Its been a long while...

Everyone, stop, take a deep breath, and put on your adult pants, because we have some serious problems, and I don't have any answers. Be the change you want to be is a joke, and let me tell you why, that is before I start talking about some problems we have. It is a joke, because a third of the country is completely and utterly apathetic to what is going wrong, the other two thirds care, at least I hope they care, about what is happening, but are so caught up on being right that they won't listen to each other. Rather than speak, listen, hear and maybe learn, we set our sole focus on destruction, and if the opposing side cannot be destroyed, make it look worse than your own. Hey, I can admit that I have moments where I am also caught up on being right. As for what follows, make up your own mind.

Around the end of last year, I decided that I needed a break. I needed a break because I am getting roasted in person by African Americans, Caucasians, just about every race of people you could conceive of. I have been called privileged because I am fair complected and straight. I have been told I am privileged because I was born with two balls and a dick. My response has been, and always will be that the only privilege in this world is money, if you have money you can pretty much say and do as you want. Just look at what our President has said in the past, and look at what Roseanne Barr said and those results. Now, I am not a fan of hers, she has been offensive and crude for as long as I can remember, and I remember her National Anthem rendition from the late 80s. One advocated for sexual assault, and he became president, the other said something extremely stupid and racist on Twitter, and oh boy the war is on. Look, I am not going to justify the actions of either, I am pretty sure that gender plays a roll in this somehow, somewhere. Both are offensive, and should be condemned. But this is where everything starts coming apart at the seems.

The two thirds of people I hope care, are divided on everything that went down. Nearly a third of those brush off both sets of comments, while the other third is completely enraged, as they should be... That last third, they are off somewhere doing god knows what. There is a lack of respect in our nation. We don't respect ourselves, we don't respect our elders, we don't respect others. Less respect is shown to those whom we disagree with. We hurl mud at people we see as our lessors, we insult them, we degrade them, and then we cannot seem to understand why we can't come to an understanding with them. We can't understand why boys go into schools and kill everyone, and worse yet we cannot seem to find ourselves addressing why these events happen. In some ways it seems that many do not even respect life, and when one cannot respect life, what is left?

Along with a lack of respect, there also seems to be a lack of sympathy and empathy. Oh sure, you might assume they are the same thing, and while they are similar, they are different. Recently a friend told me that she had been living out of a tent last winter. I felt badly for her, that is sympathy, then I remembered what it was like to be living in a tent, something I have done. I could also see myself living in a tent again, and how I would feel to be in that situation again. That is empathy. We as a nation seem to be lacking in both. When a specific third of our nation see a person in line using a EBT card, they lack sympathy and empathy, unable to visualize themselves in that situation, or even remotely feel badly for the person on welfare. No, they become enraged when they see them buying food. If they buy cheap crappy food people are enraged that they are buying “junk food,” which is drastically cheaper, but if they buy good food, its even worse. And God forbid they borrowed a car to get to the store, and its a nice car. Seriously, before I became homeless, my Dad and I were making payments on a newer Ford pickup. Something I used to make extra money to try and escape living in a tent with him and my Mom. I cannot count the number of times I had it thrown in my face that I was homeless but had a “new truck,” and I was homeless because I had the wrong priorities. I was irresponsible. Sad thing is, people who are on welfare get that as well, except they get it far worse than I ever did. One third of the nation barely even notices the embarrassed look of the person in front of them in line, when they drag out the welfare card, or when the cashier tells them that they don't have enough funds on the card, or that there are two totals, one for what welfare covers, the other for the rest. And a whole lot more people don't realize that they are only a few short steps away from being in that customer's shoes. Honestly, unless you are sitting on a few hundred grand, you are a few short steps, a fall, a car accident, house fire, or layoff away from being that person, the one who can never buy the right kind of food for others, while using a welfare card.

Hey, before I forget, I want to know how many of you voted for Clinton for no other reason than to stop the walking talking dumpster fire? So, in order to stop one bad candidate, you were willing to go with a candidate that basically said we couldn't do anything remotely liberal, who painted a center left candidate as a pie in the sky super hardcore commisocialist type... Then nominated a Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia that is more Republican than Ronald Reagan was at his most senile. Seriously, the Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee just voted to deregulate further the pricks that nuked our economy a decade ago. But she would have been better than the trash fire inhabiting the Peoples House? Look, look, I know Donald Trump is a giant stemming pie of feces of a so-called man who should have long ago been locked under a prison somewhere and left to rot. And between him and Clinton, Clinton would have likely been marginally better. We would still have scandals of the week, we would still be involved in several military actions across the globe. North Korea would still be doing whatever it is they are doing, just like Iran, and Israel. North Korea is in over its head, and their leader knows it, he'd be at the table regardless of who was president. The key word here is marginally. We'd still be deregulating everything under the sun, wages would continue to stagnate. But we would still be paying an outrageous price for health insurance, and that wouldn't have been fixed anytime soon, because it was a mythical debate. I disliked Jill Stein, she is really not that great of a candidate, she is more concerned with running, not winning or governing, but even with that, she gave a better appearance of wanting to help people. I will also give that paltry 1% of people who voted for her some credit, at least they weren't bullied into voting for a bad candidate. But one doesn't really know, do we?

