Jack Ruby and The Brewers

 

I knew this guy named Rick that used to spend a lot of time talking about how he wanted to become famous by assassinating Willie Nelson.  He had a real focused idea about it, sort of a Jack Ruby style move with a gut shot via a snub nosed .38 caliber pistol.  I don't think he had a beef with Willie Nelson.  It was more about being able to take away something that gave others joy that appealed to him.  I remember trying to explain to him the difference between "famous" and "infamous", but Rick didn't quite grasp that.  He had this vision where people would have some sort of begrudging respect that he had done something so "big".  The good news is that I think he forgot about that and seemed to put his focus on crypto currency valuations.  I think I speak for all of us when I say that if he decided to assassinate the Hawk Tuah girl after she did that crypto scam the vast majority of the population would at the most be ambivalent about his actions.  I still don't think the population would be supportive.  I don't think he ever bought that .38 anyway.  Well, at least I don't think he did.  I scan the headlines most mornings to see if anyone pulled a Jack Ruby on anyone of note. Back when we had Federal employees, some crime fighting agency probably had a file on that dude.  I wonder if they do now?  Hmmm.

There are a lot of people out there with ideas.  Big ideas.  I think the downside to a huge swath of the populations living very internalized lives on their devices is a detachment from reality where schemes like assassinating Willie Nelson (or say the CEO of United Health) start to seem like a good idea.  People that don't have any sense of community can get real out there, real fast.  I can think of a decent number of acquaintances of mine I have seen transform over the last five years from being sorta dopey salt of the earth guys into fascist/racist idea spewing machines that their old selves wouldn't recognize.  A guy I knew from radio that now lives a self imposed hermit with his mother is a hate filled monster that spends his days regurgitating Russian disinformation on social media.  What the hell happened to that guy?  Or the 20 something kid that loved animation that now seems like he's flirting with joining some militia kooks?  The amount of real time radicalization happening from the device people pay a monthly fee to poison their mind is not the Great Future Of Information we were expecting.

Here's some recent US survey results for you to consider.  Despite having all of the accumulated current information in the world at our fingertips,

* 10% of US citizens believe the world is flat 

*   9% of US citizens believe that covid vaccinations implanted microchips in people for tracking purposes

* 12% don't think NASA landed on the moon and 17% are unsure

* 17% don't think the earth revolves around the sun

The numbers increase as you get younger, meaning that 28% of Gen Z doesn't believe NASA landed on the moon for example.  Is this a result of poor education?  Is it embracing conspiracy theories to try and gain control over too much chaos from a never ending firehouse of data being poured over them?  I don't know.  I think it has something to do with embracing the idea that nothing is a fact now.  I don't listen to Joe Rogan very often because I generally don't care about what a standup comedian that was the host of Fear Factor and loves MMA has to say about much of anything.  It's also because most Joe Rogan episodes go like this...  "Today we have on some guy with a website that says American city water is the cause of all diseases.  So tell me about this..."  Well, I don't know if you know this but most tap water is rife with bacterial agents which are responsible for 300,000 deaths in America each year.  "Really?  I hadn't heard that."  Yes, and NASA is putting mind control poisons like terracyclocide in the water supply that can only be counteracted by eating alfalfa.  "Wow.  I didn't know that."  Now let's go to our other guest, the noted authority on bacterial infections from Harvard, Dr. John Doe.  John, do you care to debate these allegations made by our other equally esteemed guest?".  

From a media point I understand the idea of creating debate to keep people listening.  However, maybe the greater good can be served by not putting blatant kooks and grifters on what appear to be vetted programming?  "Coming up next, we debate the law of gravity!"  The idea that all facts are up for debate is not a great development in our society.  When I sold advertising I would often have people tell me "advertising doesn't work".  Really?  About 30% of Americans think that the 2020 election was "stolen" from Trump despite the Trump camp losing 60 court cases and never producing credible evidence to back this repeated claim up.  Yet, by repeating a lie over and over, you've got 30% of the population believing that lie.  THAT is how advertising works my friend.

It's a drag to live in what will undoubtedly be referred to as The End Of The American Empire, and it's an even bigger drag to find that society's undoing is being caused by dorks like Zuckerberg, Elon, a ex-Reality TV show host, Rupert Murdoch and various cable tv hosts.  At least when Germany went through this kind of thing in the 1930s, they had an amazing cast of super villains.  Those guys were legitimate monsters and we've got a bunch of snake oil hucksters.  Disappointing really.  It would be great to debate some of the valid problems we have in the country, but most of us aren't even in the same reality thanks to our mobile devices.  I'm going to continue to concentrate on what really matters, baseball win totals.

