Baby Formula

 There's no other way to say this than the folks blaming the Biden administration for the baby formula shortage are clueless (those who know me should assume that word wasn't my first choice).  

We got here because Abbott Nutrition had to shut down their Sturgis, MI facility, which was producing tainted formula.  A point for Team Trump for removing a not insignificant number of FDA safeguards and dramatically reducing inspections.  Another point for Team Trump for putting protectionist measures in place that make it virtually impossible to import baby formula.  This is what the current administration is working on overcoming now.

But the FDA should have done more!!!  Like fucking what?  They shut down production of tainted product to prevent further infant deaths.  But they should have known this would cause an issue!!!  Newsflash, it's not the government's job to monitor capacity of a product, versus demand.  

Why was there a capacity issue in the first place and why didn't other manufacturers have extra capacity to take up the slack?  The baby formula market is controlled by three players, Abbott, Nestle, and Mead-Johnson, making it a controlled monopoly.  These companies' respective market shares have remained pretty static, with each of them enjoying some portion of various government programs (read fixed price).  And there's little any can do to capture significant market share from the others.  Baby formula has strict standards and takes a lot of work for new products to be approved by the FDA.  For damned good reason; it's for babies.  Unlike something like an automobile, where demand is variable, being impacted by economic conditions, adoption in developing countries, etc., demand for baby formula is known because it's directly tied to the birth rate.  Not as though there's an emerging market for it hiding somewhere.  And the birth rate in the US has been declining for decades.  At the end of the day, you have a product with incredibly static and declining demand, that you don't make much margin on.  Anyone at these companies who endorsed adding capacity would be fired for being incompetent.

So there it is, the perfect storm that got us where we are.

For the cherry on top, yesterday, the House voted on a measure that would make it easier on mothers who rely on subsidies (which is most of them) to get formula for their babies.  It shouldn't surprise you that the Republicans, who've been screaming loudest about how badly the administration fucked this up, voted against it.  Fucking pieces of shit continue to prove how they only care about controlling women and not actual children.  

Guns Revisited

 With recent events, I thought it a good time to revisit what I wrote on gun control, along with some additional thoughts.  Before I go any further, let me say that I'm saddened and outraged at what that piece of shit did in Buffalo.  The kid was a sociopath, but the blame for this falls firmly at the feet of Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the right wing media.  A good chunk of piece of shit's manifesto was lifted right from Tucker Carlson and others promoting replacement theory, among other lies.  So, to all of you MAGA morons, go fuck yourselves.  Do the rest of the country a favor and bump that suicide rate, because you fucking deserve it for buying into the utter stupidity being thrown at you.  You're not conservatives, but fucking racist, misogynistic inbreds who continue to destroy our society.  Yeah, I'm fucking livid...fucking Trump managed to completely pervert what it means to be to be a conservative and has left the world worse off.

Also, lest you have any doubts this heinous act wasn't racially motivated, take note of how the shooter avoids shooting the white guy hiding between the registers and actually apologizes to him.  Below is a link to the footage.  I'll warn you that it's incredibly disturbing.

Shooter's Video

Mass Homicides

We'll start with the stats on mass homicides (I may use mass shootings interchangeably, because frankly it's easier to type), which is defined as an event involving a firearm that results in four or more deaths.  These events are the ones that grab the headlines and bring the most outrage.  Mother Jones maintains an excellent database of these events, that includes a lot of detail on the shooter, weapon used, etc.  Links to that and the FBI database I'll refer to will be at the end.  Also, I've stopped with 2019, because with everyone under lockdown in 2020, there weren't really opportunities for mass anything.

The data says there have been 102 mass shootings since 1982, resulting in in a total of 918 deaths.  If we break the data into time periods, an alarming trend emerges.  Between 2000 and 2009, there were 171 mass shooting deaths, versus 482 the following decade.  The number of mass shootings more than doubled as well.  Because Mother Jones' database lists the firearms used in each event, we can determine how many deaths were the result of the shooter using an AR-15 / AK. military style rifle.    Assuming any unspecified semiautomatic rifle to be an AR-15 or AK, that number for 2010-2019 is 254, or half of the the deaths from mass shootings.  The decade prior saw 5 mass shootings, using these weapons, with a death toll of 33, and 2 in the 80's, with a total death toll of 15.  This is reflected in average number of deaths per event, which peaked in 2017 at almost 20, although it's been in the single digits since 2018.  Clearly, the AR-15, along with the AK platform, represent a serious threat, with respect to mass shootings.  I'll dig into the AR-15 in the second part because there's a lot about this gun I'm sure most aren't aware of.  Worth noting is how Joe Biden is responsible for the AR-15's popularity.

