Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Pandemic Relief - Enriching the Rich

It's irritating to me when businesses, and people who didn't suffer any real adverse affects from the pandemic, and even CORPORATIONS took that money - that it was even offered to them - and then media turned around and blamed all of our economic woes on people who lost their minimum wage job because a company didn't take precautions to protect their workers, got closed down as a health hazard, and then took pandemic payments to further enrich themselves. 

That was a self imposed hardship for them! They were well rewarded for irresponsible behavior. I don't remember EVER being rewarded for doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Getting rewarded for NOT doing what you should be doing is the height of irresponsibility on the part of the rewarder and the rewardee. 

Pandemic relief shouldn't have been offered to anyone above the poverty threshold! And a responsible citizen would have refused the disbursment.

But it's hard for me to blame them for it. If anyone walked up to me on the street offering $100 bills I'd absolutely take it! So, the same applies to the pandemic relief. If it was offered, I'd expect everyone to take it. But not everyone was adversely, monetarily affected by the pandemic and absolutely should not have been taking taxpayer money for no reason at all!
  
Furthermore, media turned around when it was safe to go back to work and said no one wanted to work because they got used to "all of that free money". That right there is horse pucky! I knew A LOT of people looking for work that simply wasn't available in my area. And I DARE ANYONE to live on nothing more than what those relief checks amounted to over the same period of time they were dispensed. It cannot be done, least wise with any quality of life and security! (Maybe in a tent on the side of a ditch if the cops didn't swarm you thinking you were baking meth, siting you for trespass, and making you relocate - presumably so they could find you and site you again!). 

I am so very over disinformation coming from the left AND the right. No one knows what they're talking about or they're gaslighting. I tend to lean toward the latter since imperialism/capitalism can only function the way it's designed (that EVERYTHING goes to the top) if it can produce a scare and a scapegoat to blame everything on. Remember, that is precisely what Hitler did - he blamed all of Germany's problems on Jews, with narry a thought about the sanctions placed on them over WW1.

Now, the threat posed by capital, and both capitalist party's to one degree or another - is Latino's, POC, and the working poor - fascism is raising it's ugly head again.

I'm getting too old, sick, and tired to scream at the sky about this shit anymore. My journey is nearing its end. And I'll be leaving around 8 billion people to suffer the mess mankind has visited upon itself.

My empathy over this is now my greatest frustration. 

Saturday, July 15, 2023

My Home is My Castle

As much as I despise authority, I have the final word here at my home, on my property. I have earned that.


Know up front that I am neither democrat nor republican. I am an anarchist. But I absolutely loathe DJT TFG (The Former Guy). I don't even like to say his fucking name. I had a music recording contract with him in the late '80s. He was a dick then and he's a dick now. And his acolytes have lost their collective fucking minds, too. They believe outright lies when the truth is staring them in their faces. Call it cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, or sheer stupidity. I don’t care. It is actively refusing to acknowledge facts as they unfold before their very eyes. And, to me, that’s just stupid.


Furthermore, all politicians, need to get the fuck out of people's homes and bedrooms and quit fucking with peoples' right to choose anything that doesn't interfere with the rights of other living, breathing people, and get back to the bargaining table and the business of governing... I mean, if that's what everyone wants. And that means abortions, marriage, marijuana and its derivatives, and even some other natural substances such as natural hallucinogens. That’s not a comprehensive list of my personal gripes about the government intruding on personal choice.


Personally, I think capitalism is the root of all of society's ills - and the governments which prop it up. Capitalism's engine operates on the backs of slaves. Always has and always will. That’s how it’s fucking designed! Currently, since it’s illegal to own people outright, they’ve managed to turn everyone into slaves to debt. That’s what the lie called Wall St. is all about. They buy and sell debt and tell all the rubes that the economy is only doing well if there are lots and lots of debt being bought and sold. 


That shit is people’s homes, futures, retirement, healthcare, etc. - you know, the shit that everyone needs and should be basic human rights. But every day the worker drones just get up and go do it again so that they can have the luxury of having a place to sleep, food to eat, and a fucking job so they can pay the bankers their interest before they even begin paying on the principal of the loan, all for people who do absolutely nothing to add value to any of it. They just stick it in the pockets, planes, or offshore banks so they don’t have to pay their fair share of taxes that are supposed to pay for the infrastructure these worthless fucks get rich relying on for the slavery engine to continue to function! 


That’s another thing that gets me riled up. Those filthy rich mother fuckers won’t even pay their fair share to ensure that our infrastructure doesn’t crumble as it is. To them, that’s on the worker drone slaves to pay for. That, my friend, is socialism for the rich! Not only does our infrastructure suffer - so does education, healthcare,... the general well being of the public at large.


