Well, our computer system is slower than molasses in January, which is pretty damn slow giving the outside temperature today. So here goes once again.
My third cousin (I really can't distance myself far enough away from that side of the family) was the Michigan co-chair for the Trump campaign. Now this won't be a political rant...hopefully. She and her family have money up the butt and other orifices so it is not surprising she and her ilk supported Trump. However, when she announced her support and commitment (and she should have been) she used the expression "coming out as a Republican", which, by implication she must have meant it is as hard to come out as a lesbian, which she isn't (as far as I know but then her father is a pervert and is on my shit list for a variety of reason, none of which has to do with his party affiliation). But I digress. If her idea of a hard life is coming out as a wealthy Republican I will have to rethink this whole business of coming out (as in gay). She, poor baby, has had a rough life of privilege and wealth. She is almost a white person, but she is, after all a Jew, but she can pass for white.
You know I am on a women's Seder committee for my synagogue and we are supposed to share stories of our family Seders from our past. My most memorable recollection is the year that Passover was later in the spring and daylight savings time had sprung forward. Dinner was very late and the Seder service was running long. People were quite in their cups come the Plagues and my aunt said to my cousin Sid, who was leading the Seder, to hurry up and Sid uttered that traditional Seder prayer "Suck it up your ass, Elsie". The rest of the meal was a debacle. Now how can I tastefully share this with my Seder Sisters?
So I take what I can and leave the rest. That side of the family is dead to me...mostly dead. A cousin sent me the newspaper clipping of the Trump supporter saying she was coming out as a Republican, which I promptly smushed into a ball and let the cats play with it and it ended up, appropriately, in their litter box. She may be wealthy but she is now bathroom reading for the cats.
Friday, January 6, 2017
More in the way of blogs
I am endeavoring to blog more in an effort to wean myself from spending money shopping online whilst I multitask. In lieu of money I offer words. I made a resolution to not spend money this year in an austerity move to rein in my worse habits. Not that words are not habits of sorts but I need to spend less and enjoy all that I do indeed have. And after of year of literal bad breaks and ten weeks off without pay the austerity move is needed. So you may expect more in the way my blog.
Slowly I am also going to endeavor not to blog so much about the election, Whew! I am sure you all may have had enough of those rants. So it is with a light heart I reintroduce Sophie and her clan soon. Sophie recently purchased a home at the ripe age of 71 (and a 30 year mortgage...may she live long enough to pay it off). Phyllis and Percy recently tied the knot (twice I hasten to add, once out east and once in Michigan). The annoying personage of the Magic Plastic Tuna (not to be confused with the Green Tuna) is still an annoyance. She came in like a hurricane, a bully, and continues to be the same bully she was, unaware that she is as annoying as she is. It is entirely too loud here. No one seems to speak in a stage whisper. I must listen to my music to exclude the extraneous noises and keep my peaceful demeanor. She came in today for a three hour cruise and has done nothing to merit her salary as she is not even doing the five books a day she purports to catalog.
I am doing my best to refrain from spending money I don't have and trying to keep my sanity in a crazy, loud world. Best, however, to attempt one thing at a time, even though I am expert at multitasking. My side business is booming, that is providing tech support to a sea of soon to be experts. I have a breakfast meeting next week which may turn into into a grant to teach senior citizens, of which I may be one, how to use email, the internet, Face Book and maybe to blog.
I continue in therapy, still missing the at-large and still injured Hyphen. My current therapist is adequate although I wish I had either Hyphen One or Two. I was recently allocated fifty additional visits this year to see my therapist so there is still the need, or so the insurance company seems to think.
This is the first of a number of non-topical blogs I am hoping to write this year, all the whilst resisting that which needs to be resisted.
Watch this space.
