Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here.

In the title I'm referring to Houston roads of course. Nowhere else will you find a worse hive of scum and villainy.

The pandemic, and the Government's response to it, fully broke society.

That's it, we're toast. Thank you for playing and please accept your parting gifts as you make your way out.

From road rage to Karen's to porch pirates to pretty much just no one having any respect for their fellow citizens any more. Society is shot.

One of the things that kept society, barely, afloat was the adherence people generally had for the mundane laws. Red lights, rights of way, those types of things. Where is all that now?  Gone. Just this morning, on the commute into work, I watched a truck pull into the empty left turn lane at a red light and just blow straight through the intersection without any regard that a) the other lights were green and b) there were people lined up in both lanes ready to go once our light turned green. He did not even tap his brakes. Blew right through at about 40MPH I'm guessing. (the speed limit on the road in question was 45MPH.)

And you see this more and more. As it stands now, when your light turns green, you have to give it the Houston 5 Second Pause lest you get side-swiped by someone who has suddenly decided that red lights are mere suggestions. When your light turns green, if you just hit the gas pedal and go, buyer beware.

Next to red-light running are the issues of line-cutters.

These people are scum of the Earth and should have reserved for them a special circle in Dante's Inferno. The thing is, they KNOW what they are doing. They drive down in the lane next to the lane that's backed up with their blinker on, telling people that they should just go screw themselves and that their needs outweigh the needs of anyone doing the right thing and getting in line and waiting their turn.

Want to see this in full action? Watch the traffic exiting 59 South onto 610 West. That infamous intersection where TXDOT just spend Eleventy Million dollars to make things WORSE. At some points in the day the line-cutters out-number those waiting in line and the pace is glacially slow. These people in turn cause road rage, too aggressive driving as the poor schmucks who are following the rules try to tailgate one another to prevent them from cutting in front of them (my record is perfect by the way, no one has EVER successfully cut in front of me). Heck, I've even seen Sheriff's drive along, turn their lights on at the last minute, cut in line and then turn their lights back off. When our institutions are not even following the rules.....

Finally you have the Russian Roulette that are the paper tag offenders. Fake registration, no insurance. I think I read somewhere that, should you get in a wreck in Houston, you have a greater than 50% chance of the person you wreck with having no auto insurance. This is why having an uninsured motorist rider on your policy is a must-have, it's also why Houston auto insurance is skyrocketing in price. It's not how you drive, it's how all of the other idiots on the road are driving.

I often have people whom I'm talking to wonder how in the World we got to the position that we're in where all of our elected leaders are trash human beings. I can only assume that there's one answer for this.....

These people that are driving like shit?  They also vote.

Post-COVID Gambling: Why I'm Done with Las Vegas

Honestly, at this point, you can keep it.

Las Vegas has changed, almost entirely for the worse. I've spent a lot of time on here in recent months bemoaning bad odds, tightened (or non-existent) comps, increasing fees, declining properties, rising prices and a general loss of focus on customer service in Las Vegas that has all added up to what amounts to a large middle-finger to the traditional Las Vegas Visitor.

Enough with the gamblers, Huzzah! to the Day Club patrons, the pool partiers, the people who want to pay rack rate for a 3rd rate room. In short, those with little concern that they're being financially assaulted, willingly in most cases, for the illusion of luxury and 'hip' in a town that no longer possesses any of it.

Las Vegas has always been a magician's trick, an illusion that you were having something you are not, a high roller experience that was decidedly tacky. The odds always favored the house and Las Vegas has no time, or patience, for people who understand that fact. They don't want the person who wishes to come in, have a good time, gamble, and maybe enjoy a nice meal or three. What they are focusing on now is three-fold.

