"I don't care if you die."

-This was said to an anti-capitalist protester by a wealthy resident of Nantucket Island

This is a dreadful time for people right now.  Unfortunately, most of the troubles are not new. They have just gotten much worse. Too many people continuously blame people in need for having the need, which most of the people doing the blaming are responsible for creating. On the other end of the spectrum there are the have-nots who are angry for being have-nots and being aggressive about it to any random person that they may encounter, just because. Having worked in the American legal system in years past and in the social services system I can tell you that most of the people who came and went through the places that I worked were nearly all guilty as hell of being aggressive, hateful, smug, snotty, impatient, threatening, and condescending. Numerous times I and my co-workers and supervisors had our lives threatened for just being there and trying to help and do our jobs. I’ve had people tell me that they knew where I lived and if I didn’t give them what they wanted they would show up at my house. When I worked in the Circuit Clerk’s office, we used to get letters from incarcerated people saying that when they got out of prison, they were going to kill us, the prosecutor, and the judge who sentenced them. I saw a great deal of hostility from attorneys who just felt like being jackasses on any given day if it took longer than they wanted to bother with to process their documents. I left the legal profession after a few years without ever looking back because it was damn tiring to be in the line of fire just about every day by someone who, as they say, had a ”cob crossways." I saw citizens, lawyers, civic leaders, police officers, social elites, doctors, ministers, and children get carted off to jail and I wondered if anyone in the entire town was actually nice or law abiding when it came down to it. An attorney that I worked with and admired very much was arrested and sent to prison for embezzling child support funds. Socially prominent doctors were getting sued for malpractice on a regular basis and to see them in public you would think that they didn’t give one big damn about being accused of causing the death or injury of anyone. Most of them settled out of court with the plaintiffs, and once their cases were settled it wasn’t a shock to find myself filing legal papers against them again after a few months or a year. One of the biggest recipients of malpractice suits against him was also the head of the local Republican Party. A doctor that I had worked with many times was arrested and sent to prison for “loan lapping” along with a prominent local banker. I lived in one corrupt little town, for sure. Wealthy big shots were charged with sexual harassment, indecent exposure, and pedophilia frequently. There was lots of gossip and giggling about them behind their backs but I don’t remember anyone in their social groups reacting like it was a terrible thing and they should be punished. They didn’t care. It didn’t happen to them. Is it any wonder that there is no peace anywhere on the planet now since people have never bothered to address this kind of hell that just keeps getting worse?

I have only had health insurance coverage three times in my life. Each time it was very short lived. I had it twice for a short period of time because it was tied to employment on short lived jobs. When my husband had a heart attack, he was fired from his job for being unable to work. His employer did not give a damn about it at all except he wanted me to return the company vehicle. I had to come home from out of state (where my husband was in the hospital) and get my stepfather to drive the vehicle back for me because I did not know how to drive a standard transmission. There were no condolences sent or a final paycheck given. The only thing that saved me from financial catastrophe and emotional collapse was that we qualified for Medicaid because we had two young children. Because of that, the whole family received coverage. Medicaid was a god send. My husband was in the hospital for four months before he died. He was suffering from heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease and uncontrollable diabetes. After his heart surgery all of his major organs began to fail and I was told that a liver transplant might be his only chance. As it turned out, he didn’t have a chance at all. He was only 38 years old. As devastating as all of this was for me, one thing that helped save my sanity was the fact that Medicaid paid for all of his medical care except $255.00 for blood transfusions that he received. I couldn’t believe it. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the bill, and cried uncontrollably. I never expected them to pay the thousands of dollars that we were charged. I am still so grateful to this day that they did. I can tell you for a fact that it wouldn’t happen now. In the state where I live today, they are throwing people off the Medicaid rolls right and left by the hundreds of thousands, eliminating desperately needed care for infants, children, pregnant women, disabled people, and the elderly. They don’t give one damn if these people live or die. In their mind, it serves them right for having the audacity to be sick and poor. It breaks my heart to see this happening knowing that there used to be a semblance of decency in some places. You can thank corporate lobbyists and wealthy elitists like the man in Nantucket for this. They bought government cooperation in their quest to deny people in need in order to stay ungodly wealthy and superior. You can also blame the government for allowing themselves to be bought. Lobbying should be outlawed because too many people are willing to sell their souls for a profit. I have seen this time and time again throughout my life. Once people get a taste of affluence and a welcome into elitist circles, they more often than not feel a new entitlement to never look back upon the time when they may have had an actual heart. They continue to believe that they are still good people, it is just that somehow the people that they rose above are irrelevant now and do not deserve to do as well as they are. I cannot say that the people who have turned the insurance companies into multibillion dollar establishments ever really had a caring and generous heart, but I know that some state and federal entities used to. Now, very few of them do. These people are not really any different from the people in the corrupt little town that I used to live in. Much of the problem is that they have never really been held accountable in their own peer group and since that is the only group that keeps them in wealth and power, no one else matters. It is a narcissist’s game, and it is the only game that they want to play. So, who can stop them from being this way? A person with a gun? No. That just happened and they are appalled that they are being called on to account for their cruelty and selfish behavior. It will take a refusal to let them lobby/buy their way out of this by their peers and our government to stop their behavior. Without the rest of the elitists rediscovering their own humanity and humility and discontinuing to turn a blind eye to these tragedies we will never get beyond the situation that turns the rest of us into desperate and furious people who will at some point start a class war that can only end in the death of this nation. It has already begun. Those who can stop this are not yet willing to. Bottom line, you just have to be human enough to not take the damn money!

We are coming to the close of this year and I wonder how much money people will be spending on gifts and gadgets for Christmas that people do not need. If the insurance companies would take the money that they have collected and hoarded from all of the people whose only wish was to be well again and put it into a government fund, not the pockets of politicians, to create the single payer healthcare system that we want and desperately need we could immediately do away with a great many of the serious situations that we now find ourselves in.  Medicare for all sounds like the perfect solution for America but I actually believe that Medicaid for all would be the better choice. I have seen firsthand that what it used to be can be like a miracle without monthly premiums, co-payments, and deductibles. The companies would still have homeowner’s and automobile insurance to stay in business. Lower the 10 - 20-million-dollar CEO salaries to a reasonable amount to maintain a comfortable living. No one on the planet needs that much money to live on. Also, return the hospitals and medical practitioners back to nonprofit.

Before it becomes too late to stop a troubled citizen from taking a desperate stand on our immigration crisis there needs to be an emergency solution proffered to rebalance the system. We need to create a coalition of citizens who believe in and support immigration to step in and take responsibility for how badly we have bungled our current policies. These people really need to be willing to sponsor immigrants one person or one family at a time. This can be done legally. Every person that strongly believes in freely allowing immigrants to come to their country needs to also realize that to promote this has to mean that they will take some responsibility for the support of every immigrant; financial responsibility and integration in to communities’ responsibility. Our tax dollars designated to address the situation have been blown to hell by incompetent administrators who use the bulk of the money to pay capitalist entities to do a half-ass job and rake in much of the money for their own pockets. What we have created and allowed to happen with haphazard rules and policies so far is ruining lives and ending lives. Do not designate yourself as a sanctuary city or country without proving that you have a support system in place to manage it. Countries and societies are collapsing under the weight of what we have allowed to happen up to now. Criminal opportunists are taking advantage of the incredible chaos and getting elected to positions that they are not qualified to manage even if they really wanted to. If you support immigration, really support it by sponsoring these people who only want a better home and way of life. Your governments are not capable of solving this problem. They have proven that.

We are going to have a new government administration in January and if the current President and government officials wanted to, they could do much here at the 11th hour to set this country upon a different path. Right now, is truly our only opportunity. After January 20th you can kiss goodbye the possibility of ever righting the wrongs here because there aren’t enough people in America who understand the hell that they asked for on November 5th. Nonviolent people  in prison right now whose only crime was protesting unfair treatment and discrimination should be given clemency. Eliminate all for profit correctional facilities. Hold the money hoarders in this country accountable for their unwillingness to pay taxes, give a living wage and fewer work hours to everyone who works, and give an equivalent of the living wage to those who cannot work for whatever reason. Raise Social Security payments to that level as well. Eliminate student debt and medical debt. If you can imagine these things, you can do them. If you cannot imagine them, then peace will never be imaginable on this planet either.