Slowly I am also going to endeavor not to blog so much about the election, Whew! I am sure you all may have had enough of those rants. So it is with a light heart I reintroduce Sophie and her clan soon. Sophie recently purchased a home at the ripe age of 71 (and a 30 year mortgage...may she live long enough to pay it off). Phyllis and Percy recently tied the knot (twice I hasten to add, once out east and once in Michigan). The annoying personage of the Magic Plastic Tuna (not to be confused with the Green Tuna) is still an annoyance. She came in like a hurricane, a bully, and continues to be the same bully she was, unaware that she is as annoying as she is. It is entirely too loud here. No one seems to speak in a stage whisper. I must listen to my music to exclude the extraneous noises and keep my peaceful demeanor. She came in today for a three hour cruise and has done nothing to merit her salary as she is not even doing the five books a day she purports to catalog.
I am doing my best to refrain from spending money I don't have and trying to keep my sanity in a crazy, loud world. Best, however, to attempt one thing at a time, even though I am expert at multitasking. My side business is booming, that is providing tech support to a sea of soon to be experts. I have a breakfast meeting next week which may turn into into a grant to teach senior citizens, of which I may be one, how to use email, the internet, Face Book and maybe to blog.
I continue in therapy, still missing the at-large and still injured Hyphen. My current therapist is adequate although I wish I had either Hyphen One or Two. I was recently allocated fifty additional visits this year to see my therapist so there is still the need, or so the insurance company seems to think.
This is the first of a number of non-topical blogs I am hoping to write this year, all the whilst resisting that which needs to be resisted.
Watch this space.
Gladly not
I will shamelessly admit that I do not suffer fools gladly. And to wit, I think that is my current problem. Surrounded by fools, the Dunning Kruger effect in slow motion, I am besieged by assholes who consider themselves my intellectual peers, although they are ill-read, if read at all, an besotted by the thought that they know as much as a expert or an educated person because what's a democracy for if not that all opinions are equal. Except, as we know from experience, opinions are like assholes for various and sundry reasons. I don't buy into the argument that in a democracy everyone gets a trophy for merely showing up. No, I put my faith in people of intellect; after all I am an effete intellectual snob, listening as I am to Beethoven's violin concerto, knowing that I know how to spell Beethoven correctly and know that this piece of music is played allegro ma non troppo (and what that means). So, yes, Orwell was right: All animals are created equal but some are more equal than others.
And so I rant on.
I am expert at my work. I know my stuff and it takes a great deal of intellect to perform at my level. I don't say that smugly. I am damn good at what I do, quality control for a large database; expertise in metadata and know what all that means and entails. A high school diploma ain't gonna cut it here. I had an acquaintance at the library who with a questionable high school diploma, was given a position she was not intellectually suited for. She relied on me to fix her mistakes, which were numerous, and, in fact, at one point told me that was my job...to fix what she did not understand. And she did not have the intellect to know that she needed help in the form of additional training. She would not ask her supervisor for help with additional training (and I suspect that alone would not have made a difference). The only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask. Like I said I am a snob. She used to "do" crossword puzzles at work but did them the following day so she could copy the correct answers from that day's paper. It is to laugh if it weren't so bad. There is not much point in an intellectual exercise if you are going to at least make an attempt.
More to come.
And so I rant on.
I am expert at my work. I know my stuff and it takes a great deal of intellect to perform at my level. I don't say that smugly. I am damn good at what I do, quality control for a large database; expertise in metadata and know what all that means and entails. A high school diploma ain't gonna cut it here. I had an acquaintance at the library who with a questionable high school diploma, was given a position she was not intellectually suited for. She relied on me to fix her mistakes, which were numerous, and, in fact, at one point told me that was my job...to fix what she did not understand. And she did not have the intellect to know that she needed help in the form of additional training. She would not ask her supervisor for help with additional training (and I suspect that alone would not have made a difference). The only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask. Like I said I am a snob. She used to "do" crossword puzzles at work but did them the following day so she could copy the correct answers from that day's paper. It is to laugh if it weren't so bad. There is not much point in an intellectual exercise if you are going to at least make an attempt.
More to come.
Thoreau it all away
Henry David Thoreau's supposed last words were "Moose...Indians" hardly a
fit ending to a well lived life. Still, with all the election hoo ha,
and there has been some, I felt compelled to re-read both Walden and
Civil Disobedience. As Socrates opined, according to Plato, "an
unexamined life is not worth living" and Thoreau cannot be accused of that
faux pas. Nor can I. I am re-reading Thoreau. I am, in fact,
re-reading a number of tomes I read when first I was in college and
perhaps too youthful to understand its true importance. I quote from his essay Civil Disobedience "This American government- what is it but a tradition, though a
recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity,
but each instant losing some of its integrity?"
