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Sending link to everyone in Huntington Beach...

Your video, Solving the Mask Shortage in Huntington Beach, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This is a parody? Perhaps...

But... I grew up in Huntington Beach, in that narcissistic white drug culture. I am a product of this... parody? LMFAO. The white "elders" winking and nodding. So HILARIOUS. That video footage -- I know those locations, and I also know from experience and reputation that gun violence between not just whites and whites has occurred right around the location this footage was filmed. PCH, main, the pier -- fucking hell. Mostly a cool if not overcrowded touristy area -- but, it can erupt into random acts of violence. There's a freaking MMA gym on every other corner; TESTOSTERONE INSPIRED, X-GAME/MMA SPONSORED RICH ASSHOLE CENTRAL. There is a problem and it's overly meta with all of your weird perspectives outside my white ghetto.

All of the cool downtown areas of socal have this tendency though. Some of it racial between not just white people -- the Mexican girls who beat the Vietnamese girl to death in downtown Santa Ana not too many years ago, just because she photo bombed them. It's all a part of the same problem really, and not just white culture, but it still remains one side of the dice of random youth violence in the county.

The propaganda machine will say this is an all time low, but I can't ignore the fact that I grew up right there in that video and know it all first hand! And that's what news is about. Not an agenda. It's getting it right. It's funny because it's true. NOT parody -- unless treating white people like they treat the rest of people is considered "parody". That's the only parody I witnessed in this video, which is pretty incidental to me.

@lantern53

Christ, dude, he doesn't "think" he is surrounded by racism, he clearly IS surround by racism! The events in Balitmore and Ferguson (and N.Y. and L.A. and Atlanta and all the other cities where this has happened before) clearly demonstrate that.

The media in this very video are trying to make it seem like smashed windows and burning buildings are a worse problem than black people being killed in custody by police! Meanwhile, the media barely even cover white kids rioting in Huntington Beach for reasons not even remotely as good as protesting racist oppression. How can you not see the racism that is right in front of your face--the racism that literally is dripping from the screen in this video?

It's not about "letting your skin color hold you back." It's about overcoming the odds that are stacked against many black people born into poorer communities, which takes incredible luck as much as it does incredible effort. Black people want an equal chance to succeed. They've been asking for a more level playing field for quite literally decades now and they still don't have it. Can you really not understand that anger? That feeling of powerlessness and rage? Can you really not see how condescending and patronizing it is for you to suggest people to just suck it up and get over it? How ridiculous it is to comparing overcoming low grades to get into college with constantly getting pulled over and roughed up (or killed) by cops simply because of the color of your skin? Is there no cognitive dissonance at all?

About a week ago I opened my wallet at a bar or a bank or something, and I received a compliment for having a library card in my wallet. O.G. Huntington Beach and Westminster Library card holder representin'!

Before the internet, the common man was dumber than shit and my edge was that I read books at the library. In fact, it was NOT cool to know things about things.

Now I'm comparitively dumb because motherfuckers be like "3rd law of thermodynamics, pssshhh, I know EVERYTHING bout that." /ALTAVISTA

I mean, that's cool that people know things now --but, damn, having that edge was really nice.

And then I had the internet and no one did, and my edge was even huger. I made bank designing shitty ass webpages for shitty ass old people with shitty ass businesses. Now everyone gots it and the people with money laid down the pressure and it's a machine of controlled behavior and wallet squeezing. (I squeeze wallets for a living but it's more in sync with Winston Smith working for big bro.)

But I digress... Shhhhh, I'm on my iPhone -- nope, A BOOK.

Bring it back! Don't let Barnes & Nobles close dooooowwwwn. You may dis on the B&N, but that's part of the levee of popular opinion; how assholes of the future will monetize. If our corporate overlords and money trading thugs realize that books ain't selling, they won't hesitate to shut down a library. For the people. For the taxes. For God. You got a book. It's the bible now STFU.

Then we'll only have the internet and information will successfully be filtered down into an easily manipulated data stream -- which it is, but it's not fully there yet. We need to INTEGRATE FACEBOOK WITH EVERY ASPECT OF EXISTENCE.

Shut down all printing presses. When you pick up a book in the future it will turn to dust in your hands and then the CAVE PEOPLE WILL DEVOUR YOU.

Brains. Brains. Nom. Guts and gore. Your children will be eaten alive; torn to shreds, while blood flows out of their arteries into the machines of death.. Force fucked women of your sub-species impregnated by the semen of the dead in order to make more food. More foooooooooooooood -- YOUR PROGENY ARE FOOD.

And all because of the system which interrupts a motherfuck for reading a book.

I spent several months in LA for work last spring (Huntington Beach area to be specific) and besides the beautiful weather the culture and people drove me NUTS. Thankfully one of my oldest friends moved out there not to long ago so we got a spend a good bit of time hanging out and he felt much the same way.

I'm sure right now he's laughing his ass off at his neighbors putting jackets on their dogs when they take them out to pee, themselves bundled up in fleece jackets. Most of them wouldn't last a week in upstate NY on an average February day.

