My Bottom Line --- and Really, Yours Too

 The mid-term elections this year are probably the most important elections we'll ever vote in.

I intend to do everything in my power (and yes, it's realtively limited) to make sure women vote in this election.  I will drive anyone to the polls whom does not have transportation.  I will make calls, send out notices, in short, stop at nothing to make sure all eligible voters do indeed get out the VOTE.

Frankly, the dystopian, anti-woman future the Republicans have planned for our sex must be stopped at the Mid-Terms.  I implore every single voter, but especially my sisters in progressive thinking, to get out and vote.  Let no one stop you.  I don't care whom you vote for as long as you vote for yourself, which means don't vote republican.

The Pyramid Toe Dance

 It really feels like I'm balancing on one toe on top of a pyramid.

Watching this country in all its dysfunction, unsure of which way it will fall has caused enormous stress for women.  I'm pretty damned sure what I'll do if it falls too far into dystopian fascism.  I'll leave.  Not everyone has that opportunity.  I wish everyone did.  A mass exodus out of this third world country would be a wake up call to our government.

With the loss of Roe v. Wade, surely all other protections that right wing evangelicals don't like will start to come under fire, as well.

I am holding on to the mid-terms.  I think that will be predictive of which direction this country will go.  

I am also holding on to a very elusive idea that the Supreme Court Justices who lied in their confirmation hearings will be impeached and removed, as will Clarence Thomas for failing to recuse himself in cases where he and his wife had very deep involvement.  I'm eternally optimistic on things that are, for all intents and purposes, completely dismal. 

I implore all my sisters to get out and vote in November.  This is not a vote about whom you are for, or which candidate appeals to you.  This is a vote against the loss of your rights.  This is a vote to stop the  reinforcement of your second class status.  This is a vote to free your bodies and your minds from people who have no interest in your voice and view you as little more than livestock.  Do not let a bunch of rich old white men and their sycophant servitude women direct your life.  Vote against facism.   Let's turn this around. 

And if we can't turn it around, well, then America truly is over.  At least for me.

Farewell, America

                                 Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

By W.H. Auden

The Day America Died

May 24, 2022

11:30 a.m.

Plasticene People Eating Marshmallow Pies

 I have to take my news in small doses to prevent going off the deep end in depression and anxiety.  But some trend that caught my eye on the internet was "book styling".  

Apparently, there is someone in Hollywood who actually puts books in celebrities' arms for photo ops.  These books are intended to make said celebrities look smart, hip, on track, timely, sophisticated, interesting or intelligent.  Never mind that the plasticene celebrity probably never actually reads the book.

I confess to being a literary snob.  I read classics and literature and biographies and memoirs.  I read articles and magazines that offer some cerebral stimulation.  I do not read Danielle Steele novels or anything with a picture of a fainting woman in some dashing man's arms on the cover.  (I confess I love Stephen King and always will, along with Christopher Moore, Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut).  But I also love Dostoevsky, Steinbeck, Wharton, Sarte, Dickens, Twain ..... you get the picture. (Or not)  

So the thought of these plasticene people with their fake boobs, fake asses, fake faces and fake lives believing they can buy themselves legitimacy and intelligence by posing with a book annoys me beyond measure.

Plasticene people, please live your plasticene lives in your plasticene mansions with your plasticene material goods.  But don't try to fool us into thinking you are in any way, shape or form intelligent because you had a good book in your hand during a photo op.  So many of you are so stinking pathetic,  It's a shame to pay such huge sums of money to such (maybe) average intelligence kinds of folks.  But it's America.  It's Hollywood, and image is all that matters.

Unless you're me.  In which case, you're appalled.  And disgusted.  And just generally over "stylists" of any kind.  Can't figure out what dress to wear with what shoes, or what book to be seen with?   Please just go drown yourself in the ocean.  Make the world better one plasticene death at a time.

Republican Whinerism

 Without question, every single time I turn on one of the major news sources (and I certainly don't mean Fox), I am confronted with Republican lawmakers whining about Joe Biden or the democrats.  A recent review of current events exposes this whining as to be the only thing republicans are accomplishing in Washington.  They want control of the House, Senate and Oval office, yet if that (shudder) were to ever happen, these whiners would sit around and whine about what a mess they inherited and never pass a single law, except those laws designed to infringe upon citizens' rights.  This, alone, is what they are adept at.  That is, singularly, the biggest argument for voting blue.

When republicans aren't busy whining about how bad the democrats are, they are busy concocting backroom deals keeping the top 1% from paying taxes, defunding the very few remaining social safety networks we have for truly vulnerable citizens, and finding new and atrocious ways to get rich at any cost during their tenure in Washington.  That cost is usually measured in moral bankruptcy and outright thievery.

