Friday, December 30, 2011

Secret Watchers of Harmless Bloggers

Hello to all and any, and a very Happy New Year to you!

As some of you know, I am greatly concerned with the tide of Conservatism suppressing women, gays and minorities in our country, blended with the militarization of our Homeland police and security forces occurring in the United States these days.  We're setting ourselves up for a fascist state, and if you don't believe me remember the "papers please" law in Arizona, or the police attacks on Occupy Oakland and the horrific pepper spray attacks at Davis.

I received a little "security shock" of my own the other day.  We amateur writers love to check our statistics with apps like "Statcounter" or "Sitemeter" -- these 'visitor counters' give us an idea of who is reading us -- if anybody!!  I have been pleasantly surprised to find that in my year off far more people than I could have imagined found me.

Among them, and quite recently, was the AT&T Security Team from Washington D.C.  These big boys spent about five minutes at my site.  At another time they came checking in again.

I got a chill in my blood.  Is this how it starts -- the tamping down of civil rights, the disintegration of the freedoms of ALL our people, despite our belief systems and our Constitutional right to free speech?

AT&T Security from Washington DC is keeping its eyes on me.  This does not make me feel safe or secure, particularly since  Dictatorships like China are locking up their liberal bloggers.  We are a long way from that, I believe, but I'm starting to feel a tad bit uneasy.






Hoarders, Lunatics and Daughters

I mentioned the other day that I had a "feeling" my younger daughter was closer than I thought she'd be, and sure enough, she surprised the hell out of me the other day by sauntering in the door one fine evening.  She was in full retreat from the UK winter -- London post-riots and pre-winter was just too much for a California girl to bear.

I am lucky to be able to keep her for a while, for her response upon walking into our house was deep despair.  Finally, after 10 years of being away most of the time, when she got a good look at the dear family home, a miserable combination of financial disaster, two physically/mentally disabled adults (one a hoarder dear god) -- she almost left right then and there.

But the woman who came home is a vastly different person than the girl who left.  To my shock, this new (to me), fully responsible human came home and began to shovel out the Augean Stables.  This is an ancient Grecian mythological reference to a stable that never could be cleaned, no matter how hard the person worked.  So it would seem at my house after 27 years of raising children, becoming permanently spinally injured and then losing the money I had to pay a friend to clean house for us.

PLUS!  My sweet Patrick is a true-to-life-watch-it-on-the-television-show Hoarder -- from "Hoarders" -- we are trying to change our lifestyles, and it is a difficult thing indeed.  As someone who has taken the mighty plunge over Niagara Falls without a barrel financially lately -- had a home stolen by a bank and a relative as well -- my mind has disappeared in the process, and once things start to get away from you they don't fall back together very easily -- I feel like Humpty Dumpty.  All the King's Men are here, trying to shove me and my mess together, but they cannot do it, man!

My daughter has been more and more annoyed as the depths of the chaos is revealed, and I cannot blame her.  I think parents are supposed to be more adult than I've been able to be -- this brain thing has really gotten in my way, this bi polar disorder -- not to mention being crushed by the economy.  My girl thinks I've also got Borderline personality disorder, and me -- besides feeling like a loser, I - I - "wish I had a river I could skate away on." (Joni Mitchell).

But one day at a time; we just paddle on one day at a time.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The GOP likes Women -- in Their Place!

What gives you Political MEN the right -- the vaguest suggestion of an idea that YOU should have a single thing to say about the disposition of the body of any woman in this country?  You have no right to touch any legislation that controls the physical well-being of the daughters of America.

Certainly we want your support in our desire for our health and ability to live lives unhindered by situations that place us at risk. But lately you have shown that you do not understand us.  You wish to force us into lives of poverty by denying us Choice, the literal power to choose the size of the families we must forever support, no matter what our liabilities might be.  For example, I raised 2 children with bipolar disorder -- undiagnosed at the time -- I did the very very best I could, only to hear the words "You didn't raise us; we raised ourselves!" thrown at me when conversations take a dark turn during the holiday season.

If I had been forced to bear the two other children that wanted a place in my body, my rational mind would have shattered more often and my ability to care for 4 would have been nil.  I don't see that anyone outside of a person's intimate home and family should be able to control what happens  in circumstances like mine -- when there's a mental illness that is exacerbated by the stress -- physical, mental, emotional -- of bearing children.  Make no mistake -- having my babies was the best, happiest thing I have ever done -- but the angelic beings that love you without condition are temporary, and often-times replaced by those who have contempt for your weakness.  It's a "pack" thing.  We haven't evolved much.

