Self Portrait Scenic Landscapes

What do you do when you can't travel due to a pandemic? 

I had planned several trips this year. Unfortunately, Covid-19 ruined my travel plans. I was disappointed by having to rearrange my plans, and getting stranded locally and unable to travel to several destinations with beautiful scenic landscapes.

I'm sure all of us have heard the phrase "when life give you lemons ...." So I've decided to travel closer to home, and try to add the human element into landscapes by placing myself (a self-portrait) into the scenes. 

On this post, I've included some of the images taken at various locations.  I didn't need to worry about having people around or social distancing, most locations were deserted. Maybe I could travel next year before I retire, after the pandemic becomes a thing of the past! 

Enjoy! 

Rotundo Rechazo a la Estadidad Para Puerto Rico

El dia de ayer, Mitch McConnell, lider de la mayoria en el Senado de los Estados Unidos, aseguro una vez mas, que Estados Unidos no le dara la estadidad a Puerto Rico.

Ahora hay que ver como el Partido Nuevo Progresista utiliza ese rotundo rechazo, para justificar malgastar dinero del pueblo para la consulta de Estadidad Si o No.

El xenofobico y racista presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, ahora esta tratando de instigar miedo alegando que personas de color quieren invadir, aterrorizar y traer crimen a los que viven en comunidades adineradas. En otras palabras, si tu eres una persona de bajos recursos, no hay espacio para ti.

No es un secreto que Donald Trump es racista, para muestra solo basta un boton. Hay que recordarles a esos boricuas que desean ser parte de la nacion americana, que hace casi 40 años, Donald Trump fue demandado por el Departamento de Justicia por discriminacion racial, por rechazar alquilar apartamentos a afroamericanos y a puertorriqueños.

¿Para que insistir y continuar rogando de rodillas ser parte de los Estados Unidos? Una nacion que por 122 años nos ha colonizado, controlado y explotado. La llamada democracia en Puerto Rico es una fantasia. El autodenominado Estado Libre Asociado es una pura ilusion.

[ Puerto Rico Protest photo by Jose Fuentes ]

New York City : Skyline At Night

Two years ago, as I've done many times before, I rode my motorcycle to Jersey City and the Exchange Place Boardwalk in New Jersey to try to capture a light-painted image of my motorcycle using the amazing New York City skyline in the background.

Jersey City, Hoboken, and the Exchange Place are some of my favorite locations to photograph the Manhattan skyline, especially at night. After finding the perfect spot, I waited one hour before sunset to shoot several pictures of the intense blue color of the Manhattan Skyline. Afterwards, I left the camera setup in the same location in the boardwalk, and waited hours for the sun to go down below the horizon.

There are lots of restaurants near the boardwalk. I decided to kill some time and had dinner on the boardwalk, before the Manhattan skyline lighting was optimal for the type of shot I was looking for. I had my favorite flounder, shrimp and fries platter. The food was delicious.

Finally, it got dark enough to allow me to use a shutter speed of up to thirty seconds for light-painting my bike, and to capture the skyline night silhouette background. I took lots of pictures, hoping to catch at least a few good images.

As the title of one of the songs of my favorite band Linkin Park says, "In The End", I was very happy with the final result.

Discuss.

President Trump, Our Racist-In-Chief

I knew it was a matter of time before the usual suspects would attack Kamala Harris using the same racist trope that the Trump campaign is using. No surprises there, the racists are just being racists.

The over sexualization of black women is nothing new, it goes back centuries. Women all over the world have always been objectified and sexualized, they have been demeaned and belittled to sexual beings. Some of our-racist-in-chief followers are now saying that "Kamala Harris was used as a mattress, slept her way up and was a public escort".

Not surprisingly, the Lying King and his followers are promoting a sexist, racist misinformation campaign against Kamala Harris. Our-racist-in-chief is calling her a nasty black angry woman, and also even promoting a racist birther conspiracy theory that questions her eligibility for vice president.

He is basically trying to instill fear in White Americans insinuating that a black woman born and raised in Oakland, California, is not American. In other words, the Orange Clown is back returning to familiar territory with this line of attack; he is implying that she is an immigrant, therefore she is not qualified.

I am not surprised this moron is trying to exploit Kamala Harris background for personal gain. For the past 40 years, I have witnessed Donald Jenius Trump bigotry.

Last Friday, during his appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Donny Deutsch was asked how it is that Donald Trump still has the trust of one-third of Americans? Donny Deutsch flat out stated that they are racists.