While it is painfully evident that too many people do not care if you live or die or starve to death or become homeless now, there was a time when it wasn’t so fashionable to be this way. If you were always so uncaring like this it was at least not so supported by most people to brazenly show it. We really must hold each other accountable for the consequences of what we have created. So many horrific crimes against humanity go unpunished because our society doesn’t recognize them as crimes because they are being committed by the wealthy, the powerful, and the elitists. We turn a blind eye and let it continue because holding them accountable requires a different mindset toward their perceived superiority. When a “David” takes a stand to stop a ”Goliath” we need to recognize that it came to this because of our continued inaction to correct inhumanity and fascism. What ever crime you think that “David” has committed to stop these problems is a small price to pay for eliminating a terrible injustice. Put your pitchforks away because the law does recognize “justifiable homicide” when that is the only thing that will stop the mass murder of countless others. Learn to recognize what it takes to right a dreadful wrong. The solution isn’t always pretty and you cannot assume that evil always has an ugly face.  Putting people before profit is the only solution. Only “David” had the courage to stop the giant. We created that giant and looked away when he stepped on and killed thousands. Thank God that somebody felt compelled to step in and try to call a halt to the even bigger crime, but we need so many more of them.

There is no better time to right what is wrong than this moment, while we have Christmas to help us remember that caring and giving is (at least it used to be) a human tradition. Wake up on Christmas morning with a renewed sense of self-worth and esteem by being an integral part of a world that has decided to build up instead of tear down. Realize that peace will be your reward. Hatred and death does not have to be the legacy of this generation. There really can be a Merry Christmas to all and it can last well beyond the holiday season. We only need to make it so.

                                                                       🎄🕊️

"ILL" Gotten Gains

The recent killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare has truly been a shock here in America. At least it has been for the capitalist class who believe themselves to be worthy of worship in the world. The rest of us aren’t too terribly surprised by this event. What is surprising is that it didn’t happen long before now. A young man has been arrested and charged with 2nd degree murder for the killing, but this entire situation could have been avoided if we lived in a society that cared enough about its people to eliminate the mental and financial torture that gets worse by the minute in America because of capitalism. This is one of the few times in my life that I have felt like a terrible something that someone did was not a crime so much as the only result that could follow an ongoing abuse that was put upon the perpetrator and countless others who knew of no other response to their trauma. Three other instances of justifiable crimes were the ordeals of Patty Hearst, Francine Hughes, and an elderly man in California who killed a neighbor for constantly terrorizing and threatening everyone in the neighborhood. I am sure that there are thousands more incidents like these that just didn’t make it to the national news. Their circumstances are different, but fear and abuse were at the core of all of these tragedies. There always comes a point when a human being can no longer manage the torture being forced upon them. When your health and wellbeing and your very life are threatened and controlled by uncaring others, a break will inevitably come.

Filmmaker Michael Moore’s documentary “Sicko” gave us a very hard look at the health insurance industry in America years ago and it was not a pretty sight. It was the first documentary of his in all the films that he has made that quickly brought me to tears. How humans can treat each other with such disregard and a “don’t give a shit” attitude when it comes to some of the most basic of human needs such as health and wellness is inconceivable to me. They absolutely can and do, though, and there is one man out there who said loudly to them “how dare you!” last week.

I was very surprised that it was a McDonald’s employee who called the police on the suspect. There are probably thousands of people in this country who would hide this man in their homes or give him resources to prevent his capture or swear in court that he was with them at the time of the shooting playing video games or watching Netflix. If the shooter goes to trial for this, few people will want to convict him. You can’t blame them. With the exception of Wendell Potter (who blew the whistle on the insurance companies years ago) and Michael Moore, there has really not been anyone here who has bothered to do anything about the “legalized extortion” that has frustrated, traumatized, prolonged illnesses, and been responsible for the deaths of possibly millions of people like the insurance industry has. Our government turns a blind eye to it all and hungrily accepts their payoffs when the insurance moguls say “frog." (for those who may not be familiar with this old saying, it is a reference to calling out people who can be bought, as in, when the people who are offering money to get a pass on their unacceptable behavior call upon you to cover their asses all they have to do is say “frog” and you will say “how high?” meaning you are more than willing to jump as high as they would like you to in order to collect the cash for doing it.) I am sure that most Americans are hoping that this event will shake up the country enough to bring about a total change in the healthcare industry now and create a national single payer system for everyone. I am afraid that I cannot be that optimistic. I would love to be, but I cannot imagine monied people suddenly finding their better angels now and vowing to do right by others just because one millionaire capitalist was killed for his apathy toward the people that he screwed over and caused the death of for his own profit. As it turns out, this man was one of the lower paid millionaires in the industry. His salary was only 10 million per year. Most of the other CEOs in the large insurance companies make more than 20 million per year. They might be afraid of being gunned down by an “at-the-end-of-their-rope” citizen, but they are most likely too arrogant to believe that it could ever happen to them. Pretty sickening to know that, and even more sickening to know that our heartsick illness isn’t covered in any insurance plan. Having arrested someone for the shooting so quickly pretty much means that not enough time will have elapsed for there to be any sort of wakeup call or remorse on the part of the insurance companies toward their guilt at causing an incident like this to have happened.

So, with Christmas being two weeks away is there any hope that the elitists and capitalists in this country will now do an about face like Ebeneezer Scrooge did when he got a look at how uncaring and cruel, he had been to others, and become the kind of people who will make amends for all of their past crimes against humanity? The “miracle of Christmas” that they talk about in literature and film would have to go quite a stretch to bring that about, but I would love to believe in the possibility. We could all ask the Universe to send them three spirits to show them how they have wronged us. We could also send them a link to the song below and pray for a humbling of their hearts. We need to bring about a miracle because talking hasn’t made any difference. The man who was arrested will now suffer the modern-day equivalent of a crucifixion for what has happened. Some people are calling on President Biden to pardon him, but I wouldn’t even bet a nickel on that. Jesus had the remote opportunity to be saved if the citizens had wanted it but they didn’t. They chose to save the career criminal Barabbas instead. So many people have no idea how much unnecessary trouble they continuously cause in the world by not understanding who they are, what they are, and why they are here. There is a connectedness between all of us that mostly goes unspoken and unheard. Suffering is always the outcome of this ignorance. What a shame that it always takes catastrophe and death to knock some sense into us, and even then, it never resonates with everyone.

Invited to Inishbiggle Island

YouTuber Bertie Brosnan posted a video a few days ago about Inishbiggle Island, off the coast of Ireland. (See Video Here) The name of the island sounds very whimsical like a place you would read about in a fairytale, but its story is anything but cute. It is an island with less than 20 inhabitants now and according to Bertie it is one without hope. He says that the Irish government has washed its hands of it and its people. How could this be happening? The whole world is ablaze with news stories and protests about the plight of thousands of immigrants who have made their way to just about every country on the planet seeking shelter and a new life. Billions of dollars have been spent on trying to help and accommodate them, and a great many people are angry to find them living in their countries. I honestly do not know how the world will be able to solve this crisis, but I am pretty confident that there are many people who would know how to save the island of Inishbiggle and it’s inhabitants if they were willing to look into their left-wing philosophies regarding how countries and governments across the globe have made an incredible mess in their world by focusing only on their own self interests. I have a few suggestions for the people who speak daily about how we need to do away with inequality and capitalism by remaking the world with socialism. My views are strictly the product of years of caring and observing people and the world. Expert minds in the fields of sociology and economics would probably be able to write the book on how to save Inishbiggle Island from a total demise. I am counting on that, if they are also believers in socialism and Marxism and communism. Here is their opportunity to start from scratch to remake a place that capitalism no longer wants and turn it into a place where cooperation and sustainability can be the model for the world to see.