1. As stated prior: They want the party people, the people who have no issue (until it comes time to pay the credit card bill) slapping down $3500 for bottle service on an alcohol they can get for $40 (or less) at home. they want the girls in bikinis to awkwardly dance down the aisle to their overpriced cabana acting like they are excited (when they're really not, and it shows) to be drooled over by a group of 20 and 30-something men. They want people who are willing to over pay for "exclusive" access to Day Clubs, where DJs pump out music and women dance and kiss each other in hopes of getting in on the liquor bottle gravy train. (Trust me, if you get bottle service in Las Vegas there will be enough women coming by and flirting with you for free drinks you will not get a sip yourself.  They'll take the drink and you'll never see them again, but at least they pay attention to you I guess?) Don't get me wrong, men try this as well, but from what I've seen they usually get told no and are encouraged by security to move on. Las Vegas pools and day clubs have morphed into a giant faux-dating game where the Bros think they have a chance.

2. The bone idiot: People who will gladly play 000 Roulette or 6:5 Blackjack with horrible odds or continually plunk money into slots set at the State minimum all while thinking they are James Bond instead not realizing they are the sucker at the table. Yes, people occasionally win, and when they do the casinos broadcast it far and wide, but almost everyone else loses, and never has a chance. Even Las Vegas sports books have joined the trend of kicking out, or severely limiting, punters who do even minimal research and try to win. They want people in their casinos who want to give them their money. Period end of story.

3. The violent: Yes, it's true. Vegas has become an unsafe mess since reopening from the pandemic. Almost daily tales of shootings, stabbings, fights on the strip. Endless videos of large groups getting into fisticuffs and, eventually, shots fired. This is not limited to the Strip, but to almost every tourist area. The fact is that Las Vegas is incapable of policing itself and is now an unsafe town.

Because of all of this Mrs. TPM and I will be going to Las Vegas for our Birthday trip in October, in part because it's already booked, and we'll stay one night on the Strip, two nights Downtown, and two nights off-strip, and then we're going to say goodbye for a while. Possibly a long while.

Until Las Vegas reverses course I can no longer recommend it as a travel destination. In fact, I would urge you to stay away. ONLY when the casinos start to lose significant business will they even consider changing course.

We may just be a small raindrop in the Las Vegas ocean, but that's one less raindrop they're going to see.

Good Bye Las Vegas. It's not me, it's you.

You Cannot Block Every Horrid Person on Social Media (That doesn't mean you cannot try)

 I'm writing this Tuesday after logging off from work, looking at news stories featuring horrid fires in California and Hurricane Laura bearing down on the Texas/Louisiana State Line.

I'm also coming off a stint on Twitter, America's cess-pool, and I have some thoughts on all of this that you may, or may not (if you're one of those Twitter turds in the pool) want to read.

Firstly, it's become very easy for us to project our personal hatred on whatever Golems we have personally created as evil incarnate, onto the poor who are left with precious few life choices and no easily attainable options.

Many look at those displaced by the California fires and their first response is: "Well, they voted in these stupid liberal Democrats who refuse to clear the underbrush so....they deserve it."  

Or you may look at the people in the petrochemical industry in Lake Charles and think: "Big oil is going to super heat the Earth and kill mankind so.....they deserve it."

But, do they? Really?

I'm here to tell you that no. They do not.

Instead of your haughtiness and disdain they deserve your empathy and (most importantly) support, if you can provide it. In most cases the victims are of the innocent sort, poor, overwhelmingly minority and the exact same people that the Caucasian BLM supporters claim to be in support of while simultaneously tearing down.

Yes, the oil/gas/petrochemical industry is not an environmental saint, but they also provide meaningful, living wages for many in an area that offers few. In fact, in many areas of Southwest Louisiana the only employment options are petrochemical factories, casinos, or the service industry, none of which are valued by society's "elites", despite the fact that these same "elites" would break out in hives if they had to perform the duties of the serfs.

The are overwhelmingly poor FWIW.

"Well, they can go get green jobs" is something that you might say.