Overall Firearm Related Homicides
Back to the stats.  Before we jump to any conclusions, based on the mass homicides, let's put some context around them.   According to FBI statistics, the total number of firearm related murders, from 2012 through 2019, was 78,162.  That's a pretty astonishing number, which we'll dig into a bit later, but the positive thing is it's been trending downward since 2017.  If we compare mass homicides with total homicides, using firearms from 2012 through 2019, the former represents roughly 0.6% of the total deaths noted above.  I'll say that again; mass shootings represent less than 1% of all gun related homicides.  For additional context, there were 60% more murders in Chicago (where you can't legally buy a gun) last year than mass shooting victims in the same time period.  

Again, please don't take my comments as being dismissive, but the fact is that, while mass shootings get all the headlines, they're statistically a footnote in the bigger picture.  Quite frankly, it would be dumb to base legislation on something of this magnitude, or lack thereof.  

Digging into the FBI numbers a bit more, another story begins to emerge.  The FBI statistics break down homicides by weapon.  I'm happy to report strangulations are trending seriously downward, whereas murder using explosives is showing growth, although not quite, um, explosive growth.  Firearms numbers are further broken down by type: handguns, rifles, shotguns, etc.  There's also a category of 'Firearms, type not stated', which I find problematic, considering it's over a quarter of the total.  Looking at unmanipulated numbers, in 2019, handguns represented 62% of the 10,258 firearms related homicides, but were trending downward from 68% in 2013.  Rifles were only 4%.  Back to the not specified bucket, I think it would be cherry picking to not divvy that up a bit (although the Daily Caller had no issue doing so), knowing how much AR-15's have proliferated recently.  I went with 20% for rifles, which caused them to jump to 10% of firearm homicides in 2019, or 1,020 fatalities.  Taking supposition a step further, we'll err on the high side and say military style rifles account for 60% of that.   Military style rifles only accounted for 6% of firearms related homicides in 2019.  This is the first time when you ask yourself what impact banning such rifles would have on overall gun violence.

So what can be done to decrease the number of firearm related deaths?  First, I think rather than focusing on what trigger is being pulled, attention should be focused why the trigger's being pulled in the first place.  Anyone with half a brain should be able to make that distinction.  Having half a brain myself, that's what I'll focus on.  First, I think that more and more people live solitary lives without support structures and succumb to mental illness leaving them feel hopeless or that the world is against them. On a side note, why is it the greater a boring loser someone is, the more they're convinced the government is spying on them?  But people feel less included and more disenfranchised as time goes by.  However, I also think too many people have been raised to be self absorbed little racist snowflakes and don't understand the word 'resilience'.  So many murders are to 'get back at someone' for shit that is meaningless in the grand scheme of things.  Being disrespected is part of life; get over it.  Your significant other dumped you for your best friend?  Get over it and bang his mother, not shoot both of them, you moron.  How many of us were bullied as children, but the thought of killing anyone over such transgressions never crossed our minds?  My dad grew up in a rural area.  Almost every guy had a rifle or shotgun in their car, at school, because they all went hunting after.  If you had a beef with someone, it was settled with fists after school; no one ever grabbed a gun over whatever it was.  

Finally, there are those who want their fifteen minutes of fame and are willing to kill to get it.  Finally finally, shitty parenting has a great deal of impact, beyond raising snow flakes.  Two perfect examples of how decent parenting would have prevented mass shootings - Sandy Hook wouldn't have happened if the shooter's mother had half a brain and not tried to connect to her mentally ill son through shooting. (He shot her and took the guns)  The Columbine shooters were a couple of complete sociopaths that had exhibited plenty of warning signs ahead of that shooting.  Where the fuck were their parents?

