We Can't Afford It

The nation is broke, we can't afford to feed poor children, take care of sick people, house the homeless and comfort the old people. We can't afford to invest in roads, or schools, or new technology.

We can't afford it.

But we can afford the hell out of corporate subsidies ("We must take care of the JOB CREATORS!") We can afford to buy and send off drone after drone and bomb after bomb ("For FREEDOM!") and we can afford to do all sorts of other things as long as they don't smack of 'entitlements' or 'welfare' or 'socialism'.

Because that stuff's bad, ya'll.

That socialism stuff...just, *** I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Except it's not.

We have entire cities going bankrupt because of a capitalistic free market free-for-all that we're currently in the throes of. Oh, you hear that it's really because of the poor people...those lazy poor people...

So they come in and declare the cities bankrupt and put 'private consultants' in place. And yanno what they do? They part and parcel the whole shebang out to the highest bidder and completely ignore that THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE LIVING THERE.

Because they don't matter. They're just poor people. Those lazy poor people.

But what if? What if the poor people (who happen to live there) were given a voice and the power to effect their own change? What would they do to their city?

Well, it'd all go straight to Hell, that's what. They're poor. They don't have college degrees. They don't have business cards or ties or anything that would give them the authority and wisdom to know what's right for them, for their cities.

Or not-

http://www.geo.coop/blog/co-operative-revolution-reading-pa

This End of America the Capitalist Free Market...this may be what we have to endure- our 'labor' if you will, to get to the other side and onto our next phase of national life.

Maybe we can get it right this time and not be such douchebags to each other and the rest of the world. Maybe.

PS-
The sun came out today. It was glorious. I'm hoping to see it again tomorrow.

Fun With E Mails

Ahhh...the chain e-mail. Such a great way to get a lot of people harumphing in agreement and indignation! Behold the following, which is usually accompanied by a photo of a hungry homeless white child- you know, an AMERICAN child.

In America - The Homeless go without eating.
In America - The Elderly go without needed medicines.
In America - The Mentally ill go without treatment.
In America - Our Troops go without proper equipment.
In America - Our Veterans go without benefits they were promised.
Yet we donate billions to other countries before helping our own first.

Of course, the problem with this is what happens when you fill out the outrageous soundbites with facts.

In America- The homeless go without eating because time and again we vote against helping them; calling those who are homeless 'unmotivated' and 'just needing some gumption' and 'if we feed them they become dependent- we don't want to ENABLE them, do we?'

In America- The Elderly go without needed medicines because we have the most profit-motivated and unregulated pharmaceutical and insurance industries in the world

In America- The mentally ill go without treatment because St. Ronnie cut them all loose and "taking care of those folks would be nice, Sugar- but how will we PAY for it?" Also, see above re: enabling and motivation. If we just give the mentally ill a good kick in the drawers and a cheerful "Get over it!" they'll be FINE

In America- Our troops go without proper equipment because there is no fiscal oversight of the bloated military industrial complex that lines the pockets of Halliburton and Raytheon. Send one of Cheney's grandkids over yonder to the sandbox as a regular enlisted grunt and see how fast the troops get equipment

In America- Our Veterans go without benefits they were promised because we KEEP GOING TO WAR and make more and more broken men and women


Maybe, just maybe, 'Rose-colored Glasses Lefties' want fiscal responsibility even more than the Right- we want the money we have put where it's needed most and not GIVEN to those who already make more apiece than the average small town in America.

You can call that Socialism and rail against it. But the entire text in that 'patriotic' chain email reeks of socialism- garnering support for GOVERNMENT to help our own people.

Because in a perfect Conservative World, all those people mentioned? Should just get off their asses and fix their own lives instead of waiting for the NANNY STATE to take care of them.

Or is it only a Nanny State when it cares for people we don't think deserve it?

Land of the Free, Home of the Belligerent

(Stupid Playlist no longer supports the playlist widgit. Till I figure out some other way to do this I'll link the blog-song here...if you wanna listen while you read)

http://www.playlist.com/g/#/home

I love America.

I'm an American, and I love America.

So it's discouraging to me when I question the status quo and point out ways that the same issues are being handled in other countries to hear the knee-jerk, spat-out response of, "If you think it's so great in France/the Netherlands/Australia/Canada/Cuba/etc./etc./etc. why don't you MOVE there???"

