Don't Agonize, Organize.

Been thinking what I want to say about the dangerous insanity of this current SCOTUS. What can one say? So many things, mixed with outrage, flood the mind. And, also, words become hard to form with tears flowing from your eyes and smoke billowing from your ears. I needed a few days. Crying with protestors in the streets after that ill-fated decision to overturn Roe, (after undoing NY's gun law), while I was not actually out there in the streets with them, was helpful. 

We have four justices who should not even be on the court. Let's work on impeaching them for lying under oath during their confirmation hearings as a start. Mitch McConnell, who owes his allegiance ($$$) to Leonard Leo of the Federalist society, a Catholic Opus Dei member, (I think he has placed 5-6 justices on the court, most are Opus Dei?), installed Neil Gorsuch into the seat he stole from President Obama. 

Scalia had suddenly died leaving the vacancy during Barack Obama's last year in office. Obama nominated Merrick Garland. Mitch thought, no way is this black Democratic president going to appoint three justices. So, he created his new rule: POTUS can't nominate a justice to the court within 10 months of a POTUS election. And, go figure, it worked. Dems are just too polite. To understand what a cold, rather heartless rightwing justice Gorsuch is, look up his record. And read, too, how even the other justices think he's an arrogant, patronizing know it all.

 

Then, about five minutes before the end of the reign of Donald J. Trump, (orange Caligula, as I refer to him), Mitch shoved Amy Coney Barrett into RBG's seat when RBG made the unforgivable mistake of dying before Joe Biden could take his place in our Oval Office. Because Amy's a woman and so was RBG, women will be happy, MM figured. A woman is a woman is a woman, to bastardize Gertrude Stein's poem. Of course, women knew that ACB did not smell as sweet as RBG. But, MM got away with it. Again, Dems were too polite. And meanwhile, Amy isn't even qualified to be on the court. She's the least experienced justice in 30 years, I read, (I guess the last least qualified was Thomas 30.). She never tried a case, and her opinions showed her to not care about justice or people's rights. She signed an anti-abortion ad and said she forgot about that, while avoiding abortion questions, just saying precedence is precedence. And she was literally, a "Handmaid" in her Catholic cult, People of Praise, where men make the decisions and women serve the men and God. Sounds like judge material to me.

Kavanaugh should have been left by the side of the road with a beer keg and a box of Kleenex. Lied and cried and yelled at his confirmation hearing about how much he loves beer. In that confirmation hearing, Beer Bong Kavanaugh's behavior also just screamed Supreme Court Justice material. Didn't it? It had to make you as proud as it made me. What a shocking performance. Witnesses came forward to shed light on his past sexual assaults. Christine Blasey Ford did the right thing to try to save the court and the nation. But, to no avail, and she suffered for it, even having to move out of her home due to threats. And he got onto the court. And who paid off all his very large debts remains a mystery. And another mystery to me, is why didn't Kavanaugh's wife pack up the kids and get the hell away from that snivelly little fool? 

Clarence Thomas, Uncle Tom or Peeping Thomas, as he's been referred to, had a similar problem with his past. Anita Hill was a hero back then, too, but also to no avail. It remains a white man's world, after all, due to gerrymandering and cheating and voter suppression. And few are whiter than that black man.

 

So, two sexual assaulters helped undo Roe v Wade for women who are raped, or are victims of incest, and become pregnant. Even if your doctor says you will die in childbirth, you will be forced to die in childbirth now, or be charged with murder. Stranger than fiction. Life always is. Isn't it? About 30 years after Thomas' confirmation hearing and Anita Hill's testimony, "Gin" Thomas, that lovely MAGA insurrectionist, called Anita very early one morning, demanding that she apologize for the things she'd said about her husband back then. Bit of a delayed reaction, I'd say. I figured Ginni had been tippling all night long, and got more enraged with every drink until she drunk dialed her husband's old nemesis and dumped on poor, unsuspecting Anita Hill.

 

We are losing our democracy and sliding into a theocracy. A theocracy which gives more rights to guns than to women. I still do not understand the guns and god thing or what makes "Christians" think Jesus would be into any weapon. Have they ever actually read what Jesus purportedly said? To me it is an unholy alliance from hell. 

Leonard Leo's long range plan has been to unravel our democratic republic and replace it with a theocracy. And he's been very good at it. He is well funded by Koch brothers and others and because Dems are just too polite. 

