St. John Fisher, St. Thomas Moore, Blueberries LightYear vs Minions, Another Taste of Lawrence’s CRT lesions for Youth and Pinball Under the Fedora

Today is the feast day of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas Moore who choose to die rather than betray the faith for gain in the world.

Given what we’re seen from the church lately with Bishops and priests (with some notable exceptions) unwilling to stand for the faith and Public servants either not enforcing the laws or enforcing them selectively based on political allegiance they seem to be saints critical for our time.

I’m shocked they haven’t been dropped from the calendar.

My wife is a blueberry person and would regularly buy muffins at Hannaford market. However a bit ago she cut open her muffin and there were no blueberries inside. This is despite the fact that the price for the Muffins has gone up considerably.

It led to some drama when we cut open the 2nd Muffin of the two pack:

All of this brings to mind Casino:

This is actually the “broken windows” theory of enforcement where if you take care of small things you cut down on large one.

Under the left this has become passé and we’re paying for it.

There have been a lot of excuses for the failure of Lightyear by the defenders of Disney, none on them involved the decision to push homosexuality in a film for kids.

Alas for the woke crowd unlike schools they can not compel attendance in theatres so if parents don’t want to push this junk on their kids they don’t have to.

The real fun is going to come with the new movie Minions: The Rise of Gru. You see if all the Disney apologists are right then this movie should do just as badly as Lightyear because all of the same issues they claim are holding back Lightyear’s take will still be in play when it comes out.

Of course if Minions The Rise of Gru is as big of a hit as it seems likely to be it will just be another proof of the media as the lying propagandists that they are.

Not that they care anymore, they’ve given up on worrying about the pretense of being objective.

Speaking of schools here is another bit from that stuff I hinted at earlier that they are teaching elementary school kids in the Lawrence school system.

More of that Critical Race Theory that doesn’t exist

Funny for something that the left/media claimed was just a right wing fantasy there sure seems to be a lot of prepared items ready to be disseminated to public school kids in lieu of teaching thing useless things like reading, writing and arithmetic, particularly in schools were the parents don’t have a lot of other options.

I had planned to write something more extensive today about but I had forgotten about Juneteenth being a national holiday so the school crowd I tried to contact for comment might not have been in so I figured it would be fair to give them another day just out of fairness.

Of course I suspect I’ll be a tad busy the next few days…

…as PintasticNE begins tomorrow night and I plan on enjoying myself to the fullest.

As a teaser I have an interview with the owner of Cape Cod and Beyond a company that rents out machines who came down the house to pick up the Batman 66 machine that my sons and wife rented me for my birthday.

I suspect that you’ll see a lot more of these rental companies and the price of Pinball machines and the potential for investment continues to grow, but I think the real driver is the problem of where do you store these things if you don’t have to room for it.

The nice thing about a rental is there is always a fresh machines in your hands.

For the next four days I’ll be knee deep in pinball and I’ll forget about Biden, the Gas prices, Bad Government, and the lot.

We all need a few days away from it.

Honey bees and communism

The author checking on one hive. These bees were removed from the attic in a house, hence the odd comb.

A honey bee colony is composed of thousands of individual bees. Almost all of these bees are female workers. The workers spend their whole life working on behalf of the colony. Newly hatched workers take care of the inside of the colony, cleaning out honey cells, taking care of the young, and tending to the queen bee. As these workers get older, they begin flying out to gather nectar (which they use to make honey) and pollen (which is used to raise young bees).

Like all good little communist workers, the worker bees continue to work until they literally burn out. During the year, a worker bee lifespan is about 42 days. Some workers will get eaten by a variety of animals or other insects, while others fall victim to pesticides or bad weather. If she manages to survive all of these dangers, an old worker bee that can no longer contribute to the hive faces a dilemma. If she tries to retire to work a less intensive job, her sisters will pull her out of the hive and throw her off the landing board. Most spent workers instead commit a sort of bee-suicide, simply flying away and dying alone.

Life for the male bees, called drones, is not much better. Drones are larger and have better eyesight, but gather no nectar or pollen. Instead, they simply eat off the stores that their sisters build up. Drones fly out during the day looking for a virgin queen to mate with. If they succeed in this endeavor they die, as certain…body parts…break off during copulation. If drones don’t mate by the end of the year, before the onset of winter, the other worker bees will throw them off the landing board and keep them out of the hive, since they aren’t needed for the winter and take up space. I imagine this is a sort of “This is SPARTA!” moment for the worker bees, freeing themselves of the loafers that sat around guzzling their gathered honey all year.

Even the queen, who can live up to five years, doesn’t live the glorious lifestyle we would associate with her title. She lays anywhere between 800 to 3,000 eggs a day in the hive, allowing the hive to grow and stay strong. But as a queen ages and struggles to maintain this level of activity, the hive will begin building a queen cell, where it will raise a new queen. Once that new queen returns after mating, the honey bees will ball up around the old queen and smother her to death.

Honey bee society almost perfectly mirrors communism. No bee owns anything. The honey cells are open to all bees. Everyone does their job for the good of the hive. This model can be amazingly productive. Some honeybee hives can produce over a hundred pounds of honey in a year. Considering that a gallon of honey takes around 55,000 “bee miles” of flight to produce, the bees certainly prove that a communist society can produce good results when everyone is dedicated to the cause.

But bees also show the dark side of communism. Once a bee is no longer useful to the hive, its cast out to die without thought or mercy. Whether it is workers that are used up, drones that never mated with a virgin queen, or a queen that can’t lay enough eggs, the hive is fast to discard any bee deemed no longer useful. There is no bee retirement. Heck, bees can’t even live alone, as experiments have shown they die if not in the hive despite having plenty of food and water.

Honey bees give us a glimpse into what communist perfection looks like, a world that can be both amazingly productive and savagely dehumanizing at the same time. While not everything translates from bee to man, the similarities do exist. I wonder if bees were placed on this earth by God to teach lessons about ourselves. Wisdom is often described as learning from the mistakes and successes of others. Perhaps we would be wise to learn from the honey bee before attempting to model our society after a hive.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you liked this article, consider purchasing a book from the author or donating to Da Tech Guy.