Last year I backed the OVER on both the Oakland A's (winner) and Cleveland Guardians (winner).  I found it was an outstanding way to have a vested interest in an otherwise meaningless A's v Rockies game on a Tuesday night.  I don't feel great about the totals on either the As or Cleveland this year (70.5 and 82.5).  My beloved Giants decided to not spend the money they'd need to push Arizona so it looks grim there.  I decided to hunt for a team that might be undervalued.  After nosing around for a month, I have settled on the Milwaukee Brewers.  Like you, I knew almost nothing about the Brewers before reading up on them.  They are sitting at 83 games on their win total.  Their starting pitching is mediocre in a C+ sorta way.  The bullpen looks decent.  Their offense is OK.  There isn't much to look at and say "God damn these guys are lights out".  You know what though?  They always find a way.  They haven't gone below 83 wins in 7 years.  They look like a team built like Cleveland, better than the sum of their parts.  Nobody else in the NL Central is a juggernaut either.  Why not the Brewers?  You want to bet on the Pirates?  The Reds?  I can't do it.  I found a book that has a slanted juice for Milwaukee OVER 82.5 that I moved on.  I bought a Brewers cap, and I'm ready for some mediocre NL baseball this summer.  Get on board with The Brew Crew!           

 

 

Ramblings Of The Unemployed and Over 79

 

I had worked in the same job for 18 years.  Some people came and went.  Some circumstances changed.  However, it was basically doing the same job at the same place the same way for 18 years.  It's odd how a job can come to define and outline the parameters of your happiness/unhappiness.  For most people, you sort of fall into whatever it is that you do.  A few years pass, and you become whatever your title is at that job.  "Greg?  He's a TV guy."  At no point did I lay out a plan when I was 19 years old that said, "With some luck, when I'm in my fifties I can sell weather sponsorships in the 4p news to a window company for a dysfunctional TV station in Cleveland."  You just sort of get there somehow.

The problem with these jobs is that once you get trapped into a life you have constructed where you need a minimum of X dollars a month to make sure that the people from Mastercard don't come to your house and beat you with sticks, you become trapped.  Now you are stuck in a microcosm where the 10-15 people of your department is your entire world.  You figure you've got 65 hours a week tied up into that alternate reality with a 830a-530p Monday though Friday plus commutes and prep time for going in to your workplace.  If you sleep 8 hours a night, that gives you 15 free hours during the week and 32 hours on the weekend for 47 hours of your time.  You're looking at 60% of your life defined by your work environment.  More than half of your life is spent with a collection of people and a social strata in which you have very little control.  

Every workplace I have ever been has that lie they perpetuate about being "like a family".  I would agree to that if "like a family" you meant having an emotionally abusive mother, pathologically lying father, promiscuous sister, brother on the spectrum and an uncle with anger management issues, but I'm not sure if that's what they meant.  The thing is though you spend so much time there that it all slowly becomes normal.  People that might be clinically found to be sociopaths are directly impacting your quality of life and it just is the way that it is. They are your leader because they randomly got a job and you accept being the submissive.  When you think about some of the people you have had to maintain your composure around when they lie to your face because they are an "assistant regional manager" and you are a lowly "associate leadership specialist", it's crazy.  Yet, we all have agreed to operate under this social contract.  I've had people managing me that I wouldn't put in charge to go get a pizza if I handed them a $20 and a map to the pizza place, yet I tried to nod my head thoughtfully when they drone on about the most harebrained self-serving idea I've ever heard.  "Sounds good Bob."  You ever work at a place with a "seagull manager"?  That's one that flies in, shits all over the place and then flies away.  

I haven't been to my old job in a couple months now.  It's amazing how little I think about it.  I worked with people that had their hair fall out and developed stomach ulcers because of the low rent Court of Versailles that was that work environment.  There were people there that think a slightly modified newscast will save their doomed industry and I haven't even turned that channel on in 2025.  All these jobs are like that.  You can't see the forest because of the trees.  When you are freaking the fuck out at your job, please remember this.  No one cares.  Whatever you are doing, it probably doesn't matter.  The boss that is bullying you?  They are getting dominated by their spouse at home and take it out on you.  That all powerful regional manager that comes in quarterly to "shake it up"?  They are referred to by their neighbor as "that dipshit next door" when they fuck up garbage day again.  These people that assume outsized importance in our lives are little people doing little things that don't matter.  Forget about them.  The job will continue when you leave but more importantly, you'll continue after you leave the job.

The great news is I am now able to focus on the only three things that matter as we approach Spring 2025.  Wine exams, the new Whiskey Daredevils record, and MLB baseball win totals.  As I have discussed, I have taken a position on the White Sox.  I do feel a need to be connected to the local Guardians franchise.  Last year on my birthday I received a custom Guardians jersey from Krusty.  The number was 79.  The name on the back was "Over".  Yes, I had bet on the Guardians to win more than 79 games last year, an easy winner.  With the Guardians win total sitting at 82.5 this season, that makes the shirt null and void.  Well, until I realized I could just shift the win total down to 79 and bet the over at -165!  Suddenly I'm wearing my Guardians jersey again! 

I'll be honest with you.  I don't know that much about the Guardians.  They have a couple good hitters, some OK starters and last year an amazing bullpen.  Typically bullpens have great variance, and I think Clase is going to return to Earth which will cost them some games.  The rotation has a bunch of versions of "If he gets healthy" and "if he can keep progressing" guys, which is a great concern.  But, this is what I think of as "A Team Of Guys".  It's a collection of a bunch of OK to pretty good players.  Those are the teams that tend to finish around .500.  Are they going to win the World Series?  Absolutely not.  Are they good enough to win half the time?  I think so.  We're not looking for much here.  I can win with an 80-82 record.  Why not?  Let's get to 80 wins.  For my shirt.  Guardians Over 79 wins -165.