it doesn’t have to be this way...

I've been in hiding...as the world continued to crumble around us I got sick of talking. as always...I've come out of it...

this morning I was unfortunate enough to catch some very bad morning television (my laziness kept me from plugging in my music as the remote for the television required much less work). the wonders of digital television meant that only one station was working this morning and I was stuck with the daily buzz. I used to think that show was a rather pathetic representation of our morning shows - but this morning I realized it is actually a fantastic representation of our pathetic morning shows. devoid of substance or real news with a few "pretty" faces and a right-wing asshole talking over women. sounds like the american media to me...

they were discussing the closing of 600 starbucks nationwide and the crew seemed concerned that americans might take some joy in the return of normalcy when a big corporation takes a bit of a hit. (I myself am torn on starbucks...they are good to their employees, but bad for the world overall). they cried about the 12,000 jobs that would be lost and the right-wing asshole actually said that the mom and pop coffee shops owe everything to starbucks. that's right folks...thank god for starbucks and walmart, because without them your local economy would be in ruins.

but these huge corporations move in and claim to bring "jobs" to an area...only they forget to tell us that with the handful of jobs they bring comes misery. way more jobs are lost as local business are forced to shutter their doors because they can't compete with a gigantic company with one concern and one concern only - profit. so lots of good local jobs disappear...and lots of local money is sucked out of town to corporate headquarters. and our towns die because of it.

I just learned that walmart is coming to truth or consequences (yes, the town actually named itself after the show...and regardless of how ridiculous that may be, it does not call for death by walmart). and so another small town in america will meet its demise. local shops that have been run by the same family for decades will be forced out. locals will be lose their jobs and be forced to go work for union-busting walmart for less-than-living wages. and then they will no longer be able to afford to shop at any of the other local shops or eat at the local mom and pop restaurants - and they will only be able to afford to buy cheap crap made with slave labor and eat at the mcdonalds in the food court. and the town will crumble...and we will applaud walmart for its stock prices.

don't get me wrong, walmart is not the sickness - it is a symptom. and until we recognize that, we will not be able to change it. the world was not meant to be this way...run by huge faceless corporations with no concern for anything but the bottom line. capitalism was not meant to be this way...even adam smith warned us that if we were not careful, the balance would shift and the system would produce unfair and inhumane results.

obama has lost my vote. his clinton-esque positions have exposed him as just another fraud. the only change he will bring is that a black man will be making the decisions that fuck the american people and the world. and sadly...that is actually progress.

anyone else pissed off that they were not born in another generation? it is fascinating to watch a society dismantle itself...but I'd much rather be watching from my armchair while living off my good pension and my nice health care. instead, I'm working my ass off to pay for the piece of paper on the wall (which I will be doing for a good 20 more years) and shipping a quarter of my income to taxes...

and what do I get for my taxes? not a damn thing. roads are crumbling, bridges collapsing. courts no longer upholding the rule of law. the commons being looted, redwoods cut, air polluted. and on top of it all, I have to pay even more for health insurance, fuel, groceries, etc. thank god for the "free" market...because without it I might actually be able to afford a simple life.

I find it sadly amusing that conservatives convinced people not to back universal health care because they claimed it would limit their choice in doctors. only now we are all stuck with highly restrictive private health insurance that, you guessed it, limits our choice in doctors. meanwhile, across the border our canadian friends can see whatever fucking doctor they choose...

as the rest of the world is starting to wise up and nationalize resources (namely oil), what is the response of our leaders? open up our commons to drilling by private companies to dump oil on to the global market to compete with nationalized oil companies...thereby lowering the cost of fuel by a penny. if they were serious about helping defray the cost of fuel in this nation they would not allow Big Oil to take your oil and then sell it back at global prices - the only result of which will be to line the pockets of Big Oil a little more before they move into the next area of fuel which they can milk you for. but then they aren't ever serious about helping humans...only corporations.

as nbc buys the weather channel, I am again horrified at how our airwaves were auctioned off to the highest bidder. thanks to "increased competition" we now have about three choices for news and entertainment - none of which offer anything of substance. the dumbing down of america...makes for big dividends...

so does the criminalizing of america. as the economy crumbles thanks to the "economics" of friedmanite fools like reagan, clinton, bush (and now obama) the one way you can still make a living is to build a prison. we house a greater percentage of our population in prisons than anyone...and its only going to get worse.

oddly enough, the appellate courts are always loath to uphold a sentence that a lower court fashioned that was lower than the federal guidelines. yet they have no problem with sentences that are eight years longer than those proposed by the federal guidelines...

and we all buy into it with the bullshit macho attitude of fuckheads like bush...who should have been in prison thanks to his addiction to alcohol and hard drugs. but thanks to his rich and connected daddy he managed to become president...

because nothing says self-reliance like living off your parents.

there was a time when american patriots were celebrated for standing up to a government that put global corporations above people...today we would marginalize and mock them.

words will lose their meaning...