Opioids are no joke

The opioid addiction crisis in America has been in the news for quite a few years now. It tends to elicit the same politically-motivated responses from each side. The Left seems to ignore it mostly (since it hits a large portion of rural America that doesn’t vote for them), but occasionally someone uses it to argue for more lenient drug laws and better rehab options. The Right uses it to argue for more money for rural areas and occasionally rails about Big Pharma.

It’s hard to really understand what motivates someone addicted to opioids if you’re a regular person like me that doesn’t use illicit drugs. But I got a taste of it this past week. I had surgery last Friday on my shoulder to repair the over 18 years of damage the Navy has done to me, shoving me in submarines, airplanes and other small spaces that I was probably never meant to fit into. It all caught up, so I spent over two hours with a surgeon poking around my shoulder and repairing the various tears and installing a lot of anchors. When it was all finished, my brother-in-law drove me home with a large pack of medications, one of which was oxycodone.

Now, I’ve never had any narcotics, so I was careful to take the oxycodone on the prescribed schedule. By Sunday, I felt awesome. Sure, my arm was still in a sling and I was slowly working it back into a full range of motion, but I still felt great. I was walking around the house just fine, enjoyed being outside in my garden showing my kids what vegetable to pick, and I did plenty of “Netflix and chill.”

The chill dropped off on Tuesday. My prescription ran out, and that morning I had physical therapy. I would describe the crash of my mood like the drop as sudden, awful and gut wrenching. The last case was definitely true, since I threw up after the physical therapist had tortured me for 30 minutes. I spent most of Tuesday on the couch with some sort of ice pack on my shoulder, wondering what pain the next 10 minutes will bring.

Wednesday was better, and I learned to work through my pain, and by Thursday I was back to a much happier place. That brief glimpse of how effective oxycodone was, and how my whole world changed just after going off it from a weekend of use, gave me a far better understanding of just how powerful addiction is and the difficulty in breaking it. I have a lot more sympathy for someone that is in constant pain and just wants to feel normal, and if you can take a tiny pill (my oxycodone was the size of my thumbnail) to make it all go away, why wouldn’t you?

I can’t say I know what the answer to the opioid crisis is, but I can say some of our assumptions are flawed. I don’t think most people want to be addicted. I knew that while it was easy to take that tiny pill to feel better, long term it was a bad idea. Thankfully I have a family that can support me sitting on a couch for a while. What about senior citizens that don’t have family? What about the many single people who don’t have adult kids or even neighbors to check in on them? Thrusting these people into a bucket labeled “deplorable addicts” denies them humanity and makes it too easy and convenient to ignore their plight.

We need some actual solutions to opioid addiction that preserve our use of these drugs to manage pain while recognizing the power they have to destroy our lives if we aren’t careful.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you liked this article, why not donate to Da Tech Guy or purchase one of the author’s books on Amazon?

SABLE / GERBEL Draft Face to Face League 2021 Plus AA Draft

AA Draft first

Franchise	Player	Position	Team	Round
Tampa Bay Mike	Paul Blackburn	Starting Pitcher	Oakland	1
Cleveland Mike	Gilbert Celeseino	Centerfielder	Minnesota	1
NY Yankees Sherwood	Gavin Sheets	Right Fielder	Chicago (a)	1
Oakland Patrick	Seth Brown	Right Fielder	Oakland	1
St. Louis Alvin	Riley Adams	Catcher	Washington	1
NY Mets Mark	Michael Chavis	Second Baseman	Pittsburgh	1
Washington Peter	Nate Pearson	Pitcher	Toronto	1
Colorado Brian	Christian Pache	Centerfielder	Atlanta	1

Round 2

Franchise	Player	Position	Team	Round
Tampa Bay Mike	Joe Ryan	Starting Pitcher	Minnesota	2
Cleveland Mike	A. J. Puck	Relief Pitcher	Oakland	2
St. Louis Alvin	Jake Rogers	Catcher	Detroit	2
NY Mets Mark	Chris Archer	Starter/Relivers	Tampa Bay	2
Washington Peter	Dustin May	Pitcher	Los Angeles	2
Colorado Brian	Ryan Braiser	Relief Pitcher	Boston	2

Round 3

Franchise	Player	Position	Team	Round
Tampa Bay Mike	Cody Poteet	Starting Pitcher	Miami	3
Cleveland Mike	Evans Philips	Pitcher	Los Angeles	3
Washington Peter	Dakota Hudson	Starting Pitcher	St Louis	3
Colorado Brian	Jesus Sanchez	Right Fielder	Miami	3

Round 4

Franchise	Player	Position	Team	Round
Tampa Bay Mike	Joe Connor	Left Fielder	Colorado	4
Cleveland Mike	Brian De La Cruz	Centerfielder	Miami	4
Colorado Brian	Alex Woods	Starting Pitcher	Los Angeles	4

Round 5

Franchise	Player	Position	Team	Round
Tampa Bay Mike	Jason Bosier	Third Baseman	San Francisco	5
Cleveland Mike	Kyle Isabel	Right Field	Kansas City	5

The Regular Draft

Round 1

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Tampa Bay Mike	Miles Straw	Center Fielder	Cleveland	1
Tampa Bay Mike (Via Cleveland)	Tyler O’Neil	Left Fielder	St. Louis	1
NY Yankees Sherwood	Mookie Betts	Right Fielder	Los Angeles	1
Oakland Patrick	Richie Rodrigues	Short Reliever	Atlanta	1
St. Louis Alvin	Tyler Anderson	Starting Pitcher	Seattle	1
NY Mets Mark	Anthony DeSclafani	Starting Pitcher	San Francisco	1
Tampa Bay (via Washington & San Diego)	David Fletcher	Second Baseman	Anaheim	1
Colorado Brian	Tim Anderson	Shortstop	Chicago (a)	1