I must be in denial, but despite what I see, I refuse to believe that one-third of Americans are racists.

[ The top cartoon original creator is Clay Jones from Claytoonz. ]

Discuss.

The Obligatory Bathroom Selfie

I have acquired a habit of taking selfies and behind the scene pics when shooting at a location. Most times I don't even use my Nikon, I just grab my old trusty point and shoot Sony Cybershot DSC-W530, and take a couple of pics.

From past experience, I don't like asking a stranger to take photos of me, pics never comes out the way I like. It is the reason why I always carry a tripod with me. I've been spending more time on Instagram lately, more than any other social platform. Lots of times I browse Instagram to get inspired.

Selfies are the only self-portraiture that I use to explore my photography. As much as some people like to criticize those of us who indulge into taking pics of ourselves, taking selfies is a norm these days. Not sure if you noticed, but often those that criticize, are usually folks without pictures.

In my opinion, selfies aren't going anywhere anytime soon! Taking a cool selfie is only half the fun. Now you got to share it!

[ Top cartoon image is the obligatory bathroom selfie. ]

Trump Caught Spreading Misinformation

 

On Wednesday, our Liar-In-Chief presidential campaign account, finally got temporarily "restricted" until he removes lies they posted on Twitter.The Lying King shared a video that contained false claims about coronavirus. The tweet showed a video of Trump's FauxNews interview in which he said children are "almost Immune" to the virus.According to Twitter, the tweet "is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation. The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can tweet again."Facebook also removed the post featuring the same interview for similar reasons.Imagine for a second that president Obama is currently the president of the United States, and from the White House, on national television, spread a lie, that is going to get people killed?To put it into context, in Georgia, a second grader tested positive for COVID-19, and now his entire second grade class including the teacher are quarantined for two weeks. And this is just the first week of school. In the meantime, the president of the United States is spreading lies, from the White House, on national television.Surprisingly, even FauxNews pushed back, and confronted Minister of Misinformation Kellyanne Conway about the White House lies and spread of incorrect information. The FauxNews host Sandra Smith told Kellyanne, "kids are getting this disease Kellyanne". As expected, Kellyanne distorted the truth, tried to divert and never answered the question.The FauxNews host interrupted Kellyanne and bluntly said, "Kids are getting infected and spreading COVID-19. The debate right now is over the spread of misinformation by the president about children being nearly immune."In Trump's defense, he doesn't know what immune means.

Stop Being Stupid Or Die

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a camp in Texas where dozens of children at a summer camp became infected with coronavirus. Now, we have a new report from a Georgia summer camp where 260 children and staff tested positive in an outbreak that spread in just days.

The group with the most number of children infected were the youngest kids, children ages from 6 to 10 years old. The report says that 75% of all children known to have contracted coronavirus experienced symptoms.

I thought children couldn't get it or spread it? Anyway, that's what my conservative friends keep telling me.

This news report blows the conservative theory out of the water that children don't get infected, they are asymptomatic, and they don't show signs. The republicans pushing for schools to reopen have been feeding the country lies about the virus not causing disease in children.

It reminds me when Dan Patrick, Texas Republican lieutenant governor encouraged grandparents to die for the economy. According to Dan Patrick, "old people should volunteer to die to save the economy".

On a related note, remember when former GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain kept repeating FauxNews talking point that there is no pandemic? Herman Cain died of COVID-19 this past Thursday.

Moral of the story : Stop being stupid or die.

In the meantime, our moron president tweeted today again that "if we tested less, there would be less cases". If we follow this moronic imbecile line of thinking, it means you'll never get pregnant, if you never take a pregnancy test.

Anyone who still demands schools to reopen needs to be booked as an accessory to mass murder.

Discuss.

White Supremacists Disguised as Black Lives Matter Arrested

It's official, confirmed by law enforcement in Virginia. A group of White Supremacists disguised themselves as Black Lives Matter protesters to disrupt a peaceful protest, have been arrested.

“There were white supremacists marching under the banner of Black Lives Matter, an attempt to undermine an otherwise overwhelmingly peaceful movement toward social justice,” Richmond Virginia mayor Levar Stoney said.

The news report indicates that the mayor "thanked Black Lives Matter protesters for trying to stop the white supremacists from provoking violence and destruction." Some of the white supremacists were charged with felony assault on a law enforcement officer and felony possession of a firearm while rioting.

Who would've thunk? White supremacists infiltrating the protests to instigate riots. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, shocked NOT.