Just as heated political debate, religion - which, if you think about it, talks of being free throughout (while also instructing slaves to obey their masters) but it is really just fairy tales that promote self-imposed slavery - you know, that invisible prison guard in your imagination that tells you what you can and can’t do. News Flash: non-believers the world over get up every day and treat other people with love and kindness. However, at least religion has some purpose, regardless of how weak - for those who don't have enough faith in themselves to behave with humanity - so long as extremists don't start trying to shove it down the throats of everyone who doesn’t seem to look, act, or talk like them - and also can act with humanity and compassion without the threat of eternal damnation looming over them. And that could be fixed with honest, proper education. 


Actually, the early church didn't have the concept of hell that modern religion does. That all came from a comedy written in the early 1800's. They also believed in reincarnation until 553ad. But those stories are for another post. It just goes to show that what you think about religion has not always been so. Religion is simply a tool that early homo-sapiens used to organize and control early society.


Moving on, did you know that there was a previous time in the history of this nation when the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Dupont, Heinz, Goodyear, Goodrich, Standard Oil, and other titans of industry banded together and attempted to recruit the most decorated Marine in history to gather an army of veterans and oust a sitting president so they could install a literal dictator? Of course, you didn’t. They don’t teach that shit in school. Look up a fellow named General Smedley Butler and read about the conspiracy. He even wrote a book after he retired, named “War is a Racket", where he described himself as a highly paid mercenary for American corporations. Dole was one of his greatest dislikes. It’s all on Wikipedia. You simply have to know what you’re looking for to find some of the United States' deepest, darkest, open secrets.


I even have a gigantic ebook, in pdf form, called “Amoral America” which simply lists every country in the world that is or ever was alphabetically and describes in detail just exactly how the United States of America fucked that country and its’ people. Read even pieces of it and you’ll begin to understand why the whole world hates or deeply distrusts the United States. Just be sure you want to know. Knowledge is power. It’s also an extremely heavy weight to bear.


What you do in your home or with your friends is absolutely none of anyone else's business so long as it isn't directly causing harm or injury to another LIVING BREATHING PERSON. And the book that the American Taliban uses to infringe on a woman's right to choose, the Bible, says exactly when a person is a person. And that is when they leave the womb and God “breaths life into their nostrils”. That’s simply not debatable unless that’s one of those parts that fascists like to ignore and pretend is not in there (there’s a lot of shit like that in that book). And there are a few mandates by "Sky Daddy" to actually perform abortions. There are more that anyone who insists that everything in that book is literal could see if they weren't blinded by cognitive bias.


Also, another pet peve of mine is that Islam is a son of Abraham, too. Cousins to Judaism and therefore Christianity. Islam is well aware of this. They don’t only study the Koran - they also carry and study the Pentateuch - the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses. Through the child of Hagar, Abraham's wife's handmaid came Islam. 


Sarah couldn't trust God's word that he would provide them with the child whom He promised them would be a father of nations and the couple was severely chastised by God for doubting Him. Hannah and her baby were sent into exile and Abraham was concerned for their welfare - the child was, after all, his. God assured him that this child, while not to be the father of God's Chosen People (whatever the fuck that means) would be a protected by God himself, prosper, and be a father of nations. THAT is Islam.


All that being said, I am a non-deist Buddhist. But it really comes in handy to have a ready knowledge of what that book, and the Koran, actually DO say. However, most minds who are exposed to these truths will object. Many around here will say, "Yeah, but Jeebus!" Well, that dude said all of those old laws that the Christian Taliban want to enforce were done away with through his new covenant. And if you point out that shit about abortion, THAT'S when these dickheads want to say, "Yeah, but Jeebus made that one go away. These others make me feel better about attacking others so I can feel better about myself." 


Enough religion. Please don't debate me on either religion nor politics in my safe space, my home. If you wish to know more about just about any religion, I'll be happy to share what I've learned over the years in many branches of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Jainism, or just about any other ism you can think of. And I'll photo copy pages from any and all holy books I own - which is many - and even Google it for you.

But, like politics, I will not debate anyone who has their minds already made up, at my home nor anyplace else. I'll be glad to teach and show you how to find facts and truths for yourself - you won't get that from your government, schools, nor places of worship! But I know what I know and I’m not going to argue about it, let alone lay my life down for it! 


And Politics? I'm an Anarcho-communist! Yes, I hate TFG. But not because he's an R. But because he's an unprincipled, unscrupulous, lying, thieving, cheat, a petty tyrant, insurrectionist, a seditionist, and a disgrace to criminals everywhere. I am still a Marine, despite my anti-capitalist, anarcho-communism. These are some of my own biases.