Well if we're up for splitting the distance Long, Seal, or Huntington Beach is about the mid-way point between the hearts of LA and OC (coastal at least). Sadly I no longer hang in any of those cities anymore so I have no suggestions for places (unless I start using Yelp )

>> ^HugeJerk:

That's one of the things I really like about this trailer. The aliens are using missiles and what appear to be regular projectiles. Even their ships seem to shift around as if using thrust rather than some magical anti-gravity.


Yeah, right up until the end when the Borough of Watts (Hell, could be Huntington Beach for all I know, most of LA looks the same to me) rises up out of the ground...

Want to trade Southern California accent for British. Am willing to itemize, for instance I will trade my "dude" for your "mate".

I've seen far worse in the States. Bored Huntington Beach officers or the Irvine hired hoodlums driving around in "Collision Investigation" vans, snatching up the homeless then dropping them off in Santa Ana, where all the other "scum" belong. Fuck's sake, I don't know that there's ever been a time when the police in any country didn't make up the rules as they go and get away with their bullshit coupled with amoral city codes.

In reply to this comment by Farhad2000:
Regarding the points you raise. The companies you mentioned are multinationals, focus on technology and R&D and are in markets that have high costs to entry (being it market capitalization, research or technology). For example Boeing's only other competitor is Airbus and they fulfill demand orders on a international scale. I think overall they constitute a small percentage of US economy because their operations are so spread around the world, problems in the US economy would affect these firms very little.

It's a bit ironic that you picked Boeing as the exemplar. I live (part time) in Huntington Beach, CA, where Boeing has a substantial presence. A couple of weeks ago, they laid off about 50 workers in this city of about 200k. But that also results in the loss of jobs in every single company that serves as a local supplier to them (tens of companies, hundreds more jobs). More to the point, I named a whole bunch of large, easily recognizable companies that make stuff, as opposed to providing services, just to point out that manufacturing is alive and well in the U.S. It's a well propagated myth that the U.S. doesn't do manufacturing anymore, which Jake bought right into. Trust me, I've lived in a half dozen cities across the U.S. over the last decade, and every single one of them had a substantial manufacturing base. It's certainly true that the U.S. economy has been shifting away from making stuff over the last 50 years, but it's still the case that most cities and towns in the U.S. are completely dependent on their local manufacturing base.


Agriculture is a thorny issue

The thorniest. Twenty thousand years ago when humans first started domesticating plants, that's what they fought over. And we still do. The only thing we fight over more now is decayed plants.

since much of it both in the US and EU is sustained via massive subsidization and are controlled by large firms which enjoy massive economies of scale. Their lobbying towards the US government means they have favorable market conditions in the states, they price their products higher then the world market and the US consumer ends up paying for that.

But that doesn't change the fact that hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people in the U.S. are employed in the agricultural business. Again, I was just using it as an example of producing stuff. Perhaps this points out a fundamental flaw of using GDP as a measure of a country's economic strength.

Many of the trade disagreements brought up in the WTO by 1st world nations focus on suppressing 3rd world agricultural markets because the western world cannot compete on price and cost.

Really? I was under the impression it was more the other way around, i.e., the third world nations were begging the west to stop their subsidies and "level the growing field".

It's simply cheaper to produce agriculture in the 3rd world. Globalization must be pushed to happened in this sector strongly as right now it penalizes the consumers, sustains an inefficient producer (when looked globally) and suppresses growth in the third world which wholly depends on Agriculture.

That I just have to disagree with. It is only because of political realities and labor costs, not farming practices or technology (i.e., true efficiencies). There is no way that it is more efficient to grow corn in Zambia than it is in Iowa.


This is why you have all those "Free Trade" products being sold all over the place, like coffee beans for example. I would love to see a globalization effort on behalf of large US manufacturers through foreign direct investment in third world economies.

Woah - now you're scaring me. That sounds like multinationals moving into local areas to exploit local resources - fresh water access, etc. I'm pretty sure I know you well enough to know that's not what you mean. But dig deeper - you are suggesting that profit motivated companies would somehow be interested in the welfare of the residents of the local areas in which they operate. Ultimately, that's how a company should be run, but how many companies do you know of that have that kind of long term vision. (This is really worthy of another conversation on the ethics and ultimate sustainability of commerce. Too much to handle here.)

I totally agree on personal debt problems, there is too much runaway consumerism while the middle class has been diminishing, you have too many falling down in the lower classes and not many coming into the middle class. Now republican usually state that tax cuts would elevate this but I disagree, there is very little financial advice and a general air get rich quick behavior in the US, especially leverage and bombardment of the consumer through what seem like seductive credit card offers that have huge monthly payment penalties and interest rate increases. I mean you can get a credit card from almost anyone now in the US. There is a lot of predatory lending behavior in the credit card industry and not enough good information on the topic. I think some sort regulation and institutions that normalize run away debt is in order.