Round 2

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Tampa Bay Mike	Jose Ramirez	Third Baseman	Cleveland	2
Cleveland Mike	Ryan McMann	Third Baseman	Colorado	2
NY Yankees Sherwood	Sean Murphy	Catcher	Oakland	2
Tampa Bay Mike (via Oakland Patrick)	Adolis Garcia	Centerfielder	Texas	2
St. Louis Alvin	Tyler Stevenson	Catcher	Cincinnati	2
Tampa Bay Mike (Via NY Mets Mark)	Omar Navarez	Catcher	Milwaukee	2
Washington Peter	Jose Altuve	Second Baseman	Houston	2
Tampa Bay Mike (via Colorado Brian)	Thomas Nighto	Catcher	NY National	2

Round 3

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Tampa Bay Mike	Carlos Rendon	Starting Pitcher	Chicago (a)	3
Tampa Bay Mike (Via Cleveland)	Dilan Cease	Starting Pitcher	Chicago (a)	3
Tampa Bay Mike (via NY Yankees Sherwood)	Nolan Arenado	Third Baseman	St Louis	3
Tampa Bay Mike (via Oakland Patrick)	Whit Merrifield	Second Baseman	Kansas City	3
Tampa Bay Mike (via St. Louis Alvin)	Tyler Ward	Right Fielder	Anaheim	3
NY Mets Mark	Tony Kemp	Second Baseman	Oakland	3
Tampa Bay Mike (via Washington)	Manny Magout	Center Fielder	Tampa Bay	3
Tampa Bay Mike (via Colorado Brian)	Yandy Diaz	First baseman	Tampa Bay	3

Round 4

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Oakland Patrick (via Tampa Bay Mike)	Kenley Janson	Relief Pitcher	Los Angeles	4
Cleveland Mike	Lorenzo Cain	Center Fielder	Milwaukee	4
NY Yankees Sherwood	Adam Duval	Right Fielder	Atlanta	4
Oakland Patrick	Kevin Newman	Shortstop	Pittsburgh	4
St. Louis Alvin	Gregory Soto	Short Relief	Detroit	4
NY Mets Mark	Ranger Swarez	Starting Pitcher	Philadelphia	4
Washington Peter	Luis Robert	Center Fielder	Chicago (a)	4
Colorado Brian	Trevor Richards	Long Relief	Toronto	4

Round 5

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Oakland Patrick (Via Tampa Bay Mike)	Bailey Ober	Starting Pitcher	Minnesota	5
Washington Peter (via Cleveland Mike)	Chris Taylor	Everywhere (but c)	Los Angeles	5
NY Yankees Sherwood	Jacob Stallings	Catcher	Pittsburgh	5
Oakland Patrick	Mark Cana	Left Fielder	Oakland	5
Oakland Patrick (via St. Louis Alvin)	Paul Segal	Short Reliver	Seattle	5
NY Mets Mark	Kiki Hernandez	Center Fielder	Boston	5
Washington Peter	Mark Melancon	Short Reliever	San Diego	5
Colorado Brian	Ian Kennedy	Short Relief	Philadelphia	5

Round 6

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Cedric Mullins	Centerfielder	Baltimore	6
NY Yankees Sherwood	Sonny Gray	Starting Pitcher	Cincinnati	6
Oakland Patrick	Yu Darvish	Starting Pitcher	San Diego	6
St. Louis Alvin	Jaylin Garcia	Relief Pitcher	San Francisco	6
NY Mets Mark	Emanuel Chase	Pitcher	Cleveland	6
Washington Peter	Alex Reyes	Relief Pitcher	St. Louis	6
Colorado Brian	Casey Mize	Starting Pitcher	Detroit	6

Round 7

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Josh Harrison	Second Baseman	Oakland	7
NY Yankees Sherwood	Nick Castellanos	Right Fielder	Cincinnati	7
Oakland Patrick	Hanson Alberto	Third Baseman	Shortstop	7
St. Louis Alvin	Aledmys Diaz	Third Baseman	Houston	7
NY Mets Mark	Michael Brantley	left Fielder	Houston	7
Washington Peter	Francisco Lindor	Shortstop	New York (n)	7
Colorado Brian	Joey Gallo	Left Fielder	Yankees	7

Round 8

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Kyle Farmer	Shortstop	Cincinnati	8
NY Yankees Sherwood	Christian Yelich	Left Fielder	Milwaukee	8
Oakland Patrick	Luis Arraez	Third Baseman	Minnesota	8
St. Louis Alvin	Alex Verdugo	Left Fielder	Boston	8
NY Mets Mark	Drew Rasmussen	Starting Pitcher	Tampa Bay	8
Washington Peter	Chaz McCormick	Center Fielder	Houston	8
Colorado Brian	Nick Madrigal	Second Baseman	Chicago (a)	8

Round 9

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Lury Garcia	Second Baseman	Chicago (a)	9
NY Yankees Sherwood	James Tallon	Starting Pitcher	New York (a)	9
Oakland Patrick	Reese McGuire	Catcher	Toronto	9
St. Louis Alvin	Corey Seager	Shortstop	Los Angeles	9
NY Mets Mark	Pete Alonzo	First Baseman	New York (N)	9
Washington Peter	Rhys Hoskins	First Baseman	Philadelphia	9
Colorado Brian	Luke Weaver	Starting Pitcher	Arizona	9

Round 10

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	George Alfredo	Catcher	Miami	10
NY Yankees Sherwood	Marcus Seminan	Second Baseman	Tornoto	10
Oakland Patrick	Elias Diaz	Catcher	Colorado	10
St. Louis Alvin	German Marquez	Starting Pitcher	Colorado	10
NY Mets Mark	Tejay Antone	Relief Pitcher	Cincinnati	10
Washington Peter	Tucker Barnhart	Catcher	Cincinnati	10
Colorado Brian	Jose Uquity	Starting Pitcher	Houston	10

Round 11

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Clayton Kershaw	Starting Pitcher	Los Angeles	11
NY Yankees Sherwood	Ryan Montcastle	First Baseman	Baltimore	11
Oakland Patrick	Jordan Romero	Short Reliever	Toronto	11
St. Louis Alvin	Bret Gardner	Centerfielder	New York (a)	11
NY Mets Mark	Yonni Hernandez	Third Baseman	Texas	11
Washington Peter	Anthony Rizzo	First Baseman	New York (a)	11
Colorado Brian	Kyle Schwarber	Leftfielder	Boston	11