When you watch the video, you will see that transportation from the island to mainland Ireland is a critical issue that has to be addressed. Where most countries have been digging their own graves for decades by their dependence on fossil fuels, I am certain that there are some very learned people out there who know a solution for how to solve the issue of being able to commute to the mainland in the most sustainable and eco-friendly way. Billionaires who own private islands have managed to power their estates and travel to and from their mansions. Can we not do the same for the socialist model city that we would be seeking to create? Someone once accused Senator Bernie Sanders of being the only millionaire socialist in the world. I don’t know if that is true but I can tell you if he is not alone in that it would be helpful if they would put some of their money where their mouth is. It usually takes a person who has experienced poverty to comprehend that it is even a problem.

The possibilities here are endless if the people who teach and promote better living without capitalism truly mean what they say. We can spend the rest of our lives trying to convince the “haves” in this world to step down from their pedestal and acknowledge the “have nots” by talking until we are blue in the face but where has all the talk and statistics gotten us since Karl Marx died? Bertie Brosnan is showing us an incredible starting point for all of our socialist ideals to manifest into a reality. There is no reason why some people who understand the dynamics of how to set up a society that can govern itself and sustain itself to the benefit of all can’t put their knowledge and skills to the test of what they are truly capable of when a place like Inishbiggle Island exists and is as available as an orphaned or abandoned child to be rescued and given the opportunity to live and thrive in a way that so many of us wish we could experience. Time on earth for humans is short, and when all of our talk and conjecture about how wonderful this life could be isn’t manifesting because our voices fall on too many deaf ears there has to be someone or someones to step up and say “we can do this” or our talk has been for nothing. Bless you Bertie Brosnan for showing a need that really can be addressed and built into the very model of what can be if we will put out less talk and more action into the things that we have been promoting and saying for more than a century. If you truly want to see a change, be that change and make it happen. Inishbiggle Island is waiting.

“I don’t know where I'm a-gonna go when the volcano blows.”

-Jimmy Buffet

When you think that things just cannot get any worse here in America, you realize that they absolutely can on November 5th, Election Night 2024. The dreaded day when we will learn just who the Electoral College and wealthy campaign financiers will allow this country to have as our President again. Will it be Biden or Trump? We already know that they will not allow a 3rd party candidate to be the first snowball in hell to survive, so it is down to some sort of repeat of what we have already had, and the outcome will affect more than just Americans.

Will you put your money on the Scorpio, Biden, or the Gemini, Trump? Strictly speaking I would choose the Scorpio because they are at least theoretically capable of great depth of feeling somewhere in their makeup. I know what you are thinking. Show me where the depth of feeling was when Scorpio funded and supported two ghastly wars that have affected the entire planet one way or another. Why not choose the Gemini instead? Well, I cannot in all good conscience do that when it was the Gemini who thought it would be a good idea to inject ourselves with bleach to get rid of Covid 19, he believes that the fictional character of Hannibal Lecter was a great man, and reportedly said that we should drop a bomb inside the eye of a hurricane.  I watched the Presidential Debate last night and I can tell you that my money is still on the Scorpio, Joe Biden, for reasons that may be viewed differently by others, but they are valid ones for me. 

These are dreadful times in America. I wish that I could say that they are recent developments here, but they truly are not. I have never seen any US President in my life do everything that they could have to solve the many problems that we have here. It takes a large amount of ego and high self esteem to motivate a person to run for the highest level job in the country. Anyone who is sure enough of theirself to run for the office is usually going to carry that belief in their ability into every decision that they make, and this is nearly always a recipe for an exaggerated response to any challenge to their superiority and authority, hence, the largest likelihood for a screw up is usually going to come in their decisions concerning foreign policy. I am rarely 

surprised at how easily our government gets us into wars. Biden has proven to be no exception to that. And while it pains me to see the tragedy that so many people are experiencing right now for that reason, I cannot look at that continuation of an ego centric mindset that happens to come with the territory to base my final thoughts on their reality as a whole person. 

In a previous post on this blog, I wrote about how to know what kind of character a person running for a political office is likely to have based on when they were born. In another post, I spoke about how Biden - Uncle Joe - really needed our help to deal with the fallout from the previous administration. To know astrology is to know that people are capable of great things and capable of terrible things at the same time. Each of us has to struggle with this duality in our nature but a large percentage of us don’t know, don’t understand, and don’t care to develop ourselves in the best ways to stay in balance with our inborn capabilities. I don’t expect that we will ever see a lot of altruistic behavior in a person who has very high career aspirations because the traits necessary to ascend to that do not include Mother Teresa like attributes. The one thing that I would always look for first in any political candidate is their capacity for empathy, and that will nearly always lead you to the Water signs. Most of our previous presidents have been Fire signs and Air signs. I would never say that they are unqualified to lead because they certainly can be, but the way that humanity has fallen off a cliff and descended in to hatred and barbarism in this century calls for emotional depth, understanding of human needs, and the ability to address the issues that have become alarmingly critical when people abandon their willingness to care for and understand the basic needs to sustain life to the point of denying us shelter, food, and healthcare. What are these particular times in human existence calling out for?

Are things so good for us that we should be focused on creating more ways to keep and maintain our finances and infrastructure? If they are, then I would be looking for the kind of people who tend to do well in that area. If there is illness and poverty (such as during the pandemic) I would look for those who tend more toward organization and sympathy for the sick. When I look at the differences between Scorpio and Gemini for the times that we are experiencing right now I am going to look toward Scorpio for the ability to “feel” the suffering of the people. There will be other times to come when Gemini’s abilities might be called for, but I don’t see that in 2024. I cannot say that Scorpio will hit the mark and do the right thing for struggling Americans every time. In fact, I know they won’t.  But I can recall many times during Biden’s term as President when he thought of the needs of the people when leaders before him couldn’t be bothered.

In the Book of Revelation in the Bible they talk about a future time which will be “the beginning of sorrows." I don’t know exactly when that started here but I can tell you that it has been going on for some time now. I can see no end to these sorrows for us because a change for the better would require a radical change in the way people think. When people believe that they are superior and entitled to a high standard of living at the expense of others whom they deem to be of lesser value it is not possible to rid the world of sorrow and pain.  This seems to be a lesson that many would like to delete from the human curriculum. Nobody has ever accomplished creating a balance in America between the haves and have nots in my lifetime, but I truly have seen times in the past when things were better than they are now. I will always be looking for that in this country, but it would require more of us to want it. So, I still stand with the Water sign that we now have because I still believe that this is badly needed.

I can tell you that I surely would love to be somewhere besides here when it all comes down in November but that just isn’t in the cards for me when you consider that it would cost a fortune to pick up stakes and just move around the corner now. As hard as I try, I cannot think of a country in the world where there isn’t as much or more trouble than there is here at the present time, and I really don’t know of any who would look favorably at another immigrant trying to cross their border, legally or not, even if I had the ability to leave. 

So, I know that the political volcano is about to blow here if we aren’t prepared to stop it.  There are 169 actual volcanos in America with the majority of them being in Alaska and Hawaii. The likelihood of all of them erupting at the same time is extremely unlikely, but what we will inherit from a replay of the previous administration will devastate this country as surely as if all 169 of them blew simultaneously. The fallout from a long history of mistakes and bad decisions from our government is already spewing out the molten ash of their poor choices so it is just a matter of time before we are all totally covered in it. I say all of us, but there will be some very rich and powerful elitists who will run like rabbits with all of their ruinous ideals intact to other countries, probably yours, if the political tide doesn’t turn to their liking, and they will start fresh new corruptions there. I would heartily suggest that you turn those refugees away at the border. Just take a look at how they will have left America looking like the battle of Armageddon the day after. We have many big troubles erupting all over the world right now but the choices that we have to lead us for another four years come down to Water and Air again. While it is unlikely that any human being can come in and save the day across the board for us, I believe in staying with the family the way it is right now because jumping ship in the middle of a storm is a dangerous thing to do when the captain of the other ship has already shown that he has no reservations about throwing people overboard on a whim and cannot be bothered to give a life preserver to anyone who is sinking as a result of his one sided policies that favor those who don’t even need help. If the volcano does blow in that direction, I don’t think that we have a prayer.

You can spend the rest of your life looking for that perfect person to lead the world to peace and prosperity for all but ultimately your only choices are going to be flawed human beings who may or may not have the capability to accomplish it. We may not have much of a say in the outcome in November but most of us cannot leave here even if our country appears to be a sinking ship. The best we can do is vote for the person who at least has it in him to change his mind about some things when he sees that he could possibly have been wrong about a few of them. 

