What the ... label?!?!?

    I used to hesitate to call Trump and MAGA Nazi's. I always found that too often people label someone or something they don't like as Hitler or Nazi's. However, the more you see of what Trump is saying and doing, as well as his sycophants, the comparison is obvious. One would actually be doing a disservice not pointing it out.

Blackmail and bullying:

   Whether it was willing or forced, German companies paid tribute to the Nazi's, which helped fund them. Many would also benefit from forced/slave labour.

   Billionaires are willingly funding Trump now to gain benefits from him. Just look at Elon Musk and the contracts his companies have been awarded since Trump took over. One of them was already approved for another company but taken away and given to Starlink. He is also bullying others, such as the law firms he has issues with, to do free work for him. Those firms who don't agree are punished. He actually tried banning them and their employees from ALL federal buildings. 

Vilifying minorities:

   A common tactic of fascists is to vilify minorities and immigrants. They turn their followers against them and use them to justify their actions. The Nazi's took it to new levels of horror.

   Trump has been doing that for a long time and MAGA has just gotten worse. They will tell blatant lies, such as the LEGAL Haitian immigrants being illegal and eating peoples pet cats and dogs. He has actually made public comments stating that immigrants have bad genes that make them criminals. 

   They paint all immigrants as illegal, even the legal ones, and use BS like this as justification to pull their status and deport them.

   Where do you even start on Trump and women? "Grab them by the pussy!" "She was bleeding form everywhere." Being convicted of defamation and CONTINUING to defame the person even today. Convicted for sexual assault. If a strong woman stands against him she is "nasty".

ICE and Homeland Security Roundups:

   Tied to other categories are the mass roundups of immigrants AND US citizens. They are then shuttled across the US to other states to be locked up with little to no recourse. Many of them are LEGAL immigrants, and citizens, whose only crime is not to be white. Even with evidence to people being US citizens ICE and DHS do not want to let them go, and in many cases were able to hold on to them longer. Like the case of Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a US born citizen.  A University student who co-authored an article critical of the US government was pretty much kidnapped by undercover ICE operatives and is in detention now. The US Government REMOVED her immigration status because she helped write an article critical of them. 

Concentration camps:

   Everyone in this day and age should know about the Nazi concentration and death camps. Of course there are those morons who deny their existence. The Nazi's rounded up undesirables, minorities, and sent them off to the camps. Some would be forced to do slave labour for the government and German companies, while others would be experimented on or put to death.

   Trump is shipping what he considers undesirables to what is basically a concentration camp in El Salvador. It is known to be a slave labour and death camp. People were shipped there with no due process. People who were not affiliated with the gangs Trump and his ass kissers claim they are and have never been convicted of a crime. Some of them were LEGAL immigrants to the US who had done nothing wrong.

    The US courts, including the Supreme Court, have ordered the government to get some of them back. Trump and his cronies LIE about the Supreme Court decision while openly ignoring and scorning the courts decisions. Trump even said openly that he wants El Salvador to build more camps and they will send American Citizens who are criminals there. They continue to lie and paint the innocent people they have victimized as criminals and terrorists.

Due Process and protection of the law:

   The Nazi's would twist or change the laws when they got into power to target the minorities they were vilifying. These tactics were used to justify, legally, stripping people of their property, freedom, and lives

   As mentioned when talking about vilifying minorities and concentration camps, Trump and his ass kissers are doing the same thing now. They are stripping people of their constitutionally protected right of Due Process. He is using Presidential Orders to justify attacking his perceived enemies and doing anything else he wants.

The Media:

   If Trump can't control the media he disparages it and attacks it. He actually labeled the media as the enemy of the people. Partisan hacks like Fox coddle Trumps ball sack and spin the hell out of stuff to make MAGA look good and everyone else bad. Meanwhile Trump attacks reporters and media companies and even mocked a reporter with a disability.

Lebensraum:

   Listening to Trump talk about annexing Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal immediately reminded me of Hitler. He talked about lebensraum. How Nazi Germany needed to expand into any territory they deemed necessary for the country to survive and grow. Which is pretty much Trump's reasoning for want to annex Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal.

Propaganda and lies:

   This also touches on some of the other areas I mentioned, the blatant lies and propaganda from the Trump Regime would make Joseph Goebbels smile. You can see it in the pre-election lies like the ones about Haitians eating cats and dogs that was aimed at promoting their anti-immigrant propaganda. You can see it in the current lies about the US Supreme Court Decision about Abrego Garcia. The regime's mouth pieces are actively twisting reality to fit their narrative and outright lying to make Garcia look like a criminal. 