You can say this but that would be incorrect. Because, you see, even in the most pie-in-the-sky "green" plans the mentions of "good paying, green jobs" are always something that fit under the "to be created" category, something the Government promises will materialize but has no meaningful plan to produce. In short, there are no jobs. It's either the factories, casinos, hotels, restaurants or these retail shops that people are stuck with, or nothing at all.

"Well, they can MOVE" you counter.

Except they cannot.  For the most part these are very poor people, living paycheck to paycheck with few options for escape. They don't have the savings to up and move, and to ride out the time that it would take for them to obtain a new job. In many cases it's the safety nets in these states where they have no options, that keeps them where they are. It's also families and support systems that anchor them in place.

Secondly, these things that you hate, Republicans, Democrats, the ruling class, Evil Big Oil, is really anger directed at the ruling class.

The dark secret to all of this is that it's not the ruling class who is going to be feeling the pain. The Executives and politicians in areas that are burning in California are in no danger, they've traveled far away, in most cases to their 2nd or 3rd homes (Even Bernie Sanders, that great Socialist, owns 3) and while they will suffer some property damage they can either write the rules in their favor for help (politicians) or have plenty of insurance to make them whole (executives and...politicians).

The ruled, what's left of the middle class and the working poor, don't have that luxury. In many cases they lose their only residence, are forced to evacuate to a shelter, and have little ammunition to fight the insurance companies in the manner the ruling class has.

It's the same for the people in Lake Charles, who are looking at losing everything with nothing in their arsenal to combat it. Their communities are looking at the very real prospect that they are going to be destroyed, not partially, but utterly and completely blown away.

Today, on Twitter, I have blocked almost 100 people who used this tragedy to pile on, to make a political point against the opposite side. I will continue doing so. While I believe it is impossible to block them all I am going to continue to do so. Not because I don't want to hear opposing points of view, because I do, which is why I leave the comments on here, but because I do not consider their points of view to be valid. I don't believe that any point of view that cheers on human pain and suffering to be relevant or worth listening to. Do I believe they have a right to say it? Yes, but I also have a right to tune them out. You do as well.

Lastly, much of this rhetoric is force-fed to us by the media and the ruling class. They feed it to the masses to try and divide us, to keep us from realizing where the true power lies. The most 'vital' Democratic function you can do is to engage, it's not to vote (which is actually the laziest form of participation in a Democracy). A voting populace who then tunes out is an elected official's dream. It's the media's dream as well, because they NEVER HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.

But an engaged electorate, who holds the elected officials to the rules and laws that they themselves lay upon the ruled, is the most powerful function in a healthy Nation, and it's the one that takes the most work.

If a politician breaks the rules? Have them indicted.

If the media tells lies? Make them go broke by unsubscribing or not watching.

If a company deals unethically? Force them to fire the board and executives.

But stop punishing the ruled and working class, because they haven't done anything wrong. Much like you and I they're just trying to get by the best they can.

And help those in need.  Because now the need is worst than ever and the ruling class is less likely than they ever have been to do the job they were hired to do.  It's up to us.

The on-going scourge of Social Media

The wife and I made an escape last weekend. After three months of work from home, of only making one trip per week. to the grocery store, wearing my mask. we decided that we needed to get out of the house, more specifically, I needed to get out of the house.

So we decided to pack our bags, our masks and around 2 gallons of hand sanitizer to make the trip to our "local" casino in Lake Charles.  We spent a fun weekend gambling, losing, eating good food, drinking good wine and cocktails, sitting in a pool cabana on Sunday, and generally just having a grand time.

Yes, we wore our masks, we had sani-wipes and used them to disinfect every machine that we sat down to, and we wore our masks for the most part, except if we were sitting at the bar drinking and playing video poker, at which point it seemed a little silly to keep them on when we'd have to touch them repeatedly to pull them down and keep drinking.

Was there a risk of contracting COVID-19?  Yes, probably so. But at some point we have to return to living life in the safest way possible, but we do need to get back into the swing of things and start being productive again. Virus gonna virus, we just have to adapt to our new realities.

