Ignorant Meme of the Week

 It's time for the stupid meme of the week. This one was taken off a favoured source of mine, a favourite mine to source for stupid memes, the personal site of our old friend and guitar master run amok, Ted Nugent. I follow his outrageously pro-Trump postings and occasionally comment on how dumb they are. I've had a little push-back from Trumpian/Nugian fans, but I don't dignify them, particularly on the hostile territory that is his personal site. But I thought this one was too stupid to let slide. I invite Nugists/Trumpists to challenge my logic on my home field. I doubt they will. 

I can't presume to know if this post by the Motor City Madman was precipitated by Joe Biden's recent decision (on his first day of decision making) to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to Steele City, Nebraska. But let's work on that assumption. Here's a map. The dotted line is the pipeline in question.

The KXL has had a rocky history. I've blogged about parts of that history here before. One major part of it we don't see on the map above is the fact that AFTER the "oil" gets to the coast, gets refined in the US refineries (we'll talk more about that later), it will be shipped to China. Obama rejected it in 2012 and vetoed the pipeline in 2015. Trump ran in 2016 on a pledge to approve the KXL, tried throughout his administration to speed up and/or stop the research on its environmental effects and thwart efforts by indigenous groups and environmentalists to stop it, then finally UN-vetoed it in 2020 just before leaving office. 

So, first off, Teddy, if it's the KXL you are approving, whether it's just to support your burly buddy, or it's because you think it gets you cheaper gas from Canada, I've got news for you: that ain't the "oil" you're using in your truck unless you're filling up at a gas pump in China. Kick in the balls, eh? All these Trumpies thinking he doesn't support China...

Canada has been trying for years to build oil pipelines to get the oil from Canadian land, which is land Canadians pay taxes on; we all have contributed work to; our blood, sweat and tears nourish; and the resources thereof should be removed and distributed only with the approval of the Canadian citizens. Though they all claim it is, this is NOT a sentiment shared by our politicians, Conservative OR Liberal. This is best illustrated by Conservative Stephen I-Love-China-More-Than-Canada Harper's FIPA agreement that he signed knowingly in opposition to Canadians back in 2014. The most significant quote from his 9 years as PM: "We know this is really, really unpopular, but we're doing it anyway." 

That agreement has the current Liberal PM, Justin Trudeau on his toes trying to look like an environmentalist, while still desperately trying to get oil to China to hold up our end of the FIPA. The alternative, in Trudeau's defense, would be China suing for billions of our tax dollars. So THAT wouldn't be good either. What WOULD be good, and I continuously say it on this blog, is if Canada just stopped dealing with the Chinese (not to say kissing their human rights violating asses), but it seems our government will never learn. Witness this recent example. 

Energy East was a proposed pipeline going from the Alberta oilsands WAAAAY across Canada in an eastern direction. It would have been the longest in the world I think. "East" in that name was a euphemism for China. It failed. Northern Gateway was a nice sounding name for a more direct path to the ocean going west. It also failed. The latest is the Trans Mountain improvement project that uses and existing pipeline (going west) to get the bitumen to the water so it can be shipped to China. It's currently in the process of failing. Why does Canada seem so desperate to do this oil pipeline thing? Because of the above-mentioned deal described in this article I have posted on this blog before. And China IS becoming very comfortable using the lawsuit to claim what it would lawfully consider to be lost income due to the pipelines' failures.

So, Teddy, in a way, being pro pipeline, whether you know it or not, means you are okay with the Chinese suing Americans and Canadians for our tax dollars. 

Like most supporters of pipelines, I'm sure Ted Nugent would use the jobs and economy rebuttal to any argument I could offer him about the dangers of fossil fuels. Pipelines leak. Pipeline workers know it. The cartoon below is from a Trans Mountain Pipeline employee newsletter. 

You may have wondered at my quotation marks around the word "oil" earlier in this post. The Alberta oil sands, sometimes called "tar" sands, yield a gucky substance known as bitumen. It's more like grease at room temp and it's fucking near impossible to clean up when it spills. MUCH harder than crude oil or refined oil. The media, most of which is owned by the same folks who own the governments, just say "oil" to inaccurately refer to spillage. And they say things like, "Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil." Well they want you to think that that means it's safe. It doesn't. It only means it's safer than this:

That's the Lac-Megantic rail disaster. Ever hoid of it? Of course you haven't! It's not something our oil-dependent owners want us to know about. 

Instead you get this:

That's the Kalamazoo River bitumen spill. A pipeline leaked about 843,000 gallons of Alberta oilsands dilbit (diluted bitumen) into the Kalamazoo River. Didn't hear of that one either? Well, info is a bit hard to come by in this area. But since the oil sands are in Alberta, this might be interesting to anyone who thinks oil spills are an uncommon occurrence. It's a bit dated, but the average between '75 and '13 was two a day. I'd suggest that it only increased since then, but I don't have the data. You'll have to suffice with this. Just look at that map and you'll relate to that cartoon above. 

What's more, the fossil fuel industry no longer creates more jobs or boosts the economy more than green energy. It's a tired and inaccurate argument that politicians knowingly mislead people with in order to earn their kickbacks from fossil fuel businesses. It's shameful that North American politicians can't kick their addiction to fossil fuel MONEY, but it seems that even in the face of political adversity, renewable resource development is becoming a privately profitable and job-creating powerhouse while remaining almost totally independent of government. 