When "Current Events" are Yesterday's News

 

When we have a problem that is continuously recurring or just will not go away it is nearly always one that we have failed (or refused) to deal with previously. There is a saying that if you do not remember the past then you are condemned to repeat it, but it is very easy to ignore that truth if you are in a position to push the problem onto others or buy your way out of it. Most of us are not fortunate enough to be able to do that so we tend to find ourselves as the recipients of the baggage that others force upon us because they can.

The above video is from 1984. A post could be written here about the synchronicity of that, but I will save it for another time. The music in the video is great and it is fun to watch. It is stand out comedic and puts a unique face on a dreadful thing, but the message is very real. Forty years ago, we were very afraid of possible nuclear war. Forty years before that, World War Two was raging across the globe. We already had nuclear weapons even then and the United States wasn’t afraid to, and actually did, use them. I think that most people learned a devastating lesson from that and thought better of going that route again, but I am not sure that the current generation received and took that lesson to heart.

Every day now I hear the word “genocide” spoken on someone’s news program or podcast, and I keep asking myself why is humanity allowing such a thing to happen? How is it that the people who are making and allowing a genocide to take place can be so disconnected from the horror of what previous generations have been through when elitism and hatred are allowed to take root in a society? Were they not listening when their parents and grandparents recounted what life was like in the times when death and devastation was being visited upon them? Why would we risk provoking something so terrible as the annihilation of our species just to get our own way in some selfish pursuit of grandiosity?  It did not work for the perpetrators then, and it isn’t going to work now without deep destruction of the planet. People who learn from their mistakes don’t make those same mistakes again. Games are being played with our very lives by people who couldn’t care less about it as long as they keep their wealth and advantage. Our attempts to rebalance the systems that govern us are failing as new elections in nearly every country are turning very hard right. Life will not be sustainable for the masses for much longer as we lose the ability to have shelter, heating and cooling, get and keep a job, and be able to buy food, and yet, few in power are inclined to give these problems a second thought.

There is no universal law that forces us to understand that we are here to experience the life lessons that we did not previously deal with and evolve away from. You can choose (and most people do) to ignore whatever you would like to in this life, but it is a surety that all unresolved past problems will be visited upon us again, and each time that they make a return cycle through our lives they will become worse and much harder to address. 

We are flirting with nuclear war again in 2024, and this time humanity is reeking of narcissism and a cavalier attitude about everything.  Championship boxer Mike Tyson once said “Social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.” Someone is going to be provoked and pushed too far very soon by a way too sure of themselves bully. The power to blow ourselves to hell exists in many hot-headed and had-enough nations to see to it that a promoter of a “you can’t stop me” attitude has to shut up. The issues that were current and being talked about and reported on in the 1940s and in the 1980s have come back to haunt us. This time they are coupled with the fallout from our ignorance and refusal to address the social and economic problems that are a result of not giving a damn about and not taking responsibility for the actions of those who caused them. Our players have been set to “repeat” and we are damn sick of hearing the same pathetic songs that were never a hit with anyone other than those who wrote them and authored for us the fate that is closing in on us. We need to take the desire for peace torch from Joe “King” Carrasco and put a different song out there that admits that we cannot take any more of these “Current Events” and see to it that it plays all over the airwaves and the internet. Without that, expect to see more of the annihilation that we are witnessing.

Abbie Would Be Proud

In the late 1960s activist Abbie Hoffman wrote a book called Steal This Book. He had a devil of a time getting anyone to publish it because of its title but once it was published it was widely popular. The book is a guide to living in a heavily capitalist society for those who are being financially strangled by it every single day. His view is that the only way to rid ourselves of capitalism is to hurt the enablers of it in the only way that they can understand. You have to take away their profit. He explains many ways for a person to live virtually if not totally without using money. Some of the lessons are doable but many are (I thought) utterly impossible, especially now. Capitalism has a much bigger bite on society today, but I am hearing more and more stories of people doing so many of the things that Abbie wrote about that I have to wonder how many people are still reading his book today. It is available at many bookseller outlets more than 50 years later.

Whenever you order something from Amazon, Ebay or Etsy, and possibly other venues you have to wonder how many of those things are actually coming from a “Homeboy Shopping Club”. I frequently watch videos on YouTube by a fellow named Cash Jordan who reports from his home in New York City about all of the crime and troubles there. Many times, he talks about the enormous problem that they have with shoplifting. There are hundreds of news stories in his videos of people brazenly walking into stores and picking up whatever the hell that they want and just walking out with it because the shoplifting laws there are extremely lax. In the last year or so I have had the feeling that many of my online orders are being fulfilled by sellers who have obtained the merch by “five finger discount”.

My feelings are very mixed on this subject. On the one hand I can’t help but draw upon my upbringing when I was taught that stealing is wrong. I still believe that it is, strictly speaking. I have had my house broken into before. My computer was stolen. Locked boxes with important papers were stolen, and my jewelry was stolen. I was in no position to replace any of it. It seems a bit two-faced to say that stealing is wrong in some situations but not in others, I suppose, but I cannot help but feel that I am being robbed all of the time now with incredibly high prices that I am paying for everything while the manufacturers and sellers of everything that I buy are making obscene profits. So, I cannot actually feel bad about how people are stealing tons of merchandise in broad daylight when it is (possibly) their ill-gotten gains that many times offer me these items at a price that I can afford. Retailers aren’t doing that and they are completely unapologetic about how outrageous their prices are.

We are encouraged to feel badly for these retailers who are closing their stores because of theft. Truly, I do feel bad for small businesses and family-owned stores. If this is their only source of income then that really is tragic. I used to have an Etsy shop where I sold custom made clothing to supplement my income and it was extremely helpful in making ends meet until I started getting customers who would say that there was something wrong with the item but would refuse to return it to get a refund. They wanted their money back but refused to send the item back which isn’t standard practice anywhere that I know of. If you want a refund at Walmart, you have to return the item. When the buyers didn’t get to “have their cake and eat it too” they would leave snotty reviews which ruins your shop’s reputation. Eventually it ceased to be a lucrative business and ceased to be fun. It is too bad, too, because the first 2 - 3 years that I had the shop there were many very good customers who bought from me. I miss them.

So, it is a tough call in today’s world to get irate with people who are “boldly going” and stealing thousands of items from high end stores or just stores with high end prices when they are (most likely) just people trying to get by in this world and make a living by “robbing the rich to help the poor”. I am the poor now that everything that I need to survive costs me double and even triple the amount that it used to. Good old Abbie Hoffman advocated stealing back when prices didn’t even approach what they are now, but it was his view that capitalists rob from the poor to enrich themselves and the only way to stop it is to destroy their bottom line, which is profit over people. I wish that Abbie was here now. I would love to hear his opinion on how much stealing is going on today. No one likes being stolen from but it is far worse for the average person just trying to live a decent life. The wealthy can absorb the hit. They can get reimbursed by their insurance company. I cannot afford insurance. They can write the loss off on their tax returns. My tax return looks like “poverty row” now. Large retailers have many other stores. I can’t even have my Etsy shop anymore. So honest to God, I and millions of others need a Robin Hood advocate in this world now. And we still need an Abbie Hoffman to speak out loudly about the injustice of the capitalist system. It needs to go.

Built-In Software

In 1981, ABC Television had a show called That’s Incredible which ran an episode about May Lemke and her foster son Leslie. It was a very touching episode about how May took in an infant boy who was blind, brain damaged, and not expected to live. (see the YouTube link below) After many years of caring for Leslie, who could do virtually nothing for himself, May bought a second hand piano for him to try to engage him in some activity in case that was possible. Sometime later, (miraculously) Leslie woke May and her husband up in the middle of the night playing a piano concerto. He could barely even walk but he dragged himself out of bed and crawled into the living room and up on the piano bench. Unbelievable as that may sound, the impossible can truly be possible where the spirit is concerned given the right circumstances and the right combination of support from other humans and the encouragement to experience something new. Miracles are also possible in this existence for animals, plants, and virtually all living things if people get out of the way and stop forcing egotistical outcomes. Few people are allowed this in their lives. The majority of us are trained from birth to do as we are told and if we don’t fit into the assigned mold that others want us to be in - to make putting up with us easier for them - we can be classified as useless and discarded. Thank God that May Lemke didn’t see it that way.