We need human interaction, we are social animals after all.

What I did notice is that, after 3 months of lock down, my human interaction compass was mightily skewed by the cesspool that is social media.  If you believe Twitter, every conversation surrounding race etc. is fraught with anger, name-calling, one-upmanship and online "owns".  Drop the mic moments seem to be the goal, and there's no room for nuance. no room for those little moments in Houston interaction that allow for understanding.  Twitter. especially is a cold, brutal place full of awful people whose only reason for existing is to injure others. Not physically, they don't have the guts to do that, but there are different ways to ruin people's lives. You know about "SWATting" and you've certainly heard of "cancel culture" by now, these are just some of the ways bad actors on Twitter go about stifling debate.

Twitter is where the "Karen" meme revealed itself, and it's where the worst of humanity is placed on a pedestal to be mocked, knocked down and humiliated, where mob-rule is the rule and the powers that be seem little inclined to police their huge bot problem.  The government's "solution" to this is to cudgel them into submission, or extinction, by removing their "platform" privileges and making them responsible for what's posted by their users.

Like any government response, this is not going to work, it's only going to push cancel culture underground where, in my opinion, it becomes more dangerous.

The good news is that regular, decent society still does not operate like social media society but the gap is getting smaller., mainstream media reporters, too lazy to work their beat, scour social media for unvetted memes and broadcast them nationally, without question, and without applying journalistic principles such as verification and corroboration. This is leading to social media creep into polite society and, unless we do something to stop this, we're going to live in a society where mob mentality rules, and rule of law goes the way of the Dodo.

It's a big problem.  We're still, just, in a place where decent humans can have a polite conversation on difficult issues without resorting to cancel culture and mob anger.

Humanity needs to keep that, or we're going to regret that it's gone.

BadTwitter: Social Media with Care Folks.

If you're any bit active on Twitter #planebae should not be a new thing. It's hit media everywhere, who are tut-tutting which is unusual when you consider that much of the media's current role is intruding into people's private lives (if it bleeds, it leads) and broadcasting it out everywhere without a thought of the collateral damage.  This is opposed to watchdog, or public interest journalism that the media should be doing mind you, but that's a post for another blog.

As someone who has been online and "social" on blogs, Twitter and (to a much lesser extent) Facebook, Message Boards, Instagram (OK, barely) and Snapchat (hardly at all), this isn't the first time I've seen someone intruded upon to the point that they had to withdraw from all platforms.

It's voyeurism and it needs to stop. It's often done by "actors" of the Internet type who have a very slim CV on IMDb but the ability to add tags and squirrelly things to pictures and post them on line for all to see.

There was the case of Dani Mathers body shaming another lady in the gym which was ironic given her role as a "Playboy Model" and while most stories (rightly) involve advertisers, or data collectors scraping personal data, or hackers stealing it when the community cheers on bad actors acting in the same way they are probably unaware of just how hypocritical they are truly being.

After my initial foray into political-blogging, under the pseudonym "Sedosi Alhambra" I've always posted under my real name.  In a way, I've been lucky, I've never been "Swatted" or "Doxed" which is probably more due to my relatively low readership and lack of importance online than any luck which I may, or may not, possess.  I've chronicled my one time dealing with identity theft but that was more a crime of opportunity rather than celebrity.

Granted, a long time ago I had some weird guy create an entire blog (since deleted) to bash me over a simple mathematical error (instead of just pointing it out in the comments, which made me chuckle) and I once received an e-mail from some  Houstonian saying only "You're a real asshole".  When I asked for clarification he just said that my writing style made him hate me.  Outside of that?

A few minor Twitter scuffles and.....?

Nothing.

And that's how it is for most of us. And that's honestly the way it should be.  We shouldn't have to worry about having a good time, or getting just a little too tipsy, or meeting someone on a plane and having some Z-list celebrity chronicle it for page hits. We shouldn't have to worry about our dumb decisions (provided they're just dumb, and not criminal mind you) being broadcast for all to see.