Round 12

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Garrett Whitlock	Relief Pitcher	Boston	12
NY Yankees Sherwood	Bo Bitchette	Shortstop	Toronto	12
Oakland Patrick	Raimel Tapla	Left Fielder	Colorado	12
St. Louis Alvin	Josh Bell	First Baseman	Washington	12
NY Mets Mark	Charlie Morton	Starting Pitcher	Atlanta	12
Washington Peter	Matt Chapman	Third Baseman	Oakland	12
Colorado Brian	Tyler Wells	Relief Pitcher	Baltimore	12

Round 13

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Michael Wacca	Starting Pitcher	Tampa Bay	13
NY Yankees Sherwood	Brain Daubach	First Baseman	Boston	13
Oakland Patrick	David Peralta	Left Fielder	Arizona	13
St. Louis Alvin	Jena Seguria	Second Baseman	Philadelphia	13
NY Mets Mark	A. J. Pollick	Left Fielder	Los Angeles	13
Washington Peter	Tyler Alexander	Starting Pitcher	Detroit	13
Colorado Brian	Ketel Marte	Centerfielder	Arizona	13

Round 14

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Dalton Varsho	Catcher	Arizona	14
NY Yankees Sherwood	Nelson Cruz	First Baseman	Tampa Bay	14
Oakland Patrick	Max Kapler	Right Fielder	Minnesota	14
St. Louis Alvin	Carlos Hernandez	Starting Pitcher	Kansas City	14
NY Mets Mark	Casey Saddler	Relief Pitcher	Seattle	14
Washington Peter	Nathan Eovaldi	Starting Pitcher	Boston	14
Colorado Brian	Jack Flattery	Starting Pitcher	St. Louis	14

Round 15

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Chris Sale	Starting Pitcher	Boston	15
NY Yankees Sherwood	Justin Turner	Third Baseman	Los Angeles	15
Oakland Patrick	Michael Conforto	Right Fielder	New York (N)	15
St. Louis Alvin	Andrew Knizer	Catcher	St. Louis	15
NY Mets Mark	Ronald Torreyes	Third Baseman	Philadelphia	15
Washington Peter	Zack Greinke	Starting Pitcher	Houston	15
Colorado Brian	Mike Zunino	Catcher	Tampa Bay	15

Round 16

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Kolton Wong	Second Baseman	Milwaukee	16
Oakland Patrick	Dylan Carson	Right Fielder	St Louis	16
St. Louis Alvin	Cody Bellinger	Center Fielder	Los Angeles	16
NY Mets Mark	Johnathan Shoot	First Baseman	Detroit	16
Washington Peter	Wilmar Flores	Third Baseman	San Francisco	16
Colorado Brian	Tyler Glasnow	Starting Pitcher	Tampa Bay	16

Round 17

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Dylan Moore	Second Base	Seattle	17
Oakland Patrick	Tommy LaStella	Second Base	San Francisco	17
St. Louis Alvin	Zach Thomphon	Starting Pitcher	Miami	17
NY Mets Mark	Johan Moncado	Third Baseman	Chicago (a)	17
Washington Peter	Jackie Bradley Jr.	Center Fielder	Milwaukee	17
Colorado Brian	Pablo Lopez	Starting Pitcher	Miami	17

Round 18

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Giancarlo Stanton	Outfielder	New York (a)	18
Oakland Patrick	Eric Swanson	Relief Pitcher	Seattle	18
St. Louis Alvin	Yordan Alvarez	Left Fielder	Houston	18
NY Mets Mark	Ryan McKenna	Left Fielder	Baltimore	18
Colorado Brian	Spencer Patton	Relief Pitcher	Texas	18

Round 19

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Jeff McNeil	Second Baseman	New York (N)	19
Oakland Patrick	Lance Lynn	Starting Pitcher	Chicago (A)	19
St. Louis Alvin	Kodi Whitley	Relief Pitcher	St. Louis	19
NY Mets Mark	Mike Yazstremski	Right Fielder	San Francisco	19
Colorado Brian	Edwardo Escobar	Third Base	Milwaukee	19

Round 20

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
Cleveland Mike	Trevor Story	Shortstop	Colorado	20
Oakland Patrick	Jorge Alcala	Relief Pitcher	Minnesota	20
St. Louis Alvin	Corey Knebl	Relief Pitcher	Los Angeles	20
NY Mets Mark	Austin Hayes	Left Fielder	Baltimore	20
Colorado Brian	Devin Williams	Relief Pitcher	Milwaukee	20

Round 21

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
St. Louis Alvin	Jesus Agular	First Baseman	Miami	21
NY Mets Mark	Tony Gonsonlin	Starting Pitcher	Los Angeles	21
Colorado Brian	Andrelton Simmons	Shortstop	Minnesota	21

Round 22

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
St. Louis Alvin	Willie Adames	Shortstop	Milwaukee	22

Round 23

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
St. Louis Alvin	George Springer	Center Fielder	Toronto	23

Round 24

Franchise Drafting	Player	Position	Team	Round
St. Louis Alvin	Albert Pujols	First Baseman	Anaheim	24

Tragedy of the Commons: HOAs

Homeowner Associations, or HOAs, are a sneaky way that fascism crept into our daily lives. HOAs are ubiquitus in most residential neighborhoods, and unless you buy an older home or build from scratch, its hard to escape them, since around 80% of new homes are built into an HOA.

The original idea behind an HOA seems to be a way for cities to dump the responsibility for maintaining small residential parks. Rather than have the city maintain it, an HOA would collect fees and do the dirty work. Even better, HOAs could enforce codes on everything from mulch color to weeds in your lawn, which would keep home values up as well as property taxes. From the government’s perspective, its a win-win.