It is clear that to refuse all women options that MEN disapprove of is neither rational nor in any way good for the future of the planet, human relationships, or the children born into circumstances where their cradle might be a bottom drawer in somebody's bedroom.  Many of these "leaders" want to lead the little ladies all the way back into the kitchen, with motherhood the only option, and yet no good way of making it on a one person salary.  What's up with this?

My mother always taught me to ask: who benefits? I hear the old Judeo-Christian desert God Yahweh bellowing through these fundamentalist Leaders of all sects, trying to get the women back into our tents again, under the stern control of men we don't even know.  Guess what?  That doesn't work for the 51%!! We women actually have the vote now -- though it took us longer than anyone else, and I don't think we're going to give the power we have achieved back.  In fact many of us think we deserve more representation by our own gender.

I think these guys are motivated by the unconscious desire to put the genie back in the bottle, by dis-empowering us further,  and it's disgusting.  They aren't God and should stop pretending.  It's literally repugnant to women, this paternalistic rule-making by the boys' club. If one stops, pay attention for a moment and takes a closer look at the faces our our representatives -- they are almost all male. Politics is, after all, quite the "blood sport" and a woman has to be tough as nails -- think of Secretary of State Clinton -- to survive the usual witch-hunts that occur when a woman is taken seriously.

But in order for we women to protect ourselves and our daughters/granddaughters, we MUST become more active politically! We must not simply glaze over, sit back and go limp as one by one our human rights, which have taken a few hundred YEARS to hammer out, are taken from us, with great glee, by those who should be our balanced and sane lawmakers.  Get out and Rock the Vote!!  If we want to see a change or thirty, we MUST act.

I personally am sick and tired of being told we are the weaker sex because our bodies are weaker.  I was told early in life that women are less intelligent because -- oh get this -- our brains are smaller.  Sigh.  Like I said, Ladies -- let's get to work.  We need US now!

Even if you did inhale!

For inspiration, and for my idea of the perfect female candidate, go check out Elizabeth Warren's speeches on YouTube.  She is the ideal combination of brains, financial acumen, guts and pure awesomeness! Oh, and she's got serious communications chops; she is the Mother of all Orators!  I hope she's the first woman president, now that Mrs. Clinton has said NO.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

"Yahweh or No Way" -- or the Crackly Male Voices of the Old Desert Gods

My partner and I, delicate types, have been on the cusp of the recession, which crushed us like a wave crashing, slamming into a surfer, having having a massive, devastating affect on everything about our lives from 2007 on. I have literally dropped off the cliff from relative wealth to indigence with poor health and no insurance. Having been stricken on all levels, I'm writing to rally myself! I am writing no matter what my audience might be as I cannot help myself.

The world is changing so very rapidly now, and so few people talk about the things I see. I might as well get it out there, else I will burst. There are things that want to be said, that must be said. Things are happening in this country so quickly -- union busters seek to rob from the poor while giving yet more in unnecessary indulgences to the rich -- like thieves in the night these jackals come to steal the raw soul of our country.

Although Mother Earth is poisoned, her creatures dying off by the hundreds and thousands -- we humans, stoked on by the crackly male voice of old desert Gods, resist limiting our species with sane methods like birth control.  We prefer war, plagues, and pestilence and capital punishment -- or at least it seems that way to me.

I wish that it were easy to escape from Life when it got too hard, but we're not supposed to do that, I hear it said.  I just sometimes wish there were a "game over" button when you just feel you've had enough heartache, disappointment, etc.  But hey -- so far I still have my house and having just realized I've had a huge amount of money taken from me, I have hopes of keeping it.  I know so many of you are in the same position, and it hurts to know that.

We're working two Farmers' Markets a week now, and the people there are worried as hell.  It's Christmas time and sales are slow, even in Sausalito CA today.  It's my belief that we're in a depression, no matter what the Pols (as opposed to "polls"; poles; or )say.  I keep reading about more jobs being shipped overseas by the Greedheads, while the GOP tries to decimate government jobs.  On what planet does this make sense??  In what way does the elimination of jobs serve to create jobs??