Make no mistake, I'm completely behind universal background checks and other reasonable measures to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands.  Universal should be emphasized here, because not all states perform their checks in the same manner.  NICS is the FBI's national background check system and, from what I've been able to uncover, queries their terror watchlist on each inquiry.  However, only 36 states currently use NICS, the remainder either carrying out checks at the state level or using some sort of hybrid model.  As someone pointed out, the Boulder shooter was on an FBI terror watchlist, yet still received approval to purchase his firearm.  Colorado isn't one of the 36, instead using their own homegrown system.  Had CO been a NICS state, the approval likely would have been denied, preventing another mass shooting.  Again, universal background checks are a good thing, are effective, and that's a no brainer.  

But other actions have to be taken to decrease gun violence or we never address the root cause.  Banning weapons, aside from it not working, sends the message 'we've given up on our society'.  We need to begin taking better care of each other or things will only get worse; gun violence will be the least of our concerns.  

Dodging the Covid Bullet, Timing is Everything, and That's NOT Fucking Gumbo

Rather than post three different entries, I'll encapsulate last week into one.  

First it was my first week with my new company and it was spent exploring a massive trade show in NOLA.  My company had a big booth, but my purpose was to wander around absorbing competitors, products, and all that happy marketing type shit.  My manager was with me for 95% of it, including dinner both nights we were there.  On a side note, I walked 5.3 miles one of the two days in non comfort rated but very nice Italian loafers and my feet / legs bitched the whole next day.  

Today was the first we'd spoken after the show and the first words out of his mouth were "how are you feeling?"  Turns out he'd gotten Covid at the show and was sick for a few days and was concerned I'd fallen victim to the virus as well.  He'd been vaxed and boosted, same as me, but for whatever reason, I escaped without becoming ill.

I was excited about being in NOLA again, because I could just eat my way through that city.  Emeril's flagship restaurant was right around the corner from our hotel, so that's where we headed for dinner the first night.  I'd eaten there before and it was excellent.  We were a bit concerned about getting in, but fate stepped in to assist.  We walked in to find two rotund gentlemen having a slightly heated conversation with the maître d, followed by them exiting the restaurant.  I stepped forward and said I'd like a table for two; no, we don't have a reservation.  The maître d responded "would you like theirs?  We wouldn't seat them because they're wearing shorts."  Sometimes, timing is everything.

We sat down and I was looking forward to having some gumbo.  Last I was there, Emeril's served a solid, traditional gumbo and I enjoyed it (because I fucking love gumbo).  My manager had never eaten gumbo, so I told him he had to try it, particularly here.  

If you've never had gumbo, it's built on a super dark roux and contains the holy trinity (onions, celery, and peppers), chicken, andouille sausage, and shrimp.  It should look something like this, which is damned close to what I'd been served last time at Emeril's:

What we were served was this:

That is NOT gumbo.  The sauce was tomato based and had nothing in it.  Instead, you can see the perfectly formed little island of rice in the center topped with a whopping two cold shrimp and some fucking green garnish.  I had a difficult time not asking the wait staff "what the fuck????" and probably would have if I'd been with a friend.  

If I were to guess, I'd say gumbo, which has very humble roots, didn't fit with their step up in fine dining that seems to have taken place since I was last there.  To which I say, take it off the menu instead of serving that abomination.  Praise where it deserves, the rest of the meal was excellent; my lamb was literally worth writing home about.  

To wrap up the update, it looks like I won't actually move until end of June; apparently movers are beyond slammed and that's the soonest they could work me in.  Could be worse; I could be staying in Kansas!

Republicans - Working Title

I'll start this entry with undisputed facts, then move on to my own opinions, which readers should probably treat as facts (joking).

The Republican party has always been the party of conservatism which, for the purpose of this entry, can be characterized as being pro capitalism, meaning the government should let business do what it wants to, allowing the open market to work on its own.  A conservative's greatest nemesis is big government and high taxes or tax and spend.  How well are today's prominent Republicans adhering to their own credo and practicing conservatism?  Let's review the recent actions of two prominent Republicans and see.  