Let me amend myself. US is not becoming a theocracy. It is fast becoming a Christofascistic state. QAnon Christofascism. Women in the Jewish religion have the right to an abortion. They believe life begins at your first breath and ends at your last breath. I guess they will have to demand a religious exemption to this Christofascist ban to receive their God given right to reproductive healthcare.

The world is astounded and frightened to see what America, the democratic country they looked up to, is becoming. I think they fear for us and laugh at us by turns. I think the world is still dumbstruck by how uneducated Americans are and how many guns US has, (393.3 million guns to about 330 million citizens.), and how many mass shootings, (at least 250 so far in 2022), and how many children are murdered in their classrooms. How does any civilized nation comprehend, explain, or defend it? 

And I hope those who are applauding that now public funds have to pay for religious schools, too, and that coaches are allowed to pray on the field, enjoy when a Muslim school demands taxpayers support it, and an Islamic Imam spreads his rug out and prays to Allah to bless their games, or asks Allah to kill America, the Great Satan. Or the Church of Satan prays that their team wins. Go Satan!

What a world. I'm back where I started. What can one say about the state of the union today? Stop the world, I want off? My suggestion is that Dems stop being so freakin' polite! And that everyone of voting age, get off their asses and get out and vote in November like their country and their lives depend on it! They do! It's not too late to reverse a lot of the damage done.

 

We can stop our downfall by taking more control of Congress, ending the filibuster, and expanding SCOTUS. While we’re at it, let’s set term limits, too.  This justice for life is not working, either. The generic post Roe reversal poll I read recently, had Dems up by 10 points. We can do this! 

As the phrase, the Afro-American woman civil rights activist, Florence Rae Kennedy, coined, and many, including Gloria Steinam and Rosi Braidotti, quoted, and Occupy Wall Street movement turned into a bumper sticker, said: "Don't agonize, organize!" 

And Rosi Braidotti is right. "Violence, pain and resentment are conducive to paralysis, not to change." Don't go down with the ship, yet. Remain positive and fight like hell. Re-radicalize! VOTE!

Free Time for Equal Time

        The traitorous coup thrower, and would be despot, feels he is not getting his fair day in court. He demands equal time. Just not under oath. He wants hours of free TV prime time to repeat his "rigged election" mantra to rebut the "Russia, Russia, Russia, here we go again" witch hunt. The former guy (TFG) is, apparently, glued to these hearings, (Cheating on Fox News with CNN, I assume.), and it's causing his bloated pumpkin head to explode. 

At a conference in Nashville, hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, TFG said, "There's no clearer example of the menacing spirit that has devoured the American left than the disgraceful performance being staged by the unselect committee." (except for "unselect," it sounds more like Stephen Miller.) 

TFG had only lost his case in 61 courts, after all. Drop in the bucket. He has never been known to let facts, laws, a judge's opinion, (or 61 judges' opinions), or the majority popular vote, or a majority of electors, or the Constitution get in his way. It's good to be King. He knows how to play to his gullible MAGA followers. Lie, lie, lie, and lie some more, double down, rinse and repeat, and keep repeating the lies until the Second Coming. 

His "Christian" followers love him and believe every bit of the word salad that spews from his mouth. He is their savior. What he is, is the consummate con man, maybe the best America has ever seen. I loved when he called the January 6th Select Committee, "con people. They're con artists," he said. Oh, the irony wasted on the irony deficient. 

Malignant narcissists lie and project their behavior onto others. And if TFG was not so dangerous to democracy, America, and life itself, he would be a fascinating masterclass in abhorrent behavior and some of The DSM-5's 157 mental disorders, such as sociopathy, borderline personality and histrionic personality disorders. And who knows? Maybe Mental health workers could coin some new diagnoses after analyzing him. 

We came within 40 feet of throwing our country into "a revolution inside a Constitutional crisis," according to Republican Judge Michael Luttig at the last hearing. Not sure where the mob thought they were going to go with this overthrow of the government after assassinating Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, and anyone else who got in their way at the Capitol, but in TFG fashion, it was not well thought out. (Maybe it's due to his ADHD, or dyslexia, or Adderall snorting, or dementia, or...? Insurrection by the Keystone Cops. 