It will surprise absolutely no-one, I'm sure, that the cost for cleaning up the messes the fossil fuel industry makes is always subsidized and very often covered completely by taxpayer money. So when Trudeau comes out with a new carbon tax (that he calls something - ANYTHING but a carbon TAX) and immediately Canadians complain that it will raise the price of gas, well they're right, but not as right as they think they are. It's not the government directly raising the price of gas. It's the oil companies' knee-jerk reaction to raise the price of gas to more than offset the new carbon taxes. And to be honest, it's the Canadian citizens who are so browbeaten by taxes that they have become an accepted torture. We don't have to accept them. We don't have to buy the products big businesses keep raising the prices of. We don't have to accept governments who subsidize the fossil fuel industry either. It doesn't help to just gripe and still do what we're told by our owners. There are things we can do. Stop driving. I haven't bought a drop of gas in almost two decades. Drive less. Drive a smaller car. Drive a hybrid. It won't really make much of a difference, and it's really NOT our responsibility since private citizens make up a tiny fraction of the pollution in our countries. The majority is from, you guessed it, big business. And those big polluters are SUBSIDIZED by our governments, i.e. ENCOURAGED to pollute! But we don't have to take that shit. Here's a petition you can sign. 

So, Teddy, get yourself an electric truck, or at least a hybrid. You are proudly admitting to destroying your own land, water and air with your ignorant meme. 

Furthermore, Motor City Madman, you should know this if you truly deserve that nickname, a V8 engine at 2000 RPM's creates about 133 explosions per second in your truck. Maybe 40 per second while idling. These are explosions within the cylinders using spark and compressed, highly refined oil in the form of gasoline or diesel fuel. Your truck may occasionally leak oil, it happens. 

Here's an unexpected kind of explosion at a Mexican pipeline caused by the soaring price of gas, which has lead to gas theft becoming a booming resource in Mexico, pardon the pun. At least 137 people were killed in this explosion. And here's a leak from the Keystone Pipeline, which I'm assuming you're supporting with your meme, that is slightly larger than an oil leak from your truck would be. 383,000 gallons of oil. That'll do some damage!10X the amount of damage than first reported. TC, the company that now owns the KXL, is the not so cleverly concealed new identity of Trans Canada Pipelines. They changed that name to remove the "Canada" after the government of Canada bought the company. Remember, the government of Canada can't BUY anything. They don't have any money. That's Canadian tax money. I don't know about any other Canadians, but I didn't give my permission to buy that pipeline. That's nothing short of misappropriation of Canadian tax money. It could easily be construed as about a dozen other crimes such as theft, fraud, maybe even treason. And to further astound you, Mr. Madman, I'm sure that deal had to be approved by the Chinese government in lieu of an outright cash payment as a result of a lawsuit against the government of Canada for not delivering that oil Harper promised them in that FIPA agreement. The US has a similar agreement and has been sued. But, once again, you can't sue a government because governments don't have any money. China has sued every taxpayer in Canada and the US. China has sued me, and China has sued you, Nugey. Give that a long hard think.

So, Teddy, your stupid post actually supports the Chinese in the lawsuit of China vs. Ted Nugent. 

Look, I have friends and family who work directly or indirectly for the oil industry. I can't blame them for falsely or even genuinely supporting it and/or pipelines. I gotta be honest, I've seen and even considered lucrative offers from Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations. Right now with Korea finally phasing out the good jobs here, those offers are looking more and more attractive. So I get it. But I'm pretty sure Ted Nugent hasn't had much if any involvement professionally with big oil. 

So, Teddy, you don't have THAT excuse that might get you a pass regarding your idiotic meme. 

I gotta think, and this applies to a LOT of Americans, and probably Canadians, Ted Nugent's love of pipelines just might be rooted in his support of a farcical political party and the financial gain (and conflict of interest) represented by their endorsement of the fossil fuel industry and pipelines. That and pure ignorance.

Oh and as promised, let's talk about refineries. The KXL will be piping diluted (and heated) bitumen to the US where it will be refined, then shipped to China. Those other pipelines mentioned would have sent the dilbit across parts of the naturally gorgeous country of Canada and all the way to China before being refined in Chinese refineries. So the purpose of all these pipelines from Alberta is to transport the oil in by far the most dangerous way across some beautiful land where it WILL be spilled and introduced into the land and waters in oil's most dangerous form. All because China and the US are two big bully countries who want to make more money than Canada off the Canadian oil by doing the refining outside of Canada, making it dangerous to the land and waters of the US and Canada, not to mention the oceans over which it travels to China in tankers. 

So, Teddy, THAT'S what you are supporting when you say you support pipelines. You'd be smarter if you believed in fairies and unicorns.

The Two Party Wrestling Federation

 Imagine if you will... that politics was a sport. And I'm talking about American/Canadian politics here. It's a sport with only two teams. Oh, sure, there ARE other teams, but they're pretty much perennial expansion teams. They don't ever compete, they have a much lower salary cap, there are fewer games in smaller stadia, blackouts are in effect across the country so most fans are forced to watch the same game every time between the top two teams. There is a great fan base and a lot of love for the fringe teams, but most folks know they'll never win, so they have their favourite team, which isn't one of the top two, and the team they vote for in the championship, which IS one of the top two. There were a couple seasons when the captain of a third team was traded to one of the top two teams. It wasn't expected for him to become the most popular player but he did! Why, he even became the captain of one of the top two teams! What happened the next two seasons was shameful! For the first season, he was stripped of the captaincy and just to punish the fans who were perceived as disloyal, his team purposely lost the championship game. The next season, even though the fans still favoured him for captain, the team chose someone else. They won the championship that year, but most agree they would have done even better with the captain the fans supported. He was given a good job as chief talent scout after he retired, but only as a kind of apology appointment. The fans will never know what a superstar he could have been.

What the fans DO know is that this is one pungent hangover-lamb vindaloo-diarrhea SHIT sports league, but... it's better than nothing/at least it's sports/so hwak haeng/toxic positivity/don't drag your negativity into this blog post! If you don't keep your blind faith in the league, you start to realize that both of the major teams are owned by the same people and those people really don't care who wins the championship every year, so long as the fans keep supporting the league and believing it's genuine sport, not WWF wrestling. 

