I think this is a metaphor for capitalism

But it’s still a fascinating story. Did you know that old McDonald’s Monopoly game was totally corrupt and broken? An insider was stealing the million dollar instant winner tokens, and passing them along to associates who’d cash them in and kickback thousands of dollars to the thief. “Jerome Jacobson and his network of mobsters, psychics, strip club owners, and drug traffickers won almost every prize for 12 years”. Whoa. My family played the game, casually and intermittently — this was happening during the years my kids insisted on going to McDonald’s. And now I learn there was never any chance I was going to get lucky and become a millionaire.

You might argue that this is just the actions of one rogue crook, but there were other ways the game was rigged by the officials running it.

During that 1995 prize draw, something happened that would change the game. According to Jacobson, when the computerized prize draw selected a factory location in Canada, Simon Marketing executives re-ran the program until it chose an area in the USA. Jacobson claimed he was ordered to ensure that no high-level prizes ever reached the Great White North.

Sorry, Canada.

Jacobson and many of his associates were eventually caught, arrested, and got some short prison sentences and massive fines. But the woes of McDonald’s promotion didn’t end there.

And when lady luck regained control of the McDonald’s competitions, she handed winning tickets to a man wearing a full Pizza Hut uniform; a Taco Bell owner; and a former homeless man who was later charged with beating up his fiancée–a PR nightmare.

You know, this is what everyone should have expected when you build a promotional contest around a terrible game that celebrates the worst of greed and selfishness — you’re going to find it hijacked by looters within, and if it were really a fair contest, you’d find that sometimes people outside your ideological group would win. And what is the game of Monopoly but a transparent metaphor for the evils of capitalism?

Ooh, a moral philosophy test!

A 15 year old Honduran girl escapes from a detention center, and hides on your property. You discover her; she’s distraught and terrified, and does not want to go back to that horrible place. What do you do?

A) Continue to shelter her.

B) Contact an immigration aid society, or an immigration lawyer, and try to get her some help.

C) Rat her out to the police.

I think I’d try some combination of A & B; do what I can then, but try to find a better informed and capable source to provide better help. But that’s not what Frank Gonzalez did! He first called Nora Sandigo, a member of a non-profit that helps immigrants, but then he apparently had a better idea.

Before Sandigo could get there, police vans began circling the shop’s parking lot. Gonzalez said nobody from the shop called the police, but he eventually flagged down an officer and pointed to where the girl had hidden.

So his answer was C. I think he just failed the course.

Shall we learn some more about Frank?

“She said, ‘Please don’t punish me, don’t touch me, don’t hold my hand,’” he said. “They put handcuffs on her, but not like a criminal, like a human being.”

How do you handcuff someone like a human being, but not like a criminal? Frank doesn’t seem very bright here. He’s making non-excuses.

But wait, it gets worse.

Gonzalez, who came to the United States from Cuba in 1971 with his family, said he supports the Trump administration’s tough stance on border security but disagrees with separating families.

“People who want to come here, and work for the American Dream, they should get papers and follow the rules,” Gonzalez said. “But it breaks my heart to see mothers and fathers divided from their children. Families should be together all the time.”

Still, he says he supports Trump’s general immigration policy, adding, “Let’s make America great again.”

So he was an illegal immigrant himself, but was gifted with sanctuary just because of American anti-Cuba policies. And he’s unable to see the similarities in his past situation to a Honduran family fleeing their country for a better life. He’s the personification of Republican “I got mine, screw you” attitudes.

And then he has the gall to give us a goddamn MAGA to justify his actions.

Fuck you, Frank, you moral leper. You just failed Humanity 101.

We haven’t heard from Comma in a while, have we?

You remember Comma, the demented Sovereign Citizen who used to write to me frequently, with his peculiar style of phrasing every statement as a question. He’s back. This time he cc’ed his email to a bunch of people, but it’s addressed to…Richard Carrier’s lawyer. I think he wants to form an alliance.

