Author: Rex Nipper

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Turning Point

I have come to a turning point.  I have worked very hard to get where I am in life.  I was never expected by any teacher, or either of my parents to make it past a paper hat for job prospects.  However, I now work for a multi-billion dollar company managing a product that delivers health solutions to millions of people around the globe.  I really love what I do for a living, but it’s not what I would have chosen for myself.  I was shooting for rock star.  Still, it’s more than what I expected, and definitely surprised a lot of people who didn’t expect anything from me.  So I’m at least very proud of where I am.
Therefore, for personal reasons it comes as a particular conundrum that as I am at the pinnacle of my career that I am considering making a change.  During the last economic down turn in 2007, I started on a particular venture for documenting some of my cycling excursions around the country.  I’ve still been doing this, but the bulk of the work lasted until the economy returned and I started making real money back in the IT world.  I didn’t abandon the venture, but I also haven’t been putting the effort in it that I possibly could.  In the interim, several other sites have supplanted my place among the blogosphere, making it an extremely challenging prospect for me to return full time.  However, that is what I’m considering.

Keep in mind that for the moment my job is safe, and I have no intention of leaving said employment just now, but we are on the precipice of an economic fucktastrophy.  I might just be forced into a new opportunity by no decision of my own.  I’ve learned in my career, and in my life in general, that I have zero control over what someone else decides, only what my reaction is to that decision.  That’s how I got into the world of writing blogs in the first place.  I just plain didn’t know what else to do and let’s face it, my marketable skills are limited to fast typing, a quick wit, some cycling skills, and a marginal ability to turn a phrase. 
So I’ve been considering a few things.  Not the least of which is selling my house, packing up all the shit I can fit into a travel trailer, and selling or donating the rest.  I’m pretty sure there’s some poor guy sifting around the DAV needing a large couch that very briefly supported my old tired ass when I was able to spend a few days at home. 

I am also considering starting a travel/mountain biking blog, documenting my exploits while I travel from one end of the country to the other.  Think about it.  I love to write.  I equally love to ride.  I also like to tell people what I know, and what I think.  It sounds like a perfect fit.  If you consider all the things in the world I could be doing right now, it really doesn’t sound like a bad idea.  Then again…how do I pay for it?  Also, how do I get the most important person in my life to come with me, or at least fly out to see me when I’m at fun places to stay?
I’m sure to many of you it sounds like the most horrible idea you have ever heard.  I’m not sure I can fully disagree with you.  For one thing, it is true that I can’t really afford not having a full-time job.  It’s not like I’m independently wealthy.  For another thing, how would I put it all together?  Sure, I can write content.  I also have the tools and technology needed to document many of my exploits.  What I don’t have is a safety net if this all comes crashing down around my ears. 
So what I’m trying to do now is determine if selling all the things I have worked for, and the house they are in and just telling the world to fuck off is the best course of action.  It would allow me to quickly high tail it to Mexico when it all goes to shit (I would have chosen Canada, but my wife hates the cold).  However, I do like having a home to go to at the end of the day and an office to go to for working with the people I love.  So I think for now, I will just see which way the wind blows and make my decision then.

Rex

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Welcome to Modern Capitalism

What most people have yet to realize is that labels like Black, White, Christian, Muslim, Labor, Tory, Republican or Democrat mean nothing to the people who control our govenment.  They’re only terms used to keep the masses fighting. It takes a pretty deft few to convince a massive population into thinking that the reason they’re not wealthy is because of the poor and powerless, and not the rich and powerful.  
If you think a woman on welfare is the reason you’re broke, then think of this.  Jeff Bezos is worth 138 billion dollars.  He has 154,000 employees worldwide.  That means he could give every one of his employees $84,000.00 and still have 8 billion left to pay for groceries.  
The Walmart family has a combined net worth of 446 billion dollars.  There are 1.5 million Walmart employees, most of them making less than minimum wage, no health benefits, and are taking welfare that we pay for since Walmart doesn’t pay them above the poverty line.  Guess what Walmart could do.  Walmart could pay each associate a bonus of almost $300,000.00 and the family would still have six billion left.
Still think it’s a black welfare mom ripping you off?
“But Rex, these people built a business.  Why should they have to pay for those that didn’t work for it?”  So I guess what you’re saying is Bezos and the Walmart clan box all those packages, and sack all those groceries?  The people that work there, just sit on their asses and collect a paycheck for watching those folks do all the work?  Make no mistake, they had the business ideas, and they should benefit from that.  However, there are a whole bunch of folks that helped them get where they are today.  They didn’t do it all alone.  Shouldn’t those people benefit in the success that they worked so hard for as well?
If you’re stupid enough to believe that all I want is something for nothing, then continue to be a poor schmuck working as a wage slave.  If some idiot wants to stand on a corner and beg for dollars, and not work for a living well, they can knock themselves out.  What I’m talking about are the millions of hard working people who want nothing more than food, shelter, and healthcare.  
If you’re still blaming the poor for your troubles, then you’re being sold a bulk of bullshit and eating it like candy.  It’s time to start going after the true criminals.  These are the people who bend the media to keep us fighting.  Billionaires brake the laws of countries daily, robbing people of their hard-earned savings, committing murder, rape, and child molestation, and all they have to do is write a check to the right policeman, or the right judge, or the right politician and they’re free to go.  I say NO MORE!  No more should we stand by and let this happen.  No more should we allow a few of the rich and disgusting drive how the world functions, using politics and religion as their instruments.  
I’ll leave you with the following to ponder:
Imagine if someone owned a dry lake bed.  Then they convinced the townspeople to dig a trench from the river that is miles away into the lake.  The people came out daily for a year and dug the trench.  Many people died from accident or disease, and many more were injured, but finally, the water from the river filled the lake with fresh clean water for the town.  Now, you’d think that everyone in the town should benefit from the water.  However, you’d be wrong.  Every time anyone in the town wants water, they have to pay the man who owned the dry lake bed.  To live they pay 90% of everything they have to get water to survive.  Did the guy do anything for that water, other than own what was once a desert?  Nope.  The town did all the work.  But he’d convinced them that since they didn’t have the land, or the original idea, they have to pay for the water that they sweat, bled, and died to put into the lake bed.  
Welcome to modern capitalism.  
Rex
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Love Letter to Kim