Okay, analogy over. But why do I make this analogy? What is my topic for today? Just about the best illustration of how completely disingenuous politics and politicians can be. It's an example that would get you a lifetime ban from a sport like using steroids or fixing games to cover the spread you bet on. It's such a heinous example of political rhetoric that the people who secreted it can't possibly have any more respect for their participation in the politics of their country than a game of shinny at the local outdoor hockey rink or some pick-up hoops. After you hear it, you'll think of about a hundred other examples exactly the same. And those examples will not be confined to one or the other of the two parties either. And you may wonder why anybody would have as much interest in politics as they might have for the fake sport outlined above. It's a question I find myself asking almost every day. You know it's not real, you know your team can never really win, why do you keep buying tickets?

Okay, now I promise the analogy is over. Anyone ever heard of the Unitary Executive Theory? It's a theory of United States constitutional law that amounts to, "If the president does anything, it must be legal, because, why, he's the president!" (Incidentally if I were talking about VICE president, I would have typed "he's/she's" back there. But it'll happen...) And speaking of Vice, we're going to pause here. During the pause, please watch, or re-watch, the movie "Vice." I'll wait.

Let's all go to the looooobby, let's all go to the looooobby, let's all go to the looooobby to get ourselves a treat.

Dick Cheney may have been the greatest proponent of Unitary Executive Theory to ever kinda be, but still not be president. This was, as you will have noticed from watching the movie just now, Dick & Rummy's plan to take control of the U.S. way back in '76 during Ford's first term. Problem was, Ford lost to Carter. The Republican reaction was a familiar one: "This must be a mistake." "We need to re-count those votes." Eye roll. The team can do no wrong. Fight for the team right or wrong. 

At any rate, the movie is mainly about how Cheney got to practice some of Dubyuh's executive powers FOR HIM. It's scary enough that the president could have such absolute executive control of the most powerful country in the world, but when someone else could practice it in proxy due to a president's weak-mindedness, ummmm wouldn't this qualify as one of those things that need to be changed? We've talked about this before. Why are there so many of these things, really fucking important things, that are "not clearly defined" in the presidency of the United States? Here's an article with statements made by some Whitehouse workers at the time of the 9/11 crisis about how scary that really was. Jack Goldsmith called it a theological commitment to executive power.

Not quite sure why that has pink behind it, but it's a powerful statement. It makes the president like a god or even like GOD! As Bruce Fein commented, the executive powers that were used after 9/11 unilaterally by the president (Cheney) weren't even applied to Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, and Stalin. Surely Osama Bin Laden was nowhere near the threat they were!

And now we arrive at a familiar Trumpian impasse: why in the name of Fucky McFuck is all of this a THEORY??? Shouldn't something like the power to, oh I dunno, vaporize entire cities and destroy the earth, have legislation that is absolutely clear? Not theoretical? But as gobsmackingly unintelligible as it may sound, it doesn't. It has Article II, Section 2 of the American Constitution. Evidently, people interpret this in wildly different ways. 

One man having all that power! Surely that can't be good! But as Brad Berenson once observed, "There is only one thing more frightening than an American president who has such power in his sole command. And that is an American president who does not have that power."

I suppose he meant that if the nukes needed to be launched in a hurry, it would slow things down having to get multiple agreements, in writing, and from presumably members of both parties whose job it is to simply disagree with one another. Agreed, this wouldn't be the best way to have things. But surely there must be a better way! Put a think tank together, America! You wouldn't be just saving yourselves!

For the past 4 years, with the infantile Master Trump fully aware of and anxious to exercise his omnipotence he interpreted biasedly that he had been granted when he came down the escalator, spectacularly absurd methods were regularly employed to keep him in check. Here is an entertaining article on the various distractions, lies, tricks, stolen documents and tactics straight out of a child psychology book that needed to be employed to keep Trump from creating the disaster we all feared he would. 

He knew about the Unitary Executive Theory. He probably recorded it and pleasured himself to his voice reading it. And we come to our point (finally) during impeachment number one, it was invoked. If you were like me, and at the time of the first impeachment, you read William Barr's full 19-page article about why Trump should not be impeached, you basically read the Unitary Executive Theory. It will come as no surprise to anyone that this oily hided mouthpiece stated the exact opposite at another time.

Whether this made much difference or not to the mindlessly loyal GOPers I can't claim to know, but they were all harumphing and echoing the gist of Barr's defense: You can't impeach Trump because he's president. And he didn't get impeached.

Fast forward to impeachment number two. At the senate session in which the election was affirmed, you know, the one after the Capitol riot, two particular chuckleheads of note decided to use the platform to show their brainless solidarity through some superfluous and gag-inducing play acting. Here's an account that actually calls it that. TWICE. 

There they are, JF KKK and the Canadian Commando. But despite their grandstanding and time wasting, on Jan. 6 (or the 7th really), the election was confirmed. Shortly thereafter, on January 13, a second impeachment of Trump was passed. The opening arguments of the trial are set to begin on Feb. 9. But the GOP is raising a very interesting argument against them. I think possibly it was Rand Paul who was the brains behind this one:

I'm sure the two above, Rupaul, Bill Barr and probably even Dick Cheney are amongst the Pavlovian Repuglicans who are now harumphing and echoing the agreed upon slogan in regards to Trump's impeachment part deux, you guessed it, "You can't impeach Trump because he's no longer president. 

This is not government, this is mockery. They're probably sipping expensive scotch and smoking fine Cuban cigars laughing at how stupid the public is. 