I don't want to move. I want THIS country to work the way it was intended to.

"We don't need no labor unions- buncha murderous, sleazy thugs. I work in a non-union shop for low wages, no benefits and long hours in dangerous conditions but DAMN IT- I don't pay no union dues. This is America- I should be FREE from the tyranny of unions".

"We don't WANT Socialized Government-run health care- tell us what doctors to see, who gets treated, that's bullshit. This is America- I'm FREE to be denied care from any little pencil pusher at the 800 number of the private insurance company I pay high premiums to every month. And when I retire, that Big Government Nanny State better keep it's paws offa MY Medicare".

"Oversight of banking and corporations? HELL, NO! This is Capitalist America, damn it- anyone who can hire lawyers and accountants has earned the right to cheat the rest of us- God blesses those who help themselves. If my family is hurt by those practices, well, we'd best get off our asses and work 80 hours a week instead of 60...if we can find an extra full-time job. But No-sir-ee, I ain't taking no government aid handouts like unemployment or food stamps so my family can eat and stay in our home- I'm FREE to determine my OWN fate."

"College? Sure it's expensive- and as useful as tits on a bull. Buncha sissified elitists think they know more than the rest of us- if they want to spend $50,000 on a degree in Underwater Basketweaving, I sure as hell ain't paying for it."

All the above seems absolutely cartoonish and stereotypical and yet...those exact stories are told and held up over and over again in answer to anything "Occupy" or "99%". The pride exuding from people who are (really) honest and hard-working yet somehow can't see that what they are doing- how many hours they HAVE to work just to survive is heartbreaking and way out of proportion to our counterparts in other nations, both in benefits and paid time off- and that to continue on the way we are is to doom our children to the same never-get-ahead debt slave existence most of us are now in. Don't we want BETTER for our kids?

How little schooling we in this country can afford for ALL learning- not just vocational, but exercising the (also very big) parts of our brains that revel in literature, and art, and music- those parts that differentiate us as humans from our animal friends who only worry about food and shelter and reproduction. Those parts are left to wither and die in most of today's lives- bodies that must spend so much time on the "animal basics" and brains that are being tricked into thinking that somehow "Survivor" and "Jersey Shore" is quality stimulating entertainment, when in other places it's a given that school is outstanding, diverse, and FREE up to and including a 4 year college. If you want to go farther, most times THAT is paid for as well (which answers the question of, "Medical school is so expensive- how can other countries afford to pay for medical care for all?")

Everyone likes to hold up The Founding Fathers as examples and that's great. The Founding Fathers were really pissed off at the old regimes in Europe- debtors' prisons, feudal societies, a decent way of life for only those who could afford it, at the expense of those who could not. Really. Pissed. Off.

So pissed off they up and started their own country- one that would be free.

Free of The Church imposing its morals and doctrine on all citizens no matter their own Faiths, free of the unfairness of Might Makes Right and Money Buys All.

See? They took all the things they wanted CHANGED about the old systems, and did it- changed it up to work better.

Because that's what you do if something changes and isn't working anymore. You change it so it DOES work again.

If my old eyes aren't working and even Dollar Store cheaters won't let me read, I (eventually) suck up my pride and go get bi-focals, I don't curse the tiny words on the page and the way every, single damn street sign has smudged letters.

If somehow the banks and corporations buy enough politicians to enact laws that favor them over everyone else, we're supposed to get pissed and change it back, not hold them up as role models and aspire to the same level of societal immorality.

What the hell happened?

Why are we content to stagnate and actually DEvolve into a pre-America America where the Fundamental Religious Right and the Corporations look very much like the Church and State of Medieval European times?

Are we just too tired? Too discouraged? Too trained to listen to bosses and politicians and preachers and anyone who says stubbornly and defiantly,

"We do NOT look elsewhere for direction and inspiration- This is America- we are the Best of the Best and fuck the rest".

Or is it because, as John Steinbeck said- “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

One in three bankruptcies in America is due to medical debt. The average American has NOTHING to retire on...at age 70. Our life expectancies are low and our infant mortality is high. We rank behind only Romania in percentage of children living in poverty. Our schoolchildren come out of school woefully behind most other nations.

How is it that even with the wonders of the interwebs people don't KNOW this? Or if they DO hear it, they assume it's propaganda and untrue and since most Americans never travel out of state, much less out of the country, they remain belligerently ignorant.