We have lost our integrity with the world. But lo, that is not the end of end of the story. We can do something to restore our integrity by holding the elected officials accountable for their actions.
Oft I have traveled in realms of gold and this is not one of them. I am angry not so much that Secretary Clinton lost but that Trump won. And all of his actions since the election has been to undermine his own campaign promises to drain the swamp, which is now his private privy.
As for the integrity of the election, it could be that the Republicans were so giddy to reclaim power from President Blackenstein that they can overlook the fact, and that is a fact, that our election was hacked by the Russians or that the the Electoral College vote was compromised by any number of irregularities by the Electors, e.g., holding an elected office in addition to being an Elector or living in a district other than the one they were representing. All this, in my mind, delegitimizes the election.
Other than a few Trolls, I have yet to meet someone who will say that they voted for Trump. So, either I know nobody who has or that they can't admit that they did. The Trolls speak in simplistic terms like "We won, you lost, get over it". That is a heady argument indeed. Smacks of sophistry. Still they overlook the fact, those pesky facts, that they did not win the popular vote and that the Electoral vote was compromised. The last two Democrats who lost the White House did so by winning the popular vote. Mayhap it is time to review the Electoral College process and the debacle that they have handed us twice since 2000.
Many of my friends are so distraught with the election that they are politically paralyzed and don't know what to do. I am doing my best to mobilize them to contact their representatives and senators, locally and on the national level, to voice their concerns. One of the most popular Google searches of late is "Who is my representative?". Indeed, you should Google that if you don't know. Write and call your own representative; it does no good to email Senator McConnell if he is not your senator. He will not listen. He will not listen even if you are his constituent if he doesn't like what you have to say.
Three times this year I have blogged and it is all the same. We lost, they won and I won't get over it. In fact, we won, they won, but we all lose. We have a Twitterer in Chief who can compromise the integrity of our alliances with a 140 character tweet. The Swamp of his Cabinet, mostly rich donors, is giving us a gentleman who was deemed to be too racially insensitive years ago to be a federal judge is now deemed to be a good fit for Attorney General. A gentleman who received a generous payout from Mobil/Exxon or Exxon/Mobil to assume the post of Sycophant of State. Climate change deniers to posts for the environment and interior. An energy secretary who wants to abolish the department. And while it doesn't take a brain surgeon to be secretary of housing and urban development apparently that is what we have...an under-qualified brain surgeon, who is so sleep addled that he appears to be dead. An Secretary of Education who basically wants to de-fund public education and institute a system of vouchers, virtually assuring that schools in the inner city falter and fail. I give you your Swamp.
And so it goes.
We have lost our integrity with the world. But lo, that is not the end of end of the story. We can do something to restore our integrity by holding the elected officials accountable for their actions.
Oft I have traveled in realms of gold and this is not one of them. I am angry not so much that Secretary Clinton lost but that Trump won. And all of his actions since the election has been to undermine his own campaign promises to drain the swamp, which is now his private privy.
As for the integrity of the election, it could be that the Republicans were so giddy to reclaim power from President Blackenstein that they can overlook the fact, and that is a fact, that our election was hacked by the Russians or that the the Electoral College vote was compromised by any number of irregularities by the Electors, e.g., holding an elected office in addition to being an Elector or living in a district other than the one they were representing. All this, in my mind, delegitimizes the election.
Other than a few Trolls, I have yet to meet someone who will say that they voted for Trump. So, either I know nobody who has or that they can't admit that they did. The Trolls speak in simplistic terms like "We won, you lost, get over it". That is a heady argument indeed. Smacks of sophistry. Still they overlook the fact, those pesky facts, that they did not win the popular vote and that the Electoral vote was compromised. The last two Democrats who lost the White House did so by winning the popular vote. Mayhap it is time to review the Electoral College process and the debacle that they have handed us twice since 2000.