Now, think back to when I said you can probably think of 100 more examples like this. I certainly can. This theater of the absurd has gone on long enough. It needs to end. If I didn't promise earlier to end my sport analogy, I'd say this league should be defunct. 

HOWEVER, every so often, political bad guys get beat out of office restoring public faith in elections, politics, politicians and the broken system of government we continue to support. These heroes usually start out great. Biden/Harris have done some great things out of the gate. So did Carter, so did Clinton, so did Obama, but eventually all have succumbed to the true powers that own everything and everyone: the three comma class. And inexplicably, voters always seem to end up at that mysterious place where they say to themselves, "Self, this party isn't working out. I need a change. The other party was shit last time and the chances are very good they'll be shit again. But I'll take that chance because I don't want to vote for a fringe party even though their platform is what I want. I just don't like their team name." 

And on and on goes the two-party political nightmare. 

Get it Right Next Time

 "Life is a liar, yeah life is a cheat. It'll lead you on and pull the rug from underneath your feet. No use complaining, don't you worry, don't you whine, cuz if you get it wrong, you'll get it right next time."

This is one of my favourite grooves of all time. One of those songs you want to have a cigarette in your mouth, not necessarily lit, but just to bounce up and down in the opposite direction your head is bobbing with the funky groove. 

And it's a solid life philosophy! Something I've tried and failed again and again to do in so many areas, not the least of which is employment. I'm still waiting for the "next time." Haven't gotten it right yet. Maybe it's because I always worry and often whine. Or maybe it's the racket I sort of fell into.

The song is by Gerry Rafferty. You may know Baker Street or Right Down The Line. Both are spectacular songs! The guy is a legend! I bet he'd be a hoot to have a beer with. Or a joint. I heard a story told by Billy Connolly, you know the crazy, Scottish comedian? He used to play banjo in a band with Gerry Rafferty! And he said he's going to hell because one time he and Gerry wanted to smoke some hash, but they had not "skins" or papers as they're known to the uncool like you and me. They ended up using a few pages from a Bible instead. Connolly says he phoned Rafferty on his death bed and they reminisced about that time and had a chuckle. 

Anyway, hang a smoke loosely between your lips, maybe put on some shades and relax before you play this song. 

Whose gonna call me on my death bed and what stories will we reminisce about? How about you? Do I have a story like that I could call you up and talk to you about? Do you have a story like that you could call me about? If not, we gotta get living. Oh, I dunno, maybe it's the times and this specific year of staying in my apartment for more time than any year ever because of Covid. Maybe it's the fact that I HAD and currently HAVE a lot of time off, with pay, but CAN'T make memories by travelling, sightseeing, maybe visiting some folks. I had really good visits with my closest friends over the holidays here, but when you have two months off, you want to do some bigger, more memorable things. And now that I've lost this job, I have a sneaking suspicion it'll be the last Korean university gig I ever get with the long holidays. We'll see, but there are bad signs...

Demographic winter is coming! I guess the Korean population has been dropping for about 18 years and this year is expected to be the first year of the lowest number of university aged kids ever. It's expected to continue until they start having more kids. Why is the Korean population going down? Why are people less interested in having kids? What does the term "Hell Joseon" mean? Here's a very well done article/photo gallery. My guess is if you read it through, you'll find that Korea isn't a great deal different from whatever country you find yourself reading this post in right now. Like Canada and the U.S., here in Korea there is an older generation that felt if they worked hard or studied hard, they would succeed. And they believe this because it happened for them. They own their own homes and have money in the bank. Why can't the younger folks do what they did? It's just not the case any more, that's why. But these old timers would rather think of the younger generations as lazy or not as motivated as THEY were than believe their country just sucks for jobs. 

High cost of living and limited job prospects has lead to the "sampo" generation here. Sampo translates to "three give up." This doesn't mean three kids, it means two parents and one kid. People are not having traditionally large families because even for those who manage to find the good, stable jobs, it still isn't financially feasible. Sound familiar?

The term I like the best from the above article is "social cartel." Here in Korea it is most likely worse than things back home, but we still have the same thing. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Can anyone reading this NOT think of a handful of people who are dumb as hammer sacks, yet SOMEHOW managed to land a fantastic job and SOMEHOW manage to keep it? Can anyone not think of a world leader like that? (although the one I'm thinking of didn't manage to keep his job) As often as a person hears in Korea, "Please understand our unique situation," it ain't that unique. It may be more extreme in certain areas, but "hell Joseon" is not unique. 

The last term I like, which fits in with our song at the beginning, is "so hwak haeng." Here's another article about it. To me, this is depressing. And when you couple this little bit of self-delusion with the growing suicide rate in Korea, I don't think it's working. It equates to what I've called the "Well-at-least" mentality in this blog and all it is is people ignoring the deterioration of their society by over-accentuating the micro-positive and whipping themselves into submission to toxic positivity instead of acknowledging and doing the hard work of changing their countries. 

I remember pretty regular protests, I mean almost every week, in Korea for one thing or another when I first came here. I'm sure not all of the protests were for good things, but I think they might have had some success in that the government may not have been so cavalier about implementing unfair policies knowing that the people were not afraid to protest. And I can't claim to know much of anything about Korean politics, but it always seemed to me that the good stuff in this country was not so highly concentrated at the very top. Average people had good lives. But the competition is increasing the article says. The country isn't getting poorer and the population isn't going up. So what's happening? Same as everywhere, the middle class is being obliterated and all the money is being concentrated in fewer and fewer bank accounts.