You’re my first, middle, and last thought of the day.  I just thought I’d let you know.  Our anniversary (the first one), is in two weeks and in the six years we’ve been married, I’ve never once questioned marrying you.  It’s likely the only time in my life I ever made a decision I didn’t, at least at some point, regret.  You are my sun, you are my moon, and everything in between.  I adore you.
I was riding in the mountains yesterday and whenever I’m there, I go to the spot where, alone, we exchanged rings and promised each other we would be together forever.  I think about that day often.  I was in my favorite place, with my favorite person, hoping you wouldn’t change your mind.  
You have taken me on quite an adventure over the years.  I had planned on a solitary life alone with my thoughts and perhaps a book or two.  I doubt I would have ever left the mountains had you not come along.  With you I left the country for the first time, took a cruise on the ocean, been snorkeling in Maui, and rode the Tower of Terror at Disney Land.  That last one will NEVER happen again by the way.
You’ve filled my life with so many adventures, but the greatest one is you.  You, my dear, are my greatest adventure.  I never know what’s next.  I’m not sure I want to know.  You’re all at once a grandmother, mother, lawyer, teenager, and small child.  It’s fun to see what side of you shows up throughout the day.  It certainly makes things interesting.
Right now, for example, you’re outside decorating the house for Halloween.  You’re absolutely giddy, and I enjoy every minute of it.  I don’t even mind that you do all this, and then leave me to be alone to hand out candy to children when I’d rather be hiding in the woods away from humanity.  I do it because I love you.  I do everything because I love you.
Now you want to spend the winter on the beach and I’m good with that as well.  It’s what you’ve always wanted, and I’m happy you can do it. I’ll be here keeping the house warm for when you get back.  I might even hop on a plane a few times to come and keep you company when I can.  If you decide to make it permanent, I’ll pack up our house and move it all there.  All I ask is that you continue to love me, even with all my faults and I will love you with all your perfections.  
For now, all I can say is Its going to be a long winter.
Love
Rex
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The First Openly Criminal President

You gotta give the man props!  Most, if not all, people who are being investigated for a crime are smart enough to keep a low profile.  Granted, being the leader of the free world makes it difficult.  However, President Trump has turned audacity into an art form.  While the logical move would be to make careful and calculated public appearances, hire the smartest, and most successful legal team money can buy, listen to legal advice from that team over any other, and to ensure any public statements are vetted by professionals, Trump’s M.O. is to take every opportunity to do exactly the opposite. 

The man does know how to play the crowd.  His slowly dwindling (contrary to what that news likes to report, they’re dwindling) crowds fawn over every disjointed and ill-fated utterance that spews out of his mouth.  However the rest of the world is clearly onto him.  People are learning that enabling a talking puppet to be President might not have been the best choice. 

Trump has always been a liability to the Republican party.  However, they’ve been willing to use him like a portable toilet, moving him from event to event, piling him full of the shit that up to until now had lied dormant at the bottom of the Party’s cesspool.  You have ask yourself if letting this addle-minded moron represent you is the best idea when even the Party’s most loyal donor, Charles Koch, has bolted.

However, that hasn’t seemed to impact Republicans spirits yet.  They even sent a letter to their members denouncing the Koch foundation.  Evidently, they think they can make up the millions of dollars the Koch’s has given them over the decades with a group of poor, uneducated, misinformed, openly racist, Trump minions who think the earth is flat, Hillary is a pimp, and 9/11 was a hoax created by Obama.