Republican Whinerism speaks with forked tongue, but they all whine the same way.  This is their platform for winning the mid-terms and next presidential election.  Whine about Democats.  It's sleight of hand to detract from how bumbling and inept the republican party actually is.  They'll just keep harping and whining about democrats.  Honestly, listening to republicans these days is far worse than fingernails on a chalkboard, and just about as senseless.

Whine Whine Whine.  It's all they do.  So if you like listening to a bunch of people whine about things that they, themselves, have created, please, vote again for them.  I know the red states love being poor, their people adore shooting at their feet, and damnit, they don't want any increase in the federal minimum wage because that's communism.  Republicans work diligently to feed ignorant and false information to citizens who already are too ignorant to know they're ignorant.  This is so evident in the red states.  It's appalling that after decades of getting poorer, getting sicker and getting kicked in the butt by politicians with a smile on their face while both hands are in their pockets, these rubes still vote red.

You can't fix stupid.  But I can whine about it.  

Profound Sadness for the Ukrainian People

 I think all Americans, watching the disastrous Russian invasion of Ukraine are deeply saddened by the suffering Putin is imposing.

For the first time in history, we get a front row seat to the savagery of war.  We get an up close up look at the faces of all the people being tortured by an autocratic dictator.  Vietnam was a difficult war, but it was a ten minute blurb on the nightly news.  Modern technology brings us right to the front lines of this war, with devastating portrayals of the many faces of war.  And no matter where we are, we are confronted with the truth of this.

I lost many friends in Vietnam.  I spent the year after high school graduation going to funerals for boys who had just been to prom a few months earlier.  Vietnam hit me full force in the gut, but this war is challenging my peace of mind every second of every day.  

Therefore, I beg the question.  Why hasn't Putin been arrested, or better yet, assassinated?  Obviously, he is a war criminal.  He not only assaults the people of Ukraine, but he assaults his own people, as well.  How hard can it be to get to this man?   This is an "in your face" reminder of what happened under Adolph Hitler.  No one stopped him.  By taking no action against him, we abetted him in all of his genocidal insanity.   I know we have to be ultra-concerned about a mad man in a seat of power who has access to nuclear missiles.  Not that long ago, we all held our breath when Trump lost the election and spun even further into his own dark mental illness.  And I don't doubt, for a moment, that Putin would use nuclear weapons as a last act of defiance against the west.

But we can land a man on the moon, we can read a license plate from a space satellite we can do all kinds of incredible things.  So tell me, why can't we get to Putin and put a stop to this insanity?  The whole world would welcome that news.

Shut Up and Pay

The whining coming out of United States citizens over gasoline prices is enough to send me screaming to my death.  Really?  Shut up.  

The rest of the world pays $6+ per liter of gas.  As Americans, we are so entitled that we think we should pay less.  We should pay less for gas because we are so short-sighted we never developed any good framework of mass transit except for the automobile and the interstate system?  Suck it up.  

We have come to believe that every family member 16 years of age must have their very own vehicle, adding to the problem of greenhouse gasses.  My own (deeply entitled and supremely ignorant) sister had 6 cars parked in her driveway at one time.  Get the hell out of my town.  I am so very SICK of these entitled, whiners bemoaning the price of gasoline.  

I just have to laugh when I see these giant trucks all the redneck white boys drive around in the State of Louisiana.  Usually they are speeding, usually they are reckless, and usually they are the cause of fatal accidents, (combined with alcohol consumption).  And also, quite usually, they don't need these trucks for any viable reason, it's just some sort of penis envy thing.

When I moved to a metropolitan area (and granted, had retired from the workforce), I gave up my car.  I took the bus or streetcar.  I also was financially able to ride an Uber now and then.  I am not saying people should give up their cars, I know that's not feasible in this society.  But the mindset has to change a bit here.  We need smaller cars.  We need hybrid cars.  We need to say, "gee, I can get their on public transportation" once in awhile.   We need to go through the withdrawals of our oil addiction because we are not only killing ourselves, we are killing future generations with our careless consumption of fossil fuels.  Meanwhile, the Oligarchs here and abroad get rich.  Doesn't that make you just a little angry?

I am not alone with wanting to be free of tyrannical regimes like the Saudis or the United Arab Emirates.  I am not alone when watching a dictator like Putin destroy people's lives because his powerful ego trip is off the rails.  At the same time, I am not convinced we are any better than them in many, many ways.

But, I digress.  Please stop whining about gas prices.  I've been advocating for $6 per gallon since my first trip to Europe.  I saw how most families had one car and managed quite nicely.  I saw how mass transit was well planned, efficient, affordable and lovely to use.  I saw smaller cars and better, safer roads.  

SO SHUT UP AND PAY.  Don't be another entitled UGLY AMERICAN.  Stop electing officials who give the oil industry carte blanche to get away with killing the planet.  Get rid of the John Kennedys, the Ted Cruz's, the Steve Scalises.  Put an end to congress being in bed with the mega rich.  But for now, just shut up and pay.  

Don't forget to vote in the midterms.