The spirit within us is a magical thing. It is like electrical current going through an inanimate object. When a radio or a television is connected to electricity it brings to life sounds and images that would have blown the minds of people who existed prior to the 20th century. Benjamin Franklin showed us how to harness unbelievable power that we have never stopped using. There are more miracles to be found in the lifeforce, but they mostly remain untapped by humans. Discovering those miracles takes the right set of circumstances and an open mind. Unfortunately, most people are preoccupied by selfish pursuits, so you rarely see miracles today. 

After you watch the video try to step aside from yourself and your worries and concerns for your everyday life. You can make miracles in your life if you allow yourself to hear the higher mind that is within you. Sometimes the voice is almost imperceptible but if you are willing to listen, you can create some wonderous things in this life just by having the courage to take a chance.  Few things make life more worthwhile than having made a difference and realizing that you and others may have that same chance with your willingness to allow it.

May Lemke passed away in 1993 but Leslie is still alive at 72 years of age as of this writing. A relative of May’s took over his care. While we ignore the sick and the needy every day in this country it is disheartening to know that each one of those lives that we have viewed as disposable could have contributed to the betterment of life and made a unique difference in the world. Each of us has value. Taking the time to allow and discover what each of us has to give is one of the finest things that we can do in life. Everyone is here for a reason. Finding your own reason and passing that along to others will see to it that more have a chance to recognize the best in themselves. Be glad that you are here. You are capable of making a difference that no one else can because there is no other you in the world.

“Kids Just Wanna Have Somethin’ To Do”

-from the song Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue by The Ramones

Believe me friends, my use of the above titled song and the quote from it are NOT an endorsement of glue sniffing in any way, shape, or form. That is not what I do. My intent is only to make a point regarding how some people do not understand how a society would not collapse and die if every citizen received a basic income from the government equal to a living wage. The argument that I hear from people regarding giving us a basic income is that “nobody would ever get up off their ass and work again.” I think that is baloney and I have said so here on this blog many times before. There is one issue that does have some validity that is that there are some who would stay at home glued to their computers and smartphones schmoozing on social media sites all day without a care in the world, but that situation is one that I will address in a forthcoming post. It will require a bit more analysis. It may be true that there are some people who couldn’t care less about the world they live in. I would never say that everyone presents their best self to the world every day of their life. It is too bad that they choose to be this way when even the slackers have something positive to contribute to their world, but you won’t see something that you refuse to look at. So yes, there would be some who wouldn’t see the benefit in making a better world for themselves or anybody else but try to set aside for the moment how some morons would be thrilled with a perceived “free ride” in the world. There is little hope for those who adopt a mentality of uselessness.  If they don’t want to understand the benefit to them and to their world by doing a job that would actually change their entire way of thinking about their own worth, we can do little about it except present an example of it in the way that we live in hopes of changing their perspective. Remove their behavior from your mindset for a few minutes. We have more important things to ponder right now.

If you are a parent, you already know that children, especially small children, love being able to help their parents with a task around the house. If you do not have children, it is a fact that you used to be one. You most likely remember wanting to be like mom and dad in that you wanted to help wash the car or work in the yard, etc. You wanted to be included. It is a very good feeling to know that you have accomplished something. You feel worth as a person, and it helps so much with your self-esteem to hear that you did a good job. This is the main point that I want to stress here. If your basic needs for living are being met with a basic income to cover them, you will still need to feel that you are needed in some way. Work provides that if it is work that you feel confident about doing. If it makes for a nicer, cleaner, and less chaotic world, all the better. I would be the first to admit that there are many jobs in this world that are not a lot of fun. Truly some of them are not as important as others but if you are an adult, you are wise enough to realize that they have worth in the larger scheme of things. I would also say that there are a lot of jobs that might fall by the wayside because their benefits are redundant, because there are hundreds of places that do the same thing such as multiple restaurants in the same town, multiple beauty salons etc. I do believe that most people are willing to delay a bit of gratification and do some of the crappy jobs to keep the world functioning in a balanced way. I think it would help if these jobs were part time. I also believe that it would be a tremendous benefit to the entire world if we stopped promoting glamour, sexuality, fame, and wealth as ideals. These things are the backbone of capitalism and advertising because it keeps people focused on striving for things that make a ton of money for them. To be effective, they must make you believe that you can be so much better than having to focus on those things that sustain and keep life going. I am counting on the fact that most adults are aware of what it takes to keep the world running in the best possible way for all of us and if they no longer have to experience the terror of being unable to live a safe and decent life or be constantly bombarded with messages of superiority, they will channel their energies into the tasks that make it possible to stay that way. Life is a gift. Food, shelter, and healthcare should be a human right, but in order to get and keep those things there must be gratitude for them and a contribution of your time and effort to maintain them. Karl Marx said it best, and though I am going to paraphrase here he basically said that we need to contribute to our society according to our ability and take from the world according to our need. A promotion of this ideal needs to be proffered starting in childhood and shown to us in a way that reflects it as our best selves truly are what gives us our best possible world to live in.

The above referenced song was written by Dee Dee Ramone in the 1970s. This was actually a part of his experience in life. A bored kid with nothing to do. Somewhere along the line he learned that he could sniff glue and it would keep him from being bored and give him something to do. I suspect that thinking like this, springs from overworked and overwhelmed parents who don’t have the time or the inclination to show an example of better pastimes than this. That happens way too much of the time. Capitalism does that. As overwrought as parents might have been at any time in history, we are now in situations globally where people are being mentally and emotionally destroyed. Our children are seeing this and also seeing that their future does not matter to us. If we don’t step away from the destructive path that we are on and try a different way of doing things there is little hope for us. Positive change is possible, and it can be done. It does start in the individual. Once you realize that the planet is falling apart and people are collapsing under the weight of a system that has far outlived its usefulness you can redirect your thinking toward propping up the people and promoting a better way. Beating them to death with capitalism is showing just how low we can sink under its dictates. If you can envision a better way you can take your vision to others and make it manifest. We can give people a reason to want to build up society instead of tear it down, but it has to start with a secure base. When people have that, it is unlikely that their first thought when they find that they have more time for themselves will be to “sniff some glue.” Keeping their better and more beneficial world will be the incentive to see that it stays that way. What would you do if you had more time for yourself? At first you might want to sleep late every day for a month. But then you are likely to get up and consider that you want to matter in this life. That is when you can begin to ask how you can matter in the shaping of your life and the shaping of your world. Manufacturing and maintenance of the world needs us to function. We ask for respect for being willing to do those jobs. With our basic needs met and the needs of the companies being met there is a level playing field for everyone and it is everyone’s best chance for understanding and equality in the workplace. What you do doesn’t have to be something that only benefits your employer in exchange for a small amount of money that they can deny you if they feel like it. This is what true freedom is. It is having a say in how you live and what you achieve. You deserve that. Others have sold you an ideal that benefits them more than it ever will you. It does not have to be that way. It is worth getting up off your backside for. And it is a good somethin' to do.

"Go Get a Job, Slob."

-from the 1970’s parody song, 50 Ways to Whip Inflation* sung by Judy Tenuta

In the 2010 Disney live action film Alice in Wonderland, the character Alice says that her father used to say that one should always try to do three impossible things before breakfast. Alice’s father has passed on by the time she becomes a teenager so we will never know if he changed his mind about that later, but as Alice still believes it, the movie can proceed with her actually trying to live by that goal, making for a more believable story. (maybe) I’d love to see if he would believe that getting a job in 2024 is possible or not. I count it as being damned impossible now for way too many people unless you can survive on gig work. Just two more impossible tasks to go and we would gain her father’s approval if we could pull it off.