While the press likes to say how high the percentage is of Trump’s support among Republicans, they fail to inform their audience of how Republicans are no longer identifying with Party affiliation and calling themselves Independents.  It’s easy to say you have 90% popularity if all you’re doing is polling the 15 stock car fans drinking free beer and eating Cheetos in your living room.  However, expand that to the neighbors staring at the rusting, oil encrusted, dilapidated rebel flag draped pick-up trucks on their parking and you get a significantly lower number.

I’m not saying that things will change in the next two years, in fact they might get a lot worse.  But I’m heartened that people are coming to the realization that they need to bring to light the ever present evil that now occupies the White House.  We have many examples throughout history where people failed to act when it was obvious that action was exactly what was needed.  The last time this happened the world was almost destroyed by a failed painter.  I’d sure hate to see it happen again from a failed real estate developer. 

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Trump the String Puppet

You have to have been hiding in a hole not to have heard about Trump’s disastrous press conference with Putin a couple of weeks ago.  It was so ridiculous that it was denounced by both Democrats, Republicans and everyone within the International community.  Since the election the world has been questioning whether Trump is a puppet of the Russian leadership.  Last week that question was answered with a loud, definitive and resounding YES!
The Russians are not alone however.  Trump has many masters.  It would be difficult to count how many since he lends himself so easily to control. Its no wonder he’s so disjointed.  Never in the history of the country has a leader been as spineless and crumpled as the marionette we have in office today.  However, rather than try to list all the people who have power over this President, let’s just see if we can group them.  
Let’s start with the Russians, both Putin and the Billionaires.  They obviously have something on the President.  Whether that something is photographs of being urinated on by women, in bed with a dead girl, live boy, or just the promise of riches after he leaves office has yet to be determined. What we do know is that their control is so complete that he’s willing to throw our law enforcement community, our military, and our people, under whatever bus they’re driving to save his own skin.
But don’t think Russia is the only puppet master.  The Republican leadership is playing him like a two-dollar fiddle.  Sure, he’s a mindless, moron with evidence of senility, but he’s also a helpful dupe in their efforts to push their draconian agenda.  Whether it be the removal of healthcare, tax cuts for the wealthy, or Supreme Court Justices, he’s a helpful tool to achieve their goals.  Let’s face it, Trump is powerless without the support of Congress. Congress on the other hand doesn’t really need the President.  He’s just making their lives easier.  When he’s following the Republican playbook, all is fine, but when Republicans don’t agree with him they pull so hard on his strings, his head whips back so violently his hair plugs begin to loosen. 
The other string pullers are the Religious Right.  Regardless of how abhorrent the man is to common decency, they are more than happy to keep him in office as long as he is willing to hold a blind eye to their raping of the American ignorant.  These whoring, petulant, repugnant bucket of child molesters who call themselves followers or Christ make my skin crawl.  If anyone wants to make America great again, lets go back to the 1880s so we can start with hanging these animals from the first sturdy tree we can find.  Given their M.O. of bilking the stupid of all their money, it’s no wonder in Trump, they see a common soul mate.
Then there’s the Media. They LOVE it when Trump spews out some non-sensical phrase or fat fingers some word into his twitter account. Come on kids, it’s hard to be coherent at 3 a.m., let alone when you’re trying to eat an entire bucked of KFC. Cut the man some slack!  Trump likes to yell “fake news” every five seconds and if you listen to what he says, and what gets reported, he’s not always wrong. Which makes it easy for him to sell the moronic notion that Fox is the only real news agency.  Seriously!  Why give him the opportunity?  This man couldn’t put two coherent words together with a dictionary, and speak and spell.  So why, when you know what his meaning is, do you not report the meaning?  I know, because it makes money.  That’s not to say the Donald doesn’t do and say things that a normal human being wouldn’t do or say, but isn’t there enough moronic shit to report without making it up on your own?
Last but not least the final string puller…the Democrats.  That’s right, the Democrats.  The only reason they are not pushing for this adolescent bloated orange asshole to be impeached is because he gets them donations.  With every moronic tweet, they get to fill their coffers with hundreds of thousands of dollars from people who are just sick and tired of being the laughing stock of the entire world.  Each time Trump opens his mouth, and a stream of stupid comes out that plays right into the hands of the Democratic National Committee.  Why in hell would they want him impeached?  He’s the fattest goose laying some of the largest golden eggs they’ve seen in a generation.
So the next time you see the President, or one of his moronic minions, speaking to the camera, just know that there is more than one group pulling the strings.  Also keep in mind that Trump is not so much as an anomaly of our political, and social system, but mirror of it.  He’s what happens when you turn news into entertainment.  When late night talk show hosts, and stand-up comedians, are how people are getting their news, don’t be shocked when we elect a clown-faced muppet for a President.
Rex