For homeowners, its a total loss. HOAs have taken on a mind of their own, going so far as to foreclose on people’s homes and sell them at auction. We’re not talking just one or two homes. In Colorado, one HOA had filed 2,400 foreclosure cases against homeowners. Many of these followed a similar pattern: a homeowner gets fined for some stupud nonsense like weeds, and if they don’t pay up, the HOA tacks on legal fees and late fees. Once you reach into the thousands of dollars, it becomes almost impossible for a homeowner to pay it, so the HOA files a foreclosure case and attempts to kick the homeowner out and sell their house at auction.

Kicking someone out of their house for weeds in the front lawn and selling the house at auction. Read that sentence out loud and ask yourself how any person could stoop that low.

HOAs try to rip out perfectly good trees, beat people up for free speech, and even punish someone for having the gall to put out a dog treat dispenser. By far the worst problem is that the HOA tries to regulate your life while you’re in your own home. It’s bad enough dealing with morons at work, but at home? HOAs were one of the main reasons I built a custom home not in a community (which you can read about here).

HOAs don’t often get national media attention, but your HOA probably controls your well being a lot more than most national politics do (except for Biden-flation). These monstrosities need to be dismantled and destroyed. Some people are doing just that through legal means, like the Colorado legislature that is limiting fees and foreclosure cases. Many people are pushing back. When one HOA tried to stop a thin-blue-line flag, multiple neighbors began flying the same flag. As Stu Scheller likes to say “We can’t all be wrong.”

If you’re in an HOA now, I recommend getting onto the board and dismantling it on the inside. That’s what one of my neighbors has done. He has approved and expedited nearly every neighbor request for their property, making sure people can do whatever they want to their property. If you can’t do that, you should bring up HOA reform with your state representative, so that instead of debating what person to name the next highway after, they might actually make your life better. It’s a fight worth fighting, and unlike national politics, your voice can really make a difference.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you enjoyed this article, please consider donating to Da Tech Guy and purchasing one of the author’s books.

The Current 1970 League Waivers list and a quick update on how it works UPDATE with current claims

Wanted to get out the list of players available on Waivers so people can decide who they want. Remember this is how waivers works

A team makes a waivers “Claim” on an unsigned player:

If no team with a worse record makes a “counter claim” The player goes on your 35 man roster Tuesday at 1 am
If a team with a worse record makes a “counter claim” on that player, the team with the worse record now becomes the claiming team and gets the player if no worse team makes a claim before the deadline.

Claims and counter claims can be made in either the chat room or the message center. The timestamp on either message will determine which claim comes first.
Only one waivers claim can be made per week.

VERY IMPORTANT: While this won’t be a problem week one of wavers REMEMBER that if a player any at bats or innings used by a player released into waivers ARE STILL USED UP IF YOU PICK THEM UP.

Example Joe Lahoud is currently on Seattle’s Roster

As you can see Lahoud has had two at bats and one walk. for Seattle. If for whatever reason I released him those at bats would still be used up so if another player wanting a last chance A power off the bench picked him up in waivers he would only have 38 (or 37 depending on how dynasty counts appearances

Anyways here are the players available.

The Batters

Tommie Aaron Atl
Luis Alcaraz KC
Hank Allen Mil
Bob Allison Min
Luis Alvarado Bos
Max Alvis Mil
Bob Aspromonte Atl
Bob Barton SD
Del Bates Phi
Curt Blefray NYY
Buddy Bradford Cle
Ron Brand Mon
Angel Bravo Cin
Gates Brown Det Claim NYY 6/23 Claim Successful
Ike Brown Det Claim Sea 6/11 Claim Successful
Bob Burda Mil
Jim Campanis KC
Darrel Chaney Cin
Ty Cline Cin
Gene Clines Pit Claim Pit 6/12 Claim Successful
Wayne Comer Wash
Mike Compton Phi
JIm Davenport SF Claim Philadelphia 6/25 Claim Successful
Tommy Dean SD
Bob Didier Atl Claim Washington 7/10 Claim Successful
Doc Edwards Phi Claim Pittsburgh 7/8 Claim Successful
Jim FAirey Mon
Mike Fiore Bos
Bobby Floyd KC
Tito Francona Mil
Vern Fuller Cle
Len Gabrielson LAD
Phil Gagliano Chc
Russ Gibson SF
Gus Gil Mil Claim Washington 6/25 Claim Successful
Greg Goossen Wash
Cesar Gutierez Det
Jimmie Hall Atl
Jackie Hernandez KC
Mike Hershberger Mil
Jim Hutto Phi
Johnny Jeter Pit Claim NYY 6/11 Claim Successful
Frank Johnson SF Claim SF 6/11 Claim Successful
Mike Jorgensen NYM
Rick Joseph Phi
Van Kelly SD
Lou Klimchock Cle
Andy Kosco LAD CLIAM Pit 7/15 Claim Successful
Ed Kranepool NYM Claim NYY 7/3 Claim Successful
Coco Laboy Mon
Keith Lampard Hou
Leron Lee StL
Charlie Manuel Min
Dave Marshall NYM
Don Mason SF
John Matias Chw
Rich McKinney
Jerry McNertney Mil Claim Minnesota 6/25 Claim Successful
Jerry Morales SD
Rich Morales ChW Chw Claim Seattle 6/27 Claim Successful
Russ Nagelson Det
Syd O’Brien Chw Claim Pittsburgh 6/25 Claim Successful
Don Pavletich Bos
Jim Price Det
Frank Quilici Min
Tommie Reynolds Cal
Rich Rollins Cle
John Roseboro Wash
Chico Ruiz Cal Claim Cincinnati 6/20 Claim Successful
Mike Ryan Phi
Chico Salmon Bal
Dick Schofield Bos
Rich Severson KC
Mike Shannon StL
Ron Slocum SD Claim Minnesota 6/20 Claim Successful
Willie Smith ChC
Russ Snyder Mil
Bill Sorrell KC Claim SF 6/18 Claim Successful
Bob Spence ChW Claim Sea 6/18) claim Successful
George Spriggs KC
Marv Staehle Mon
Larry Stahl SD
John Stephenson SF
Ron Stone Phi Claim Pit 6/18 Claim Successful
Gary Sutherland Mon
Ken Szolkiewicz Det
Javis Tatum Cal Claim Phil 6/18) Claim Failed! Successful COUNTERCLAIM MONTREAL 6/20
Bob Taylor SF
Hector Torres Hou
Pete Ward NYY Claim SF (6/24) Claim Successful
Ray Webster SD
Al Weis NYM
Don Wert Det
Floyd Wicker Mil
Walt William Chw
Ron Woods NYY Claim Minn (6/11) Claim Successful