I encourage this consolidation of their forces.

Are you aware that the University of Minnesota is currently illegally withholding Freethoughtblogs CEO & University of Minnesota, Morris Associate Professor PZ Myers’ criminal investigative data for his vandalism of a UMM newspaper from me? The Mirandized audio statement in DSS format and the corresponding transcript along with Myers’ writing sample and the vandalized student newspapers must be extremely damning for Myers’ and the University of Minnesota for them to illegally withholding them, right? How would you like the look at the evidence for the criminal complaint that I filed with the University Police for the the U of M’s data compliance officials willful refusal to provide me with Myers data? See attached. Oh, I’ve also included the Auroa Center data request that the U of M is also illegally withholding from me, haven’t I?

Terry Dean, Nemmers (320) 283-5713

If you’re wondering what he’s talking about, the campus right-wing newspaper accused me, without evidence, of having stolen a bunch of their papers. They had the campus police take a statement from me in which I denied everything. That was it. Ever since, Comma has been absolutely convinced that there is deep dark evidence of some wicked conspiracy in that recording, which the university is now trying to cover up, even though they told him they would make a copy of the tape and give it to him for the fee of $43.50. I guess that’s all it takes to stymie a True Patriot’s defense of the Principles of the United States of America, is a $43.50 fee.

You know, Carrier’s lawyer could go ahead and use Carrier’s money to purchase that recording. I don’t mind. Anyone can get it.

He also included a bunch of pdfs in his email, including the UMM Incident Report about the university’s official response to Comma’s accusation that I was harassing him, and the various correspondence he had to obtain his proof of my perfidy. He’s a very silly, man.

Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux: racist provocateurs

These two Canadians are in Australia now, preaching racism together. It’s kind of damning that Southern would want to be associated with raving loon Molyneux, and that Molyneux would want to be associated with slimy dirtbag Southern, but I guess they were made for each other.

Southern did her usual schtick of seeking out what she calls “no-go zones” to show how racist they are, as if she thinks racism is a bad thing. So she walks into an area with a high proportion of Muslims with camera and sound guy in tow, making a little bit of a spectacle of herself, and notices how suspiciously people are looking at her (surprise!) and that some people are yelling in Arabic (oh my god), and starts to head down a street to a mosque to stir up some real juicy footage. She’s stopped by a policeman, who tells her no: he knows that she’s there to provoke trouble, so he tells her that she may not go there. He also informs her that local white people have no trouble coexisting in this neighborhood — making it clear that the problem isn’t with respectful citizens, it’s specifically with her and her actions.

So she declares that this Australian neighborhood is under Sharia law. She knows nothing.

Molyneux was no better. He spoke to a packed house of cheering Aussies and delivered blatant racism against Australian aboriginal culture. There’s also some epic irony.

I want you you remember that great evils were halted with the advent of whites to Australia as great evils were halted with the advent of whites to South Africa

I don’t like the idea of racial pride” Molyneux says after talking about how amazing it was when whites came to Australia

We in the west have extended ethics beyond the in group. That’s why we have human rights, that’s why we ended slavery, that’s why we extended rights to minority group’s. We are the only culture to have done that. Other cultures are not Universalist but we are.

Oh, well. I guess it should be reassuring that the US doesn’t have a monopoly on evil wankers. Canada and Australia have got them, too.

You won’t get a blue wave if you ignore 99% of the barriers

This is what I worry about, too.

Except I don’t think the conditions that led to Trump are all that complicated. I’d rank them this way:

  1. Racism. Trump appealed to nativist bigotry.

  2. Gerrymandering and voter suppression, Republican party specialties.

  3. A history of anti-government propaganda, going all the way back to Ronald Reagan.

  4. A complacent media sucking up to power.

  5. Russian meddling.

I’d say, though, that the Russian meddling was exploiting weaknesses already present in the country — they just fed the corrupt beast a few snacks. They would have gotten nowhere if the other four factors weren’t also present, and they are our problems.