That fucker stole and shared nuclear secrets and defense strategy contingencies! He shared them outside a skiff to people with no clearance that we know of. We also know for a fact that he hates NATO and the majority of nations we love to use for battle fields - because, for some strange reason WE DON'T WANT TO FIGHT OUR WARS on US soil.

He NEVER EVER DOES ANYTHING for anyone else’s benefit but his own. Remember, I’ve met and interacted with some of his closest people. He's best buds with some of the most dastardly crooks, strongmen, dictators, and murderers in the world! He took that shit so he would have leverage over our country which gave his daddy, who bankrolled him, the opportunity and infrastructure to get rich and squander it all.

He's STILL begging his rubes for money. AND THEY'RE STILL FUCKING GIVING IT TO HIM! Poor people, pensioners, disabled. And he, like just about any church or politician - or your fucking neighbor, for fucks sake - doesn’t give two fucks about taking it from them… You know, the folk that Jeebus said you should help. 45 is the literal definition of a nazi fascist. (And many more unarguably horrible characteristics of evil throughout history).


He checks every single box of how you are to recognize the antichrist in the white christian nationalist fairy tail handbook, that collection of pseudo instructions they claim to live for and by. And considering that not one word of it was ever put pen to paper for centuries after the events occurred, and the fact that it contradicts itself many times and wasn't canonized for 2-3 centuries after their "savior" died, and that even then certain many books allegedly from actual witnesses who may have actually been there, were rejected because they didn't fit the narrative that the politicians brewing up this "opiate to the masses" designed to take away the freewill, it's almost understandable that they're confused, bamboozled, and hoodwinked. Because they gave up freewill the minute they bought in to any part of it. 

Even as, ESPECIALLY as, an ancom, I oppose fascism in any form, anywhere, by anyone, at the same time I have to beware of my own biases. I don't want to talk TFG with anyone around my home in the bible belt. It's a herd mentality and no amount of factual proof or evidence will change it. I don't really know nor care what you believe as it doesn't affect me in any way. I’m just saying that if you want to come to my hunk of dirt, that’s fine. 

However, you should understand how strongly I feel about my convictions and don’t intend to suffer fools and disharmony here. I didn’t just call anyone in particular a fool. I’m speaking in broad terms about how I feel about what I will tolerate in my space. That is all. I’m not a tyrant. You are more than welcome to have your own beliefs and convictions just as I have. You may even express your beliefs to me. But I WILL NOT entertain any heated debate about any subject on which neither of us intends to budge. It’s simply not of any benefit to anyone involved.

I also get miffed at all of this Blame Biden shit. TFG denied, downplayed, and ignored the worst pandemic in a century. Hundreds of thousands of people died because of all of the misinformation that began with, “It’s just like the flu and will be gone in a couple of weeks,” and escalated to, “Take this cow dewormer. It’s a miracle cure!” And IDIOTS actually took the shit with catastrophic consequences in some cases! But did that fuck get called to account? Hell no! The morons started comparing him to Jesus! I just shake my fucking head in disgust.

A measly few thousand died in the world trade center on 9/11 and we went to war in multiple countries, for what turned out to be the longest war in American history with catastrophic loss of blood and treasure (yet our bridges and roads are crumbling and millions have no healthcare, although it is the LAW to have insurance) - and that’s ignoring the fact that the USA has been at war with someone for almost its entire existence! But where is the outrage at the lives lost in the war started by Bush Jr. - who also failed at everything he ever tried, except when they made him get sober so they could prop him up as next in line for the Bush Dynasty - he succeeded in sobriety. 

However, yes, Biden is a flawed man. Very flawed! You really have to be a little screwed up in the head to even want that fucking job. But he inherited a fractured society who couldn't even agree on a REAL TRUE FACT staring them in the face! 

For instance, the husband of a friend of mine diedof COVID sitting right beside her! She was hospitalized! And I think I heard she even got it a second time. And she still won’t get vaxxed nor wear a mask! The excuse of allergy to it is a non-starter. It’s not made the same way previous vaccinations were made. Bad reactions are rare or the overreactions of pussies who don’t care about themselves or their elders. You just can’t fix stupid. 

No, I’m not necessarily calling her stupid. I’m saying that her unwillingness to protect me, her family, HER GRANDBABY (for fucks sake!), is. At the very least it is uncaring, disrespectful, and irresponsible. Yes, that action or inaction, however you wish to view it, is in my opinion stupid, reckless, careless, and ignorant. 