   The piece of shit White House Press Secretary actually said the man's wife and children are better off with him in El Salvador! Their MAGA base laps this BS up as gospel and pushes their narrative. 

   It was announced the other day that the US Secretary of Defense Hegsworth is having any books he considers DEI pulled from the shelves of military libraries, such as those at the military Academies. The works of Maya Angelou as well as anything on the holocaust were deemed bad. Yet somehow Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler is ok to stay.

   Goebbels was the master of The Big Lie and Trump and his ilk are following his example to promote their agenda.

Shit that just makes you shake your head: 

   The insanity that is the Religious Right and Trump. They call him their savior. They refer to him as the Messiah and God's anointed. They twist reality so that a serial adulterer, liar, and thief is the ONE that God sent to save humanity. They will ignore reality and twist it to support their narrative. It just boggles the mind.

   House Republicans have introduced a bill to rename Dulles Washington International Airport ... drum roll please ... Trump Airport. 

   In a homage to dictators like the Kim family of North Korea Trump's sycophants are wearing golden pins of Trump's face.

   One GOP MAGAT wants to put Trump's image on the $100 bill while another wants to create a $250 bill with trump on it.

   A congresswoman introduced a bill to add Trump's face to Mount Rushmore. Another one introduced a bill to make Trump's birthday a national holiday.

   Which of course is a perfect segue to Trump wanting to spend $100 million to have a military parade that would take place ... on his birthday.

One thing that really stuck in my mind was the bag licking  session that was called cabinet meeting. Where every cabinet member started their diatribe off by polishing Donald's knob with praise. 

   I watched a documentary years ago about Doctors Without Borders going to North Korea to perform eye surgery on people for free. At the end of the documentary was the big reveal. The patients had their bandages taken off and could see again. ALL of them prostrated themselves before pictures of the Great Leader and the Dear Leader thanking them for giving them their vision back. Praising them for everything they did for the people of North Korea. Vowing to work harder than any one else and be productive. They slobbered all over the Kim's knob. Mind you, if they hadn't, if they had actually thanked the doctors, they would most likely had been killed or sent to a gulag along with their families. This is what the TELEVISED portion of the cabinet meeting made think of. Which begs the question what did they do to and for Trump when the camera was off?

   The constant grifting he does. Trump Bibles. Trump NFTs. Trump bitcoin. Pleas to donate to help get him elected or defend against his enemies. Trump and his people are constantly coming up with new schemes to separate his morons, I mean supporters, from their money. And they fall for it every time.. How about the violations of the emoluments clause that Trump flouts?

   Sadly I could go on and on about shit like this. While it won't matter to the MAGATs it should matter to Americans. But I digress.

Conclusions:

   The Trump regime is doing a whole lot of goose stepping over the US Constitution and people's rights. If you can't look at what Trump and his cronies have been doing and saying and NOT see the direct comparisons to Nazi's and fascism you are either being willfully ignorant, a blind MAGA supporter/apologist, or just a moron.

What the ... Job Hater?!?!?

HR at my workplace started a new policy January 1st related to injury and accommodations. When you hand in a Dr.'s note for missed time, or to get accommodations, they want to know the diagnosis not just the treatment.

This is causing a shit storm among some employees, recently injured ones (not injured in the workplace). They feel their right to Doctor Patient confidentiality is being infringed on. It is none of works business.

It has also led to a spate of anti-work comments. You know the typical ones. I hate this place. They treat us like shit. They don't care about us. Wah wah wah! Some of them remind me of Glimmer from my last job.

What makes it funny is how many people on one hand complain about people scamming the company about an injury to get accommodations and on the other can't believe the company would want the diagnosis of what is wrong with you as well as the recovery recommendation.

It reminds me of another co-worker from the last job. Bat, because she was bat shit crazy, "hurt" herself. She tripped over a rope between 2 stanchions, caught herself, and finished her shift without complaining. She never fell to the floor. It was more of a little jerking motion like catching yourself on a patch of ice. The next day she called out of work sick. And teh next. On day 3 she went to HR with a Dr. note putting her on medical leave. She managed to get a Doctor to say she had a whiplash concussion and couldn't work. The last job had both short and long term disability unlike my current one. Bat's mom is a nurse and managed to get a Doctor to sign off on this diagnosis. Bat forgot that a few co-workers live in teh same area as her. See her running around, literally at times, every week. Yet she couldn't work because of her whiplash concussion. It never stopped her from partying. But she couldn't work. Finally, after a couple of months, HR decided to call shenanigans and have her see a doctor of their choosing for a diagnosis. Bat quit that day.