And now TFG just wants to tell US about "the good things, the things that we want to hear," about that day. "It's a one-way street. It's a rigged deal." He needs to give his side of the story, so it's fair and balanced and unbiased. And then, victimhood is another sign of malignant narcissism. 

The fourth January 6 Select Committee Hearing airs, nearly everywhere but Fox News, tomorrow 9am till 12:30pm PT. Don't miss a minute. 

Jocosa Puella June 20, 2022

Hang In for the 2nd Edition

        It's 2022. I think I last entered a blog post in 2011? Life certainly does get in the way, between deaths, (and ensuing family feuds), illnesses, pandemics, disasters, natural, and man made, as in Republicans and Donald Trump. 😬 When asked on Twitter what I think is the single biggest threat to the world today, I always answer, Republicans. 

Life has not been the same in America since that lying, orange con man and Putin useful idiot, along with his 24 years younger "Slovene-American" mannequin and alleged ex-model, third wife, descended the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, to the applause of his paid extras. And then with Putin's help, lied, finagled and gerrymandered his way into our White House. Saddest day I can remember, until his dystopian inauguration speech, anyway. 

But, we lived through those very frightening years, despite all the sleep deprivation due to nightmares. So, tomorrow is the second January 6th Select Committee hearing. It feels like Christmas Eve to me. I'm setting my alarm and recorder. I suppose 7am is too early for popcorn. So, coffee it is with some oranges and toast, too. It is a party, after all.  

The first hearing, on the 9th, did not disappoint. I thought the committee, and the former ABC TV executive news producer, James Goldston, did a spectacular job laying out their case against Donald Trump, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other fools who bought into orange Caligula's lies and conspiracies. 

Like brilliant prosecutors, they are building their case, showing how Trump knew full well he had lost the election. No plausible deniability. And they clearly showed that he planned this for at least a month with the Proud Boys. They showed us that he felt his VP had it coming when the mob yelled and chanted, "Hang Mike Pence!" And he gleefully watched the violence and terror at the Capitol on his bank of TVs in the dining room off the Oval Office. He never called for any help, and let the Capitol and Metro Police fight it out with the out of control mob for hours. 

As officer, Caroline Edwards, who sustained a brain injury that day, said, she was not trained in hand to hand combat. And Trump kept rewinding the video to watch the violence again to relish in all the people who were fighting for him. It would be sad that the ex-POTUS is so deeply insecure, due to being so badly treated as a child, that seeing people commit mayhem and violence in his name made him feel loved. But, I am all out of Fs to give about that cruel, criminal sociopath. 

I feel like I pretty much already knew most of what they were presenting, except Ivanka's actually throwing her demented dad under the bus. That was fun. Talk about mannequins. She looked like a gaunt robot. But, Ivanka has so much more money than her dear old dad, (Thank you, China. Thank you, Saudi's MBS.), she doesn't need to worry about being disinherited. 

But, I hadn't fully realized the amount of advanced planning and number of reconnaissance tours of the Capitol to find the most vulnerable areas to breach the building. I, also, can't wait to see who else in the Republican party was involved in organizing and helping those tours. I think we all have our suspicions, of course, but to be continued... 

And I learned on Thursday that the Proud Boys actually hired a documentarian to record their insurrection. 😳 I don't know about you, but I would think that the first rule of committing an egregious and treasonous federal offense would be to not record it. But, maybe that's just me. 

I hope you will not miss this history in the making tomorrow morning, either. To be continued. 

Jocosa Puella June 12, 2022

Kakistocracy

“Some nation-states have suffered what the Greeks called kakistocracy—government by the worst of men.”
Tom H. Hastings, Ecology of War and Peace: Counting the Cost of Conflict, 2000

I think it’s pretty clear that the US has been a nation in a state of kakistocracy for quite some time now. This term explained a lot to me. For one thing, we now know we aren’t alone in history to put the worst possible people in power. That’s good to know. Isn’t it? No one wants to be alone in misery.

So, we may be stupid, but at least we aren’t precedent settingly stupid. I, for one, would feel far worse if I knew ours was the first and only country in world history to have voted its enemies into power, those who would destroy rule of law and a government of the people and by the people.

And we are in good company with the Ancient Greeks. Besides amazing art and architecture, philosophy and mythology, the Greeks gave us the term, democracy. So, they did know the difference between rule by the people and by the people's enemies.

