Sunday, July 26, 2020

TO MOVE FORWARD REMEMBER THE PAST

As humans, it's eventually in our nature to accept a 'new normal.'
In many cases this can be good as in having to use seatbelts while driving or using a lavatory instead of a stream or field.
Many Americans have come to terms with the hopefully temporary 'new normal' of social distancing and wearing masks in public.
Admittedly washing ones hands often does not seem to be a terrible new way of life.
But too many other 'normals' that were new back when implemented should not have become so!
I offer the following 'normals' that have become old and need to be reexamined.


1 - Healthcare used to be affordable, although fewer and fewer people outside of government have lived long enough to remember that.
The 'new normal' is to weigh the benefit of getting or staying healthy against the reality of going broke to do so.
Too many are forced to make this 'Sophie's Choice.'

  • The first health insurance most Americans had was Blue Cross. This non-profit plan made its debut around 1930 and afforded humans an affordable way to get their healthcare without having to sell their homes or declare bankruptcy.
  • Blue Shield started around 1940 and the two merged in 1982 to form the familiar BC/BS (or BCBSA) health insurance giant.
  • There were earlier plans, such as one in Dallas Texas that allowed teachers basic healthcare in association with Baylor Hospital but it was small and localized.
  • In 1994 insurance companies were given the green light to make profits and all hell broke loose.
  • Cutting out the middleman mentality of an accountant or an actuary deciding whether your life is worth saving must end!

2A - Education in America used to be a platinum system, at least in communities that were considered worthy by government which funded K-12.
The question is, why did we stop at 12?

  • A truly great nation would want its citizens to be the best they can be and that should mean, at the very least, subsidized college, as in K-16 at the very least!
  • The 'new normal' is 'for-profit' student loan system that makes higher learning unreachable for many and harms America in the long run!
  • We have fallen so far behind other nations that it will take a generation to re-attain our status as a world leader.


3A - Programs that help law abiding Americans live healthy, fruitful and happy lives from cradle to grave are called social programs.
Many were implemented by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
Then came the error (not a typo) of Ronald Reagan and cuts to all of the awful programs such as Medicaid and the war on Social Security.
The 'new normal' is to use the word socialism as anathema.

  • Democratic President FDR's 'New Deal' and WPA saw a nationwide system of highways and other improvements come to life.
  • Jobs and self respect returned to America.
  • They eventually led to the greatest era of prosperity the country had ever known.
  • These 'socialistic' programs helped us all and are sadly now in need of round two to repair them.


4A - Taxes are needed to run the government.
But logic dictates government can get more money by taxing the middle class because there are more of them than wealthy people!
And of course the wealthy are job creators.
The 'new normal' says the wealthiest among must get tax breaks and incentives to help the working class.

  • And yet the country did it's best during the years after WWII when Republican President Eisenhower used the tax dollars garnered from his top bracket of 90% to move us into prosperity.
  • Communities were built and thrived .
  • None of the incredibly wealthy folk were hurt financially as they did their patriotic duty of 'chipping in' for a better, greater America!

And finally, one new normal that has been normalized and simply MUST be stopped is allowing a President free reign over the law and having his entire political party enable him to do so while they get rich with their criminal treasonous enterprise!


Thomas Jefferson said that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.

In these cases the rebellion would be a great thing and for the good of the majority of Americans!!

Life is too short for us to continue accepting limits cause someone says they're so. Some things we cannot change but till we try we'll never know!*


* Thank you to Stephen Schwartz. You are not "Wicked."

Thursday, July 16, 2020

ON A VERY PERSONAL NOTE

I just found out that my prostate cancer has returned and seems to refuse to be cured.
Nearly 20 years ago I was diagnosed and opted for radioactive seed implants to kill the cancer in my prostate.
They did the trick, at least for 18 years.
But when I saw the PSA rise I had my urologist take a look.
I opted for cryotherapy to freeze the unwanted cancer cells on the prostate but after 3 months of healing from the surgery the PSA level has returned to it's higher than acceptable number.
This means the cancer is back and possible spreading.
I will have an Axion Pet Scan to determine the extent of the deadly threat and to see if it is still containable.
As a pessimist I will not bother to type my thoughts about that but I will emend this post in a week or so.
I am typing this to see if anyone actually reads the blog (again, as a pessimist I doubt it) and will comment or send me private messages of support or even good riddance.
Watch this space!

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

WHO IS KILLING AMERICA?

Whenever there's a crime we look for the guilty one. But Agatha Christie famously showed us the guilty one could be a group, a large group of culprits, each with a different agenda. By now everyone with a brain who is willing to use it must realize that dt is not only NOT a president in the American sense of the word but a fool to boot and a well known criminal. But he was elected, or rather placed in the White House by a minority of Americans and an outdated dangerous system that has outlived its usefulness known as the Electoral College. So who dunnit? This time we don't need the prolific Dame Christie or her intuitive inspector Hercule Poirot to ideate who the idiot is rewarding. One clear winner is Vlad 'the Impaler' Putin who has desired the destruction of America for ages. With the ruination of our relations with the United Nations and our constant barrage against our former allies abroad America is no longer the leader of the 'free world.' Add to that the lifting of sanctions on Russia; The 'look the other way' attitude on their atrocities; The dropping out of Paris Accord on Climate Change; The end of the Iran Nuclear Deal; And the ease to which dictators around the World play him and you can easily see why Putin helped elect dt. The next clear winner is the GOP. Mitch McConnell must have known in advance that Vladimir and friends were going to work their magic when he refused to even meet with President Obama's choice to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court claiming that we should wait for the next president. Had he known Hillary Clinton would win he would have jumped at the appointment of the moderate Merrick Garland. But instead he opted to ignore Democracy and wait for the useful idiot to be placed in the White House. Then he started to fill every possible vacancy in America's court system with the least qualified conservative judges he could find. MoscowMitch, as he has been called and quite frankly acted, then went the extra mile of ignoring any bill from the Democratic Party by refusing to even bring it to the Senate floor for discussion, let alone a vote! And finally we come to the ultimate winner in this Orient Express from Hell, dt himself! Okay, not only dt but his entire extended crime family has benefitted by his 'above the law' presidency. Every person who has stuck it out working with this ego driven maniac has realized fame and fortune and seen their agenda carried out. Steven Miller despises foreigners, hence the fear of the 'Mexican caravan' headed for our border. Stevie Mnuchin loves money so he used tax payer dollars to take his wife Louise (would you take his last name?) Linton on his visit to Fort Knox where they fondled the gold bars. Larry Kudlow, who knows as much about finance as a dead tree slug, is advanced as a financial adviser and all around genius in dt's staff. AG Barr has not believed in the rule of law for decades but at least he was wallowing on the garbage heap of humanity until he penned his infamous paper or rather resume on how the President should be a dictator. He was rewarded with love and affection and free reign over the courts by dt. Giuliani, who had reached the end of his usefulness to the World, is suddenly traveling the World on our dime trying to dig up dirt on dt rivals. The dt scions who have enriched themselves beyond belief by selling access to the malleable moron. And of course the old tax dodger himself, Mr. Bone Spurs, the golfing 'What Me Worry' fool, dt! Sadly there is no way we the people will be able to arrest all the culprits who committed all the crimes noted above and so many more not yet mentioned but we can start to right the Ship of State by at least removing the ones we can from our government! To allow any of them to continue in their role as destroyer of America would be the biggest crime of all!