I see a LOT of advantages to Korea having a declining birthrate and population, but when I mention any of them to Koreans, the media mentality ensues. Despite obvious bias in local news producers, which are owned by large corporations that do stuff like the above, Koreans are still convinced it is their duty to crank out customers. They are like Zerg spawning pools (Starcraft language they can relate better to) whose only purpose is to crank out zerglings fast. They even have government programs that reward Koreans for having kids. A sort of baby bonus system. More kids is what the country is crying for at a time when it's harder than ever for them to have good lives. The logic is similar to this thought provoking scientific study from The Onion.

But before I get too deep into that, the baby bust (opposite of a baby boom is a baby bust, right?) could affect me. The universities are expecting all time lows in enrollment. Certainly Covid 19 leading to online classes hasn't helped this at all, but it appears that the post secondary education atmosphere in Korea is nervous. Schools are forecasting job cuts. This is expected to create a pile of out-of-work teachers and more competition for the good university positions. Of course when jobs are at a premium, this leads to employers raising expectations. As if this hadn't been already happening! The qualifications have been going up, the paperwork has been going up, the cost of documentation has been going up, the cost of visa runs has gone up, the class sizes have ballooned and the weekly hours have been jacked up almost across the board. There are two things that haven't gone up: salary and vacation time. 

Somebody forgot to factor in China, Arab countries, even Vietnam or other places around the world where ESL teachers can actually make MORE than they can here in Korea. Teachers are going to be leaving Korea so I don't think it'll be such an employers' market. Also, there's a thriving online teaching market and we're all getting used to teaching online. Schools like mine who are shooting for the stars right now and adding hours to the contract and holding out for advanced degree holders only, just might be settling for "lesser" teachers like me again come mid February. We'll see...

There's another place teachers can go, and it's not even a different country. Some people teach on the U.S. military bases here in Korea. In fact, to give you an idea of how competitive and nasty things are getting, I heard a story today about a friend of mine who has been teaching on base for 6.5 years, he's been unceremoniously turfed for no kind of reason. Here is a go fund me page to help him uproot and go home. The description of what happened is quite vague. "Ordinarily" resident of Korea? That smacks of bullcrap foreign fuckery to me! And I have a bit of inside info. 

Evidently, what happened was a teacher was "poached" from a Korean university and went to work on base. A rep from that university contacted the higher ups in Korean government education and told them they didn't want their teachers going to teach on base. So, in true Korean fashion, they hastily implemented a rule or law or policy without really thinking of consequences to people like Joel, and, voila, now he's going home too. As hastily as that policy was implemented.

This sort of thing is happening more, not less, the longer I stay here. I have been seriously thinking about what I'll do if I don't manage to land a new job here in the spring. My visa is good until April. If I don't have a job by then, I can always teach online. But, I'll need to pay for my own health insurance. That's a new law. Time was, a guy could stay here on a 6-month visitor's visa and if you did some online work or picked up a camp or some sub hours here or there, nobody needed to know. I'm not sure that's possible any more either. 

Even moving stuff out of the country could soon be a big hassle. Korea is still accepting passport numbers for foreigners who ship things or receive things. But I've heard we will soon need a personal customs code. I tried to get one and, as expected, couldn't. All of these government webpages require your name and your alien card number. But for the life of me I can't imagine what messed up combination of letters in (or not even in) my name SOMEbody input when first associating my name with my alien number, but it's in all the sites. I try the name as it appears on the card (now you'd think it'd be just that easy wouldn't you?) and it doesn't work. I have tried so many variations of my name, I'm about ready to change my name to something Korean! But nothing has worked yet. Who knows, maybe they got the number wrong.

I am worrying and whining here but the last two apartments I've been in have also overcharged me. It's something they do that has to be swallowed as just part of the Korean experience. It's just not worth fighting it. I'm not 100% sure it's because of my non-Korean status, but in both places I see people walking around their houses in swimsuits, carrying loofahs and sweating while my apartment is a steady 15-17 degrees. I like it cold in winter. It's so cold that I can't even wash dishes in hot water. It gets warm at best. I wear a sweater at all times or a jacket. I skip showers and take short ones when I take them at all. My apartment is so cold here that now I have to keep my bathroom door closed for a few minutes after the shower or the hot air creates so much steam in the cold apartment that my smoke alarm goes off. I'm not kidding. Yet at both places I paid more than anyone else for gas. I checked everybody's bills at gas bill time. They're just hanging out of their mail boxes. Again, I see stuff like this happening more instead of less.

And with my new friend, diabetes, Korea is just not the best place to find the best food choices or medical care. I'm seriously considering clearing outta here too. It seems like it might be the right time. Who knows, diabetes might even turn out to be just another hindrance to my job hunt here. 

However, now that I've completely abandoned the theme I'd started out with, what do you say we get back to it? The job with Gongju University? I got it wrong again, but since I got it wrong, maybe I'll get it right next time. I've put together an updated resume, a solid cover letter and a video of my teaching style. Maybe with these things going for me, I'll be able to get another year of employment here. I really don't want to leave until I've reached my savings goal. For that I need a couple more years. So I'm going to literally give it the old college try and see what I can get. But if I'm still unemployed by the end of February, there might be another move in MY future too. I'm lucky I don't have a big family like Joel though. And I have more time to plan too. 

Maybe I won't get it wrong, I'll get it right next time.

Salvaging Some POTUS Positivity

 I'd like to talk today about an American president who was not voted into office with a majority of his countryman's votes. He was a one-term president who was impeached. He sympathized with white supremacists and liked to hold rallies during which public frenzy, hatred and violence against his opponents was incited. He refused to go to the inauguration of his successor. He sought to systematically "make America great again" by sabotaging his county's efforts to put an end to black disenfranchisement. His every utterance and act seemed to undermine the constitution he'd sworn to uphold. He was paranoid about preserving his post, removing opponents from government and replacing them with loyal minions. He believed that equality discriminated against white people and had an open hostility to democratic ideals. 