[ Top cartoon courtesy of Mike Thompson from USA Today. ]

The United States On The Brink Of Civil War

Just a day or two ago, I had planned to write about the NRA and the private militia groups. They spent decades claiming they needed guns in case government forces turned against its citizens.

Their main argument always has been that the Second Amendment was created to give citizens the opportunity to fight back against a tyrannical federal government. I am sure some of you recall this argument right?

Just last May, some of these heavily armed right-wing militias gathered at Michigan Capitol, to protest stay at home orders. I am sure you remember the images from some of those confrontations. These same folks are now watching government forces assaulting citizens in Portland, and surprisingly, these right-wing militias who always complained about tyrannical federal government, are now rooting for the government. As long as the ones being beaten are black, brown, Portland Wall of Moms and Wall of Vets.

Methinks things are going to turn ugly, quickly.

Today, about 500 hundred of a all-black armed militia, NFAC “Not Fucking Around Coalition", marched through Louisville, Kentucky, to protest police brutality. Members of the "Three Percenter” far-right militia group also gathered their members in the same location. Both groups support gun rights and opposition to government “tyranny.”

Two heavily armed opposing militia groups, facing each other in the streets of our cities. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Tired of winning yet?

[ The images are courtesy of Bryan Woolston from Reuters. ]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Delivers a Lesson in Decency on the House Floor

Just in case you missed it, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez anti-misogyny speech on the House floor last Thursday, in response to Rep. Ted Yoho sexist attack on the steps of the Capitol is being hailed as inspiring.

Rep. Ted Yoho messed with the wrong woman.

Ocasio Cortez was praised across the board for her speech, by politicians and personalities alike. Senator Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter : “Sexism permeates our culture, and members of Congress are not immune. Thank you AOC for that powerful speech and for speaking out about abusive behavior that women and girls across our country endure every day. We cannot be silent.”

In my opinion, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez speech on Republican Ted Yoho's sexist slur destroyed his lame apology. And I agree with Ocasio Cortez when she says that we are living in a culture that accept violent language against women. If powerful men in Congress behave this way toward women, what kind of example are we setting for our next generation of young men?

Meeting Offline Can Be A Minefield

What do you do when your date looks nothing like his or her pictures? Personally, I think using deceptive photos online is manipulative and a huge waste of people's time, so I don't have any sympathy for people who do that.

Earlier this week, I read an article about men sharing stories of the times they've walked out of dates. If a person is out there dating, I am sure at some point they've been in a situation where they wish they could just walk out.

Reading this article, reminded me of a date I had about 15 years ago at Hard Rock Cafe. I had been in touch over the phone a couple of times with a woman I met on a dating site. She sounded nice; she also had several pictures on her profile. I invited her for brunch at Hard Rock Cafe.

I tend to invite to meet face-to-face, usually a week or two after connecting with someone.

She arrived and didn't look like her pictures, I had a hard time recognizing her. Within 5 minutes of meeting her, and before I could said anything about the pictures discrepancy, she berated and belittled the waitress for being too slow taking her order. As I later learned, she was in a rush; had arranged another date with someone else for after our brunch.

Meeting offline can be a minefield. That day I realized pictures in a profile mean nothing. While appearance can tell us certain things about people, it doesn’t tell us everything. Looks matter, but personality matters so much more.

[ The top picture was taken in 2010, The Hard Rock Cafe guitar image was taken in 2017. ]

The Unites States of Amerikkka Is Becoming A Third World Dictatorship

Remember when Barack Obama unleashed his secret police and paramilitary troops to occupy, terrorize American citizens, and snatch them off the streets?

Me either.

In an authoritarian move, federal agents in camouflage and without badges are rounding up American citizens. Federal agents with no identifying insignia are pulling peaceful Portland protesters into unmarked vans.

Fascism has arrived to America.

Sounds like the kind of stories you used to hear about the KGB. Not very American if you ask me, normalizing disappearances is a fascist move. They'll snatch up people and keep them however long they want. Argentina, Chile did it. Lots of dictators have.

The nerve of Republicans to judge places such as China and North Korea when our country is doing the same type of shit hypocrites. Amerikkka is becoming the biggest shit hole in the world.

The Orange Clown is playing dictator.

We have an occupying force in Oregon, that the mayor, Governor and Senators have condemned and requested to leave. Governor Brown says President Trump is invading Portland as an election stunt.

Question, what constitutional authority our fascist government has to snatch peaceful protesters off the streets?