Someone -- enlighten me, please!  In the meantime, why doesn't anyone care that Mr. John Boehner, a politician that GOP TV personality Morning Joe Scarborough called a "lazy drunk", got to be SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE??? No wonder all he can slur is Noooooo.

And this man's stated goal for all Americans, whether WE (meaning me too, because cold and hunger are now appearing at this house) want it or not, is to make President Obama a one-term President.  I was born in a very minimalist shack on the outskirts of old Gold Rush County.  On my birth certificate my dad was listed as a "ditch digger" although he later got his GED,  graduated from college and got his real estate broker's license as well.

I was never cold or hungry.  Never, not until now.

After pulling this country out of its broken, bleeding economy and giving us 3 million + jobs, ending the Iraqi war not to mention the life of Osama Bin Laden, after beginning to mend the errors of the techno-phobic 19th century style gentlemen who inhabit Washington DC, busily ruining our lives -- what possible excuse is there for the U.S. not to give Mr. Obama (no he is not perfect; I don't care) a second term, just to see what he can do without all the resitance, hopefully-- or at least without a good part of it?

Senator Mitchell and Speaker Boehner are simply put, LOSERS and they, like the mythical suicide-lemmings, are leading their Caucus to disaster, along with all the rest of us.  And they are at least SOMEWHAT familiar with the rules of governance.  The new candidates are a joke.  The only suitable candidate ready to "Occupy the White House" is, in my opinion, already there.

As for the Senate/House in your neck of the woods -- do due diligence, figure out who is truly obviously corrupt, talk/listen to the new faces who want to replace the old faces -- and then, throw the bums out!!

PS:  I MUST attribute the "Yahweh or No Way" quote to Stephen Colbert, although I thought of it somewhere along that time too.  Honestly!  I love you, Stephen!!!




Thursday, December 1, 2011

The Return of Imperialism/Tryanny to U.S from Within

How do you feel, my fellow Americans, as you watch the Congress refuse, over and over, to truly serve US, the people of this Republic, while they consistently polish the fat rumps of their Corporate Masters?  I fear we may be watching the beginning of the end of Democracy in the “land of the brave and the home of the free.” If we lose our Power as a People, if we are so easily fooled, if a runaway governor in Wisconsin can dictate radical, radio-active policies and get away with it despite the wishes of the bulk of his constituency, doesn’t that border on Tyranny?  If there are peaceful demonstrations being shut down violently in this country that gives us a right to them, what have we become?

The Republicans have not accepted that going against the will of the people is a very bad idea.  They favor the Imperial style of Leadership, the “my way or the high way” style of rule.  The kind of rule that likes surveillance tools, power in faraway places, and sneak policy attacks in various states that have stripped the working class of people of rights traditional to states such as Wisconsin, and for no reason that would ultimately serve the people.  

That move was part of a Karl Rovian strategy to keep tightening the GOP’s constant attempt to make this a permanently Republican nation.  The further moves to suppress traditionally Democratic (the young, the "other" and the senior citizens) voters threaten our Democracy -- and yet the GOP seems intent upon absolute rule.

Fortunately, it seems as though the people's eyes have opened and a rising tide of  "Oh NO you will NOT!!" may wipe Scott Walker out of his Governor's mansion, and not a minute too soon.

The GOP won the last election by speaking of jobs and “true fiscal conservatism.”  I don't object to  fiscal conservatism as long as it is not drained from the blood of the poor and middle classes.  The neo-cons and Mitt Romney-style businessmen who espouse this philosophy and are elected on the basis of it should not be able to serve in Congress as the lackeys of the rich, either during or after their terms are finished.  The revolving door among between Congressional employment and lobbying is way too porous, and integrity is in short supply. 
  
Congress people are obviously a commodity up for sale – Democrat and Republican, and so obviously.
After throwing all their weight behind the infamous, unnecessary tax break for the rich, Republicans are suddenly moving as one to strip the American Worker of the right to bargain with dignity for wages, hours, etc.  I was amazed that these men could argue so righteously that we must ALL share the pain of balancing the budgets!!  Nothing, said they, could be more important than that. But – wait!! WTF about that tax cut for the rich you bozos passed last year?
  