We've been so indoctrinated to fear ANYTHING with the word "Socialism" in it- "Well, fine- all those Europeans live longer, are happier, healthier, better educated and all that mess, but they ain't FREE and any minute now- maybe on one of their extended paid-time-off vacations- they'll realize just how sorry their existence under the thumb of Socialism really is! Ha. Poor bastards."

...yet these same people still believe in "trickle down" here in America...

I don't want to move. I want THIS country to work the way it was intended to.

Because honestly? Right now our Founding Fathers would be horrified and embarrassed- not by how close we are to being sucked into Commie Pinko Socialism Nanny Statedness, but by how we've allowed, and even encouraged the same entities they despised to overrun us and somehow train us to thank them for the indignity.

In All Fairness...

"All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others"
-Animal Farm.

"Life is not fair. The fair is where you go to see cows and eat corndogs"
-unknown (if you remember, please let me know so I can give credit)

Somewhere along the line, the core belief of "no man is an island, but this is the land of opportunity and fairness for all" in this country has given way to the mantra of "I've got mine, go fuck yourself".

I blame every idiot who waves their copy of Atlas Shrugged with as much vigor as their Holy Bible and their Constitutions- none of which they've read completely through, but depending on talking heads on the TV and at church to tell them what the hell's in there. *Bonus points if their church talk also comes from a talking head on TV.

I blame every idiot who sees (and idolizes) a "self-made man" who got that way by taking advantage of others and dodging the law (tax laws count, even though it only seems that way if it's poor people doing it by cleverly not making enough money to be taxed, damn their stealing souls) and calling it "admirable" and running to the defense of people who would light them on fire in a heartbeat just for yucks and giggles.

I've got a little clue for you- the CEO's of the huge corporations and banks do not need your protection. They bought all the politicians, supreme court justices, lawyers and security forces to do that. They're good. Really. Calm the hell down.

Now the really surprising part- you are not them. You will never be them. If you are reading this blog on your home computer and have a stack of ordinary bills like house payment, car payment, utility, insurance bills next to you and you've prayed even ONCE that there was enough in the bank to cover what's due, YOU'RE NOT THEM. The best part? It's ok. Get the hell over it.

Yanno what really chaps my hiney?

People who want to destroy the social safety net in this country in the name of "reducing the deficit" even though it's been shown time and again that it's not contributing a fucking nickel to the deficit.

OK, wait. Here's who I give a semi-pass to on that.

If you've been born wealthy, and your family has never needed assistance, if no one in your family or circle of friends has EVER ONCE needed to cash an unemployment check, or gone to the store with food stamps, or applied for disability or medicare or medicaid, if you've never ever signed your child up for CHIPS (low income health insurance), if no one in your family DEPENDS on their SS retirement check just to buy food and pay rent, who depends on the VA for their medical care even though their service was decades and decades ago, if you never needed to apply for grants and scholarships to attend college because your daddy could just write a check for it, then you are (partially) excused, because you don't get it.

Because if you've been so lucky, there's no way to connect with that.

There's no way to relate to the fear of having nothing "set aside for a rainy day" not because you blew it all on lottery tickets and beer, but because there have been so many rainy days in your life your feet are webbed.

Illness, job loss, even something as common and simple as having a car blow up or pipes burst in the house can plunge the average family into a spiral of Peter paying Paul with no way to catch up...at least not for a very long time.

For every person who's "playing the system" and "using their credit card at Starbucks" there are 1,000 who genuinely need help- and unless you are there you have no idea how easily that can happen randomly and out of the blue.

So you are excused for not knowing, but not for ignoring or for mocking.

Because that just makes you an asshole.

For anyone else- ANYONE who has personally reached for any of the above help when they've actually needed it to feed their families and care for their children, and who now try to shinny up close to the very rich and wear your Conservative flags and scream for tightening of the rules and elimination of the "waste" in the systems- "waste" that looks alot like your own family and friends-

Shame on you.

Shame on your hypocritical asses, and I swear to god if I see one more word out of any of you I am calling you out on it in front of god and in as public a manner as you are sneering at those less fortunate than you are (well, as you are NOW- precariously and probably temporarily- not because you're lazy or make bad decisions but because shit happens- GET IT???)

Show me one, just one self-made man.

