Editorial – This Conversation

Citizens as Canon Fodder

What Governor Lee of TN and others like him (Republican Governors) are doing is lashing back at our Democratic President by stopping the money he sent out to help us citizens (regardless of our political affiliation). It’s nothing more than a political powerplay and this is how us citizens (including those who put him in office) are being treated. He’s not attempting to do a damn to help us.

They’re literally using their own state citizens as canon fodder. They’ve made us into hostages as they wage their war on a lawfully elected Democrat President. It’s the same as killing one’s children to keep the ex from having them – that’s an extreme example, but these are extreme times that we’re being hit with.

I’ve worked those jobs. I spent nearly 20 years in fast food service. I’ve cleaned offices at night, too. Not really any job I’m above. I don’t know your ages or health situations, but I know mine. Suffice to say I’m a senior citizen and my health isn’t like it was in my 20’s & 30’s when I worked two jobs for five years straight.

What people are failing to recognize (deliberately) is that not everyone’s situation is the same as theirs. What worked for one person is great. We’re all happy about it, but it’s folly to suggest because one person did something everyone else can do the same.

Some Republican governors have decided Americans make too much from expanded unemployment benefits

People can’t do a job that’s open for several reasons. For example, I don’t have a CDL license. You ought to see how many driver jobs I pass up each day. As it stands, I really can’t afford to pay for training to obtain one. Now, thanks to my governor I don’t have enough time to get training before I can’t make rent. Hundreds of citizens are facing the same unbalanced set of circumstances.

I’ve ridden the high wave of well-paying jobs (which died with the ’08 market crash) and I’ve served people their dinner in terrible and dangerous weather conditions. This man right here isn’t crying about it and neither is anyone else. What we are doing is stating real world situations that real people must deal with. Guess what. There is no one-size-fits-all silver bullet to fix the situation. The employment/unemployment story is a maze of complications that each one of us must navigate with our own risks.

I lost my job due to my old car giving out when I had to rely on it to get to work. From where I live a personal vehicle is the ONLY option to get to my job and back. My pay really wasn’t enough for me to easily get my car fixed, so I knew all along it was a matter of time. I was hoping the stimulus funds along with my tax return would be enough to purchase a new vehicle.

Good news. It worked. I was able to purchase a vehicle in much better condition. Only the timing was a month after I had lost my job.

I’ve reached out to my old employer, but they won’t even speak to me about returning – their reason is personal and petty. I wasn’t just another worker. I was the most senior (5 years on the job) and the best. Why am I out of work? Can Governor Lee provide an answer while he’s denying me money (that’s free for him) intended to help me stay afloat until I finally find another job that will take care of this old veteran’s needs?

Thank you for reading all this. I’m long winded, have lots to say and I appreciate you taking the time to listen.

KARMA

While contemplating the fight for raising the minimum wage I noticed the juxtaposition of the problem employers are having trouble finding workers. It seems members of Congress and these companies failed to understand the significance of their opposition to raising the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage isn’t a request.

IT’S A DEMAND

Now that people are having to return to work, they’re realizing a new bargaining power. This is what’s known in labor circles as a strike. As odd as the phrase might sound, unemployed workers are on strike for better wages.

Interesting enough is that labor strikes typically involve a labor union and planned strategies. This nationwide neo-strike is being carried out en masse by individuals not connected by union representation. Nor is it being done as an organized event.

“Karma s a word meaning the result of a person’s actions as well as the actions themselves. It is a term about the cycle of cause and effect. According to the theory of Karma, what happens to a person, happens because they caused it with their actions.”
— (simple.wikipedia .org/wiki/Karma, n.d.)

Change often gets a boost from a couple of forces colliding. What we are seeing is the collision of two forces. In order for either of these forces to function smoothly they must exist in unison with mutual benefits to each. The employer force in this equation has been operating at the expense of the employee force for too long. Change has been long overdue. The time for reckoning has come.

