Sunday, August 30, 2015

Hard Times

 America is one hot mess. How do you get a weird mash up like Sarah Palin interviewing Donald Trump trying to convince us all that he's "avant-garde"? A mentally ill man shoots three people and it's broadcast live, nothing will change. China is melting down and the stock market crashed, however, the rich won't pay a price for a rigged "free"market. It's common knowledge that greed and corruption rule the day in the USA, God only knows what they will think of next to prop up the stagnant financial times most of us are dealing with.
I didn't study economics in school, I was terrible at math. I am an artist and what I was taught was to observe. To look at what's around you, whether it's a landscape or still life or people. What I see, are people struggling, not recovering. People working for less, not more. I work for a failing company, a free publication that sells advertising for the auto industry and no one is buying cars. As a matter of fact, most of the people I work with don't have cars, it's too much of a money suck.
They live with relatives or with their parents. They can't afford an apartment or a house. They are not consumers, they are not buying furniture or dishwashers.
In an economy that depends on consumer spending, there's no way from what I see, that things are getting better or "it's coming back" whatever the hell that means. However, I hear it from the hopeful all the time, even though nothings improved for them. There's continued apathy by most people I know, unless you are a senior citizen, then the story changes, there are too many "giveaways" and "people don't want to work", when I report to them real statistics about how many people in this country are living in poverty, they just scoff. Since they grew up in the Great Depression, they think we have it good and maybe we do, it just doesn't seem like it. They tell me they had "to make do" and so should we. There is no idea in their head that maybe things don't have to be that way. They profited from the biggest economic boom this country has ever seen. What they don't see, is an entire generation has been left behind, they demonize them as lazy, even though they are working more than one part time job because that's all they can get. Young people dying in droves from heroin overdoses and despair. It's not an accident that this is happening. It's the result of a country in decline, when people feel as if there is no way for them to succeed. They know cronyism and corruption is the only way to get ahead and Donald Trump exemplifies that, from his real estate mogul father, he inherited everything from and his four deferrals he received so he wouldn't have to fight in Vietnam, to his brothers high school buddy who got him into the Wharton School of business.
 http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/8/the-real-reason-pundits-want-donald-trump-to-disappear.html
 Seriously, this is the way things work in America, very likely it's the way things work in China and everywhere else. America works for the well connected, the con artists, the wealthy and snake oil salesman. If you are honest, hard working and just trying to pay back your student loans, well good luck, It's make do now in this depression, according to shadow stats, our unemployment rate is upwards of 20%, if China continues on it's current course, we may be in for worse. While we ponder what is actually going on versus the narrative we are been sold about this "recovery" why don't we watch something more uplifting?
                   Yes, if you can afford investments, you too can dance and go to the mall, life is just one big happy feet dance.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Chasing Money

I have been working so much I barely have time to keep up with all the political crazy going on. Why, oh why is Biden considering running for president? Jeb Bush is okay with torture, small Paul is trying to get away from staff indictments running his SuperPACs, Hillary and her emails, Trump, really? Who the hell would trust him with a nuclear bomb? These are our offerings.
All it is, is a money grab. Chris Christie has no hope of winning anything, but that won't stop him from trying to sweep up as many donations as he can get. Maybe that's why Biden wants to run, but seriously, doesn't he have enough money?
Which one of these candidates hasn't sold out? Maybe Bernie Sanders?
Yes, we are all being sold this privilege, of democracy, being dazzled by all these amazing candidates. Only in America where you have a hundred kind of cereals for breakfast and 10 different brands of toilet paper to choose from can you also expect a overpowering array of  potential presidents.
Weirdly, candidates like Clinton and Bush, which in real life, I don't know anyone who would vote for, are probably pushing Trumps popularity. Bernie Sanders has pulled off an "astonishing feat" he's ahead of Hillary. It's been reported that Hillary still has a comfortable lead. I am not so sure of that, with the kinds of  crowds Bernie has been drawing, you can see why, because he actually makes sense. Trump says illegal immigrants have to go! He's also going to build a big wall. That's the big problem to Trump, not black people being murdered by cops day after day. A few of my non-voting friends do have a lot to say about illegal immigrants and all the benefits they receive, like free healthcare, I hear this all the time. "They can receive schooling and emergency medical care, but not welfare or food stamps" http://www.tolerance.org/immigration-myths
Pass me a roofie next November.
So here we have the resentment against illegal immigrants, they can receive emergency medical care for pregnancy and surgery. What this means is that Medicaid will reimburse hospitals for an illegal immigrants emergency procedures. "undocumented parents may apply for public benefits for their U.S. citizen children. When applying, be clear that you are applying only for your children
This is another complaint I hear. A person born in this country is American, but most people moaning about illegal aliens don't understand this. They complain all the time about illegal aliens having big families so they can get free benefits. What this shows me is how many people are struggling, because the economy is so bad that anyone perceived to be getting a free ride, even if they are Americans, they are seen as gaming the system and bankrupting the country. Whatever people may think, it's completely legal and if any of the people I know could meet the criteria, they would be able to get benefits too. Trump is riding this wave of resentment that wouldn't even be there if we had a single payer healthcare system where all Americans would be covered. When a candidate like Trump can get this much attention by grinding down the poorest of the poor, in order to pander to people who are economically strangled and disenfranchised, that's pretty disturbing. There are 11.5 million illegal aliens in this country, many of them I am sure have children who are American. I'd like to know how Trump is going to manage to make them go? He sure isn't worried about getting the Latino vote. Maybe that's the point, who would vote for any of these people? With the exception of Sanders, he's the only one who is saying anything that makes any sense and you can bet we won't be allowed to vote for him.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Welcome To The Amerikan Gulag Comrade