There are a lot of people at the new job on accommodations that seem very suspect. One guy can't perform several duties because of his shoulder. Yet that doesn't stop him from hunting, and that is the shoulder his rifle slams into. Nor does it stop him spending his days off speeding around on an ATV or skidoo. But he has to be accommodated.

Personally, I do think HR is wrong to ask for the diagnosis. They should have a doctor they send people to for a second opinion. A lot of these scammers would be caught if they did.

If people really hate the workplace as much as they say then they need to find another job and quit!

Gord's Pork Pies Part 2

Saturday, Gord tells me he has something to show me when my shift is over. After his behaviour the previous Sunday I wasn't sure what to expect. A video I would find stupid? Ninja Biker Porn? No clue. He shows me a car in the parking lot and says "I won it from Roll Up The Rim!"

For those who don't know, every year Tim Horton's has the Roll Up The Rim to Win contest. The main prize being a car. This year there were several Toyota Corollas to go around.

Part of me winced knowing how Gord lies. Part of me said ignore the wincing and congratulate him. Part of me said does it really matter? So, I congratulated him on his good luck.

He went into great detail about how he found out he won it. A drive outside the city in his old car with his mother. They stopped at a Tim Horton's by the airport. Voila he won. They gave him a something to take to the Toyota dealer in town and get one. He traded his old car in to upgrade it to a Corolla CE.

He told a lot of people at work that he won it. A lot of people at work told him he was full of shit. Which is why he was in full indignant mode Sunday.

Because I had congratulated him I was one of the good guys. He waxed on about how could people think he lied about it. Yadda yadda yadda. (Because you had lied to them all in the past maybe?) Not really caring one way or the other I just said "What does it matter what they think or say if it is true?" And I left it at that not really wanting to get involved.

Why didn't I want to get involved? Because I was pretty sure that if I looked into it even a little it would all turn out to be a lie. And I really didn't care. It didn't hurt anyone and if it was a lie he was just fooling himself.

Today, Monday, his lie (yes, surprise surprise he was lying) started to unravel. He told me he won it in a small town called Enfield. He told one of my managers Truro. He told someone else Halifax. He told someone else Moncton. You get the idea right?

He was back in indignant mode. "What, do I have to show them the rim to make them believe me?" (Well, yeah. That would actually do it. Or even a picture of him with the winning rim. Getting whatever they gave him to get the car. Getting the car. Anything like that.)

I said "Well, they will find out when it is announced you won by Tim Horton's." He had an answer for that. He said he wouldn't let them release his name. Long story short he had lots of "reasons" why he couldn't prove it. BUT he DID have the car.

At this point he had hurt his case so much that he made it impossible to even ignore the fact he was lying. I figured I could prove he was lying in three easy steps.

On the way home I stopped by Tim Horton's for a coffee. I asked them about the person in Enfield who won a car last week. They said no one there won. What Halifax? Nope. Strike one.

After supper I went on the  computer and logged on to Tim Horton's website. They show a list of ALL winners of ALL prizes up to date. Surely if he won it last week and kept him name out of it there would be a "winner" from Enfield, or Halifax, of Truro, or Moncton? Yet there is NO winner from any of those areas. EVERY winner shown has their name and where listed on a map showing the area they won it in. Strike two.

Then I went to Toyota's website. According to Tim Horton's website the model people won was the Corolla S. Gord said he upgraded it to a CE. Unfortunately, for Gord, the CE is the BASIC model. The S is 2 levels up and about $4000 more expensive. So, he traded in his old car and downgraded? Strike three.

I expect a fourth strike when he is back at work Thursday. Odds are he will try to claim he was just prepping an april Fool's joke.

I can't even get angry with Gord for lying like this. It was so pathetically done that it makes me sad for him. It is just ... well ... pathetic.

Gord's Pork Pies Part 1

One of the guys at work, let's call him Gord, tells lies. A lot. Usually harmless or inconsequential. He reminds me of my brother Herman in a lot of ways.

Herman is older than me and likes to tell pork pies. He makes up some of the strangest lies at times. For reasons known only to him. Usually harmless ones. They both have a crude sense of humour, but my brother is a lot cruder.