Interesting enough what government has failed to achieve is now being accomplished organically. For every action there is a reaction. This tsunami is the result of employers throwing employees “to the sharks.” President Biden and the members of Congress who have been on the side of the workers probably didn’t foresee this coming. Make no mistake. It was coming whether the Republican fueled force was prepared or not.

There is a word for this. Karma.

Inform your higher standards

I’m going to try and point some things out about a few issues that I’m recently seeing people act a fool over. Basically, I’m seeing the same emotional sound bite logic that has the orange heads carrying on so stupid now being used by people on the left. This is not exactly a surprise, but it’s still disappointing. So let’s get to it.

Budgets for military use now were allocated and spent years prior To today

The issue of reference

People are running around passing memes and trying to make the comparison of the cost of military weapons (bombs) being used recently against money not currently being spent on economic relief from the pandemic. In some instances they’re using the military expenditures against financial help for the citizens of Texas who are reeling from the effects of the recent statewide disaster caused by a power grid unable to withstand pummeling from a rare extreme winter blizzard (mostly ice with some snow).

Why it’s wrong

This is an unwise mistaken comparison. The money to pay for those “bombs” that people are upset about was allocated and spent years ago. Those bombs came from arsenal stockpiled in armories holding them for months to years. Although, the money budgeted and spent on the military industrial complex is extremely disproportional when compared to actual need and the amount spent on other needs for government expenditures, it is money that’s already gone with no impact on current government expenditures at all. Therefore, while some may want to make some moral argument criticizing the costs of bombs vs immediate financial needs that argument is in vain. Those budgets just aren’t related. A person is foolish to make that argument.

There’s nothing wrong with being upset over the money spent towards the MIC as opposed to more life affirming matters. It’s just that in this case that is an argument based on such emotion and not on actual circumstances. It’s not evil or anything like that. It’s just the wrong one to use. We must be wiser than that so that we don’t fall into the same traps that have the orange heads imprisoned.

The minimum wage increase part of the relief package is too critical to our nation’s poor to leave out

Issue of reference

The minimum wage is extremely overdue for an increase. Raising it to $15 per hour would be a huge benefit for the economy while allowing millions of citizens to be lifted out of poverty by paying them livable wages. The Senate Parliamentarian is wrong to decide that it doesn’t pertain to the part of the law that will allow Congress to pass the package via budget reconciliation. People are asking the Senate to ignore this judgment because it’s not binding and only a recommendation.

Why it’s wrong

People are under the impression that with the passing of the minimum wage increase that people making minimum wage will state being paid $15 per hour. That’s a wrong assumption. The law makes the increase in incremental stages over the course of five years. If the law were to be enacted right now minimum wage earners would only see a pay increase of around $2 or less. That’s definitely better than nothing, but it’s hardly going to lift anyone out of poverty. That logic alone doesn’t mean it’s okay to skip for now. Taken in combination with how Congress makes and passes laws it is.

The Senate Parliamentarian’s judgement that the minimum wage increase isn’t completely a budgetary action has merit. One can make the case that an increase in wages has an impact on the budget in terms of increased tax revenue. Still, it’s not a very strong argument. That’s not my opinion. It’s the opinion of those who know more about making laws in Congress than I do. Because of this, I’m reframing from having an opinion on the matter.

The crux of the issue it in the question how much of an immediate impact does it make in regards to the current relief package being debated. I submit very little. I was earning $9 per hour ten years ago. Even back then I was struggling hard to make it. What will ten years worth of inflation add to the formula?

Still all is not lost. As I understand it (yes, I could be wrong) if this law doesn’t get in that package it isn’t the death knell of an increase in the minimum wage. The measure can still be put through in the very rare occurrence of a stand alone bill or attached to other bills. To wit if it doesn’t go in the relief package the government won’t really be passing on help for those living in poverty. So why the big push for now in this relief package. Politics. Plain political posturing and deal making to get bills passed. Can’t say I’m good with that. My point being is stop selling the public on the falsehood that it must be passed now as a measure included in the relief project.

