...

The "Trash This Thread" feature on DU is still up and running.

Also, today is a great day to tell someone that you love them.

Hey, you lazy pot heads! Get up, you're late for work

Lunch time thoughts...

Bye, Bill. So long, Jason...

I hasn't been nice knowing y'all.