Many of my friends are so distraught with the election that they are politically paralyzed and don't know what to do. I am doing my best to mobilize them to contact their representatives and senators, locally and on the national level, to voice their concerns. One of the most popular Google searches of late is "Who is my representative?". Indeed, you should Google that if you don't know. Write and call your own representative; it does no good to email Senator McConnell if he is not your senator. He will not listen. He will not listen even if you are his constituent if he doesn't like what you have to say.
Three times this year I have blogged and it is all the same. We lost, they won and I won't get over it. In fact, we won, they won, but we all lose. We have a Twitterer in Chief who can compromise the integrity of our alliances with a 140 character tweet. The Swamp of his Cabinet, mostly rich donors, is giving us a gentleman who was deemed to be too racially insensitive years ago to be a federal judge is now deemed to be a good fit for Attorney General. A gentleman who received a generous payout from Mobil/Exxon or Exxon/Mobil to assume the post of Sycophant of State. Climate change deniers to posts for the environment and interior. An energy secretary who wants to abolish the department. And while it doesn't take a brain surgeon to be secretary of housing and urban development apparently that is what we have...an under-qualified brain surgeon, who is so sleep addled that he appears to be dead. An Secretary of Education who basically wants to de-fund public education and institute a system of vouchers, virtually assuring that schools in the inner city falter and fail. I give you your Swamp.
And so it goes.
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Upset
I was talking, or rather ranting, this morning to a friend about the election. My first vote I ever did cast was for George McGovern. When Nixon won I was disappointed but I did not fear for the Republic. When Bush, both 41 and 43, won I did not fear for the Republic. This time, however, there is a whiff of grapeshot in the air as I do fear for our Republic. I recall as a teenager not wanting to stand for the national anthem as I was embarrassed by our role in the Vietnam War. I feel the same embarrassment now. Here's what I don't understand. How can so many people vote against their own self interests. Trump won on a platform of bringing jobs back but the truth of the matter is there is no longer a manufacturing sector that depends solely on the strong backs of laborers without a college degree. Robotics and automation have taken the jobs, not NAFTA, We live in a global economy now. We live together on a planet and we are all in this together. Anymore a college degree is the equivalent of a high school diploma. Service sector jobs exist but the pay is crap and many studies has shown that men don't like and don't apply for these types of job. Sure, if we can get a comprehensive infrastructure plan in place there will be jobs that are strictly speaking manual labor, but that is short term solution. Just as we had universal free public education. Now we need to expand that to Colleges and Universities. Twelve years of school might be a lifetime to some but to get better jobs a college degree is needed. And whereas a BA or BS was sufficient before now you really need an advanced degree to achieve any economic security beyond the minimum wage.
Trump is a con man and a liar. He promised jobs but what he is taking credit for, like the SoftBank/Sprint deal was in the works long before he on the scene. The same is true of the Carrier deal and Ford Motor deal. And his followers are gullible enough to belief him. When he is called out on the deceptions and outright lies he like a lizard coated in Vaseline; it just slides off without any effect. He promised to "drain the swamp" and outlaw pay for play but he has done just the opposite. The swamp is now a cesspool and his major donors have prominent positions in his cabinet.
During the election I was being trolled on Face Book by Trump supporters, most notable Sophie's estranged grandson Tim. Not so much now. The trolling is getting less and less and I can only hope some folks are waking up to the fact that Trump is all smoke and mirrors. If you are interested there is a pamphlet put together by former congressional aides entitled Indivisible. Get your copy here by clicking this link.
The big thing now is the Republicans trying to repeal the ACA, without putting anything in its place. OMG, wait until the shit hits the fan when 20,000,000 are once again without insurance and the emergency rooms deal less with emergencies and more with people without insurance, which will really drive up the cost of health care and that we will all pay for. Talk about reviving the Death Panels of years gone by. Eliminate the clause for preexisting conditions and you doom a whole class of people to the scrapheap. Single payer is the way to go, like the Medicare model. Let's work on that!