Same old political bullshit, President Biden… and Congress. The people are in desperate need and require immediate relief. Enough with this political jousting. Let it go and allow the rest of the critically needed aid get to us citizens.

President biden is doing a poor job and deserving of the public’s anger and distrust

Issue of reference

People are angry because Biden hasn’t delivered on his promises. The honeymoon is over and he better step up. Memes are being circulated

Why it’s wrong

It really isn’t all that off. It’s just that a little over a month on the job is an extremely short time frame to be judging with anger and dissenting grievances. The man came into a huge huge mess to have to clean up as well as needing to rescue a country reeling from the effect the pandemic has had on the economy. It’s okay not to be happy or comforted, but it’s way too early to turn on him.

When the Democratic Primaries were going on last year and Biden was taking over with a nearly insurmountable lead quite early in the race I was dismayed and upset with a certain demographic of people who propelled him. I was not in favor of now President Biden back then. In fact I didn’t vote for him. I supported a more liberal candidate. It was easy to see that he was from the same old do nothing Democratic party that’s makes more inspiring speeches than getting things done – for various reasons. We needed a leader who would be somewhat more in attack mode. Someone like (my choice) Senator Elizabeth Warren or Senator Bernie Sanders. I don’t need to expound on how that all turned out.

In some areas and with certain issues I’m not pleased with the President’s performance just like those now heaving heavy, angry criticism at him. The biggest difference is I don’t think this is the time to give up on him and label him a poor or useless or bad president. No. I’m not ready to give up on him just yet. I probably never will because regardless of his performance our country needs a Democrat in the White House. Bailing on him makes the overall Democratic Party weaker and much more vulnerable to being replaced by the fascists Republicans who still support that crook that held the keys the last four years. My personal feelings must be put aside for the larger fight.

Let’s consider Congress’s role in this mess. President Biden’s big landing is supposed to be the getting the relief needed to the citizens in order to help us and the economy survive. As noted above that package is in Congress being picked at and fought over, but its not moving towards getting passed. The President really can’t do anything about it. At best he can strongly demand that they get it done, but that demand doesn’t carry much weight in regards to how laws are passed. They have to go through Congress where they’ll get picked apart and hammered and pasted together into something the President is happy to sign his name to. Thus making it the law.

The finger of blame is at Congress and not the president. He’s doing what he can and the Republican fascists are doing everything they can to break and bust down the Democratic led administration. He hasn’t even gotten all his cabinet team nominees confirmed yet.

Things aren’t moving fast enough for some people who are thinking more about themselves than the big picture. They’ve become impatient and angry… with the wrong person. Even so… five weeks? The orange regime basically blew everything up in his quest to turn us into an autocracy. There’s a LOT that needs fixing. Nobody is going to do it in five weeks.

Be upset if you want, but your energy is better spent helping to build this new fortress. The fascist are out there with their orange god eager to take back control. You might not like what the President is doing, but you definitely will hate what the fascists will do if they get back on top. Heaven help this nation.

Bottom line is President Biden is doing basically what many of us who didn’t aid in his primary nomination expected he would go. This is what we paid for. Better help it get the job done because right now he’s what we have. No amount of anger and stupid memes is going to change that.

People Get Ready

People get ready. That’s the title of a song familiar to so many of us. I’m using this song title as the theme of my message, but it’s not in reference to a gospel classic. Instead I want to reflect upon what’s in store for our country with the new year and new administration.

What I love about you, my friends is your level of intellect and your ability to see things…. do I dare use that term? You know the one. See things as they are. I like that part of your character. Y’all have the ability to step back and take in the view. To observe and consider, not giving in to irrational thought. That’s why you’re not among those who currently are absorbed in a fictitious narrative of our country that’s so bazar that on many occasion we’ve been curious as to what world do they live in. People get ready.

