And So, It’s Not Christmas, But What Have You Done?

Today we are told to remember and honor those people who have passed on from this earthly existence. Nobody needs to tell you to do that if you have lost loved ones in your life. You do that every day, but what we do need to remember - and we might not do that without their prompting - is to pay tribute to capitalism by purchasing flowers, American flags, and red, white, and blue mementos to honor those who are gone. There are some people here where I live doing that, but mostly they are taking vacations, making a mad dash to the lake to water ski and live a glorious few days in the sun with lots of beer and food. We can’t help it. The death of loved ones just makes us want to run out and prove that we aren’t the ones who are dead. We won’t get to do this again until July and September, but the good news is that when those holidays come around, we will also be prompted to buy very overpriced fireworks and accidentally start fires and terrorize any animals who might be close by. We have earned these rights by way of losing our loved ones in death, though their deaths were not in vain. At least, we don’t think they were. Best not to look at that too closely!

I understand that in order to receive food stamps now you will have to be over the age of 54 to get them without being subject to a work requirement. I hate to tell everyone this but in some states you had to be at least 60 to escape that requirement more than a decade ago. Even better than that, until Jimmy Carter became President in the 1970s you had to pay for food stamps. A family of three, depending on their particular circumstances, could be charged $94.00 for ninety-five dollars’ worth of food stamps. Even the social workers who had to deliver that information to the families in crisis were horrified and embarrassed by it. But hey, what do you expect, you poor person? You are lucky to be alive. You survived Covid-19, several wars, and September 11th if you are over the age of 35 or so. We don’t want to hold your hand or give you anything to eat if you aren’t an essential worker here. And believe me, the kind of work you do has to be something we deem important. Do not think that an Etsy or EBay shop is going to cut it. You should be grateful that we aren’t remembering you today while we are on vacation!

So, let’s be honest, if we can’t use you to make money for the economy or give us an excuse to celebrate away from our work for at least a day, do not assume that you are worth feeding or housing or providing medical care for. Go get a job, slob! Earn your holiday like the rest of us and be glad that you are still here to witness this momentous occasion when your government can once again pay the interest on its debts because it all was dependent upon whether or not you get to eat.

What Will Save Us? Who Will Save Us?

“When the truth is found to be lies. And all the joy within you dies.” - Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane

Whether you are willing to admit it or not this planet and its inhabitants are doomed. Nobody runs around incoherent and blabbering and blaming and fighting and stealing like people are now unless they believe that their bubble has burst and they cannot get it back without destroying whatever it was that did the bursting. And there are so many things that did it. How can we possibly stamp them all out?

 A truth teller now is a marked person. “You just shut up about what you think is wrong because I know that it is you who is wrong. The truth has come out and I don’t want to hear it. You are changing what I have believed in all of my life. You are killing my nirvana! I won’t accept it. I will destroy you. I cannot just die like this. I am unhappy. It is your fault that I am unhappy. I have an AR-15 and I will use it.”

They are angry at you, you lying liberal assholes! There is a target on your forehead and on your back. How dare you point out what got us here to this miserable state! So…what has set us against each other besides a difference of opinion? Theft of property. And who is doing the theft? Bottom line; a system of government that has sold its soul to keep its job. I hear all the time how capitalists and corporate fascist masters have set up a system where everything that they want can be bought, but who are they buying from? A government that has sold its soul to keep its job. So why are people shooting random people in the streets and in the marketplace and in the schools and churches and on, and on, and on, when these random people are not the ones who have burst your bubble? Because you are terrified of calling out and holding accountable the real perpetrators of the theft and misery. To do so would really topple your house of cards and the “I’ll get you anyway, peewee!” solution is always unpacked first because it is the easiest and isn’t likely to make us as uncomfortable as the possibility that we will have to build our house again from scratch if our pseudo monarchy falls.

Until we get it through our heads that we have lost and we cannot go back and fix it, we are not going to come through this black hole unscathed. It is inflicting pain to avoid pain and it will not work. We are nowhere near as repentant and apologetic as the little dog in the following video but what this dog has brought upon himself because he was troubled by Fluffy talking back is where we are about to be. Take a lesson. There is no hope without the realization that we might actually be totally wrong about our entitlement. Our sacred truths have been found to be lies. Have any joy left?

Have a nice day. It is at the expense of your own world.