I remember the mid 60's when my dad worked for the health department there was a HUGE vaccination drive for polio, rubella, measles, diphtheria, and several other crippling or deadly childhood diseases and responsible citizens all over the country were THANKFUL that science had actually saved children the world over and stood in line to get all of those jabs! Somewhere between Baby Boomers and millennials our society turned into the biggest fucking pussies in the world! Even some old fuckheads who lived through that world saving scientific breakthrough and are still alive, probably because of it, are refusing to take the new jab!

Fuck, if you, him, her, or anyone else wants to kill themselves with a rope, knife, gun, biological agent, whatever the fuck, I’m sorry anyone would feel that way. I would even make a reasonable effort to dissuade that course of action. But if one's mind is made up, and as long as they don’t darken my doorstep with it, carpe diem! I’ve already done my stupid. I got it out of my system when I was young. And I’m still paying for it. But I make every possible effort not to do stupid shit these days.

Biden also inherited a withdrawal date from Afghanistan that was set by TFG and signed onto an agreement that has been a template for foreign forces for millennia called a SOFA Agreement (Status of Armed Forces) which is a legally binding contract between two sovereign nations and that the Afghanis were never included in. So, 45 made no agreement with Afghanistan - he just said we're out of here. FU.

It was poorly executed. That’s because Americans and our allies (traitors to their own nation) had been being warned for months to get the fuck out! But way too many “special contractors” - (read, mostly CIA and private mercenary groups) were still raping that nation for everything they could steal. Biden even extended the exodus by months yet alleged US citizens and NGO's - also read CIA and special ops - yet the idiots refused to heed the warning. Americans and Afghanis died as a result of this uncoordinated getaway. When the time was up, time was up. However, all of that leads directly back to TFG. But Biden was blamed.


I don’t say this to too many people. It sounds pompous and conceited. I always say that I was in data processing while in the Marines. But that’s just a piece of the truth. Another part of the truth is that I worked on a computer at Fleet Marine Force Atlantic Headquarters, G-2. If you’re unfamiliar with that last bit, G2 is military intelligence. I was what eventually became known as an intelligence analyst. There were only FOUR of us who worked on that special computer system in the entire USMC. We didn’t even have an official MOS (Military Occupational Specialty - a number that designated your job. I began as a 4034, computer operator. But since our job was brand new and there were only 4 of us, we were the only Marines alive to have letters in our MOS - 40xy). 

I had access to and learned way more than I ever wanted about the government, the military, the world, and myself. The access to information at the tips of my fingers would allow you to ask me how deep the water was at any port or inlet in the world at this very moment and if there were rats or whores on shore there. I’m just giving you a silly example. But there was much, much more that I could answer almost immediately. We could feed in intel gathered from various sources about everything possible - and I do mean everything - and the computer would chart out HUGE fucking maps with all variables available giving instructions on how the Generals should proceed. Yes, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was right next door and made decisions based on the work we did. 

I prepared many briefings for the highest echelons of all of the branches of the United States military - and the leaders of our allies. I worked with spooks, spies, and all manner of dickheads. Most were stone-cold killers in the employ of covert fascists working within the highest echelons of the government. 

So, yes. I have a very unique view of our world that most are spared. Ignorance is bliss. I was told in ‘82 that I could never divulge anything I saw. Most of the stuff I’ve described of my experience is 4 decades old and probably declassified because it has changed so much that exactly what I experienced no longer exists in that form. Plus, I no longer give much of a shit. A turd is a turd. And America has always been a nazi turd.

Now, see how braggadocious that all sounds. That’s why I never talk about it. Not because they said not to, but because I feel it reflects poorly on my character.

And, blame Biden for the economy? FFS! COVID did that! Well, and TFG’s abysmal response to it. I stopped by a local grocer. I got a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. I knew prices had skyrocketed everywhere on everything. My purchase came to almost $10. I only meant to make light of an untenable and unsustainable situation that is taxing everyone regardless of race color or creed. I said, “I’d say, Jesus Christ! But I know he didn’t have anything to do with it.” But this hillbilly broad who might have a high school diploma, but is probably lucky if she got a GED, parroted what she hears all of these local hicks spouting, “Blame it on Biden!” I say "parroted" because most white nationalist Nazis can't even reason for their selves, because they gave up free will and free thought long ago and can't produce an original thought anymore - they can only parrot what their Nazi handlers tell them. And it's always short phrases, insults, and name calling and never with any evidence. And, as is so often in my experience, from strangers who no one had addressed. 

Don’t get me wrong! I’m proud of those who pursue a GED if they couldn’t finish high school for whatever reason. Hell, I TAUGHT GED classes for years! And I was told frequently that I was an excellent teacher, which made me proud.