This is what has been happening in my country. Home of the "FREE". You won't read this in the New York Times;
 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/05/homan-square-chicago-thousands-detained
Thousands jailed. I am talking, THOUSANDS!
 In an American gulag and it sickens me. 82% percent are Black, yeah I said it!
Held in this disgusting "warehouse" Logic defies me at this point. How is it that thousands of my COUNTRYMEN are held in a place, where they just disappear?  But hey, Donald Trump and Chris Christie will debate. Guess what? This is only ONE! ONE of these horrendous places, when was the last time you ever heard about a place like that?
Round 'em up and just send them to a place where no one knows where they are. Due process?  When will we say enough is enough? I am so angry about this, I can hardly type. It feels like Nazi Germany. only we don't need yellow stars or pink ones, for the Jews (my late husband was one) or the gypsies or artists, (that would be me)  No, persecute black people, brown people, put them in "secret facilities" I have tried, but I found no American publication that reported this,
Where is  the outrage?
They are all watching Fox News, I am disgusted. Propaganda rules.

Just wait till they come after the old and sick, oh, hold on, Wake up White People, you're next. There is no  doubt, we are living with Fascism.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

This Is What Happens When You Call The Cops

 If you have a problem and you call the cops, you now have two problems. This video was made exactly a year ago and this year in July, 120 people were killed by the police. How much video needs to be collected before this changes? I finally found a database called Killed By The Police, have a look.
There are lawful murderers in uniform able and willing to kill people for no reason. now what is that reminiscent of? The Wild West? Nazi Germany? Native American genocide? What exactly is going on here when people are targeted and I'd venture a guess that they are all poor and have no means to fight back with expensive lawyers.
Cecil the Lion was killed this week and there was a lot of crying and carrying on. It was a damn shame that someone got away with that, but for some reason, people have a staggering amount of empathy for an animal and barely any for the human beings killed in the latest wave of police brutality. Something tells me that rich Dr. Palmer, Cecil the Lions murderer, wanted for questioning, won't have a bunch of trigger happy police ready to hunt him down and maybe give him a Russian mouthwash. Lucky for him. But people of color just minding their business can be chased, hassled and shot on the spot.
So, more people being killed than ever and no laws passed to do anything about it. How is this situation going to change when there's so much money to be made keeping cops in business, corrections officers employed and a war on drugs that is so profitable. Why do you think Chris Christie said he was gonna use military style SWAT teams to hunt down those evil and violent pot smokers? Seriously, it's a moneymaker. Plus, he wants all the twinkies for himself, he doesn't want to share with stoned people who have the munchies. But this sorry situation is no joke.
For years now in America, people just get away with it. Banks defraud the country and we bail them out, no questions asked. America tortures people and we punish the people who out them, we jail the whistleblowers but not the torturers. Our leaders lie about why we need to start a war and then they just go back home and paint really bad paintings, No one is accountable and that trickles down to the local police, who then decide it's okay to piss all over the local citizens, they are lucky if that's all that happens to them.
                               Have a safe weekend, and whatever you do, don't call the cops.