A week and a half ago Gord told me something that I filed under BS. He said that a news report showed them (no idea who they are) finding the wing of an Air France jet in what is supposed to be the wreckage of the Malaysian Air jet.

Yeah, right. Nice try. No idea why.

Jump ahead a week. I am at work feeling like shit. Sinus and throat infection. Fighting through it and thankful I am off the next 3 days. I am not at work 10 minutes when Gord walks up and starts prattling on and irritating me.

First he started going on about how cough drops are addictive. Why that topic? I had just popped one for my sore throat. I shook my head and said "Really? No. They aren't"

He retorted with a "Yes they are."

"No Gord. They are no physically addictive."

"Well mentally."

"Yeah. No."

Then he struck a new tangent. "Studies show that the decongestant in cough drops affects your brain chemistry."

I sighed and relied "Gord, there is no decongestant in cough drops unless you get the ones with cough syrup in them. The ingredient that provides sinus relief is menthol."

He didn't like that and snarled. "Chocolate is addictive!"

"Jesus Gord, did you get all this info from the same place you heard about the Air France wing?" I laughed back.

He lost it. "You fucking asshole. You can go fuck yourself. I am fucking tired of people contradicting me and trying to make me look like a fucking liar. I am not a liar! I am going to find the article about the Air France wing so I can ram it down your fucking throat!"

What do you say to insanity like that? I leaned forward and in a soft voice said "And you have a nice day. Bye bye."

Then I walked over to the front entrance turning my back on him. You could hear him a couple of minutes later still slamming stuff around.

He avoided me for most of the day. Later he came up to me when I was in the office and in his mind I am sure he thinks he apologized.

He said. "I was wrong about the Air France wing. I went online and watched the news story again. They were talking about the Malaysian Air crash and the started showing stuff from other crashes. I put my head phones on just before they did that to tone out Marilyn. (Most people want to block her out because she is another head case who never shuts up.) She has been telling people for the last 3 weeks that all I do is lie. She is trying to get me fired."

So, it wasn't his fault he made an ass out of himself it is Marilyn's fault. I just shrugged and said "Whatever floats your boat." Which he took as "all is forgiven".

I could have called my boss over and got him in a lot of shit. I could have went to HR the next day I was in when they were and got him in a lot of shit. He may even have lost his job. But, he didn't do it in front of customers and I felt sorry for him. He doesn't have many (any?) friends at home or work. What he said didn't really matter to me, so I let it slide.

Which just led to more lying insanity this past weekend.

What the ... weather?!?!?!?

CBC News World shows a current vid of Halifax. NO snow. VERY clear. It is dark, 9:30ish PM. No snow or rain. Then they flash to a vid of people using snow blowers and talk about winter weather hitting Nova Scotia.

FUCK OFF! We, Halifax area, got jack shit in the way of winter weather today. Going from current to stock footage of a snow storm is not just misleading, it is deliberately obfuscating things and bull shit. Yes, we got high gusts of winds, and a little snow, flurries, but that is it. By using the stock footage you made things here seem a LOT worse than they actually were.

Thanks for being disingenuous CBC. This is a good example of why I don't trust the media. You will blow anything up for a "good" story. Fuck you!

What the ... inability?!?!?

What is it with the inability of a lot of people to simply admit when they made a mistake and apologize? Do they think it is a sign of weakness? A sign of failure? I see this inability as a sign of immaturity and sometimes stupidity.

Hilda always comes to mind when this topic comes up. The ONLY times I can remember her apologizing is when it was an "I'm sorry for whatever I might have done." An apology made without knowing what she was apologizing for, if anything. As I have mentioned before, a type of apology she would NEVER accept from someone else. But she expects others to accept from her.

Once it comes down to her knowing what she has done wrong she never apologizes. Even if she agrees she did something wrong. She just can't bring herself to apologize. It has cost her a lot of friends over the years.

Then you have Jay. I have known Jay for 20+ years. He is the kind of person who will throw away a friendship for the smallest slight, whether real or perceived. He is also the kind of person that will never apologize even if he knows he was wrong. It has cost him a lot of friends over the years. Jay actually wears it like a badge of honour and bragged about being this way.

Now you have Mr. C, my co-worker who flipped out at me. I am not the first person at work he has spazzed out at for little to no reason. From what I know of him it is pretty safe to say it won't be the last time either. He is also the type that won't apologize. It doesn't matter that he knows he was wrong. He has told people he knows it. He won't apologize. He keeps losing friends.

It is kind of sad to think that people are that screwed up. They would rather lose friends than apologize when they were wrong.