December 11, 2014

Things are moving along...

I recently posted how I was planning to retire. Well after a couple of snags, things are coming together. I worked my last day on Nov 14. I got in touch with SSA and got my benefits straightened out. There had been some problems, probably my fault with my on-line application. First check (direct deposit, actually) should come in January.

I applied for an apartment the other day. Moving out of the RW hell-hole I've been in for a year.

Now, I just have to fix/replace my truck. It seems to be on its last legs.

The next chapter of my life is starting to come into shape.

October 24, 2014

Well, it's almost over...not 'almost' any more...

I've decided to retire in about 3 weeks. I turn 62 in about 2 weeks, so it is time. I'm really tired of it all.

Worked my last day yesterday.

August 23, 2014

So, I made a decision...

For better or worse, I've decided to retire. I put in my online application for my SS benefits based on my 62nd birthday coming up.

Now, I have to survive until Nov/Dec.

I just checked on line and the result was: A decision has been made and the answer is in the mail. Waiting.

Bye bye corporate Amerika and your bullshit Puritan work ethic and crap pay. I also found out I had a pension hiding in the background for 20 years or so that will help ease the transition.

I'm getting too old for that shit.

August 5, 2014

For starters, we need to stop supporting them...

I know that most Americans don't support torturers and terrorists, but our government does. And our government is driven far too much by the corporate interests, who have no concern for democracy, unless it is a 'democracy' installed and protected by our CIA and military, who have become too much an agressor to seize and protector of American 'interests,' a handy euphemism that tends to mean: Somebody's bottom line. Our recent history is littered with tyrants that we've supported in the interest of cheap oil or labor or other 'resource' that some corporatist determined was in "our" interest.

Avatar was actually kind of a lame, formulaic movie, but the central story of it is being played out now, around the world, and here's a hint: we're not the good guys.

August 2, 2014

Whole lot of Seahawks history here.

Cortez Kennedy, Walter Jones, and Steve Largent celebrating Jones's induction into the Hall of Fame.

July 19, 2014

The Repub problem is...

that they're running out of sock puppets to put up as pseudo-leaders to run for the Presidency. What they have now are a bunch of multiple time losers, or relative unknowns whose claim to fame usually involves some kind of scandal or extremist bullshit. For all of their rhetoric, they don't have a credible candidate yet, and repeating the clown car searches of the last two cycles perpetuates the sense that the inmates are running the asylum.

July 13, 2014

Lot of truth in these posts about him favoring the 1%, but i think it's simpler than that...

The 2016 Presidential run looks like it could be another Repub bloodbath. They're scrambling to find someone, anyone with an R after their name to make it look like '16 might be competitive. If it ain't competitive, people won't watch their coverage. If people don't watch, ad revenue goes down and they lose money.

Perry's just the latest fool they've latched onto. Remember 2012. It seemed like every cycle in the primary season, the R's had a new 'front runner.' It was like they were testing to find someone who was competitive. In the end, the Pres race was pretty predictable.

Right now it's about future ratings IMHO. As of now, I have a feeling most people are in IDGAF mode about presidential politics, and ratings are sucking because of it. In the other thread it points out how Sunday morning talk shows are losing ratings and posits it's because of too many Repubs on the air. Possible, but maybe people are just getting tired of all the faux outrage and extremist bullshit.

July 4, 2014

No matter what they say...

Conservatives of the current stripe do not believe in individual rights. After all, individual rights allow people to make decisions, decisions which, in their minds, are better left to those in authority.

All governments, to a greater or lesser degree, are authoritarian. In "democratic" countries, it is supposedly the "people" who choose whom they allow to have authority in political matters. The US is rapidly losing this, and replacing our secular government with one based on religious dogma is not a proper goal. Conservatives who doubt that corporate America won't exploit this decision for profit are delusional, and one only has to look at one's local mega-chruches and the proliferation of televangelism on the airwaves to see how religion can be exploited for profit. The unholy alliance forged between religious fanatics and big corporate interests has been growing since Reagan and before. There are signs of rifts, but it's still there.

Some faith-based organizations realize, as shown by the piece linked in the OP, that if the government becomes religious-based and/or linked, that not all faiths will benefit. After all, believers tend to believe that they have the "answers" and often think that others will benefit if forced to follow them. Any knowledge of history whatsoever will support that truth.

June 21, 2014

America has never been a true democracy...

Just reading the Constitution will tell one that. We are a Republic, with some democratic ideas thrown in. A study of US History will reveal how the ebb and flow of politics has led to several sudden increases of "democratic ideals" alternating with periods of increasing plutocracy.

The Constitution itself has major protections for minority interests, and by that I don't mean races or cultural groups so much as monied interests and the political power of the states. The Founders were comprised of two main groups. There was the landed gentry of the South and the businessmen of the North, two groups so at odds on economics and social issues that the Civil War which occurred some 80 years later was nearly inevitable. The Southern 'gentlemen' preferred a return to a somewhat idealized, bucolic version of English lordship and landed privilege, based on slave labor. The Northern businessmen preferred the rough and tumble of commerce, with many of them having been engaged in what the British government considered smuggling. With few exceptions, the Founding Fathers were not enamored with democracy at all, and constructed a govenment that they thought would protect their interests.

The problem I have always had with the Tea Partiers in general is that by their actions, they have supported and furthered the very group that the original protesters fought against, that being the corporate/government proto-fascism that was British mercantilist policy. Note that the original Tea Party was performed against the East India Tea Company, which had a near stranglehold on Parliament of its day and controlled politics in Britain in ways that the Nazis of the mid 20th Century would be proud of. If any of them really knew their history, they would be ashamed. But of course shame is not really an emotion they waste a lot of time on. Unfortunately, their leaders know their history and are quite willing to exploit their ignorance to their own advantage.

June 21, 2014

Hatred of the Jews has a long standing history in Europe...

much of it stemming from the Middle Ages and not yet totally resolved. We thought that maybe the horrors of WWII would "cure" it, but apparently not. As was pointed out above, during times of economic stress people dredge up old hatreds as they look for someone to blame. Invariably, of course, they pick the wrong people to blame and hate.

Here in the US, we don't have as much blatant anti-semitism, since other groups are more obvious and easy to target. The Jews are at least sort of white and blend in. Our racists won't bother much with them until they get over their hatred of people with a skin color that makes them easier to spot.

People are tribal by nature, and it takes an effort to get over the fear of the "other" in whatever form that may take. Conservatives tend to be less interested in making that effort than liberals IMHO.