On a side note, I must complain about Disney’s decision to prominently showcase Johnny Depp’s (he plays the Mad Hatter) picture on the cover of the DVD package of the above mentioned film and the later released film Alice Through The Looking Glass instead of Mia Wasikowska’s who plays Alice. There is no logical reason for this except to promote the highest money-making draw actor ahead of the actor whom the film is actually about, Alice. Pure capitalism, it is. (Yoda speak reference) & (money speak reference). It is also possible that it speaks of favoritism on the part of Tim Burton (Alice in Wonderland was a Tim Burton film) who has a long standing friendship and work history with Johnny Depp, but I tend to lean on the side of pure money making reasons for it.  That usually tends to overshadow every possible reason for every possible situation. Which brings us back to the issue of why getting a living wage for a life sustaining job is on the impossible things list. And while I cannot be sure of it without doing the research, I would wager a small (because that is all that I can afford) bet that Johnny was paid a salary for his work in the films that was many times higher than Mia’s.

So, why is it so difficult to get a job now? What are the reasons for it? Some people have proffered some very good explanations for it but I tend to feel that it is like Max Von Sydow tells the young priest in The Exorcist when the younger priest tries to tell him the background of the demon possession and how many demons that he estimates there are. He says “There is only one.” It is the “because they can” reason. They can deny you anything that they like regarding employment because there is no such thing as democracy in the workplace. There never has been to my knowledge but it used to be a little easier to ignore that fact if you were able to at least squeak by financially. Since that ability is pretty much gone with the wind now you really cannot ignore it anymore. I very much admire the people who are publicly raising hell about it but it is a fact that there are few of us who are in a position where we can join in the hell raising with them without losing even more of our livelihood than we already have. The risks are too great, and since employers know this and also know that our government representatives do not give one big damn about how bad off we are with few exceptions, this is how things are going to stay. Go ahead and scream your head off about it. No one intends to exorcise this demon. So, this is the second impossible thing that we need to do before breakfast.

I keep waiting to see this idiotic mentality jump up and bite the employers in the ass. It seems only logical that if the people cannot afford to buy what these companies produce or partake of their services, they would see the connection between their business practices and the hits that this has to be making on their bottom line. Maybe they do see it, but rather than rethink how what they are doing is destroying everything they somehow always manage to work around it. Most of the reason for this has to do with the fact that the majority of them have more than one business. A mom and pop business could never survive it but those who have multiple businesses can sacrifice a few of them to strengthen those that are still doing well. They can cut corners, get rid of some employees, give their remaining employees fewer work hours, and raise their prices on everything. They owe their employees nothing. Everyone is told that they must have a job anyway. Any kind of job, whether it pays you enough money to sustain your life or not. You must work, your spouse must work, and your children must work. Here is the third impossible thing that you are up against. You are going to get awfully hungry trying to accomplish all of these tasks before you get to eat. Most of us already realize that we just are not going to get any breakfast.

So now we know why it is virtually impossible to get a job in this country. In case you missed it, it is because the employer class is not being held accountable for not providing jobs that pay a living wage equal to the amount that it actually costs now to sustain life. They create the jobs. They set the prices for their products and services. They hire and fire the employees with no accountability as to whether or not a person will live or die based on their disconnected to reality whims. The ruling class turns a blind eye to their behavior and inhumane practices and our society crumbles as a result. The employer class makes lots of money. The ruling class makes lots of money, and they made sure to set up a system that covers their financial asses for the rest of their lives no matter how bad things get.

So who was Alice’s father really talking to when he said one should try to do at least three impossible things before breakfast? It had to be those people who are secure in the knowledge that they can even afford breakfast. He must have believed that he would live forever and guarantee that his daughter would always be provided for. He was wrong. That being the case, if he actually thought that far ahead, he must have believed that Alice would find herself a wealthy husband who would always make sure that Alice had breakfast. He would have been wrong here too. In the sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass, Alice and her mother nearly lose their asses and all the trimmings, but thanks to the magical thinking of the writers, Alice prevails as the Captain of her own ship and her own company and indeed does do the impossible like her father told to her to. This was even more impossible than anything for a woman in that time period. And she did it all without a husband! So, I don’t know who the hell her father was really meaning that endeavor for but it surely was not for a female in the 18th century unless he already knew that their story was pure fiction. Jump ahead to now, the 21st century, and it all makes sense. Capitalism did indeed manage to do three impossible things before breakfast. They set it up so they would always have the upper hand. They set it up so they would always have money. And they set it up so no one would hold them accountable for their behavior. They managed to do this even as they are an extreme minority in the world considering that the working class in this world outnumbers them by the billions. That is a stunning achievement to have accomplished before breakfast! And to have managed to do at all!

Feeling hungry? Now all we need is for Alice’s father to have a talk with the governments of every country on this planet and tell them that they will not get to eat until they do some “possible” things like turn this situation around and make the world that they live in a place where survival is possible for everyone. They might tell you that this is impossible, but don’t believe it. There are at least 50 ways to eliminate capitalism. That this hasn’t been done before now is a ‘problem that is all inside our heads.' “The answer is easy” if you recognize that you are not the only person on the planet who matters.

*a parody of the song 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover by Paul Simon

Unconditional Love and Acceptance

In the 1970’s, singer Aretha Franklin married actor Glynn Turman. Theirs was a love story like I have never heard of before. Glynn once said in an interview that he came into the marriage with three children and that could have been a major problem for some women to deal with, but Aretha had no qualms about it. She liked the children and they liked her. People can do well in so many seemingly difficult situations if they want to. This family did, and it is a wonderful thing to see when people decide to allow themselves to be their best self in a challenge. They were married a little less than six years, but it ended peaceably and amicably with them still being in love and remaining good friends. We should all be so lucky.

In the 1960’s film To Sir With Love actor Sidney Poitier is a teacher who tells his class that “Marriage is no way of life for the weak, the selfish, or the insecure.” Wow. Truer words were never spoken. Unfortunately, most human beings have one or sometimes all of those character issues. Try telling them to not get married. In fact, many people get married precisely for those reasons because they believe that their partner will accept and allow that kind of behavior because they need them. Many people also believe that their partner will change to suit their needs. Maybe not at first, but certainly after a multitude of battles over it. You can call it stupidity, but it is more likely that they have seen this kind of behavior in married couples all of their life and it looks normal to them. What a shame. These kinds of relationships never end well, and the cycle of ignorance and abuse keeps being passed on to later generations. I don’t know how old Aretha and Glynn were when they got married but they obviously did not bring any of those behaviors into their relationship because they both professed to feeling great joy and happiness toward each other for the entirety of their marriage and even after. The reason for their breakup was due to conflicting career situations such as having to be separated too much of the time. Neither one of them wanted a divorce but having high profile and well-paying careers made it impossible for them to overcome the problem. So dreadfully sad, but at least they understood all of the ramifications and made the decision to separate not in anger but in realizing that their careers were who they were and what they were and neither of them could give up something that was such a large part of their identity. This might be viewed as selfishness to some people, but it truly isn’t. We have all been told that marriage is supposed to be forever but that is not necessarily correct for everyone. Sometimes we have things to do together in this life with others. They may or may not be an experience that has longevity. Some people would say that either Aretha or Glynn should have changed careers but people on the outside looking in are not qualified to judge. They made the correct decision for them and whatever ideals that we may hold as sacred are just that, our ideals.

When a situation in your life can no longer sustain and balance you in a positive way it is time to begin reflecting on what will. Our needs change as we evolve. To assume that everything in your life always has to be to your liking falls into the category of “selfish”. To refuse to understand that change is sometimes inevitable falls into the category of “insecure” many times because one may feel that the situation is their fault, and they may never find love or acceptance again. To not own up to our individual responsibilities in any situation is in the category of “weak.” It cannot be said that Glynn and Aretha were the gold standard of what everyone should strive for in a relationship, but it is worth noting and remembering that they were wise enough and mature enough to know when to let go of something that was no longer sustainable and do so without malice or blame. This is an extremely valuable life lesson for all of us to ponder.

Relationships are a gift for those willing to experience them in positive ways. Trying to mold them into what others believe they should be or what will best suit only one defeats their purpose and can be the cause of great suffering not just for the couple but for others as well. To appreciate what life has given you reveals a high level of maturity on your part. It many times brings you pain along with a blessing, but everything has worth for the balanced soul. Endings are beginnings and beginnings are only possible with the end of your previous experience. Congratulations when you know how to navigate through them both. For Glynn and Aretha, their story gives hope to those of us who may not be in a relationship now but may be open to and hopeful for one that can be worth the risk and worth welcoming, even when the people and the times we are living in seem darn near hopeless unless we can be strong, unselfish, and secure in our own self.