Speaking of which, we have a severe problem with bullying in the US. I watched it in high school, hell, I lived it every day I walked into whatever school I was attending. So, I get online and guess what I see? A bunch of ignorant bullies, and I'm not talking about conservatives alone. Everyday I see people telling others that they have blood on their hands, they relish the deaths of children, that they are horrible people. Those are the tame statements, it gets far more descriptive, and I'm not up for repeating everything I have seen online these last few months. But this bullying started well before this last spat of shootings. This started before the last Presidential Election, back when Clinton was first getting into the race, before she had any competition. No, that isn't right. This started well before that, this started back even before Obama. I started noticing this stuff back in AOL chatrooms back in 2001, where conservatives would bully for a few hours, then liberals would come en masse and push back. I will say it is truly amusing to watch to ignorant people arguing about who is racist based solely on political ideology, when it is debatable if either has a grasp on history or what a racist really looks like or even sounds like. Its like watching two monkeys throw poop at each other. Hey, if you don't like Trump, you are a special snowflake, if you like Trump you are a racist, and if you dislike Clinton you are a sexist pig. Imagine where we would be if someone suddenly said, “If you don't like Sanders (or Stein) you are an anti-semite.” I honestly think heads would have imploded. Seriously, it is impossible to have a rational debate when you are being insulted, spoken down to, and otherwise bullied or trolled. Liberals, want to know why gun owners are basically ignoring you, and talking down to you, or as I have heard it said, “gunsplainnig?” Its because they are instantly wrong, they are compensating for the size of their penis, or they are otherwise too stupid, cruel, cowardly, or are too evil to understand that people are dieing. Maybe set aside how you feel, and really talk to the person carrying a gun around. Sure, they might be a complete idiot, but if you treat someone like they are stupid, they are going to just ignore you or become hostile. You might come to understand their view a little better, they might to come to understand your view better. But dialogue is happening, genuine dialogue. If some of the Clinton supporters had really listened, rather than chastising everyone who questioned voting for her, maybe things could have been ironed out.

There is also a case of arrogance and ignorance. It seems like everyone is an expert on everything. These two traits do not go well together. We see it everyday. There is no shame in not knowing something, but a little humility can go a long way in this world. Ignorance is not a crime, being ignorant can be fixed. Being arrogant can as well, both take time, and a genuine desire to learn and change. But what I see happening now are people becoming more arrogant, their way is the only way, even if they are mostly ignorant on the subject. Those two attributes alone are enough to kill off any discussion.

Now however, I am going to talk about something far worse than judging, bullying, the lack of respect I see, and even the apathy of our people. It is the looming collapse. You can say I am being overly pessimistic, you can say that I am bringing on the drama, but lets be realistic about our prospects here. Over the last several decades wages have stagnated, the cost of goods and services have increased. As an example I will point to the price of gas, well its cycle anyway. Every year the price of gas goes up, then comes down, and barring any insanity out of the Middle East, this cycle rarely hits any snags. But have you noticed that the price rarely drops back to where it was? Not even two years ago gas was well below two dollars a gallon where I live, and as of yesterday, the last time I checked, it was around two dollars and sixty cents a gallon. I have heard that there are places in California that are north of four dollars a gallon, and the price is inching higher. I watched the price of gas jump twenty cents in a twenty four hour period. Once this cycle hits a certain level, we will again watch the car market crumble, we will watch as food prices increase drastically, we will really watch everything become affected. Gas and fuel prices will be passed onto the consumer, who will not pay for the niceties of life, and that will start the collapse. We still have a severe underemployment and unemployment number, as I have said in the past, the unemployment number only includes those people who are currently receiving benefits, so when your benefits expire you are no longer counted. These numbers do not include those who are working part time, but are seeking full time employment, or those who are earning poverty wages. For the record, those are wages that are under twenty thousand dollars a year, regardless of how one comes to earn or receive them. So, that would include Mom and Dad who are getting less than twenty thousand dollars a year from Social Security, and the lady across the street who is disabled and getting welfare and/or disability.