Pitchers

Steve Barber Atl Claim CIN 6/12 Claim Successful
Dave Boswell Min
Don Cardwell Atl
Mike Savison SF
Rich Folkers NYM
Tom Griffin Hou Claim LA Dodgers 6/13 Claim Successful
Chuck Hartenstein Bos
Rick Kester Atl
George Lauzenique Mil
Dave Leonhard Bal
Denny McLain Det Claim Philadelphia (6/11) Claim Successful
Mike McQueen Atl Claim NY Yankees 6/18 Claim Successful
Barry Moore Chw Claim Washington (6/11) Claim Successful
Danny Murphy Chw
Lowel Palmer Phi Claim NYY 7/9 Claim Successful
Skip Pitock SF
Bob Reed Det Claim Philadelphia 7/19 (counts as 7/22) Claim Successful
Roberto Rodriguez ChC
Al Santorini SD Claim Montreal 6/11 Claim Successful
Tommie Sisk ChW
Lee Stange ChW
Dick Such Wash
Ray Washburn Cin
Mike Wegener Mon Claim LA 6/27 Claim Successful
Billy Wynne ChW

Stop pretending Star Wars hates Black People

I watched the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi last night, and I’d say it was pretty good. I’ve been warned by a few people its a “bait and switch” and we’ll get less Obi-Wan and more Sith Inquisitor Reva, but that remains to be seen. Her character so far is decent: dark, conniving, and ruthless, if a bit hot-headed, but certainly not dumb.

What is dumb is this article about LucasFilm prepping Moses Ingram (who plays Reva) for the coming racist backlash about her character. Two quotes stand out:

In her interview with the Independent, the “Obi-Wan” actress tackles diversity issues in the franchise. “To me, it’s long overdue. If you’ve got talking droids and aliens, but no people of colour, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s 2022, you know. So we’re just at the beginning of that change. But I think to start that change is better than never having started it.”
The Post Millenial.com

No people of colour?

So this guy is white?

And this guy?

And this guy?

(No, seriously, Jar Jar was played by Ahmed Best)

And who can forget this guy, the MOST iconic voice in Star Wars?

Star Wars has always had people of all races. It’s Science Fiction, which gives you the license to bring in darn near anyone with any background. Almost all of the portrayals have been good, and when they aren’t, its normally the studios fault. Lando Calrissian plays an awesome character in The Empire Strikes Back, and fans love him. James Earl Jones will never be forgotten for voicing Darth Vader.

Finn would have been a cool character had Rian Johnson not gutted his backstory to prop up Rey. I and many fans thought it was cool to see the man behind the stormtrooper helmet, but then Rian Johnson sacrificed him to become the butt of jokes in The Last Jedi. Remember when he uncovered that the Resistance was buying weapons on the black market illegally while on Canto Bight? That cool side story lasted for all of 30 seconds, so you could be forgiven for missing it. Wouldn’t it have been cool if Finn spent the films coming to grips with the Resistance using similar methods to the First Order? What if he had come from a crappy backwater planet that the First Order had rescued? The fact that Finn was a mediocre character had nothing to do with fans and everything to do with crappy directing, crappy plots and a box-ticking thinking when it comes to putting diversity on screen.

But the article doesn’t stop, because it has this gem:

John Boyega of the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy has said that their experience with the franchise has included a racial component to it. In order to comply with Chinese authorities, Disney shrunk Boyega’s character on the “The Force Awakens” poster in December 2015.
The Post Millenial

So where’s the outrage over this? Please actors and actresses, jump all over this one like you do with every single social issue here in the United States. But we know you won’t, because that sweet, sweet cash will keep your mouth shut.

To recap: there have always been people of color in Star Wars. Always. Some get great characters, some don’t. When the character is well acted and well developed, people love it. When that doesn’t happen, fans don’t like it. That goes for every character in Star Wars. Americans love good Star Wars characters, but the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like black people.

Now, I’m sure some dumbass on Reddit will claim to be a Star Wars fan and make a bunch of racists remarks on black characters. To which I say…so what? I’m sure some racist loser wishes Lando Calrissian was white. Nobody takes that guy or gal seriously. Heck, one could say that when fans fall in love with good, well developed characters that are portrayed by black people, it helps breakdown any racist tendencies they might have had.

I hope Disney gives us some good characters in the Obi-Wan series, and I hope they make Reva an intriguing, cool antagonist. Because perhaps what we need is a new hope.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you liked this article, why not buy one of the authors books? You can even get the audible version to distract you on your drive to work about the high cost of fuel these days.

Walmart vs. The Navy

One of the great things about being in the Navy is the chance to interact with people from all over the United States, and even the world. It’s diversity in its truest form. I’ve met someone from every single state, almost every territory and plenty of immigrants from countries in every continent and heck, I’ve even met people that traveled to Antarctica.

I’m quite proud that I never wasted these opportunities to learn about the background of the Sailors around me. It’s how I learned about the real difficulties my African-American Sailors faced growing up, or the difficulties for Sailors from the backwoods portions of America. I particularly remember one Sailor’s response to my question “Why did you join the Navy?”

“Well Sir, it was either that or working at a gas station my whole life.”

For many people, the Navy is there chance to get out of a bad circumstance. Compared to most companies, the Navy is happy to pay big money to train someone with nothing but a high school degree and give them a decent paying job with good benefits. In fact, I’d say it was one of the only places that did this.

But that has changed.

Walmart is now paying truck drivers over $100K a year.

Lowes and Home Depot are paying for employees to be upskilled, without debt.