I thought all the right wing gun fondlers were stockpiling their weapons against tyranny. Oh, it's their guy doing the tyranny, so it's OK? When did these police officers stopped being Americans and started being un-American fascist brown shirts?

All they need are the swastika armbands and the 1930's look will be complete! Is it Heil Hitler! Yet?

[ Original police cartoon courtesy of Cagle Cartoons. ]

Discuss.

Sitting On The Iron (Torture) Chair

Tomorrow after work, I'll be seeing my dentist for a regular check-up for the first time this year. I am glad I made it through without any problems or any emergency dental care during COVID-19.

He is the best dentist in my area, bar none. The first time I went to his office, needed him to help me with a tooth [ repairing a cavity in a front tooth ] my previous dentist had severely damaged. If you are anything like me, you'll feel varying degrees of anxiety when you find yourself sitting in the torture chair. Especially if you have been traumatized by a rough, uncaring dentist as a child.

Considering the dental horror stories you've probably heard about root canals, I was sweating bullets when I sat in the torture chair. He performed a root canal and saved the tooth during my lunch hour.

During my regular teeth cleaning appointment last year, I told him jokingly, he is going to have to relocate to the south with me when I retire. It is very hard to find a good dentist these days.

Book : Too Much And Never Enough by Mary Trump

If there is one thing that this fascist administration is accomplishing bigly, is making publishing book companies richer.

According to a news report, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who was the first lady close adviser and loyal confidant for 15 years, will release an "explosive" tell-all book titled [ "Melania and Me" ] on September 1. Just in time for the election.

I mean, what else is new? What can she say on this tell-all book that we don't already know? We've already seen Melania's lesbian soft porn pictures. Have you seen the images where Melania appear with the Donald and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell? Maxwell is accused of "assisting Epstein's abuse of minors by helping to recruit and groom victims known to be underage".

Methinks that after the Orange Clown loses the election, he will be very busy at the Donald J Trump Presidential Library, keeping track of all the anti-Trump books that will be written about him.

By the way, the "explosive" tell-all book by Trump's niece [ "Too Much And Never Enough" ] is coming out earlier than expected. The book is scheduled to be published this coming Tuesday, July 14, 2020.

Did you noticed how all these books are classified as "explosive"? Even Bolton's book was supposed to have "explosive revelations"; yet, it went over like a dud.

Discuss.

Tales From The Trumpster Fire

The Orange Clown is an embarrassment to the legacies of the four men carved into Mt Rushmore. Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia said it best, "yesterday we watched the most un-American speech ever delivered by an American president on the July 4th weekend".

The Orange Buffoon-In-Chief basically called everyone that doesn't support him un-American and traitorous. He used our Independence Day to tell a majority of our country that we are not welcome here in America. In other words, if we don't love him, we don't love our country.

The Orange Clown just promised that no one will ever desecrate Mt Rushmore, while he is desecrating Mt. Rushmore himself.

He tried to use bigly words, like totalitarianism, but can't pronounce them. Pronouncing totalitarianism is almost as hard as reading a daily briefing for this Clown. No wonder he screwed it up. For someone who loves totalitarianist regimes and wouldn't think twice about turning America into a theological totalitarianist state, it sounds as if he has never spoken the word totalitarianism before. Meanwhile he’s pointing the fingers at Biden’s cognitive decline. Oh the irony.

He is reading words on the teleprompter and you really feel that he is speaking word after word without understanding what he is reading. He didn't write it, has trouble reading it, and doesn't comprehend what he's reading. I can't imagine how this man got through school. He has the vocabulary of a drunken mentally deficient illiterate that grew up in a tin shack next to a garbage dump.

The Orange Clown is an embarrassment to the legacies of the four men carved into Mt. Rushmore. He is inept, incompetent, dishonest, amoral, selfish, greedy, immature, lazy, unfocused, functionally illiterate, and ignorant.

The economy's in the toilet, 44 million of Americans filed for unemployment, over 130,000 Americans dead from COVID-19, riots and lawlessness has spread throughout our country, soldiers deployed against American citizens.

Can you imagine how Republicans would’ve reacted if President Barack Obama had done this?

Are we tired of "winning" yet?

Discuss!

Wear a Mask. The Life You Save May Be Your Own.

As a healthcare worker, I am dumbfounded at our elected officials refusal to wear a mask. For the last two months, president Trump has trashed mask wearing, undermining his own government's advice.