 

One of Aretha’s finest songs.

OMG It Happened

If you have read this blog with any consistency over the past decade you are pretty much aware of my opinions on politics and politicians. It is rare for me to approve of and support any of them. The one exception to that has always been Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. I have always tried not to be an “I love Bernie” gusher about it and a Democratic Socialist flag waver. No one is perfect, but it is true that Bernie speaks the language of the most disenfranchised of Americans who have few voices that speak for them with any consistency. It has taken a lot to bring me to the point where I must speak out with a different tune, but…today is the day. 

I saw Bernie make a speech today regarding “Solar Power for All”. I was with him for the first few minutes, and then he began talking about the cost of going solar, and my own Virgo jumped out from behind Leo and Pisces and had to abandon ship from the Bernie bandwagon. As much as it pains me to go here, it must be done. For the good of the struggling homeowners in America and the good of the average struggling citizen who couldn’t take on another debt if they had to, begging to differ with Bernie today is totally unavoidable.

Before I get into the specifics of my dissent here, let me tell you how I see the situation regarding climate change. I never have been and never will be a climate change denier. I realize that there is much to be done in this country to try to undo all the damage that humans have done that brought us to the dire situation that we are now in.  Virtually all of us are guilty in one way or another when it comes to not being responsible citizens in taking care of our world, but the biggest slackers in this country when it comes to chronic and repeat offenders of destroying the planet are corporations. These are the ones who pollute the water, squander resources, produce products that are not recyclable or biodegradable, manufacture gigantic gas guzzling automobiles, and feel completely unaccountable regarding a change in behavior that might turn many of our problems around. Climate change fault is always thrown back at the average citizen to be dealt with while corporate capitalists pay a bit of lip service to fixing the problems. With all that said, I will now get to the issue that I have with Bernie’s plan to achieve solar power for all.

As far as installing solar panels on our homes, that would be a good thing if it were possible, but it isn’t. Why it isn’t has to do with two things. The first is the cost of doing it. He said that it would cost between 10 and 20 thousand dollars. Most of us couldn’t cough up 10 percent of that now. We can barely keep a roof over our heads and pay for food and other necessities if at all. He said that there would be grants and loans to cover the cost. I think few of us would qualify for a grant, even a partial one. Getting a loan which would add another burden to our cash strapped existence would only make things worse for us, and the piece de resistance of the entire plan was to tell us that it would save us from $50 - $100 per month on our electric bills. HA!  My electric bill is around $300 per month! And I don’t even have electric heat! That isn’t a drop in the bucket when you consider that I would be saddled with another bill to pay for the loan that solar panel installation would cost. The payment would most likely be much more than the savings on my electric bill. It cannot be done, Bernie. No way in heaven or hell. I agree that we are darn near beyond being able to combat the effects of climate change, but this proposed solution is not a solution for the majority of Americans now. The skyrocketing cost of just basic living has made putting anything else on our financial plate a complete impossibility. Even if the government gave us another Covid relief check of $1,200 per person it would not cover it, even for a family of ten!

I, like most people, cannot proffer a blanket solution for the climate change crisis, but if I had to come up with something to help the situation, I would strongly suggest two things. First, stop manufacturing products with single use plastics. Second, stop manufacturing large vehicles and stop buying them. Many families where I live have three or more trucks and SUV’s. Yes, some people will throw tantrums about it but they will throw even bigger tantrums when they cannot buy gasoline for them and find that they cannot tolerate the unbearable summer heat and the desperately cold winters to come. The first step in changing a bad situation must be calling a halt to the behavior that put you there in the first place and these two issues are monumentally guilt-ridden activities. There are drawbacks to going solar in our homes that tend to be glossed over much of the time and one of the biggest is the availability of sunlight on a daily basis. This could be an extreme problem in some parts of the US during the winter months. Heaven help us, Bernie, dependency upon solar energy is very risky when you could find yourself without power during severe weather. Solar energy sounds like a god send on the face of it, but truly what would help right now is to require responsible behavior from those who have acted completely irresponsible for a very long time. When the citizens of this country find themselves in a position that affords them some financial breathing room you might find us deciding that we are able to convert to solar energy on our own, but right now, there is no way. Those who have been the worst offenders in creating climate change are always putting the guilt and burden for fixing the problem on the average citizens, and everyone who loves the corporate fascists is complicit in pointing the finger and passing the buck, although it isn’t a literal buck because they aren’t about to give us any more money to live on.

I still love you, Bernie, and appreciate and admire your efforts for the people, but the ability to just keep ourselves alive is the highest-level priority that exists now. Without that, we could have solar panels installed to high heaven, but it would not matter if we are homeless and starving or dead.

When The Dark Covers the Light

I live in one of the states in America where the solar eclipse was visible today. I decided against watching it by going outside. Many people would probably believe that decision to be ludicrous, but not participating in the event with eclipse glasses or a homemade viewer was not difficult. Following a spiritual path in life will many times put you at odds with how most people view the right or the wrong of a thing. I am used to this. It is easier to manage once you get over the habit of telling others the how and the why your life rolls the way it does and expecting them to give you affirmation.

The phenomenon itself was fascinating to witness as the light became obliterated here. I just stayed inside looking out the window.  At first it was much like a coming storm getting increasingly dark very quickly, but it actually didn’t last long. I can see why people in ancient times were terrified of events like this. I felt sad when the light began to come back. You don’t really have much time to reflect upon the uniqueness of it before it is lost. This could be said about many of life’s experiences that are now gone.

The days leading up to the eclipse found me thinking seriously about things that I have seen and heard which seemed to have a relevance and connection to what was coming. The first thing that came to my mind was a scene in the 1950s film, The Ten Commandments where the people in Egypt had to stay in their homes with their doors and windows shut as God sent a punishment onto the people as a result of their refusal to free the Hebrew slaves there. The firstborn child of every household was going to die unless the entire family stayed at home and painted lamb’s blood over their front door. It was called the Passover, and centuries later, people of the Jewish faith still honor the event as proof of God’s power and proof of his love for those who believe in a higher intelligence. The people who remained in their homes on that night, following God’s instruction, did not receive a letter in the mail or a phone call or a text message warning them to do this. It was something that they just had to know was necessary. When spirit talks, you’d better be listening. That is just how it works. You either heed it or you don’t. You ignore that subtle voice at your own risk. Families were huddled in their homes hearing the screams of the people outside as some were struck dead where they stood, and others had to endure the horror of seeing those that they loved die in front of them. It sounds very much like the stories that we hear coming from Palestine. The Hebrew slaves who didn’t pay attention and believe the message lost loved ones that night as did many Egyptian families. It was similar to the peril that you would be in if you tried to view the eclipse without eye protection. Only a fool would do it. But what would you call the people who knowingly produced and sold eclipse glasses that were substandard and would not protect your eyes? Call them frauds, call them criminals, and call them capitalists.

I also found myself thinking about the Klaus Nomi song, Total Eclipse, prior to today. Klaus paints a dreadful scenario for the people of Earth in that song. It sounds like the eclipse of the Sun is a punishment for us because of the “big shots” in the world who are too full of their own wonderfulness to care about anything other than themselves. Sounds like we all will turn into “French fries” even if we aren’t guilty of the offending behavior. It must be that we are complicit and guilty for not making the “big shots” stop. We are pretty fortunate that it is just a song and not a true prophesy because we don’t seem to have any intention of enforcing a cease-and-desist order on any of the people who are causing nine kinds of hell on this planet right now. The eclipse didn’t kill us today, but selfish, authoritarian, and elitist behavior is. It just isn’t doing it as fast.