The second big Republican agenda item is to reduce the debt by slashing Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. What the dummies don't realize, maybe because they get free health care and a lovely pension, is that you and I paid into these funds. The monies are there for us to use...in fact it is my money. It's not, strictly speaking, an entitlement. The real welfare queens are in the House and Senate, working less that 150 days a year for a lovely salary, health benefits and retirement exclusive of what is available to you or I.
What I will propose to you is that we need a flat tax, say 10%. EVERYBODY PAYS. No loopholes, no excuses. This is an idea that dates back to the 19th century, Henry George. But it is a sound plan. This would pay for infrastructure, pay down the national debt, have universal college and health care. 10% isn't a great deal to me and I would be willing to pay a bigger share as long as The Donald pays his share, without pleading that he is being audited probably because he hasn't paid any taxes in year. This great patriot who wants to make America great (and regressive) can't seem to pony up his fair share while we, the great unwashed, pay year in and out and get less bang for our buck.
Some days I am upset about the hatred that is Trump and his cesspool has unleashed, like a Pandora's box of hate. Some days the stupidity of it all weighs the heaviest upon me. It is time for my self-imposed mourning to end and to begin resisting with all I am worth the agenda being put forward by the Republicans. Please get a copy of Indivisible. Resistance is not futile. I am getting my sea legs back. MSNBC here I come.
Trump is a con man and a liar. He promised jobs but what he is taking credit for, like the SoftBank/Sprint deal was in the works long before he on the scene. The same is true of the Carrier deal and Ford Motor deal. And his followers are gullible enough to belief him. When he is called out on the deceptions and outright lies he like a lizard coated in Vaseline; it just slides off without any effect. He promised to "drain the swamp" and outlaw pay for play but he has done just the opposite. The swamp is now a cesspool and his major donors have prominent positions in his cabinet.
During the election I was being trolled on Face Book by Trump supporters, most notable Sophie's estranged grandson Tim. Not so much now. The trolling is getting less and less and I can only hope some folks are waking up to the fact that Trump is all smoke and mirrors. If you are interested there is a pamphlet put together by former congressional aides entitled Indivisible. Get your copy here by clicking this link.
The big thing now is the Republicans trying to repeal the ACA, without putting anything in its place. OMG, wait until the shit hits the fan when 20,000,000 are once again without insurance and the emergency rooms deal less with emergencies and more with people without insurance, which will really drive up the cost of health care and that we will all pay for. Talk about reviving the Death Panels of years gone by. Eliminate the clause for preexisting conditions and you doom a whole class of people to the scrapheap. Single payer is the way to go, like the Medicare model. Let's work on that!
The second big Republican agenda item is to reduce the debt by slashing Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. What the dummies don't realize, maybe because they get free health care and a lovely pension, is that you and I paid into these funds. The monies are there for us to use...in fact it is my money. It's not, strictly speaking, an entitlement. The real welfare queens are in the House and Senate, working less that 150 days a year for a lovely salary, health benefits and retirement exclusive of what is available to you or I.
What I will propose to you is that we need a flat tax, say 10%. EVERYBODY PAYS. No loopholes, no excuses. This is an idea that dates back to the 19th century, Henry George. But it is a sound plan. This would pay for infrastructure, pay down the national debt, have universal college and health care. 10% isn't a great deal to me and I would be willing to pay a bigger share as long as The Donald pays his share, without pleading that he is being audited probably because he hasn't paid any taxes in year. This great patriot who wants to make America great (and regressive) can't seem to pony up his fair share while we, the great unwashed, pay year in and out and get less bang for our buck.
Some days I am upset about the hatred that is Trump and his cesspool has unleashed, like a Pandora's box of hate. Some days the stupidity of it all weighs the heaviest upon me. It is time for my self-imposed mourning to end and to begin resisting with all I am worth the agenda being put forward by the Republicans. Please get a copy of Indivisible. Resistance is not futile. I am getting my sea legs back. MSNBC here I come.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
The thing is...