How, HOW could the richest among us possibly want more when more and more of our children are homeless, wandering the street, gathering at the various Occupy Movements because they have no other place to sleep, among other reasons, of course.
After giving this wretched tax cut to those who didn’t need it – Boehner and Mitchell fought furiously for their own, and now seek to attack entitlements – let the middle class and poor pay the price -- the American people are sinking into a less gracious and conscious form of living.  There have been one million foreclosures last year; so many  more since then -- and yet these heartless people want to place even more stress on the groaning many for the sake of the mighty few.  In such a terrible time as these years have been, the only possible reason is corruption. The latest news is that the unholy GOP voted down the middle class tax extensions, and in so doing are pushing people like me into a lifestyle where "daily bread" is now questionable.

If the GOP continues to stifle our NATURAL FREEDOMS including the right of free assembly, the right to be properly educated, to vote on the matters that concern us, to have a voice on these matters -- and continues to promote the growth of a vast underclass, stripping us of various Rights won in the past -- they will be electorally wiped out at some point—unless they can make good on the next step in their plan, which has to do with making it more difficult for folks in the Democratic demographics, i.e. students and the elderly, who typically vote the Democratic ticket, to vote.

How does that make you feel – to know that this is a nationwide effort by GOP politicos to restrain the Democratic voter-turnout, to destroy collective bargaining, to strip the Unions of all power and to make the United States of America into a dreary banana republic where only one party CAN EVER attain power? 

But who benefits?  Who would have the most to gain, however bizarre, and for what reasons?  In my opinion we are witnessing the struggle between Plutocracy and Democracy in America the Beautiful, and it is an awful sight to witness.  Somehow the de-volution of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire comes to mind.  Only we're the Roman Empire on crack, and on a quick downward slide.

In my opinion – and this is an opinion piece -- the GOP is trying to create a "new peasantry" -- a modern  breed of children raised as ready cannon fodder (“meet the new boss; same as the old Boss”), for our Orwellian cycle of endless war.  These kids are inheriting the results of our specifically human passion for unchecked arrogance/violence/blood-lust.

Failed by local schools and pre-trained by vicious games, they’ll be snatched up by the Masters of War. As educational systems begin to fail our children the culture becomes more brutal and violent.  Kids spend way too much time fascinated by blood-soaked games put out by the Military – just a little basic training, pre-high school basic training – there are so many army games out there!

How purposeful is the creation of a class of the citizenry more suited for soldiering than the manufacturing jobs we no longer have?  So many of our kids have felt and feel that a life in the military was the only option.  They go because they have to.  They are our modern-day blood sacrifice.  The high and sustained rate of unemployment has made and will continue to make great use of the “feeder pond” of kids with no hope.  These young American heroes go off to serve and fight and die.

And then the heroes come back, but they come back changed, many of them broken, some shattered beyond our help.  Because of the underlying philosophy that sends these people off to war, there’s not enough help for them when they get back --  not for current veterans, nor for the rest of the recycled vets of our many wars; there are so few options. 
 
They deserve everything from us, yet to the GOP that elite 2% is somehow more deserving than our veterans. Our veterans come home, and they have certain particular warlike skill sets.  The folks that aren’t too psychologically or physically damaged have to make a living, and naturally they will look into the U.S. prison and jail systems.  

Some go for the shadowy world of the mercenary; some readjust, go back to school and shake the traumas of War.  Some blow themselves away, too traumatized to go on. Many of them will make excellent tools of any police state, including one right here.  We watch as the armed forces busily militarize our police, and that knowledge scares the hell out of me.

I was disgusted by the presence of Blackwater/Wackenhut security forces patrolling the streets of Wisconsin while the police are on strike.  I was horrified when the peaceful Occupy Oakland protest turned violent.  Who looks like the "land of the free" now? What a bitter joke.
It is important, essential to know that right in front of our eyes we are watching an entire reshuffling of the American Opportunity, a purposeful re-sizing of the American Dream, a casual toss away of our pretense to Excellence.  This fundamental dumbing down of the culture can't be strategic, it just can't be.  Can it?  Again, who benefits?

Fascism is the union of the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex (wonderful choice of words by President Eisenhower), who told us to beware of such a government.  It is my deepest fear that our beloved country is changing in front of our eyes into a collective of little states/tyrannies run by out-of-control, power-mad governors who seem to feel Absolute Power is their Right.  I don’t understand why the GOP members of Congress don’t value their “worthy opposition” and why they seem to be trying to destroy us utterly -- electorally, militarily, and financially -- and we are the 99%!