2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain condemned masks. I just learned yesterday that Cain is now hospitalized infected with COVID-19, less than two weeks after attending Trump's Tulsa, Nuremberg rally.

Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, who had said he did not believe in mandatory masks, is now reversing himself and is threatening people with fines up to $250 dollars. Last Wednesday, Texas reported almost 9,000 new cases, the highest one day total in Texas since the start of the pandemic.

Texas and Florida governors have been miserable failures protecting their citizens because they cared more about pleasing Trump. Two days ago, Florida shattered records with over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day.

As a healthcare worker, I've witnessed firsthand, friends and co-workers infected with COVID-19. I don't want to become another COVID-19 statistic.

As of today, July 3, 2020, the number of Americans who have died from COVID-19 is 130,000 people. I am not Nostradamus, but at this rate of daily infections, I predict that by Labor Day we will surpass the 200,000 mark. Our government response to this pandemic has been a complete and utter disaster. Our government has failed us.

About 100 million registered American voters did not cast a ballot in 2016. There's the old adage that "every nation gets the government it deserves". If you don't vote, you should not be complaining about the incompetence of Trump's regime. You had a chance to have a say in the outcome, and you blew it.

Discuss!

Game Over for Trump. I Like Presidents Who Aren't Traitors.

It's been five days since the report first came out, and the White House is still downplaying it claiming Trump wasn't informed that the Russian government paid bounties to Afghan militants who killed American troops.

If what the White House says now that Trump wasn't informed is true, the report makes him look weak. If he was informed, it means he lied about not knowing. If this report is true, and Russia's actions resulted in the deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan, the president and everyone still defending him are traitors.

If that’s not treason, I don’t know what is.

Either Trump is a liar and he was briefed, or his national security people knew and kept it from him. Somebody committed treason, it's just a question of who. It is curious that the Stable Genius doesn't seem interested in getting to the bottom of this story. The Stable Genius is more upset at the tearing down of Confederate statues than of Russia putting bounties on our soldiers in Afghanistan.

There are now reports the White House knew about the bounties in 2019. If the report is true, and the bounty program resulted in deaths of US troops, I will say this again, the Stable Genius and anyone still defending the indefensible are traitors.

Anybody out there who's not working for Putin still supporting this traitor?

The smell of corruption out of the White House is becoming overwhelming! Soon you'll need a mask not for COVID-19, but for the stench of corruption.

Seniors Just Want to Have Fun

Another day, another stupid action on the part of the Stable Genius. So I am asking myself, why am I watching a video retweeted by the Stable Genius of apparent MAGA supporter yelling "White Power" from his golf cart?

I probably have better things to do than watching something so predictable. In his since-deleted tweet, the president thanked the great people of The Villages, a retirement community in Florida.

By a curious coincidence, I found this gem in the video comment section:
"The Villages. Number one per capita for STD's in Florida. Management needs to cut off the residents’ supply of Viagra."

Ok, now I'm intrigued, this comment piqued my interest.

A quick search tells me that The Villages, the biggest gated retirement community for seniors in the United States, had become known as the senior community with one of the highest STD rates among it's residents. Others argue that the std's story in The Villages is an urban legend.

Apparently there is a black market for Viagra, tales of prostitutes frequenting the retirement community, and several arrests of senior citizens engaging in sex in public in their golf carts. There is a book by Andrew D. Blechman called "Leisureville", about the nightlife in The Villages. Even the New York Post released a story eleven years ago, with the headline “Romance and STDs: Inside Florida’s Wild Retirees Getaway."

The Villages is now home to more than 125,000 people. The New York Post article claims that the ratio of women to men in the community was 10 to 1.

With a female-to-male ratio of 10 to 1, sounds like a paradise for elderly who are seriously getting it on.

Everybody Poops, Including Astronauts

According to wikipedia, Houston, we have a problem origin can be traced to the phrase in past tense (“Houston, we've had a problem here”) that was used by the crew of the Apollo 13 moon flight, to report a major technical problem back to their Houston base.

Have you ever look at some of those new inventions and thought, "what a simple idea! Why didn't I think of that?" Are you the type of person who have a list of ideas on how to improve a product or even create a new one?

What type of inventor are you?

Everybody poops, including astronauts. I just read an announcement where NASA is willing to pay to the person who can design a toiled than can function on the moon. NASA is willing to pay up to $35,000 dollars.

Imagine clogging the Space Shuttle toilet, where do you find a plumber?

So, who wants to design a space toilet? 

Discuss!