Who's that you say? Donald who? No, I'm not talking about that assclown, I'm talking about Andrew Johnson. 

He became president in 1865 because he was Lincoln's vice, and we know what happened to Honest Abe. From what I've read, Andrew Johnson got the vice presidency largely on his (fake) concern for the suffering of black people in America at the time. He hadn't been honest with old Honest Abe to be sure! But he wasn't the first and certainly not the last scumbag to lie his way right into office. 

Lincoln was barely in the ground when Johnson began implementing his plans to reconstruct the defeated south by granting almost total immunity to ex-confederates and instituting "Black Codes," which basically preserved slavery in every way but name. He also started stacking his cabinet and governmental bureaucracies with people who were of the same mind. 

Congress recognized his chicanery and in 1867 passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prevented the prez from removing officials confirmed by the senate and replacing them with his own flunkies. Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton was replaced by Ulysses S. Grant immediately, as if to test the act, but Grant returned the office to Stanton after the senate passed a measure in protest. 

Then on Feb. 21, 1868, Johnson appointed General Lorenzo Thomas, a guy who Stanton absolutely hated, to the position of Secretary of War, and this is what precipitated his impeachment. 

A political cartoon of the day shows Stanton pointing the cannon of congress at Johnson and Thomas. The cannon had been loaded, then tamped with a rammer marked, "Tenure of Office Bill." The cannonballs have the word "justice" on them and one of the men to the left of Stanton is Ulysses S. Grant. 

Interestingly, articles of impeachment were PASSED only three days later on Feb. 24th. 

From March 13 to May 26 the impeachment trial was held in the senate and largely due to passionate pleas by Thomas in defense of Johnson, the impeachment fell one vote short of conviction. They had a large majority, but not the two thirds needed. So, like Trump (the first time), Johnson was impeached, but not removed from office.

This brings us to the second time. 

Do you suppose congress could match the alacrity with which Andrew Johnson's impeachment was obtained? It'd be nice since time is of the essence here. My concern is not with embarrassing Trump any further, good Lord he tossed out his last shred of dignity a LONG time ago, what I am concerned with is any future assaults he might mount on the presidency. Johnson's narrow escape from impeachment conviction allowed him to seek a second term (unsuccessfully). You're not going to believe this but, he tried to run again with the Democrats this time, who were the party most opposed to ending slavery in those days. Their slogan? "This is a white man's party; Let the white man rule."  

Would anybody really be shocked if Trump mounted a campaign under the same slogan? Really? But a 2/3 majority in favour of his second impeachment would result in a conviction that precludes him from ever running again. I think. And this brings me to my next point: why the hell are so many things in the U.S. government "not clearly defined?" 

Remember at the beginning of "THE GREATEST FIRST TERM EVER" when Trump didn't divest himself of all business interests that could cause conflict of interest? Remember talk of "emoluments clauses" and the like? Well that just went away and his presidency has been his best business ever! Probably his only successful one! He makes money golfing at his own courses while his entourage also stays there; foreign dignitaries stay in the penthouse at Trump Towers if they are in economic negotiations with the U.S.; China offers billion-dollar perfume or fashion contracts to Ivanka and huge loans to Don Jr.; hell, the fraudulent fleecing of Trumpies to support his ludicrous campaign to change the election results will probably be used to pay lawyers to postpone trials indefinitely once he is no longer in office and once again becomes prosecutable. There are countless examples of conflict of interest that have been ignored over the past 4 years! Why? "Well, this was never really clearly defined..."

Remember Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett being fast-tracked into place after Ruth Bader Ginsberg died? Obama had 11 months left in his term and his nomination of Merrick Garland was not accepted by the Republican heavy senate. Yet, with the election 45 days away, that same hypocritical, Republican senate rammed Amy Coney Barrett down America's throats. That's TWO lifetime appointments Republicans "won." Why? Well the rules on that were never really clearly defined.."

It is expected that the current ReTrumplican government is going to launch into a veritable orgy of pardoning of the guilty Trump family, of guilty Trump enablers and of Trump himself. The word "pardon" implies guilt. Why the fuck any president has the ability to just wipe away guilt is anyone's guess. But it's never been clearly defined... For the Thanksgiving turkey, okay, but anyone else, your laws are undermining themselves FFS!

And the piece de resistance, the "self-pardon," which may be Trump's final act, what possible scenario could exist in which an innocent person could require and/or use a self-pardon? If my Mother came at me with a wooden spoon and I said, "Wait a minute, Mom... I invoke my self-pardon rights," I'd get it WORSE because then she'd be absolutely SURE I deserved it, if she wasn't already. But, as this horseshit is being considered, we're coming to that familiar Trumpian impasse: "Well the laws and rules on this have never really been clearly defined..." 

You can probably think of many holes in American law, security and culture that have been exposed by Trump as well. These are but a few. How about Capitol security? Eh? 

Folks, it's time to impeach this shit stain because when January 20th rolls around and the insurrection is not quite as nice, and much more ARMED, it'll be too late to do so. Impeach his fucking ass and plug the holes he's exposed. It's the only possible way you can salvage anything positive from his presidency.

Oh Yeah, 2020? Hold My Beer!

Well, I made it outta 2020 reasonably intact, but I certainly wouldn't sign up for THAT again! 2021 has started off on the world politics and employment fronts by saying, "Oh yeah, 2020? Hold my beer!" 