The problem here is that many people view social media life as real life. They think that some anonymous troll on Twitter or, more likely, a bot speaks for the general public. A general public that, for the most part, either views social media as a lightly-used time-waster or (more likely) nothing at all.

MOST people aren't active on social media, 99.99999% of the American populace doesn't blog, or read blogs, yes, a lot of people go on Facebook but that's mainly to see how their Aunt in Iowa is doing, or to keep up with old friends from High School or College. Or, to post pictures of their kids that most of us don't want to see but reply to with "How cute" or other things. (usually followed by multiple exclamation points to really drive the cuteness home). In short, most people aren't on Social Media to become "Internet famous".

We should probably start ignoring the people who are.  Start with the actor who started #planebae end with the Kardashian/West clan.

Trust me when I tell you your life will be much better for it.

And if, on your next vacation, you're tempted to take a picture of something besides yourself, scenery or good food you've eaten?


Don't.


Social Media will be all the better for it.

Identity Theft: Violation and Helplessness.

At 11:49AM Thursday, March 15th 2018 someone walked into a branch of our bank, presented the teller with a withdrawal slip that contained my wife's forged signature, a temporary ID and withdrew $1,200 from our bank account.

At 12:15 PM the same day I logged into our account online to pay some bills and noticed the transaction.  I immediately checked with my wife, who was at work, and called the bank to freeze my account to try and limit the damage. I also put a fraud claim in.

Sometime later that afternoon the fraudster attempted to withdraw $1,500 using the same method but was denied.

By 6PM that afternoon we had a new bank account, all of the money transferred out of our old one, and the real work of getting our lives back together started.  That night we placed fraud alerts on our credit accounts, signed my wife up for LifeLock, and the next day and weekend I spent almost the entire time unwinding our auto-payments and other various and assorted accounts in order to ensure that no payments were missed.  It's Thursday evening, March 22nd, one week later, and I'm still in the process of getting everything switched over.

So, how did this happen?

Were we hacked?  Some kind of online chicanery? Russian or North Koreans?

Nope.

The vermin who did this got us low tech, they went through our mailbox and stole a few checks the old fashioned way. 

We're now looking at a PO Box as an option going forward for all important mail, just another monthly expense that we're going to have to absorb because someone out there is presenting themselves as my wife.

Sure, we filed a police report.  But the (very nice) Sheriff's Deputy that came by admitted that nothing was going to be done.  While Ed Emmett and the Harris County Commissioners continue to spend Millions on the Astrodome key government functions like crime prevention have taken a back seat.

The Feds? (this was mail fraud most likely) They won't even look at it unless more than $5,000 was taken.  In other words, when you or your family are financially violated the law enforcement and justice department at all levels of the United States, State and local governments are unwilling (and unable) to help.

And this in an area where we're told we have "the right party" (i.e. the GOP) largely in charge. (I live in unincorporated Harris County, and have Republicans representing me at all levels of government)

Yes, it is a helpless feeling.  Every day now I wonder if something 'snuck by me' and if the vermin got more mail that I'm not aware of.  Our debit cards are supposed to arrive soon.  Do I know if these vermin have grabbed them?  What about when our new checks arrive?  Am I going to have to get ANOTHER bank account because I cannot shut these people down?

I'm currently looking at the USPS to see if there's any temporary options I have to make my mail more secure while I work on a PO Box etc. Until then am I just prey to the whims of vermin who could care less about laws and my personal property?

And that's the biggest thing.  My wife and I are very fortunate, we both have good jobs and have enough money socked away to ride this out.  Losing $1,200 temporarily (the bank has already processed the refund on a fraud claim) didn't break us.

But it COULD have.

What if we were living paycheck to paycheck, or had just lost our jobs, or one of us had a medical condition and funds were tight?  The vermin that did this did not care about that, and that makes them sub-human in my estimation.

And they're almost certainly not going to get caught.