We must prepare ourselves. We must get our minds ready for the coming year and all the events and activities that come with it. Many people are ready to rest confident that we’ve defeated the beast. Having fought the good fight so far… we’ve managed a bit of victory. Let me assure you, it’s a victory to be enjoyed only for a brief time because on the horizon we have a monumental task, the likes we have never experienced before.

I say we meaning us current residents of the United States. Our nation has faced momentous challenges before. It would be improper to state it as applying to the lifespan of our nation. I wanted to make sure that everyone understands where I’m coming from.

I’m not going to discuss our current situation and how it will affect the coming year. We’re well aware of it. However, my thoughts are towards the nature of that which is before us in respect to how our current situation will influence them. People get ready.

Like everyone else I would like to breathe a big sigh of relief and get back to a more mundane set of daily conditions. I want to say that like everyone else I’m aware that this opportunity is still far off, but I don’t feel comfortable about the “like everyone else part.” In fact you can say that I’m worried that not enough of us are aware of how far away we are from that moment of rest. That’s my motivation behind this message.

We have a number of complex issues that are on the verge of exploding with barely a moment’s notice. Feels odd to say that because it seems like we’re already drowning in exploded complex issues. Yet there’s still more to come. Kind of like those commercials trying to sell us some gadget always for the amazingly low price of $19.95 plus shipping and handling. But wait there’s more!

That more to come part is going to be a doozy, as they used to say, but we’re not really sure the amount of doozy that it will be. That’s why we must prepare ourselves. I don’t think it’s going to be as easy of a ride as some hope for or maybe think it will be. That’s not the doozy we’re looking for.

The situation is things are so potentially volatile that we aren’t sure of what to expect. It could be beyond our greatest fears or a little bit this side of insanity. We don’t know. We know the potential is there. People get ready.

We’re very much aware that a sizable portion of the citizenry of the United States is very much in opposition to our upcoming administration. So much so that they would rather fight against it than allow themselves to be governed by it. The number of citizens with such feelings are too many to not take this matter seriously.

So we’re going to need to deal with this foreboding uncertainty with a different mindset than even our mindset right now. There’s a certain phrase that can be used to describe that mindset – roll with the changes. Besides the fact that it brings my mind to a favorite song, I don’t think “rolling” is something that we’ll have much of a chance to do. So I don’t want to use that phrase; although it is along those same lines.

Expect the unexpected is what we will be facing. We won’t be able to think something is going to go a way that’s in our favor. At the same time we won’t be able to look for something that isn’t in our favor to be found in a particular place. It’s just that unpredictable. So we have to be ready for anything.

Nothing new about that. Being ready for anything. It’s kind of how we’re living now. No. It’s not because many of the things that we kind of take for granted right now are things that might change drastically. If we’re not ready to deal with it when it happens it potentially can overwhelm us. With the pandemic still a very big portion of our circumstances being overwhelmed might turn out to be deadly.

Going back to the mindset of too many of our fellow citizens, we’re looking at people who have lost their ability to think in a logically sound way. Their judgment has been compromised. Their morals, broken to the point of them not comprehending right from wrong, they’re struggling with a type of sickness. Yet they don’t think they’re sick. As a matter of fact they believe it’s others, not them, who are dealing with a form of mental sickness.

Given a set of circumstances their choices and behavior might be much different than what we’ve come to expect or understand. Again, this is a setting for danger much too problematic for us to take in stride with the normal happenings, the give and take, and the usual excitement of our days. If you’re not ready for this, chances are good that it’ll put you in a difficult conundrum. One that you may not be able to solve. People get ready.

With all of that we won’t be able to trust institutions to even be their usual untrustworthy selves… Did I just hear a bomb explode? For a moment there it seemed like someone had, perhaps, stepped on a figurative land mind and as a result things have gotten unmanageable. It’s going to take some effort to overcome such a situation. That’s not a pleasant thought.