I disagree with you on some of this, and completely agree otherwise. Rampant consumerism is not the problem. Nor is even ridiculously available credit (at least until recently) the problem. It really is an issue of education. As you say, most people in the U.S. (and I think probably most people around the world) don't understand the first thing about finances. And I'm not just talking about average joe. I wasn't fooling around when I said on Joe's blog that I have been privileged to know some of the smartest people on the planet. I really have - and a few of them could barely balance a checkbook. Seriously. I know that sounds absurd, but it's true. I have twice personally "bailed out" close friends. I doubt it was complete ignorance, but there was certainly a lack of understanding of just how much it would cost to run up large amounts of debt.



But again there are so many layers and layers of complexity with any of these topics and some time your viewpoint really depends on your economic background and beliefs, I am a strong believer in world trade and globalization. I do admit there are lots of growing pains and problems in its implementation. It's easy to say the US economy needs to focus more on services and R&D but its not possible. I remember one woman I debated about agricultural markets got offended when I said that farmers in Canada are inefficient and are holding back agricultural market development in the developing world.

No doubt the layers of complexity are lost many folks. It does almost require someone who is independently wealthy that can spend a lifetime studying these topics to really get a handle on it. But, of course, if you are one of those people, you are instantly labeled an elite, out-of-touch, ivory tower geek. Can't win for losing, eh?

Of course you're right that true and fair globalization (as opposed to exploitation) is the best solution. How much luck have you had convincing your neighbors? I haven't had much.

Current rescheduling:

Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 4:00pm at Red Lion Tavern located at
2366 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039:

CONFIRMED
---------
blankfist: Los Angeles
DystopianFutureToday: OC
IssyKitty: Anaheim
Lucky760: OC
Charms: OC
DarkRowan: OC
youdiejoe: Los Angeles
Grimm: Stanton (OC)
waxxx: San Diego
GreatBird: San Diego
volumptuous: within stumbling distance

UNCONFIRMED
-----------
Jordass: The Valley
gourmetemu: on a hot date

NOT ATTENDING
-------------
rottenseed: San Diego
YouLickMyWhat: San Diego
MarineGunrock: Arizona
LittleRed: Arizona
Ant: Los Angeles
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC)

(Note that I moved the time to 4:00pm because it's going to be an hour drive or more for some of us and we don't want everyone to have to rush out too soon for the long drive back home.)

Sorry to hear that MG and LR. But glad everyone else can make it. Great that you can attend, darkrowan. Very happy rescheduling will work.

So here's the new roll call:

Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 5:00pm at Red Lion Tavern located at
2366 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039:

WILL ATTEND
-----------
blankfist: Los Angeles
youdiejoe: Los Angeles
GreatBird: San Diego
DarkRowan: OC
Lucky760: OC
Charms: OC
rottenseed: San Diego
YouLickMyWhat: San Diego
DystopianFutureToday: OC (tentative)

NO ANSWER TO RESCHEDULING YET
-----------------------------
waxxx: San Diego

ATTENDANCE UNSURE
-----------------
Grimm: Stanton (OC) (likely to attend)
IssyKitty: Anaheim (attendance still unclear)
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC) (unlikely but might attend; out of town)

NOT ATTENDING
-------------
MarineGunrock: Arizona
LittleRed: Arizona
Ant: Los Angeles

Sounds great!

So once again, here's the current roll call:

Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 5:00pm at Red Lion Tavern located at
2366 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039:

WILL ATTEND
-----------
blankfist: Los Angeles
youdiejoe: Los Angeles
MarineGunrock: Arizona
GreatBird: San Diego
waxxx: San Diego

ATTENDANCE UNSURE
-----------------
Grimm: Stanton (OC) (likely to attend)
IssyKitty/DFT: Anaheim (attendance still unclear)
DarkRowan: Costa Mesa (OC) (attendance still unclear)
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC) (unlikely but might attend; out of town)
Ant: Los Angeles (unlikely to attend; doesn't drive)

NOT ATTENDING
-------------
LittleRed: Arizona (term paper due)
Lucky760: OC (out of town on business)
Charms: OC (out of town on business)
rottenseed: San Diego (unable to attend that weekend)
YouLickMyWhat: San Diego (unable to attend that weekend)

update: See below.

Thanks for the suggestions, bf.

Red Lion Inn sounds great, but the billiard also sounds like fun. I guess I'd lean to the latter, but I'm fine with whatever the majority prefers.

So here's the current roll call for Saturday, November 22, 2008 at ~5:00pm (?) in Los Angeles:

WILL ATTEND
-----------
blankfist: Los Angeles - votes for Hollywood Billiards
rottenseed: San Diego - votes for ?
Lucky760+Charms: OC - votes for majority rule
youdiejoe: Los Angeles - votes for Red Lion Inn
MarineGunrock: Arizona - votes for Red Lion Inn
GreatBird: San Diego - votes for ?

ATTENDANCE UNSURE
-----------------
Grimm: Stanton (OC) (likely to attend)
IssyKitty/DFT: Anaheim (attendance still unclear)
DarkRowan: Costa Mesa (OC) (attendance still unclear)
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC) (unlikely but might attend; out of town)
Ant: Los Angeles (unlikely to attend; doesn't drive)

DESTINATION TALLY
-----------------
Red Lion Inn: 2
Hollywood Billiards: 1