But, at least, it is good to know that we are not anomalies. We are simply flawed creatures guilty of having what is, probably just an inherited human condition, the desire to vote against one's best interests, or for Kakistocracy, “government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.”

I know there are countless governments in power now and throughout human history that are/were definitely kakistocractic. But, those are/were probably forced upon the people, more than they were popularly put into power. This handing the keys to the car over to the obviously falling down drunk, is more what we have practiced in our elections.

I’ve referred to our current system of government variously as a plutocracy, an oligarchy, a moneocracy, and a corporatocracy. Very often, I simply tell people we are literally living inside Norman Jewison's 1975 film, Rollerball. Maybe even The Body Snatchers.

But, now that I have discovered kakistocracy, the term just seems to sum it up succinctly. Not the why one would do that, but the fact that it has been done.

Now, whether our current kakistocracy is due to mass ignorance, in part from our less than stellar educational system; or whether it’s due to mass hypnosis from the constant din of misinformation that is thrown at us in the corporate-owned media’s planned disinformation campaign, I don’t know. We could, probably, also, blame rigged and/or hacked electronic voting and ballot counting machines. It could, also, be due to the huge cache of corporate election funds spent buying pet puppet politicians who will push their self-aggrandizing agendas.

Or maybe our kakistocracy can be blamed on the large percentage of American citizens who are simply suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. That’s one of my favorite choices. Though, I think there is not one simple cause, I think it’s clear that it has been a concerted, if concealed, effort by the rightwing “conservative” (whatever it is they think they are conserving, certainly not the economy or the environment or the Constitution), power base to take “their” country back from the fools who they think unjustly stole it from them. They are the reverse Robin Hood. Regardless of where total blame lies for our kakistocracy condition, the electorate put the wrong people at the helm, again. They’re back.

And those wrong people in power are steering US right back off the edge of their flat earth. We veered away from it for a short while. And just when we thought/hoped, that just maybe, if we stuck together, we could affect a sea change, too...

Does anyone in the rightwing notice or care that this country is being controlled by the same mindset that brought us our first Great Depression, those greedy, self-serving, myopic plutocrats who crashed the economy then? Do they ever stop and ponder why we are on the brink again? Don’t worry. That’s rhetorical.

See, here’s the thing. I do think too many here in this country have Stockholm Syndrome. And then there’s those poor people who actually believe they will win Lotto and be stinkin’ rich one day, too. So, they don’t want the government to mess with their future success by taxing them like they do the poor and middle class now.

So, they fight to keep the top 2% of the population, who have more wealth than the bottom 98% combined, from paying their share, which if they paid would get us out of the debt the rightwing brought us, after those on the politically left got us out of it. They do not seem to see that the now rich are rich at the expense of the now poor and the now middle class. They bought the bird in the bush and pie in sky trick. But, the sky is falling and the bush is burning.

And then there’s the Christian connection.

That’s been a real magic, bunny out of hat trick, by the rightwing. They’ve convinced Christians that Jesus would hate the poor enough to give what little they have to the rich. You kind of have to hand it to them for that one. They’re good. Logically, you can’t, on the surface, even imagine that that one would go over. But, it did and continues to work for them.

And they are not even close to what Jesus preached, love thy neighbor as thyself. They are about stealing from thy neighbor to make thyself richer. And yet, it’s the supposed Christian base that, by and large, votes these “worst of men” into public offices. Go figure. Huh?

Can anyone explain that to me? Or better still, can someone, please, explain it to them? The FAUX News that permeates society has left their heads so far up their posteriors that they can’t hear the truth. Can someone free their ears, please?

We all know power corrupts. Thus, we really do know, even if only subconsciously, that those who crave power are the exact opposite of who should be in power. The power hungry sycophant class is too easily corruptible. And those who would do the corrupting, for their own gain, know exactly whom they can corrupt the most easily.

If you would work a man, know his desires and his weaknesses, to paraphrase Francis Bacon. The corrupters know who will sell out their mothers for fame, fortune, and power. And they do know very well how to how to work them.

Those we would have to drag, kicking and screaming, to be in the public and in power are those who should run our government. Those are people we can trust. They don’t want the limelight. They know it’s bad for their complexions. They don’t want the power. They know their rewards are not in material possessions or physical power. Their hearts and minds are above the fray. They know power is an illusion, if not a delusion. They would just rule by law for the benefit of all to live in peace and harmony.