I think you know what's coming on the political side, so let's begin with work. As I blogged before, I have lost my job. In true 2020 mind-blowing fashion, I lost my teaching job without ever teaching a class. Well, not in person anyway. I spent a total of about 15 minutes in a classroom at Gongju University where I no longer work, and that was my demo lesson during my interview. I have never had to go through more bureaucratic, logistic and immigration SHIT, not to mention expense, to get a job, including coming perilously close to being stranded in Guam, if you recall, only to acquire a year of work. The reason I lost the job I busted my arse and underwent so much stress to acquire has exactly nothing to do with job performance and I have a letter of recommendation to that effect. 

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this year of work has been the long sought after long vacation periods that come with the uni gig, being wasted by Covid. During the break between the first and second semesters, I had July and August off and I was not allowed to travel outside Korea. Even inside Korea, travel was limited and required annoying restrictions like mask wearing. So I used it as a money saving opportunity, since I had spent so much money acquiring this job. It was tough not to at least skip over to Thailand for a little golf outing, but I was pretty sure Covid would be done by the winter break. Covid said, "Oh yeah? Hold my beer!"

Now it's the winter break. Kinda. I've been "off" work for weeks now, but I've been kept busy finalizing grades, attendance and such with the unnecessarily added difficulties of insanely tedious rules, outdated and impossibly complicated school portal and LMS, and management that can be most positively described as a hindrance. Let me give one example: I was told there had been an email sent to the other teachers describing some of the login processes and rules and such, that we would need to know about to ease the end of semester paperwork. I had inexplicably not received such an email. So I emailed the supervisor. She said, "Oh, sorry. I'll send it to you," then proceeded NOT to. This is an apt illustration of her contribution to the holidays. 

The holidays, despite all of the above, were great, but let's continue to mine this current vein. My biggest problem with the whole process has been the school portal and the fact that my computer is too good to use it. I'll repeat that: the portal is so outdated that only an old and shitty computer, like we have in the office at the school, can be used to access it. I'm exaggerating a bit. I suppose I could download programs that enable me to access my work computer from home, so long as it is on. One of the other teachers does that and is always asking us to turn on his computer. But I just don't see that as productive use of my computer. I actually downloaded the program and it was quite invasive and a bit of a RAM hog. For crying out loud, the site requires us to Internet Explorer! We can't use modern browsers. So the three other teachers and I met with the Continuous Quality Improvement rep and begged for better computers and improvement in the online platforms. About a week later I went in to the office. Only one "improvement" had been implemented: our office printer had been removed. 

At any rate, I calculated my grades, which takes hours, then went in to the office to input them, which shouldn't, but with the dependable computer problems, I knew would take hours too. I couldn't do it on the work computer, tried it at home and couldn't do it there either. I was ready to go to my friends' place in another town to start the holidays without doing it. Honestly. It's that frustrating! But I went back to work and by taking pics with my phone and sending them to the manager via Kakao, and having her read the Korean messages and tell me what steps to take, I managed to get onto the portal and input my grades and attendance. Now this came only after the requisite accusations of doing it all wrong that I get EVERY time I have computer problems, but the problem was not something I was doing wrong, just a problem with the system. The shitty system. It doesn't make it any easier when the problems occur entirely in Korean. I guess we can't have English Windows on the computers at work. Probably wouldn't work on the crappy portal or website or LMS. I'm not expecting the school to change to English, but for the English department, it is a common courtesy. And, of course, it was also made more difficult (since we need to print out, sign, then submit copies of our grades to management and the portal grades, due to security overprotection, can't be copied onto a zip drive and printed, only printed on the office printer) by not having the office printer any more. Another common courtesy denied.

So I get to Pyeongtaek for Christmas. It isn't long before I'm contacted about my attendance. I left dashes ( - ) instead of oh's (O) for every hour that was attended by every student. It's the symbol that is given. Now there IS a way to change more than one dash to an oh at a time, it is just kept secret around here. Maybe it was some of the information included in the email I didn't get... twice. Who can say? So I left the dashes. So the manager tells me I have to change that. I ask her if I have to travel back to Cheonan just to change dashes to ohs during the pandemic, during the holidays, because the fucking system is too shitty to allow me to do it from my computer, which I have in Pyeongtaek with me, and she says yes. No mention of a way to change them more than one at a time. I have 200 students and 2 hour classes. That's almost 400 dashes to change. And it isn't just a click or two. You click on the hour twice, click on the dash, scroll down to the oh, click on that, scroll to the top of the page and click on the yes answer to something like, "Are you sure?" Almost 400 times. 

So I said, "Does it matter? It's only the absents that make a difference. The presents are assumed otherwise. Only absents can cause a failure. Presents cannot affect the grade." All of this is true, but I was countered with, "We could get into trouble with the government." So I replied, "If the government causes you any grief, well I don't work there any more, do I?" This got me a phone call during which I was asked if I have any responsibility at all, sworn at and hung up on.

One of the other teachers uploaded a video of how to change multiple attendance symbols at a time and even offered to do it for me. None of this is his job, but that's how things are around here. However, the manager apologized to me and offered to change my attendance for me. I guess she felt bad about the phone call. So I thought I was done. Nope.

I was contacted about several students who were whining about their grades. That's to be expected. I just told them I couldn't change their grades and gave them the break-down of how I arrived at their grades. 4 assignments, 2 exams, attendance and participation. Most gave up quickly. But there was one guy who was absent 28 hours. He had gotten a job. Well evidently, this excuses those absences. So I was told to change his grade to a pass even though the computer automatically gave him an F. I even went back to Cheonan to get on the crappy office computer. But I was not allowed to change the grade. I altered a couple other grades, but couldn't change his. Well, I got ANOTHER message saying that I MUST change his grade immediately. I needed to fake the attendance. I was ready for another big fight, but the manager offered to do this for me. So since I was already back in Pyeongtaek, I said, "Sure." 