You might be waiting for me to point out specifics about this upcoming time of uncertainty. I could try and do that, but there’s so much that can happen I would look like an uneducated fool trying to do so. What’s more important to know is that we won’t be able to rely on previous solutions to resolve the matter. That’s because, like I said before, some people just aren’t in their right minds anymore. They’ve lost that part of themselves and are greatly vulnerable to being persuaded into logic and behavior that doesn’t mesh well in a civilized society.

The most troubling aspect of that is how they’ve been conditioned to accept values that are a very dangerous threat to our society. To wit they have the mindset of potential terrorists… They’re in support of doing whatever they can to achieve their goals. They’re comfortable with creating fear and confusion, or even harming someone to achieve the outcome they desire. Yet we won’t be able to easily identify or isolate people of such intent because they’re already everywhere and they’re people whom we normally trust to be a certain way. People who are an integral part of our lives can become a threat to this entire nation.

It could be someone who you used to sit around a bar and have drinks while telling funny stories. Could be a person who you see somewhere often, but you don’t really speak to or deal with. Relatives or people you have entrusted with the care of your children, might turn out to be in that cluster.

They’re basically terrorists, or people who are very supportive of terroristic activity. We simply can’t expect certain people and institutions to be what we’re used to. That’s saying a lot because we’ve already been dealing with so many unreasonable people and institutions that no longer work over these last four years that we feel like it can’t get any worse, but it can. It can get worse.

People get ready. Ahead of us is a country, a society where our safe spaces will not be safe anymore. A society that makes the unusual usual and the usual a hoped for dream. Something as casual as going to dinner might easily become chaos with people being assaulted.

A doomsday scenario I have forecast to be sure. Hopefully, I could be very wrong, but if I’m right…. then what?

Back in 2017 I was trying to get people to understand that this man was setting up to be someone who gets people to change the United States into the type of society we typically very much oppose. They replied with typical excuses or explanations, but no one considered him a dangerous threat.

Some still don’t, but we now have a country with nearly half of its citizens believing a tremendous lie despite no real evidence. Even when people from their political tribe tasked with investigating it keep coming back saying it’s not true, what has been they’re response? Still nothing to worry about?

Ahead of us is a country that despite good changes in government is still a troubling enigma. We’re not very confident as we survey a future that has a strong possibility to be historically catastrophic. I’m pleading with you. Take this message to heart.

People get ready. They’ve changed the rules of the game that we didn’t even know we were participating in. Losing is fatal, and there are no time outs.

Peace be with you

Politics are like laundry

Politics and laundry have one thing in common. At some point you’re going to have to deal with it whether you want to or not.

Now a lot of people are happy to ignore politics and probably don’t feel as if they have a pile of it on their beds getting bigger by the week. That’s because politics don’t sit and wait for you to attend to them. Politics play dirty whereas laundry lays dirty.

Imagine if when you slept at night your unkept laundry snuck into your closet and clothes drawers waiting there for you to put them on, but after you did you couldn’t control yourself. The clothes that you were wearing would take over moving you around and making you do things you hadn’t planned on doing. Sometimes they wouldn’t do anything until right when you’re about to do something very important they forced you into messing it up. Well, that’s what unattended politics will do to you.

With politics you may think you’re getting away by ignoring them, but that’s really not what happens. How so? Because one of politics best duties is making decisions about how we must live our lives. All those procedures and methods of doing things within our society get decided in the mighty towers of politics.

Do you have a driver’s license? Who made it so you had to have one before you can drive an automobile (legally)? That decision was degreed through politics.

Politics even play a part in how clean the air you breathe is (or isn’t). Now, that’s a similarity with unattended laundry. A pile of dirty clothes will probably develop into a stinky pile of clothes with the quickness.

How well do you trust those clothes you’re wearing? 😉