I'll start with Ron DeSantis of Florida, who pushed through a bill to remove Disney's self-governing status.  For those who aren't aware, before Walt Disney broke ground on Disney World, he'd reached an agreement with the Florida government that would grant the property its own sort of independence.  This was important to Disney, because he didn't want to deal with a raft of approvals every time he wanted to expand and add attractions.  It worked out for the state of Florida, because Disney took on responsibility for all the things government does; water and sewer, road maintenance, law enforcement, the works.  Not to mention having Disney in Florida has boosted tourism (and tax dollars) dramatically.  In short, it's been a win win for both parties.  

The reason DeSantis wanted to revoke Disney's status is because they spoke out against his Don't Say Gay law.  No one in the Florida government has claimed otherwise.  As of next year, Disney will no longer have this self-governing status and be folded into the rest of the state.  Because of this, the tax burden of every Floridian will increase by over $2k.  

Moving west to Texas, Greg Abbott implemented a policy of inspecting the fuck out of trucks coming across the border from Mexico.  He did this as a response for the Biden administration allowing Title 42 to sunset.  Title 42 was drafted to keep the border mostly closed to immigrants as a response to Covid.  Abbott's policy ground cross border commerce to a halt, with trucks waiting up to 24 hours to reach Texas.  Abbott recently rescinded the order, but not before causing a $9 billion dollar hit to GDP and $240 million worth of food to spoil.

Again, the above is completely factual and I've linked source data to prove it so.  

My opinion is that Ron DeSantis is a complete piece of shit, who cares more about appealing to the racist, bigoted, homophobic, and xenophobic inbred idiots that Trump's base consists of.  Right wing idiots complain about cancel culture, yet this guy could be the poster child for it, retaliating against a company for speaking out against his horrible law.  I'll refrain from commenting on the law itself or the recent resurgence of homophobia and transphobia in the US, because that's an entry unto its own.  But I will say that if you've used the word "grooming" in that context, you're a moron and shouldn't breed.

Greg Abbott is no better than DeSantis, plus he's fucking stupid.  Effectively halting commerce across the US / Mexico border is flat out criminal.  Doing so because you're pissed about something else is inexcusable and despicable.  Biden's been seriously considering renewing Article 42 on its own merits, which he's not made a secret of, you fucking idiot.  

Both of these scumbags are pitiful excuses for human beings and deserve a watery grave, before they further damage the economy or the moral fabric of our country.   

What's the verdict?  Today's Republicans are no more conservative than Barrack Obama or Teddy Kennedy.  They've become like a bunch of petulant immoral sociopathic children, who don't give a shit whose livelihoods they destroy, so long as they get their way, then torture small animals.  They're more committed to retribution and blocking the current administration than to the principles they pretended to govern by.  Cheeto face likes to use the term RINO's (Republicans in name only) for those who don't agree with him, but DeSantis, Abbott, and their ilk are the true RINO's.  

So, for those who want to blame all of their woes on Biden, perhaps you should take a closer look at your leadership.  They're the ones who are driving prices up and making life more difficult for the average American.  

Dammit, They Must Be Multiplying

 

Ghost Guns

Joe "Your Rights Mean Nothing to Me" Biden was on TV today yammering about "Ghost Guns" again and how he's going to do get them off the streets.  I decided this was a good time to cover what these things actually are and why our president, who can't get three letters in the right order (ATF Joe, not AFT).  

These are firearms manufactured by individuals, but that doesn't have the same evil ring as "ghost gun".  What may surprise you is that building a firearm for your own personal use is perfectly legal.  Manufacturing a firearm for personal use, without a serial number or background check, is protected under 18 U.S.C. 922(o), (p) and (r); 26 U.S.C. 5822; 27 CFR 478.39, 479.62 and 479.105.  The only restrictions are that the device may not be classifiable under the NFA (i.e. machine guns, silencers, explosive devices) or sold to another party.  

Let me say that again - Manufacturing your own gun is currently protected under the law.  Ghost guns are legal.  Of course, the gun grabbers care not about the law.

Various methods exist for someone to legally produce their own firearm.  The most basic is to own a machine shop and build one from scratch.  Since no one learns how to be a machinist anymore, 3D printing can be used as well.  The third method is the one Joe is apoplectic about, which is to buy what's generally called an 80% kit.  