Those aren’t complicated problems. They’re just intractable and serve the interests of the people in power, so they have no interest in correcting them.

Dang, we’re still being sued for defamation, and the guy has acquired deeper pockets

Hey! Have you been wondering what’s going on with the Carrier lawsuit? I can’t tell you. It’s mostly secret.

I can tell you though, that he has a new friend with money.

And we still need more money.

Just for funsies, here’s the letter Carrier’s new little buddy sent our lawyer, if you like bad letters to lawyers.

Greetings.

I have reviewed evidence recently published arguing your clients have defamed Richard Carrier, and we have become very concerned that your clients may have engaged in dangerous misconduct that threatens a movement and cause we care about (vide richardcarrier.info/archives/14176).

It is my intention to fully fund Richard Carrier’s lawsuit against your clients, unless you can persuade me he has misled me as to the facts, and that your clients do have a realistic chance of prevailing at trial. So in reflecting on whether to support Dr. Carrier, I want to test the facts of the case. Accordingly, I am giving you the opportunity to dissuade me.

Are the facts as Dr. Carrier has laid them out correct, or are there facts contradicting what he has stated, and supporting your clients’ assertions against him? If so, please demonstrate that to me and I will withdraw my support from his case. I will interpret your inability to do so, as confirmation of our expectation that Dr. Carrier will prevail in this case and deserves my support.

Sincerely,

Mario Quadracci

More Ark Park details

I mentioned yesterday how the Ark Park attendance is falling short of the exaggerated promises Ken Ham made for it. Dan Phelps provides more details, and also presents Ken Ham’s excuse: it’s because they’re counting all the people, like children under 5, that they let in for free.

Therefore, Mr. Ham is claiming that almost 14% of people visiting the Ark are getting in for free. He is also saying that more people visited in the second year. Although possible, Ham’s apologetics for Ark attendance does not sound convincing. In any case, the Ark is not getting even half of the 2 million projected by Ham in the past. This was especially hurtful to the City of Williamstown, which bent over backwards (and apparently forwards) to the Ark with property tax breaks and selling the Ark nearly 100 acres of land for $2 (not to mention Grant County Development giving the Ark nearly $200,000 cash for locating there). Williamstown and Grant County were sold a bill of goods by AiG when they claimed that the Ark would be the panacea for the City and County’s financial woes.

So even if we accept his explanation (I’m willing), he has still fallen far short of the 2 million predicted visitors, and also, it’s a bit of a bait-and-switch. They begged for tax subsidies and community cash on the basis of bringing in all this tourist revenue with millions of paying visitors who would then contribute to the local economy. You don’t get to pad your numbers with all the people with no money that you’re letting attend for free.

Phelps is also not optimistic that the Ark will sink soon. I agree. Ham has money flowing in, even if it’s less than promised and it’s all going to his organization, rather than the community. He’s doing fine. He’s also planning to expand, because one lesson for grifting is that when you’ve got a lot of plates spinning in the air, it’s best to toss up another one, rather than letting one fall.

The Ark is leaking!

Once upon a time, Ken Ham was enthusiastically bragging about anticipated attendance figures for his Ark Park.

Over the years, secularists launched vicious attacks against the museum. They will increase, as the full-size Noah’s Ark, when it opens in 2016, is estimated to attract up to 2 million visitors a year…

Unfortunately for his glee, Dan Phelps got the actual attendance figures from a Kentucky Open Records Act query: for 2017-2018, the Big Wooden Box got 862,471 visitors. Not bad, but less than half of what he was expecting.

I wonder if Ham inadvertently revealed one of the reasons for the shortfall.

According to our research, around 60% of those visiting the Ark will be unchurched!

So he was predicting that over half the visitors would be unbelievers — you know, people like me, who visited once to gawk and point and laugh. We were there for the spectacle and the absurdity, not for religious instruction. And people like that are not likely to make repeat visits.