Dear Dreamwidth
Jul. 17th, 2011 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wickdzootSorry for my absence. Blame a number of things, including getting an Xbox to access streaming Netflix, which naturally led to other uses, which was both hilarious and a little whacky.
These days, I need all the laughter I can get.
With apologies to the late Hunter Thompson.
I thought that when the Bush/Cheney administration was gone, I would stop being so angry. Sadly, that has not been the case. I got laid off twice in 2008, and then was out of work for two years and three months. I could have dealt with all that with the expected amount of grief, terror, anger, and hopelessness if only the President I had helped to elect hadn't turned out to be, as my uncle says, Barack the Betrayer.
Now, if anyone wonders why I should feel angrier now than I did over Bush and Cheney, it's because I never expected anything better from either of them. Sure, I hoped, but I'm not an idiot, I figured any decent and sane action would be an accident, not planned. But Obama made some promises which he has not only not fulfilled, but which he has outright broken. He's transformed himself from 'Yes, we can', to Bush 2.0. The decisions he's made about terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are directly in opposition to what he gave his constituents to understand. His repeated surrender to the Republican right has either been a clever plan to shift the overall political climate far to the right, or an incredibly ineffective method of building a bi-partisan framework. He apparently doesn't understand that bipartisan anything requires dealing with people who are also committed to that end. And since I don't think he's that dim, I'm leaning toward an extremely clever agenda. Or something.
This is the hellish thing. I can't even not vote for him 2012 because, hello, who are the Repuglicans fielding these days? Whacky Mitt Romney who hasn't done much about jobs for his own state economy, insane Michelle Bachmann who is apparently either too dim to realize what she said or really cold enough to say that she hoped there were more jobless people because she thought it would help her get elected.
So, there are the choices. Barack the Betrayer--has an alliterative ring even if my uncle genuinely is just a leetle bit whacky after having been in journalism during the Nixon years--is sacrificing Social Security and Medicare to meet Republican demands....why? For a bipartisan agreement? Because he doesn't want to cut back on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya? Fine, don't, but then legalize pot and tax it instead of cutting WIC, Social Security, Medicare and Planned Parenthood. Oh, hell, I don't even know what the hell all my issues are with Barack, it's gotten to be such a backlog, I have trouble even prioritizing my laundry list of issues. Where the hell do I begin?
I know how I feel about the Repuglicans, which hasn't changed and has only gotten worse.
Here's the really hilarious thing: back in 2000, when the Repuglicans stole the election, I was really a moderate. Slightly left of center, sure, but the sixties and seventies had left me allergic to the ideologues on either side of the street. There were things I felt very strongly about, such as, say, civil rights such as marriage for whoever the fuck wanted it, the death penalty, if only because people of, say, working class or of color receive the death penalty in a disproportionate percentage. As for the rest, I had feelings, but recognized the futility of actually expecting some of what I believed being adopted country-wide. Frankly, my best hope was not to get, hey, people who would deliberately get us into a war or allow New Orleans to be wiped off the map, along with people who were old and poor or just too poor, to get out.
Who knew? Seriously, I had convinced myself until 2003 that the country had survived Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, it had survived Ronnie and George Sr., it could survive Dubya and Cheney. Which goes to show you just how dim I was.
So here I am, looking ahead to my twilight years and wondering if I will, in fact, be able to keep working for at least ten more years if not longer, and if I can't, whether or not pre-emptive suicide to avoid burdening my kids or eating catfood and living in my car. You see, my retirement funds from prior to 2002's layoff went toward a new furnace, keeping the mortgage paid, and it was modest to begin with. So, new job, laid off again ten months later, then contract work which didn't include a 401k and so not until the regrettable period at EFI did I have a chance to get anything socked away. Then, when my lovely daughter went rhough a series of serious health issues, not to mention my broiken wrist and subsequent surgery, not to mention Cobra at a grand a month, and shazaam, it was gone. Then my extremely limited savings went after my unemployment benefits were gone. I had to borrow money from my daughter and son in law to get here for the job that brought me here.
Now, I see my country governed by people who worship Ayn Rand, and not for her writing. (Although I suppose that if they weren't anti-science morons, I might give them credit for the latter.) People in Wisconsin are setting up recall elections, and their governor just keeps on truckin' according to the Koch brothers.
The funny thing is, I knew they were evil after working for twelve months at their company. I have playfully referred to it for years as the my time in the Fourth Reich. Now I get to look forward to aging in the Fourth Reich because they are buying enough politicians to make their toxic dream a reality.
In spite of my strong beliefs, I actually had faith in this country. I really did believe that ultimately, it was self-correcting. Now, recalling Yeats, I can only agree that the worst are full of passionate intensity and the best either lack conviction or don't exist at all. It sure isn't how I expected to spend my golden years.
I don't claim to have all the answers for the problems that grieve us. I do think that having one of the wealthiest of the developed countries have most of that wealth in the hands of 1%, with the highest infant mortality rate of all the developed countries and the shortest life spans, that our culture and apparently our leaders genuinely have no more compassion than Scrooge prior to his visits from the three spirits, that all these things area betrayal of what our foremothers and forefathers intended America to be.