It would have been extremely easy for me to ignore the subtle “feeling” that I had today regarding watching the eclipse. It is akin to other subtle feelings and intuitive information that I receive all of the time. It isn’t always as pointed and plain as being told not to leave the house today because a tree will fall on you or a tractor-trailer will run over you. You can ignore it. You want to do something and outwardly you see no reason not to. But spirit does not impress upon you for no reason. You cannot always see that reason immediately but 99% of the time you will come to understand that there was one. The ability to delay gratification and endure some deprivations has saved me from many troubles and catastrophes in life. Sometimes the saving graces were small but more than a few of them have saved my life. I didn’t see today’s eclipse firsthand because of a still, small voice that speaks to me every day of my life, but it was no sacrifice, really. If things had turned out like in Klaus’s song it would not have made a hill of beans difference. I would be dead regardless. But if it was like the Passover, well…I would still be here because I am not the firstborn child in my family but I sure as hell would have lost loved ones if I chose to ignore the warning. I cannot say for sure that I would have been specifically warned that the world was going to end during the eclipse if that was to be our fate. Anything that is finite like that normally comes months or even years prior to the event and is usually told metaphorically. You just have to retain and interpret the information as you go along. And as you go along, you develop the ability to make peace with it.

Someone reminded me recently about the 1962 film Day Of The Triffids where there were meteor showers all over the world and everyone wanted to watch them but those who did were struck blind and eaten by mutated plants if they happened upon one. I have seen all kinds of bizarre predictions online about how the eclipse was going to affect us. Some were pretty near as farfetched as this movie is, but situations that we are experiencing right now on this planet are so horrific that it seems too terrible to be believed. They aren’t easy to ignore and dismiss now. People are being affected by them in ways that we would never have imagined were possible 20 or 30 years ago. There were people panhandling in the parking lot of the grocery store where I shop yesterday. There was a man near the store standing in the middle of the street trying to stop drivers to ask them for money. Not long ago, there was a man playing a violin in the street wearing a sign that said he needed money to buy insulin for his child with diabetes. These are not things that I have ever seen in this town before. To say that the world is going to end now is not too difficult to believe. An eclipse may not be the catalyst for that but war, starvation, a lack of health care, and unemployment are catalysts for ending lives. Thousands of them every single day. Sometimes, you have to give up something to get something. All you really have to give up is greed, selfishness, and the belief that you are always right. It isn’t a subtle voice that incites hatred and violence. It is a dark and thunderous one. And it is fast making the light disappear.

"All it takes is faith and trust." Peter Pan Thinking

I recently read an article on The Nation where the author talks about putting a wealth cap of ten million dollars on the rich. No one could accumulate personal wealth beyond that limit. Any excess wealth would be taxed to fund infrastructure and social programs. I take issue with the idea of social programs because that sounds like we would keep many people in poverty. Social programs are not necessary if everyone has a basic living wage and income. So, I am all for setting a limit on wealth accumulation, but I wonder and worry about what governments would do with the new windfalls of money.

There is legislation in California which proposes to take control of the utility companies and have them assess the level of income for every household in the state and base everyone’s electric charges on how much money they have. Supposedly, the poor will pay less for their electricity and the wealthier people will have added charges on their bills to address wealth inequality. I take great exception to this idea. A basic need of the people should not be turned into a tiered system where some pay more than others. Programs like these invariably lead to a better quality of service for some and shoddy service for others. While it may sound (on the surface) like a great way to get the rich to pay their fair share in the world this is not the way to accomplish that.

The United Kingdom has been experiencing a dire poverty situation within a large proportion of the populace. Scholars there are comparing it with how bad things were in Victorian England. Many people are now suffering from diseases that were pretty common back then such as scurvy and rickets. These diseases are all curable if people have a balanced diet but far too many people now cannot afford to eat properly. They call it “food insecurity” but that is just a prettier way to say that they are starving. How much money would go to eliminating the insecurity of living so many people are experiencing if the ten million dollar wealth cap were to become law in every country? That we have gotten to this point in human evolution where starvation even occurs makes me think that there are so few people on the planet who even give a damn about it that those in power aren’t likely to fix a problem that they don’t even believe exists. It took a lot of ignorance and inattention to get us to this place. When they have billions more dollars in their coffers will they take any notice of the misery and poverty that needs to be addressed or will they decide that what the planet really needs is more of what we have already done to make us look like the envy of the world? The White House has been around for a very long time. How about building a bigger, better, and more palatial one? What good does wealth do us if we can’t show off to everyone? Without a change in the mentality of the people who control the resources in the world you will not see any of our problems eliminated. They will not address anything that is not already a part of their thought processes or part of their experience. What would make them suddenly want to bother with it now?

Unlike the other two situations that I have written about here I did not see that there has been a solution to starvation proffered by the UK government or concerned citizen groups. It is not a problem that is unique to the UK but this is the first time that I have heard anyone liken the problem to a dreadful and deadly time in history. I am sure that hunger and starvation exists in every country on the planet in one form or another but it is an issue that isn’t likely to go away easily because elitism exists in every other country as well. The royal palaces and residences will continue to have lavish meals several times a day as will the houses of government, the well to do, and restaurants without giving a second thought to how much their privilege costs the rest of the world. No matter where you look you will find that societies unchecked operate like this because they believe that they deserve more than others do. We can only change this by not believing and supporting their perceived right to it.

What would be done with all of the new money that governments suddenly had at their disposal if the above proposed solutions to inequality were implemented? Would it be turned into a national healthcare system in America? Would it be used to provide a basic income for everyone in an amount equal to a living wage in the US or the UK or any other country that is seeing a surge in poverty levels? What is a living wage in America? Depending on where you live here it has jumped up to more than one hundred thousand dollars per year. Bear in mind that no one would actually have that much in actual pay after deductions. Would it provide free college or free childcare or affordable housing? Some countries already do but that hasn’t solved the wealth inequality issues that have skyrocketed. Would anyone think to put a cap on how much people will be charged for basic necessities such as food, clothing, transportation, etc.? If they don’t, expect that people would fall right back into poverty in a short period of time even with more equitable wages and income. Without a cap on the ability to raise prices for everything through the roof there is no way that any of these new situations would be sustainable. So, how should the new economic system be set up to prevent a new corruption of society? If you don’t like the new system, can you fight it within the judicial system? If you can, the courts could be bombarded to high heaven for years and maybe even decades. Does the President have the power and authority to say, “This is how it is, people. This is what we are doing so everyone has a fair share and governments can no longer be bought.” Do we have a President who will say enough is enough as far as inequality goes? Have we ever had one like that? Does such a person exist in the world? Is this what is supposed to happen when the second coming of Christ arrives? Is there really going to be one? If it doesn’t happen pretty quickly a great many people will not live to see it. There are people saying that Jesus was too “woke” and Christians need a new leader. If he comes back tomorrow will anybody even pay attention to him if he doesn’t show up with some serious miracles and destroy everything that has corrupted the world? I think not. A great majority of the people would deny that he was Jesus even as he performed a few thousand miracles right in front of them.

So, until the Universe sends us a supreme deity to strike down inequality here, we are totally dependent upon a supreme human someone or someone’s to get the job done. I keep looking and listening for them. While there are many people with good ideas and helpful knowledge in the here and now which could make a tremendous difference in the way things are done it is troubling to know that they are scattered among the masses and not in solidarity in numbers large enough to fix a broken world. The author of the article in The Nation regarding the wealth cap cited two millionaires who believe that they should be taxed more to address wealth inequality, but I suspect that the majority of millionaires and billionaires out there never give a second thought as to how their actions put the entire world in peril and at risk. Actor Jim Carrey once said in an interview that many people give him flack for making and having so much money. His own family fell upon severe hard times when he was a teenager and had to live in a tent on a relative’s property. He obviously has never forgotten where he came from but one has to wonder if he has ever questioned the system that put his family in that situation? In the interview, he wondered aloud what people think that he should do when people in the film industry offer him millions of dollars to be in their films. ‘Should I tell them that I don’t want it?’ he said. Yes, Jim, that would be a good start. Or at least tell them you don’t need it. Because no one needs more than ten million dollars to live well. But it sure does take more than the majority of the people have. They are definitely not living well. And far too many are not going to live to see things get better. If this bothers you, speak out about it and we will pray that your words catch fire with the ones who can change that. Many people know that change must come but we really do need to speak louder and in unison and have some serious, definitive answers on how to make things better. Actions speak a lot louder than faith and trust in existing systems. We had faith that we would never see times like these again but there was no one that we could trust to make sure that it didn’t happen.

And without pixie dust, it ain't gonna fly.