The problem for us is, we can’t find those kind of conscious and solid citizens. They don’t want to be found. They know better. They know they will not be repaid for their sacrifice to serve the people with gratitude and understanding by the masses, but rather with the reward of thrown stones. So, the stone age minds continue to rule this age, too.

So, here we are, stuck again with the bottom feeders, entering by default, into Lord of the Flies time. The criminally insane continue to run the asylum.

When we handed the biggest gavel to the biggest baby bully crying out the loudest for power, we knew we were headed into the waterfall at edge of the universe.

So, hold onto the boat and for dear life, my dears… We are charged with nothing less than keeping the light of sanity shining. We will be back.

You really can’t keep a good “man” down… Good will out in the end. So, keep the faith. And remember what Jesus would do: Have a big fish fry for all and keep the wine pouring.

Relationships, Ten Trillion to One

Relationships. There’s a mouthful. And a handful. How does any one of them survive? How does anyone survive them?

I think, as with life itself existing at all in the universe, the odds of a relationship making it at all are about one in ten trillion. Nonetheless, we find ourselves alive and relating to each other, for better or for worse.

Relationships are work, we always hear. Or maybe it’s ourselves we hear saying, bitching that. But often, they are more like a bloody war than just a mere job.

Why can’t we all just get along? Why do we prefer war to peace in our relationships? Why do they often seem like more of a competition than a cooperation? Wouldn’t it help people in a relationship, as well as the survival of our species itself, to cooperate with each other?

Doesn’t it make more sense, that if everyone cooperated for the greater good, things would go along far more swimmingly for all involved, on all levels? For instance, wouldn’t not capturing, torturing, or killing anyone, but instead giving the other a helping hand, thereby helping ourselves with our own hands, make for a better world?

Why, instead, does it feel that there is some goal we think we must reach, passing Go and grabbing the cash, before the other can? Why do we need to beat the other? Where are we going? Are we proving something? Dog eat dog relationships? Last guy standing is not that rotten something or other?

Everything in life is relating. Right? Everything and everyone relates to everything and everyone else. We don’t materialize out of thin air. We are born through another. We need the other.

As with the Acacia tree and the ants, life is inter-woven, inter-active, and inter-dependent for survival. Scratch my back. I’ll scratch yours. Or in the case of the ant, I’ll keep pests off your limbs for some good eats.

We would not have even evolved if plant life had not developed first. Without the oxygen plants give off as a bi-product, we wouldn’t be breathing here. Life is simply symbiotic. No one, nothing survives alone in a vacuum.

It’s the Indian myth’s web of gems, with each one reflecting the next into infinity. We are all gems and part and parcel of that web of life. We’re all in this kitchen sink together, that Mulligan Stew of existence.

So, why don’t we take better care of our essential connections to each other and to every living thing instead of acting as if some god put the other fauna and flora here to serve us?

Countries, companies, religions, gangs, races, genders, and individuals all seem bent on bringing the other down while running off with the other’s flag toward some illusionary goal line in the sand. They argue, point, criticize, correct, and condemn the other to make themselves better than.

And this happens even within loving personal relationships, not just in the competitive world of business or in a war zone or gang turf war, or in a courtroom. Or maybe we have made life all one big court case. The People vs. People trial of the ages.

Are we all just stuck in an unconscious circular rat race, playing a game of steal the flag, or chess to the death? Why, shouldn’t it be more like Alice in Wonderland’s, Caucus Race?

All the creatures run around in a circle. There is no beginning, no end. Anyone can begin wherever he is and leave off wherever he is. And in the end, everyone wins and gets a prize. Now that makes sense.

That’s life. It’s simply a circle and yet, we run around like we are going to get somewhere first and be looked up to as some great conquering hero. Is it all ego and hero worship complexes?

But, really everyone is already a hero. We have each chosen to take this death-defying journey of life. And we need each other along our routes to keep us on track and off cliffs.

So, why do we not understand that there is no such thing as winning alone? If survival is our goal, why don’t we know that that desire to be on top, produces it’s opposite effect of all those you trampled to get there, pitching rocks at you to bring you down hard?

Did this need to conquer begin with early man and its need to survive when food was short? Maybe, but all life takes life in the process of surviving. And within species, members kill their own to make sure their genes are passed on rather than the other’s. Each individual thinks it is the best combination of that gene pool ever created and that it must replicate itself over others for the future good of its species and life.