So that's where I am. How about you?
These days, I need all the laughter I can get.
With apologies to the late Hunter Thompson.
I thought that when the Bush/Cheney administration was gone, I would stop being so angry. Sadly, that has not been the case. I got laid off twice in 2008, and then was out of work for two years and three months. I could have dealt with all that with the expected amount of grief, terror, anger, and hopelessness if only the President I had helped to elect hadn't turned out to be, as my uncle says, Barack the Betrayer.
Now, if anyone wonders why I should feel angrier now than I did over Bush and Cheney, it's because I never expected anything better from either of them. Sure, I hoped, but I'm not an idiot, I figured any decent and sane action would be an accident, not planned. But Obama made some promises which he has not only not fulfilled, but which he has outright broken. He's transformed himself from 'Yes, we can', to Bush 2.0. The decisions he's made about terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are directly in opposition to what he gave his constituents to understand. His repeated surrender to the Republican right has either been a clever plan to shift the overall political climate far to the right, or an incredibly ineffective method of building a bi-partisan framework. He apparently doesn't understand that bipartisan anything requires dealing with people who are also committed to that end. And since I don't think he's that dim, I'm leaning toward an extremely clever agenda. Or something.
This is the hellish thing. I can't even not vote for him 2012 because, hello, who are the Repuglicans fielding these days? Whacky Mitt Romney who hasn't done much about jobs for his own state economy, insane Michelle Bachmann who is apparently either too dim to realize what she said or really cold enough to say that she hoped there were more jobless people because she thought it would help her get elected.
So, there are the choices. Barack the Betrayer--has an alliterative ring even if my uncle genuinely is just a leetle bit whacky after having been in journalism during the Nixon years--is sacrificing Social Security and Medicare to meet Republican demands....why? For a bipartisan agreement? Because he doesn't want to cut back on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya? Fine, don't, but then legalize pot and tax it instead of cutting WIC, Social Security, Medicare and Planned Parenthood. Oh, hell, I don't even know what the hell all my issues are with Barack, it's gotten to be such a backlog, I have trouble even prioritizing my laundry list of issues. Where the hell do I begin?
I know how I feel about the Repuglicans, which hasn't changed and has only gotten worse.
Here's the really hilarious thing: back in 2000, when the Repuglicans stole the election, I was really a moderate. Slightly left of center, sure, but the sixties and seventies had left me allergic to the ideologues on either side of the street. There were things I felt very strongly about, such as, say, civil rights such as marriage for whoever the fuck wanted it, the death penalty, if only because people of, say, working class or of color receive the death penalty in a disproportionate percentage. As for the rest, I had feelings, but recognized the futility of actually expecting some of what I believed being adopted country-wide. Frankly, my best hope was not to get, hey, people who would deliberately get us into a war or allow New Orleans to be wiped off the map, along with people who were old and poor or just too poor, to get out.
Who knew? Seriously, I had convinced myself until 2003 that the country had survived Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, it had survived Ronnie and George Sr., it could survive Dubya and Cheney. Which goes to show you just how dim I was.
So here I am, looking ahead to my twilight years and wondering if I will, in fact, be able to keep working for at least ten more years if not longer, and if I can't, whether or not pre-emptive suicide to avoid burdening my kids or eating catfood and living in my car. You see, my retirement funds from prior to 2002's layoff went toward a new furnace, keeping the mortgage paid, and it was modest to begin with. So, new job, laid off again ten months later, then contract work which didn't include a 401k and so not until the regrettable period at EFI did I have a chance to get anything socked away. Then, when my lovely daughter went rhough a series of serious health issues, not to mention my broiken wrist and subsequent surgery, not to mention Cobra at a grand a month, and shazaam, it was gone. Then my extremely limited savings went after my unemployment benefits were gone. I had to borrow money from my daughter and son in law to get here for the job that brought me here.
Now, I see my country governed by people who worship Ayn Rand, and not for her writing. (Although I suppose that if they weren't anti-science morons, I might give them credit for the latter.) People in Wisconsin are setting up recall elections, and their governor just keeps on truckin' according to the Koch brothers.
The funny thing is, I knew they were evil after working for twelve months at their company. I have playfully referred to it for years as the my time in the Fourth Reich. Now I get to look forward to aging in the Fourth Reich because they are buying enough politicians to make their toxic dream a reality.
In spite of my strong beliefs, I actually had faith in this country. I really did believe that ultimately, it was self-correcting. Now, recalling Yeats, I can only agree that the worst are full of passionate intensity and the best either lack conviction or don't exist at all. It sure isn't how I expected to spend my golden years.
I don't claim to have all the answers for the problems that grieve us. I do think that having one of the wealthiest of the developed countries have most of that wealth in the hands of 1%, with the highest infant mortality rate of all the developed countries and the shortest life spans, that our culture and apparently our leaders genuinely have no more compassion than Scrooge prior to his visits from the three spirits, that all these things area betrayal of what our foremothers and forefathers intended America to be.
So that's where I am. How about you?
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 01:48 am (UTC)