These companies and others have always had a path for people to excel. A friend of mine works in McDonalds Corporate Headquarters, but he got started as a teenager flipping burgers. The problem was not that there isn’t much opportunity, but that it wasn’t advertised all that well. Now that it is, that’s a good thing, because the more skilled our labor force, the better it is for everyone.

Except the Armed Services.

The military depends on a constant flow of young, somewhat educated young people (mostly men) to fill its ranks every year and replace the older, burned out service members that leave. The choice between the service or a life of gas station work is a real choice many Americans face every day. But if you can drive trucks for Walmart at $95K your first year, you’re making more then any non-nuclear Petty Officers in the Navy. Combined with not getting shot at in a war zone or deploying on a ship in such conditions it might make you turn to suicide, and it looks like a pretty good deal.

Even Business Insider is reporting on it now.

In the quest for manpower, my money is on Walmart, not the military.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency, because they’ll tell you everything is great while I tell you the truth. If you enjoyed this post, check out some of my books on Amazon, they make great gifts for your friends.

Firewood and Breast Milk

If it was a real person, you’d accuse me of clickbait!

I sell firewood at my house. I cut down trees on my property (or cut up trees blown over by a storm), saw them into 16 inch pieces, split them with a hydraulic log splitter, and then dry them on a rack in the sun for almost a year. After that, I put them out in a nice, lighted stand at the end of my driveway. Most people pay me with cash, although quite a few are now paying me with Zelle. I give them more firewood then the 7-11 does for the same price, and everyone walks away happy.

Recently on the NextDoor App, some lady made the mistake of complaining that she couldn’t find any nice, split firewood for free. I and many others reminded her that properly split and dried firewood takes time and effort, and as such people like to be compensated for that time and effort. She scoffed at that notion.

I was going to ask if she stayed warm at night under a blanket in the form of the flag of the People’s Republic of China…but I decided against that.

Plenty of people want something for free. Americans are generous people, and while the pandemic drove down charitable donations, a majority of Americans still donate in some way. But donations are gifts, and you shouldn’t fault people for wanting compensation for their time and talent.

That brings us to breast milk. The expectation from quite a few people is that breast milk should be donated to a breast milk bank. That’s all well and good, but as I noted in my book (which you should absolutely read!), when my wife attempted to donate to our local bank, the number of rules and restrictions were outrageous. For example, if you take any supplement outside of prenatal vitamins, it precludes you from donating. I find it absurd that taking glucosamine sulfate means that you should dump perfectly good breast milk down the drain because the milk bank won’t take it.

Then there is the fact that breast milk donations get sold. At non-profit milk banks, this is touted as a way to cover freezers, employee pay and other expenses. Most milk banks sell breast milk at around five dollars an ounce.

To help defray the costs of screening donors and managing donated breast milk, nonprofit milk banks typically charge recipients a fee of about $5 per ounce of milk. “Although the milk is donated, there are expenses, such as milk processing, milk distribution, and buying of pasteurizers, freezers, and bottles,” Noble said
Healthline.com

Insurance coverage is hit or miss, and you’re stuck with the bill if your insurance says no.

Now, you can always buy formula…oh wait, not right now. Hence the increased interest in breast milk banks. And, hence the increased interest in purchasing breast milk through websites like Only The Breast (yup, that’s a real, non-pornographic website). Which has sparked lots of debate on whether people are justified to sell their breast milk.

To which I say, if you want to sell it, you’re 100% justified in doing so.

It is a pain to hook up to a breast pump, put everthing in a nice bag, freeze the milk and then store it. To make substantial milk, you’re eating more calories then normal, which costs more money. All this work, and yet some people think its unethical to pay people for their time and effort. The fake science studies people have even “questioned” the safety of purchasing breast milk, but can’t point to any significant cases where someone sold dangerous breast milk. While, on the contrary, there are plenty of cases of bad formula, but that hasn’t stopped hospitals from pushing it on mothers.

If I was a conspiracy theorist, linking this push of formula on mothers, and then a shortage of formula spiking the price which brings more money to formula companies, would be pretty easy. Did we create this crisis to further some other agenda? It doesn’t look good.

Selling breast milk undercuts milk banks and makes it easier to get milk locally. It compensates women for their time, effort and calories, and it encourages money to stay locally instead of fueling some big corporations that have every incentive to profit from formula shortages and breast milk donations that they can markup on their own.

Which is exactly why many interested people want you to believe its unethical. People that, just like my firewood example, don’t place any value on your time or effort.

Moms, if you’ve got extra milk, check out OnlyTheBreast, or talk in your mom groups about selling or donating your milk on your own terms. Don’t feel bad asking for some compensation, if nothing else for the time it took you to bag everything and stay hooked up to an uncomfortable machine. You could help solve the formula crisis, since its not like the US government is going to anytime soon.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. While you’re getting ready for Memorial Day, why don‘t you buy one of my books on Amazon and help me out?

Some New Rules for The 1970 Season: Waivers Week 3, Emergency Waivers, Draft Picks up to Round 7 Tradable, Conditional Draft Picks

I’d like to announce four changes to league rules that will that effect this season. Two are changes to existing rules. One is to handle a problem that wasn’t addressed last season and one is a brand new rule that I’m implementing due to odd circumstances for this season.

Wavers Begin After Week 3

Last season to speed up the draft we allowed people to drop out after they hit 30 players and go into waivers early. Because of the limited amount of players by comparison with 18 teams this was changed to drafting to a max of 30 players. However the nature of the Dynasty game clearly shows that 30 players might not be enough due to injuries and suspensions.