I just don't understand all this hate that has been bubbling to the surface in the last fifteen months or so. The Anti-Semitic rhetoric, the gay bashing, Islamophobia, outright racial animus. All bad. I just just don't understand this. I have often said, as many before me have said, your rights end at my nose and my end at yours. That said I think people should be free to go about their business without fear of getting beat up, harassed or otherwise enraged. I don't understand homophobia. So what if someone is gay; really, what's it to you and what business do you have legislating against it? So what if someone is a Jew, a Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Taoist and I can go on and on. What's it you? Why does Ted Cruz (a man who looks like he is taking a perpetual leak (alright, not a nice thing to say in a rant about accepting people but I digress)) wants to push for a law called the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which would basically permit discrimination based on your religious beliefs. In other works if I am a baker and you are gay and want a wedding cake I can refuse, legally, to make one for you. It's all discrimination whatever you cloak it in. I use the gay example as I can think of no better example of irrational hatred. What is it to you if I am gay? What I am doing so evil that you must legislate me away? You can force your heterosexual agenda on me, but if I try to assert my rights, and I do have them still, then I am make out to be the bane of your existence, as if you can't abide seeing someone else happy in their relationship. And Jews, we don't proselytize, we are not in your face, yet we are hated for our beliefs and really, WHAT'S IT TO YOU? People of color...WHAT'S IT TO YOU? Why is it that some are not allowed to go about their business in peace.
So, what if the shoe is on the other foot. What if you are a white nationalist? Fine and dandy, just remember your right to hate me stops at my threshold. Hate all you want but leave me be. When hate takes action that is where I have issues. Take Whitefish, Montana, aptly named apparently. The "Alt-Right" man of distinction, Richard Spencer, of the National Policy Institute, wants a Neo-Nazi sponsored armed march against Jews in Whitefish (who knew there were even Jews in Montana) because of some slight he perceived that his mother received at the hands of the Jewish Cabal in Whitefish. Armed march with Skinheads bused in from the Bay Area. (Yes, this is factual and not Face Book fake news). The hate is real.
So, what if the shoe is on the other foot. What if you are a white nationalist? Fine and dandy, just remember your right to hate me stops at my threshold. Hate all you want but leave me be. When hate takes action that is where I have issues. Take Whitefish, Montana, aptly named apparently. The "Alt-Right" man of distinction, Richard Spencer, of the National Policy Institute, wants a Neo-Nazi sponsored armed march against Jews in Whitefish (who knew there were even Jews in Montana) because of some slight he perceived that his mother received at the hands of the Jewish Cabal in Whitefish. Armed march with Skinheads bused in from the Bay Area. (Yes, this is factual and not Face Book fake news). The hate is real.
Have your hate and eat it, too. March and show your white pride. But an armed march meant to intimidate a
community should not be tolerated. I am a
card carrying member of the ACLU and they once protected the rights of
Neo-Nazis to march in the predominately Jewish city of Skokie, Illinois. That is their right...in a free society
(didn't we used to be free?) everyone is entitled to their own brand of love
and/or hate. But stop inflicting your
views on me. Stop with the hate. Stop with the guns. Also, while you are at it, stop legislating
moralities and ideologies. Hands off my body and my mind. The FADA (oh, we are back to that are we?) is nothing more than legalized hate. I see the bands of white nationalists seething with hate at all these groups and I wonder what kind of world they want their children to inherit. Hate is a destructive thing, a corrosive thing. Hope is a thing with feathers...according to Emily Dickinson. Hope is optimism and hate is the essence of a pessimistic soul, a soul full of darkness.
So, since the election (oh, God, is that what this is all about?) I have seen so much hate stream out of the body politic. Why aren't more people upset that Steve Bannon, of the Pepe meme fame, has the ear of the president-elect? Why aren't more people outraged about what is happening in Whitefish, Montana? Why? And, more importantly, why haven't I mentioned Sophie and her ilk since the election? Well, since I have this platform and I obviously think some will even read this, I am putting my outrage out there.
On January 21st there is a march on Washington, D.C. and if you can't make that there is one here is Lansing, Michigan. Lansing March details.
Make a positive difference. In other words, you thought I was a nasty woman before...better buckle up, buttercup!!!
On January 21st there is a march on Washington, D.C. and if you can't make that there is one here is Lansing, Michigan. Lansing March details.
Make a positive difference. In other words, you thought I was a nasty woman before...better buckle up, buttercup!!!
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