Show me one person who was set out as a newborn (and not one of those spoiled babies born in a hospital, either- one who was born in the forest, surrounded by bears and shit), and not clothed or fed or cared for or given ANY HELP AT ALL who survived ALL ON THEIR OWN and is now
a) alive
b) not a raving lunatic
c) rich as all get-out

You can't, because it doesn't happen.

No one succeeds all on their own- in every single American Success Story there is one of 2 main ingredients-
-they were born with a buttload of money waiting in a trust fund for them
-someone already successful helped them

That's not Liberal-speak, it's the damn truth.

Making sure the weakest members of a society are cared for PROPERLY and with DIGNITY no matter how much money they have and ensuring that the young are educated FOR FREE THROUGH COLLEGE is not wasteful, the former is the very essence of being human in a society of humans and the latter is making sure our next generation is given all the tools necessary to succeed.

If we could depend on everyone to give of themselves freely when they could and that it would help those who really needed it that would be awesome.

But there are alot of people "at the top" who look at fellow humans as numbers and resources and figure they don't have to worry about them, and alot of people at the bottom who are invisible- living lives of literal quiet desperation without access to help, and that's where the whole dirty word of "fairness" comes in.

Fairness does not mean everyone plays no matter how bad an athlete you are and everyone gets an A just for showing up. That's bullshit spin used to whip good people into a frenzy and to make them suspicious of their neighbors, who will supposedly "take away FROM YOU what they don't deserve and everyone will be poor".

Fairness means that the kid whose dad bought all the uniforms doesn't get to play every inning even though the only balls he can catch are right under his dick, and the football stars do not get an A just for mouth-breathing in the back row of the classroom. See?

'Leveling the playing field' is the current "spit it out loud" phrase of the far right- and it invokes images of poor people (because that's what we all are in relation to the really really rich people- all of us, everyone you and I know- our doctors, lawyers, bankers, local businessmen large and small- EVERYONE- never ever forget that) having what little they have taken away from them so "crack mamas can go buy big screen tv's and iPhones".

Here's what it really means.

Fairness means that NO ONE can evade the laws by buying enough lawyers and accountants and politicians to change the rules in their favor- to evade taxes or to be given special compensation in return for promises of delivering things they don't really have to (like jobs. here in the US. that pay well. in safe work environments).

Fairness means that NO ONE can purchase an election or skew the news to fit their own agenda.

Fairness means that no one in this country has to fear a medical bill, or feel pressured to work long hours with little compensation to TRY to avoid being laid off, or losing their home to predatory lending practices- things that are unheard of in every other civilized nation on the planet.

Fairness means that we celebrate long term committed loving relationships- ANY long term committed loving relationship and that the real perversion is protecting the sanctity of marriage by having a shitload of them for no good reason other than "upgrading to a newer model" but then saying "it's totally cool- I asked god for forgiveness".

Fairness is respecting all religious views- what if Tim Tebow WERE Muslim?

Fairness is protecting the right of a woman to make very difficult and personal life decisions as much as the right to walk into a gun show and buy any kind of death tool you want to.

See? Fairness is not "making the rich poor and giving the poor shit they don't deserve". Fairness is "making sure everyone plays by the same rules and no one gets stomped into the ground".

Fairness is...FAIRNESS for everyone, not just everyone who believes what you do.

Right now the bullies are running the playground. Is being pissed about that Class Warfare? Is that Envy Politics?

I don't think so. I think it SHOULD piss us off and that we SHOULD change the rules back to level the goddamn playing field- because it always hasn't been this way, yanno. Just because you can't remember it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Believing that America is the land of opportunity where everyone can get ahead with a little gumption and elbow grease has been both our blessing and our curse.

A blessing in that GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY AND A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, yes- it can be done, with a lot of luck and HELP FROM OTHERS thrown in the mix.

A curse because we're all so enamored of being wealthy, it's so encoded into our definition of how successful we are as humans, we're all "just one lucky break" away from being the guy holding the giant lotto check, that we tend to identify more with the very very rich than the very very poor, which is, of course, ridiculous.

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
-John Steinbeck

And don't paint a fucking red flag on my house because I said "socialism".

Because that would only reinforce my belief that America is in trouble not because of the "evils from the outside world trying to destroy America because they hate our freedoms" so much as the "obstinate and proud refusal to learn a goddamn thing from anyplace other than America no matter how much we suffer because of it. Proudly. Because we're Americans".