Now, I’ve read rules of engagement for relationships to work. I’ve read Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements. I know that we should not take ourselves too seriously or accept another’s criticisms without realizing he is probably projecting his own feelings of inadequacy. I know we should reflect before we project or deflect our lousy day off on to the other, too.

I know we should respect and treat each other the way we wish to be treated. Jesus’ Golden Rule is the best and simplest ground rule for the world to co-exist. But, do we abide by the rules, especially the golden one?

Not so much really. People are constantly at war with each other. Sun Tzu’s 6th Century B.C., The Art of War is still a huge seller, and recommended to executives for business dealings. We learn to live by the rules of engagement in war.

And the divorce rate in the US, according to the Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri, is 50% of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages. According to enrichment journal (whatever that is) the divorce rate in America for first marriages is only 41%, second 60%, and third 73%.

Those third marriages are really under siege, endangered species. If at first you don’t succeed, give it up already… Huh? And marrying between the ages of 20 and 24 seems to doom it even more. Why is that worse than marrying at age 17? Too much time being free, know the difference, and thus harder to adapt to the compromise a union requires? My way or highway thinking? Longer in individual egg rather than as two broken into omelet?

And look at all the drivers yelling at each other on the road. People are ready to battle complete strangers at the drop of a hat, or the cutting off of a car in traffic.

And countries. People in mass are a mess? Mob mentality rules? A country will declare another country the enemy and then objectify the people as different from themselves, and all as one big bad seed, so they can feel justified in trying to destroy it or take its property or resources.

Hate and fear and label branding are camouflage for motives. I’m not trying to steal their oil or water. I’m trying to stop their evil ways from hurting themselves any longer, and introduce them to Democracy and Jesus. I want them to go to heaven. Yeah. Sooner than later, too, if they happen to be sitting on resources we need.

And far too often, the same thing seems to apply in a romantic relationship. Instead of cooperating in love to make their union work for the best for both parties in that omelet, it’s too often a competition. Seems we often plunder rather than embellish our significant other.

One wants to control the other. One wants to dominate. One must be right, the other wrong. Is it all just deep insecurity and/or fear of being abandoned, losing the other, being alone, again, naturally? So, instead, we drive the other to run screaming away before they wake up and decide they are better off without us, so that we are still in control?

Is it just a matter of seeing one’s own faults in the other and familiarity breeding contempt? Don’t we put people on pedestals only to then try to knock them off later? Or do we just look up to people we don’t personally know. Never a prophet in one’s own land theory.

I don’t know. But, I do know that when you bring two different, unique human egos together, all hell can break loose. It would seem that with all our same human genetic make-up, we’d be more on the same page.

And then, again, maybe we are. Maybe we are all on the same competitive, knock the other guy off the mountain to claim it as our own page.

What if we just dug beneath the surface a little deeper? If we can spill oil by digging, couldn’t we spill no man is an island consciousness and our deep connections by digging into ourselves more? Water represents the mind, after all. Dig, baby, dig. Spill love and oneness.

We want our freedom to do what we want when we want. And we want the relationship to be there as our safety net. We want sex, support, and companionship. We do need each other. We do want each other. And yet, war continues to break out all over the place all the time. Quel waste…

Maybe it’s time we take stock of our own superficial and counter-productive thinking and not only dig in, but back up a bit to get a less myopic view of what we’re doing and why. Time for Sun Tzu’s retreat and regroup plan. Not to live to fight another day. But, instead to live to love another day.

Wouldn’t that make a lovely and fine mess of the war zone we’ve created here in paradise? Love is all there is. Let’s practice it. We can get it right.