We still have people under crippling amounts of medical debt, I recently heard of a man who settled a lawsuit, in which the insurance company and hospital were colluding on the bill. Now, you might think he would fight this, but he would have lost on a technicality, so he took the least painful approach, settle for on paying a portion of the bill, because the system is rigged. I was recently subpoenaed to appear before the court in a case where a young man was owed money by a family member, said family member had been incarcerated in the interim, and was unable to appear. Our system requires one has representation is they are unable to appear, and that is a good thing, but his case was non-suited (granting him a do-over), because he was not aware that he was obligated to acquire the defendant an attorney, something he was later told the court was obligated to do. Everyday, we have unarmed people gunned down in the streets by those who are paid to protect and serve, and often there is no justice to be had. It is usually justified, as it was back in the Old West, and there are people who say “Well don't break the law.” I'm sorry, but stealing a candy bar shouldn't be a death warrant. There is a reason we have the rule of law, that we have a right to be brought before a judge or jury, not shot dead. Even a minor offense, is met with force, sometimes deadly, other times excessive, rarely neither. Just because the officer thinks... There was a time when you could go to the police, explain the situation, and they could make the call on it, was it illegal, was it civil, did it warrant investigation or not. Now, you can go to report a potential crime, and the cop will then explain it to his supervisor, who will then likely call the first available prosecutor, and they will then tell the cop if they think it is a prosecutable offense. Rarely is justice truly served, what matters is who tells the best story, and if you can afford a good lawyer.

Meanwhile, as wages stagnate and jobs evaporate, we have the looming threat of automation. We have more low wage jobs coming in and many of those jobs are becoming automated. I heard some say nothing, cheerfully chirping away about this or that, others screaming it is because of the minimum wage, and the threats to raise it. Millionaires, Billionaires, and corporations are being given every lower tax rates, while we are told that they are going to bring in more higher paying jobs... Only to have them close down said jobs and move them off shore.

We still have millions of people who are uninsured or underinsured, paying every increasing deductables, copays, coinsurance while getting less treatment. Costs are spiraling out of control, as they were back when the PPACA was implemented, yet people want to hold onto the belief that the PPACA was some mythical dragon slayer, that because of that program we slew the insurance companies and brought them to heel, but it was nothing more than corporate welfare for the insurance companies. There were over three hundred million hostages for them to rip off, and when their profit margins were not great enough, they withdrew their coverage. And when I say great enough, their profits were not what they wanted them to be. Like oil, health insurance is a trillion dollar industry.

I mentioned student loan debt briefly, did you know that it is currently over a trillion dollars in the US? Over 1,000,000,000,000$. I think the last figure I saw several months ago was roughly $1.3 Trillion. Car loans are approaching the trillion mark, and I don't even want to know what the mortgage loan total is at, I am sure I would probably require an expensive hospital stay if I did. These things are money sinks, the money goes in, but does not really benefit the economy, given how many of those phone calling jobs have gone off shore. I had to call my cell phone provider a few weeks back over a problem I was having with my worn out phone, and got a nice gentleman somewhere on another continent. He was not able to solve my problem, because lets face it, Apple basically nukes their phones after a year and a half to two years. It isn't just Apple, the average life expectancy of a cell phone these days is roughly a year to a year and a half. That cell phone you spend so much time staring at, tweeting on, posting kitty videos on, or watching porn on... Yeah, they are designed to fail within a year and a half so to keep a phone, you have to replace it with another new more expensive one. Even the old “dumb phones” like we had back in the early 2000s are designed in that way. Our cars are designed to fall apart every few years, so as newer models are released into the market, and the parts supplies start drying up, as malfunctions happen, you are forced to upgrade, even if it is something you cannot really afford. Its planned obsolescence. Get people to buy a product that will fail in after a few years of service, they will then buy another one, because they need it. It wouldn't surprise me if the cryptoware problem people were having several years ago wasn't the brain child of computer makers. Computers and laptops had become too efficient, too many people knew how to fix minor and even some major problems, so they unleashed this new type of virus, that is not easily fixable, to force them into buying a new computer.

But hey, it can't get worse, can it? Oh yeah, as I type this I am listening to the soothing sounds of a freight train rumbling through my neighborhood. No, it isn't a real freight train, its not a tornado, its the sounds of a monsoon, dropping gallons of water a minute, flooding out everything in sight. At the end of May. This is the fifth consecutive day of rain here. It's almost like April has arrived. Now, if you couldn't tell this is about the looking climate apocalypse that so many are ignoring. Look, so many people get hung up on phrasing, “Global Warming? Then why is it snowing? If the planet is getting hotter, it wouldn't be snowing.” Idiots, I tell you, idiots. I have heard Global Climate Change, and that is an apt description of whats happening now. I have come to prefer Global Climate Disruption. Some places the winters are colder with more snow, some places are hotter in the summer with less rain, and the opposite is true in other areas. I've seen severe thunderstorms on Christmas Day. Seriously, many moons ago(2010), I started cooking on Christmas Day in a thunderstorm with massive hail and high winds, only to pull a turkey out of a deep fryer in a raging blizzard. We are talking less than 90 minutes from 80 degree weather to minutes away from severe frostbite in less time than it takes to deep fry a turkey. All over the world weather events are becoming more severe. Just last year we had five consecutive category four (or higher) hurricanes make landfall. We were literally watching something that had never been recorded in human history. And it is only going to get worse, yet two thirds of the population in this country believe God will fix it (or rapture them), its a scam, someone will figure it out someday, or oh look its a squirrel.