But when I got home I called the DEEP SOUTH (read Hispanic) southerner who owns that store now and can barely understand plain English. I explained to him what had just happened. I gave him a crash course in macroeconomics and supply-side economics and how TFG was the one who gave pandemic relief money to people who were actually middle and upper class and  whose only real problem during the pandemic was who was going to raise their children for them. 

And they used that money that was DESPERATELY needed by lower-income and poor people to simply survive, to buy couches, TVs, appliances, and new trucks (complete with truck nuts!) while lower-income people were being kicked out of their homes because, guess what, you can’t pay your rent if your employer lays you off because of a factory virus outbreak, or inability to get the supplies they need to stay open due to supply chain issues. And that all of these unnecessary purchases were clogging up ports of entry so that much-needed shit that could get people back to work couldn’t get through. And the worker shortages on docks, on the railways, in warehousing, and in the trucking industry only exacerbated all of these problems. 

And, no, not even TFG could fix that, no matter how many times he gassed peaceful protesters who WERE already evacuating the area, albeit not fast enough for his high ass, I mean highness, just so he could stand in front of a church with a book he’s never read, holding it upside down in his hand for a fucking photo op. (I’m still describing how I schooled the southern grocer.)

I also told him that pandemic relief was also given to businesses in order to reward front-line workers and abate some supply chain issues. I told him that he need neither confirm nor deny that HE received pandemic relief for HIS workers because I know already that he did, but rather than reward his employees for putting their very lives in danger so that he could continue to turn a profit he instead opted to put in gas pumps, one of the stupidest ideas since screen doors in submarines. 

I informed him that NO convenience store, or gas station operator makes anything on gas. It’s impossible. ROAD TAXES on fuel (that are supposed to help maintain our crumbling infrastructure that is NOT taking place) make it impossible. The only profit he will continue to make is the markup on items inside the store he has decided not to continue within the tradition that the former owners had enshrined in the deal they made with the first dickheads they sold it to, who bailed and sold it to him. And that NO ONE is going to travel 2-3 miles off the main highway that passes through for his gas when they can more easily wait for a full truck stop right on the highway just a few miles down and the convenience store a few miles up, and that his only customers will be the poor folk who live within a very few miles around him. 

I then told him that if a lesson in politics and or religion from a redneck hillbilly who barely has an education comes with every sale I, for one, will never set foot in his store again. And I hung up.

So, yes, I feel very strongly about my convictions. I know that of which I speak. I have no intention of debating them with anyone, especially in my sacred space - my home. I don’t carry my beliefs to anyone else at their homes or places of business unless they ask, or confront me. I also feel very strongly that public spaces and businesses should be free of such nonsense. Unless their “Christian belief” allows them to badger a customer trying to purchase necessities to survive, of course.

For Christ’s sake! Feed me when I’m hungry, visit me when I’m ill or in prison… all of that nifty shit goes right out the window with these assholes who insist that though the 2nd Amendment “shall not be infringed” (let us all go buy tanks!), the 1st Amendment only means you can say any stupid shit you want, to anyone, under any circumstances. 


But that Establishment clause that enshrines freedom of speech and  religion also means freedom FROM religion and religious tyranny. And it is the very foundation for the separation of church and state. You can’t just pick and choose which parts of the constitution you want to adhere to at your convenience any more than you can cherry pick the "kill them all" verses while ignoring the "turn the other cheek" and"thou shalt not kill" verses in their white nationalist handbook! It IS the Constitution of the United States of America. And if people want to love this country, they have to love what made it.

Do you see how I'm pointing out that people only read the parts of religious texts and the constitution that support their self-righteous positions? That is cognitive dissonance. You simply can't cherry pick the truths that suit you and discard the rest.

I realize that I definitely live in the wrong part of the country to espouse these beliefs - and TRUTHS as I have come to understand them through experiences and education that not many folks have had the opportunity - or even need, apparently (only 0.727% serve in the armed forces) - to experience and see for themselves. 

I used to marvel at the idea that my grandfather never lived more than half a mile from where he was born. And he rarely traveled anywhere. His longest trip was to help build a military airstrip in Mississippi! And he hated being away from home but it was his contribution to the "war effort". There’s that nasty word again. I personally know scores of locals whose lives haven't taken them as far away as even my grandfather went.

So, my rule at my home is no political or religious debate. We’re all adults and know how to treat other adults with mutual respect regardless of each other's beliefs. I’ll share if asked, reluctantly. You share, if asked. But we shall not disagree in anger on anything. We can always agree to disagree in peace and harmony.

If that's too much for you, then fuck off and stay gone.