To Bee or Not

It’s been too long. Very long time no write. Not here, anyway. Life. It’s forever getting in the way. Isn’t it?
I don’t even know what I want to say now, I just realize I must say something. Keep my hand in, as it were.
Health care legislation passed during my MIA act. I mean, if you can call it health care. Seems like another give away to giant corporations to me. But, hey. I’m not a politician.
It seems they have to sell their souls to get anything resembling anything passed and get re-elected, so they can keep their fabulous tax payer paid health care coverage.
Well, at least we may do away with pre-existing conditions being a condition of getting coverage. No a priori genetic malfunctions hanging over our heads. Or do they still hang us in the end? I think I read we can apply to some expensive pool if we want to have insurance coverage.
Did you believe that wonderful Supreme Court decision to allow corporations to spend any obscene amount of money they choose to, to promote or trash candidates? Wonderful. Wonderful.
Thank you, The Supremes. What a great group. But, really, corporations are people, too. Don’t they deserve their rights as much as the next guy? Just because they can outspend the other guy a billion to one, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to do that. Right?
Nothing like the good old United States of Corporations, business as usual. Democracy in this country is nothing but P.R. Yeah, don’t get me started about the P.R. driven media, either. I don’t have the time. They're just pabulum. Dangerous to our health pabulum. They’ve become more the inciting to riot and create mayhem variety.
Oh, well… C’est la vie…
You want justice? Dream on, Dream Girls. Life is illusion. And those who would keep their illusionary pockets lined with as much illusionary gold as they can accumulate keep you living in your own version of Lala Land. And hey… Why not? If it is all pretend world, anyway, we might as well pretend we live in the land of flowing honey.
Well, I have to don my beekeeper’s suit and go harvest… I’ll bee back. Well, at least some illusion of me will bee... or not.

Wake Them Up!

“Money is the root of all evil,” the young Armenian male bank teller said after explaining to me that he loves money.

Well, what’s not to love? I thought. As the old joke says, it’s way ahead of whatever is in second place. Well, we all know that love is the most important thing in the world and not in second place at all. But, really, when you have love and no money…? Doesn’t feel quite as first placey, somehow.

I heard about a study recently that said that most women, when questioned, chose more money a week in their checking accounts over having more sex. We've always been a more pragmatic gender.

One can buy sex. But, one can’t buy money. Gotta have it to buy it. And, as the song goes, your love doesn’t pay my bills. A male first must feather the nest with the finest to attract the finest females; I figure my young money-loving teller is figuring.

He told me he was studying to become a C.P.A. That's great, I’d said. That is a good job, always in demand in our tricky economic situation. I don’t know if he felt guilty from family influence, or a church, but it seemed he had a need, to let me know that he did know that money is bad.

I can’t imagine a parent telling a young man that wanting to earn money was evil. Maybe he attends an Orthodox church that promotes vow of poverty rhetoric. Rich man, camels, eyes of needles, and all...

Money isn’t the root of all evil, I told him. Selfishness and greed are. There is certainly nothing inherently evil about clam shells or whatever we used in our previous incarnations to pay for things. Receiving cash, clams, whatever, is just a thank you gift for your product or service.

If we lived in a less selfish society where we took care of each other and lived with a barter system, it would be better. I could give you a few dozen eggs from my free range, organically raised hens and tomatoes and zucchini and basil from my free of pesticides, organic garden for the rent. Win-win. And you are even healthier for having property to rent.

Only, it doesn’t work. We’ve grown to be too large a group. So, it’s paper, gold, silver, (copper mostly now), something concrete to hand over to say your work, service, property, is truly valued and appreciated.

If only we could get big biz to value, appreciate, and reward its workers. Instead, it’s pay as little as you can to keep your own salaries and bonuses astronomical.

What was it I heard Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of UnitedHealth, makes? I think I read $270,086.83 each month. But, I think that was before bonuses and other perks, like his retirement package. I hope he’s not covered by UnitedHealth. He earns(?) more than six times the average person’s yearly income in one month? And, again, that’s leaving out the more generous CEO perks. I heard someone say that Hemsley makes $100,000+ each hour. Wow. Now that’s greed.

Hemsley denies people’s health care needs for a living and he is richly rewarded for it. Now that is selfish. How does he sleep at night? He probably self-medicates, just as at least 46 million uninsured Americans have to do. He is evil.

And the rightwing puppets who are in the pockets of UnitedHealth Care and every other big insurance company and big pharma are, also, evil. They choose money over the welfare of the people they allege to represent, the people who voted them into their offices. The people who, out of their taxes, pay for their salaries and for their wonderful insurance coverage, are denied health care.

The screamers at the town halls who drown out the health care coverage messages, well, they're just ignorantly opposing their own best interests. They know not what they say or do. Forgive them, Jesus would say. But, I say, go out and scream over them. Yell the truth. Make them face reality. You'd be doing them a kindness. They are victims of the body snatchers. Wake them up!