Next was conflicting grades and attendance. 6 students had more than 8 hours absent and had been given grades. Well I guess more than 8 hours absent is an automatic fail. Unfortunately, unlike the above student, for whom the automatic failure had been given, the computer had not automatically failed these 6 students. So I was expected to do it manually. Again, this would involve another trip home because my computer is too modern to do it from Pyeongtaek. I told the manager what I wanted to do with each student, but said that since "attendance" is really not an accurate word when you're teaching online classes, I'd be inclined to overrule the automatic fail for all of them. I don't know why the computer didn't do it automatically, the way it is supposed to. I guess maybe THAT was something I had missed in the email I hadn't been sent too. Twice. I was told by the manager that there WAS a way to check attendance on Zoom, but I just did nothing because I know students can get around the Zoom attendance. Anyway, I was told by the manager that the portal was closed, so I thought I was done once and for all. Not yet.

Unbelievably, all four of the teachers here, three of whom had been told we will not be re-hired because we don't have master's degrees, were asked if we'd be available to observe the interviews and/or sample lessons, ostensibly of our replacements! In person, during a pandemic, for a school that had fired us, during our vacations, we've been asked to evaluate the demo lessons of prospective teachers for next semester. 

I didn't even answer that email indicating that I would NOT be available. But got a new one just yesterday (Saturday) saying, "Sorry about the late notice, but could you do this Tuesday?" That's two days from now. 4 hours of watching and evaluating sample lessons IN PERSON from people who want the job I am far better qualified for. I COULD mention that this very manager had previously told me not to contact HER on weekends, but I'm not quite that petty. I COULD mention that she really doesn't want anyone as "irresponsible" as I am doing these observations, but I'm not the feckin' deck you need to be if you're a manager of an English program at a Korean university I guess. I could mention that Covid cases in Korea are at the highest ever right now. We're in what they call lockdown level 2.5. It's been determined that there is a new, more highly contagious strain of Covid here and that any strain is more contagious than previously thought. I had to cut my visit short with my friends because the USDOD has implemented a strict "no gatherings of more than 4" policy. I COULD also mention that long before things got this serious in Korea, this very manager who wants me to expose myself to Covid 19 and help them fill the job I have been forced to vacate for no good reason, ORDERED me to get tested for Covid because she was so panicked over it. I can't even go to a restaurant or coffee shop normally, but I'm gonna go into a classroom with a bunch of strangers to help a university that has unceremoniously turfed me? Please refer to the facial expression above.

No, I'll probably just wait till Monday, so as not to contact her on the weekend, ( hee hee) and just say, "This will be online, no?" I know it's not. 

And in further news on the employment front, I still have to do the CQI that I mentioned above. Not sure why they'd want any advice on continuous quality improvement from me, or any of the teachers they are removing to replace them with teachers who don't know the school, complicated rules, messed up websites or the curriculum here. They're lowering the quality of the program by getting rid of us, so why would we say anything in our CQI forms other than WTF? Again, refer to the facial expression above. 

I actually think those were supposed to have been done by now, but I was told that the portal was closed by the manager I've been talking about (it's ALL been the same manager) and the CQI forms are on the portal, so I'm not sure how I was supposed to have done one. Other teachers have told me that the portal IS open for CQI, but I've also heard that only one of them received instructions on them... in Korean. He ran the instructions through Google translate and found that there are some changes. I haven't received anything about the CQI's. Maybe it was included in that email I didn't get... twice, or maybe not. 

So, you can see why I say I'm on holidays... kinda. I won't be travelling anywhere again, so the best part of this job has been screwed up by Covid, the vacation time. I will be spending my "vacation" not golfing or exploring the beautiful and fun parts of Asia, but updating my resume, doing online interviews, staying home and probably battling management a little more before I have closure on my latest job loss. 

I think I'll use a fresh, new post for the auspicious political start to 2021.

Post script: The day after the request to observe demo classes, I received an email saying, "You are going to do..." and what followed was the time on Tuesday I was "going to" be working. Not the place. I was told that I would be informed of the location on the Monday. The school I work has three locations. Why do you suppose they'd wait to tell me the location? Because it probably wasn't going to be the campus I live ON, but one of the other campii I'd have to travel to. By Covid bus, train or taxi. 

It's important to understand that I'm on vacation. If not for Covid and the messed up school portal, I'd be in another country by now. I don't HAVE TO do anything else for this school. But the manager (still the same one) thought she'd power trip a little. 

My response was that "going to do" sounded like this is mandatory work and no longer voluntary. Since I had volunteered for nothing, I can't imagine how I'd be expected to think otherwise. I also said that "I will give you the location later," sounded like this wasn't going to be online work. During the worst Covid spike in Korea. I gently reminded the manager of a time when Covid numbers were MUCH lower and she had ordered me to be tested for it immediately. As I recall, she played the old, "I'm just the messenger" card back then too. "I'm not forcing you to be tested, the school directors are. Do you really want me to inform them of your refusal?" I told her to go ahead and inform them. Which pissed her off. This was at like 9:30 at night when I couldn't have been tested anywhere in the city I'm in anyway. Also, when I checked the next day, they told me they wouldn't test me because I had no symptoms. The point I was making was that they really seemed concerned back then, not to say panicked, about the pandemic, but now they're just planning interviews, gatherings of more than four people, as it were, all willy-nilly. I made my position clear saying that it's online or nothing for me. Then said sorry. I added that I don't believe any employer has the right to require me to endanger my health/life. 

Her absolutely poetic rebuttal I will post verbatim: 

Hello, 

 

I am sorry if you felt like that.

And please don't be sarcastic.

This is a face-to-face demo class examination.

I did not plan for this. I am just a messenger.

If you can not do it, you can just say you can not do it.

Thank you.

 

Best,

And then her name. 

I told you there'd be further battles with management.