So instead Waivers will begin for everyone starting week three under the following rules:

After week three (series 6) teams will be able to make waivers claims
Waivers Claims may be made at Saturday Mornings beginning at 12:01 AM EST and ending on the following Monday 2:00 PM EST
To make a waivers claim a team announces either via the chat room or via a blast in the System that they are claiming a player who is not currently on a roster off of waivers.
If no valid counterclaim is made by a team with a worse record that waivers claim will be upheld and the player shall be placed on the roster at 1 AM EST on the Tuesday after that week.
If the added player brings any roster above 35 active players (that is players on the major or minor league roster not counting the DL) the claiming team shall release a player who will be available in waivers the following week if he has a card or available in the draft the following season if he does not.
1. Example Boston makes a waivers pick which brings their roster to 36. They choose to release John Mayberry to make room. The following week Mayberry can be claimed off waiver by any team that wishes (including Boston) that either has room or can make room for him
2. Example Rico Carty missed the entire 1971 season due to injury. Boston chooses to protect him and retain the rights to him during the 1971 season. If at any time that season they make a waivers pick that brings them over 35 they can release their rights to Rico Carty. Because he doesn’t have a card in the 1971 season he can not be picked up in waivers but CAN be drafted the following year.
3. Example: Atlanta has Tom Burgmeier on the DL which reduces his total of available players (majors and minors) to 34. They pick up a player in waivers. No player has to be released as long as the active roster remains at 35. As soon as Burgmeier is eligible if Boston wishes to activate him they must either add an already injured player to the DL or release a player to get the roster back to 35.
A team may only make one waivers claim per week with TWO exceptions
1. If two teams both make a claim for the same player the claim that came with the earliest timestamp either in waivers or the message system of dynasty shall be considered to have made the waivers claim. In that case the player with the later time may either make a different waivers claim or , if eligible put in a COUNTERCLAIM for said player
2. A team may make a 2nd waivers pick if they are making a claim under the EMERGENCY WAIVERS rule (see below)
COUNTERCLAIMS: When a team makes a waivers claim on a player. Said claim is subject to a Counterclaim.
A counterclaim may be made by any team with a worse record than the team making the claim provided that said team does not already have an active waiver claim in progress.
If an eligible team makes a counter claim the initial waivers claim the initial waivers claim is forfeited and the team making the counterclaim shall be considered the player making a waivers claim on said player subject to the rules above and subject to a counter claim by a team with an even worse record.
If two teams with identical records make a counterclaim for the same player the team that had the worse record in the draft shall have precedence.

Emergency Wavers

While rare there are cases when due to injury, rest rules or suspensions, a team does not have a legal available pitcher to start a game either on the major league roster or in the minors to call up. An even rarer situation is that a team may not have a person available to play a legal player to start at a non-pitching position. In such a case a team my request EMERGENCY WAIVERS from the commissioner.

If it is granted in such a situation the player may before the game is played make a pick from the waivers pool. The pick MUST be a player who fills the emergency role either a starting pitcher if there is nobody who can start a game or a batter who plays the vacant position at any skill level.

Standard roster rules apply to EMERGENCY WAIVERS picks meaning a team making an emergency pick must make room for said player if the emergency pick brings his roster above 35. The player released will be placed in the waivers pool.

EMERGENCY WAIVERS picks are not subject to counterclaims.

Draft Picks Up to Round Seven Now Tradable

When trading begins after week five (series 10) instead of picks up to round 5 being tradable picks up to round 7 may be traded.

Previous trade rules apply.

Reminder no franchise that has announced either publicly to the league or privately to me that they will not be playing next season may trade draft picks. Players who are considering giving next season a miss are encouraged not to trade draft picks so as not to hamper whoever takes over the franchise.

Conditional Draft Picks In Trades

A situation came up last season where shortly after a trade was made for Dick Allen Dynasty announced they were not only going to release the 1968 season online but would be releasing 1971 & 1972 not to long afterwards, The team trading away Allen object as they said they would not have traded him if they had known those season might be available as won the MVP in 1972 and had a pretty good year in 71 as well. So the option to reverse the trade was given to Cincinnati and they accepted that option.

Since we don’t know for sure if next season will be 1973 (the current situation) or either 1971 or 72 (if released by the time of the draft) we shall allow the use of a Conditional Draft Pick Clause in trades this season.

When making a trade this season involving draft picks a clause may be placed in the deal to allow additional or different draft picks to change hands dependent on us playing the 1971 or 1972 season next time around.

Example: Boston falls out of the race early due to injuries and Minnesota wanting to shore up it’s offensive attack wants to make a deal for Rico Carty. Boston wants a 1st & 2nd round pick for Carty but because Carty does not have a card for 1971 due to injury the Twins balk. The two teams may agree to include a Conditional draft clause saying that if we end up playing the 1971 season next Boston will get a 3rd and 7th round pick rather than the 1st and 2nd round pick.
Example Cincinnati again having a bad year offers to trade Dick Allen to the Pirates who are making a run. The Pirates offer 1st & 3rd round pick but because Allen’s MVP season might suddenly come into play the Reds insist that if we play 71 or 72 next season the he also get a 5th round pick. Pittsburgh agrees. so If at any time before next season’s draft 71 or 72 are released the Reds get that extra pick

No draft pick that is included as a conditional pick in one deal may be traded to another team.

Example: Boston & Minnesota has made the deal above for Rico Carty. After the trade Boston has a big turnaround and approaches California about Tommy John. Boston may NOT offer the picks they acquired from Minnesota to the Angels in any trade because there is a chance that he may not possess said picks. However if before the trade deadline Dynasty releases the 1971 season the picks may be traded.
Example: Minnesota having made the above trade with the conditional pick clause still looking to trade approaches California for Tommy John. He may NOT include his 3rd and 7th round pick in any offer to the Angels because those pick may not be available to him. However if the 1971 or 72 season is released before the trade deadline he can
Example: The reds want C Dwayne Josephson Pagan from the Phillies. Mike Kennedy being Mike Kennedy wants draft picks. The reds may NOT offer Pittsburgh’s 5th round pick unless Dynasty announces the release of the 1972 season before the trade deadline but the CAN offer Pittsburgh’s 3rd round pick because that part of their trade with Pittsburgh is not conditional.

If at any time during the season Dynasty releases the 1971 season then all conditional picks from trades are considered made and no more conditional picks may be included in trades.

If at any time during the season Dynasty releases the 1972 season but NOT the 1971 season any picks conditional on the 1972 season area considered made and can be traded.

If after the season BUT before the draft Dynasty releases either the 1971 or 72 season any conditional trade clauses from the current season become active

REMINDER! You may only trade draft picks for the following year.