In reality, only the lower receiver of a gun meets the definition of a firearm, (contains firing mechanism, etc.) so these are 80% lowers.  Upper receivers aren't guns, by law, so they can be sold to anyone without a background check.   

An 80% lower lacks the ability to function as a firearm, so it isn't classified as one.  This means there is obviously additional work that's required for the item to become a firearm (and meet the legal definition of one), ranging anywhere from drilling a few holes in the right places to full on machining.  Most manufacturers of 80% lowers also offer tooling jigs to complete the job.  Worth noting is that these things have been around for a number of years and were blessed by the ATF before being offered for sale.  

It's still unclear what actions and/or what legal rights will be taken away for Joe to address this scourge of society.  I'm not sure he has the authority to override legislation passed by Congress; checks and balances and all that stuff.  He may have new newly nominated AFT bulldog implement the same nonsense that's in use for those of us who legally build silencers, which is everything that's intended to be a silencer, no matter its current form, is already a silencer.  Bought a tube that you intend to make into a silencer?  Well, it already is one, solely based on your intent; felony conviction.  That hunk of aluminum you were planning to machine into a firearm?  Well, based on your intent, it's already a firearm.  What, you say you're legally allowed to do that?  Hah!  That was last week; here's your felony conviction.  

Also, don't expect the ATF to be consistent over time or even transparent with their definitions.  Again, going back to the silencer situation, the thugs apparently had established criteria in 2017 for what they considered to be a silencer and what they didn't.  That document has only recently been seen by the public, meaning you had no idea if you were committing a felony in the AFT's eyes.  Even better, they recently began using different criteria, which aren't documented for the public, just like last time.  

0% Lower Receiver

If you're all for making 80% lowers illegal, then please define what isn't a firearm that could be sold legally.  I'll wait.  I'll admit to being freaked out when I learned of their existence, but where does one draw the line?

Why is there such fear over guns built by individuals?  I'll get to the fear in a moment, so let's start with the allegedly rational part.  The primary justification seems to be that these homemade guns are showing up more frequently at crime scenes.  You won't hear any claims of the total number of crime scenes increasing, because they haven't.  Gun violence has been trending downward for over a decade.  Yes, there was a blip last year, but it was still less than a decade ago!  Sure, 80% lowers make it easier for criminals to get their hands on guns, but they've historically had an ample supply from other means, such as theft, straw purchases, etc.  Getting rid of 80% lowers will not decrease gun violence.  Period.

None of this matters one bit to the gun grabbers.  They hate guns and will do whatever it takes to prevent you from having one, including stoking the public's fear with ignorance and lies.  I watched a government official on the news today, state these really fucking scary ghost guns can go right through TSA checkpoints.  That's pretty fucking impressive!!!  Metal objects that somehow defy physics in a way that prevents them from setting off magnetometers or body scans.  Fuck, I get flagged for my wristwatch, which is mice nuts compared to a gun.  

In conclusion, Joe and gun grabbers live in a fantasy world, where they don't give a flying fuck about your rights or legal protection.  They'll fuck around on this and ten minutes later, some enterprising individual will uncover a loophole.  It's all for nothing anyway, because as usual, they're demonizing the wrong things.

PS - one would have to be a complete moron to think I'm okay with the amount of violence in this country.  Also, Joe really should keep in mind he won the election because he wasn't Cheeto Face, so he should stop fucking things up.  His track record when it comes to getting rid of guns he hates hasn't exactly been stellar.  After all, he's responsible for the popularity of the AR-15

Early North Carolina Dating Observations

 Regular readers shouldn't be surprised I'm already scoping out the dating pool in my soon to be new location.  I'm human and therefore have needs for human interaction with and without exchange of bodily fluids.  Those needs have mostly been suppressed for the past four years, but knowing I'll be in civilization soon has them beginning to simmer again.   

Ordinarily, I'd wait for a meaningful data set of experiences before claiming to have any sort of insight, but in just the past 18 hours I've encountered four profiles that included the exact same sentiment; looking for the D to my s.  I've only seen that sort of thing spelled out perhaps four times in the past four years of living here and maybe twice in the decade I lived in VA.  Further investigation will be required before I can legitimately call it a trend, so we'll see.  I think I'm going to really like Raleigh.