I don't care what you think about the United States of America, what your political leanings are if you don't understand why the system is broken then I cannot help you. We live in a dysfunctional Republic.  When something like this happens to you (and I hope it doesn't) you will understand just how dysfunctional it really is.

People ask me all the time why I don't vote. How could I have been so politically active just a few years back but I'm so disinclined to care now? It's because of things like this.  Our political system in America is corrupt, worthless and a wheezing husk and it doesn't matter who you put in office this is never going to change.

I would never do it but I understand now why some people are starting to take the law into their own hands.  I'm just sad it's gotten to this point.

These vermin stole more than money, they stole our identity. They stole us.  That's hard to forgive.

Steve Wynn: A Self-Identified Titan of Las Vegas Falls.

Steve Wynn is out of the company bearing his name.

He resigned as Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts (as well as Wynn Macau, something potentially a much bigger deal for his company) under a wave of sexual assault allegations, detailed in the Wall Street Journal, that spanned decades.

The easy take is "good riddance".  The long answer is a little bit more nuanced.

Like him or not, and many don't, the fact is that a LOT of modern Vegas, both good and bad, is the result of things Wynn did in the 80's and 90's when he changed the face of the city by building the Mirage and Bellagio respectively.

Prior to that the prevailing idea in the city was that casinos were going to be grind joints, with people throwing quarters into slot machines, buses pulling in, dumping off people with money and taking them away without money.

Steve Wynn changed that by re-introducing the concept of the luxury resort, ushering in the modern age.

The reality of late however has not been one of Steve Wynn the innovator, but Steve Wynn the copier. From resort fees, to paid parking to cutting back on gambling odds and envisioning non-gambling outdoor spaces and even to beefing up his high-end retail offerings Wynn has been on the tailing end of innovations brought about by Caesar's Entertainment Group and MGM.

Of all the casinos on the Strip his had the biggest decline in gaming last year as he decided to basically punt most gamblers to other locations and increase charges for everyone except his highest margin players.  He also nixed his golf course in favor of the still unrealized Paradise Park and made a big gamble that paid off in Macau.

Fast forward to today and all of that seems to be in a little bit of trouble.  The Macau deal is due to be renegotiated and it's increasingly clear that China will not be willing to ink something as favorable to Wynn.  This puts in danger the big cash cow that has floated his stock in the past.  With Wynn out of the picture, and his influence with Republican lawmakers, it's unclear what type of deal the company can reasonably hope to receive. 

While Steve made his company a Macau interest, the declines at Wynn and Encore should be most disturbing, because they're trailing all of the other companies on the Strip.  For a while the stock price was propped up to to investor's belief in the power of The Steve, that seems gone now.

And it should be gone.

Because what we have in Steve Wynn are allegations of a man who abused his power and influence over workers for decades.  This is not an isolated incident that occurred years ago from which he repented and never turned back. If the allegations are true then Steve Wynn never progressed as a man past the "Boys will be boys" sixties and that's a problem.

We all have things in our past that we've done wrong.  In most cases we learn from them, get punished for them, and move on a wiser, usually better person.  The problem in Wynn's case is apparently that there was an entire infrastructure built up around him to provide cover for indiscretions, and sweep them under the rug.

You saw the same thing with Harvey Wienstein, and from a host of other powerful figures who are finding themselves in the same mess.  If you're a bad guy and continue to be a bad guy society has lost the inclination to 'let boys be boys' and are (rightly) demanding some comeuppance.

As a society we need to ensure this continues, but guard against flogging good people who did a bad thing once many years ago, and have repented and changed. Also, we need to be mature enough to realize that disliking a person AND respecting the contributions that they've made to their industry, society, humanity are not mutually exclusive things.

Most very successful people have jerk streaks a mile-wide. It's how they became successful in the first place.  The ones that need to get knocked down a peg are the ones who develop God complexes. If the allegations are true then Wynn did just that.

His legacy may still stand, but his reputation is in tatters.