Okay, back to economic issues. I previously brought up looming automation, and if we have the right systems in place, this is something that should not be feared. It should be welcomed, but first some things I have heard about automation... First and foremost is that children born in the last five or ten years will not drive a car in the way we do now. Tesla's autopilot cars are growing, they are becoming more feasible, the programming is becoming better, the hardware more efficient. It is believed that within the next decade, autopilot in cars will become a standard feature on all trim packages. Kids today will not know what it is like to get in a car, and have to actually drive. Within the next twenty to thirty years many industrial jobs will become automated, requiring a small fraction of the workforce currently employed. As of today, many stores and fast food restaurants are moving to automated ordering stations and checkouts, requiring fewer employees. Furthering this trend are automated cooks, which are currently in the testing processes. Kids today, will find it increasingly difficult to find employment, but they will have it easier than older people. Now, I know that people will say, but when the ~insert invention~ was invented lots of people lost their jobs, and were able to transfer into other fields. Yes, in that time and era technology was severely lacking, today new technology is being created, tested and released to the public at lightning speed. Fifty years ago the crew of the starship Enterprise had nifty little communicators, in which they could contact their ship while on the surface of a planet, thirty years later we had a phone in a bag, ten years after that we had large but smaller phones called “the brick,” then cellular phones that looked just like the communicators from Star Trek. After the decades that saw man first step foot on the Moon, we know have cell phones that are considered more powerful than the computers that took us there. That said, we have computers fast enough, intelligent enough, and small enough to pilot a vessel, and this will bleed over into the job market. These devices will eventually become more reliable, as computers and cellphones have, and require less maintenance. Even the cheapest printer can maintain itself, it can troubleshoot its own failures and tell you the owner how to make repairs if it cannot repair itself.

While this is happening, we are seeing growing income inequality. We are currently on par with some third world nations, some very corrupt third world nations. And yet we have people on both sides of the isle voting to continue to exaggerate this trend, willfully ignoring that when private debt is lower, and people are earning more, everyone benefits. Eventually the system will no longer be able to support itself, despite whatever delusion you have convinced yourself of. Top down economics cannot sustain itself, and we have passed the tipping point, and now it is a matter of time.

All of these things are continuing on, while we are distracted by what Roseanne Barr said, Trump's tweets, and all other scandals that happen on a daily basis. Oh hey, lets be angry that the NFL has a new penalty for kneeling during the National Anthem, or that NFL players are kneeling during the anthem, but lets ignore police becoming more militant in their treatment of people. Oh Roseanne Barr said something ignorant and racist, while we ignore deregulation of the same group of people who nuked our economy. The same people Clinton told to “Cut it out.” while Trump has been in bed with for decades. Cities are literally making it illegal to help feed the homeless, building structures to make it impossible for the homeless to sleep under bridges, or on benches. For a while I saw videos of homeless camps being destroyed in places like Hawaii and California, but they came and went with the latest of insanity our president. I mean really people, the DNC basically said in court that they does not have to have open or fair primaries as a private organization, and that goes largely ignored because Russia. Would it be better with Clinton in charge, maybe marginally better. Would it have been better if any number of potential candidates won the election, maybe. We can assume.

But here is where we stand today. We have a country further divided than just about any time in our history, save the events leading up to the Civil War. Our economy is in a state of severe flux, and with the way the government is acting, we might come to think of the Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump terms as the Roaring 20's. We have a government that is paralyzed with petty bickering and people who have likely been bought and paid for through political donations. We have nearly two thirds of our country who have gone utterly insane, a third that doesn't seem to care either way. We have a large majority of people who believe everything they are told by the media, reject everything that doesn't agree with their current world view, and a small handful of people who constantly get shouted down for trying to walk everyone back from the ledge. And if that doesn't scare you, this might... There is an even smaller, silent group who can't wait to watch it all crumble away, knowing exactly what will happen when it does. Of course, I can tell you what scares those people. It isn't a race war or a civil war. It is not the complete collapse of the economy. I would say that they aren't even scared of death itself. What scares them is that with everything that has happened in the past, everything that is happening right now, that nothing will be gleaned from everything that has gone horribly wrong, and that there is little chance of actually rebuilding anything that the Founding Fathers envisioned for us all.

On a side note, before you start saying it was this group or that group, it is the fault of those who voted for Trump, or didn't vote for Clinton are to blame for this... They aren't to blame, everyone is to blame for this. We have allowed our ignorance and arrogance to cause all that has happened, and all that will happen.