Monday, September 7, 2020

Losers As Far As the Eye Can See


FIL is buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery right next to Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. It's a big place; you need a map to find your way around. Although I now know without looking where FIL is to be found, the map remains in my glove box, along with an attached note telling me where the gathering place was for his brief but spectacular funeral. Just in case.

 But I don't get lost because I am already a loser. And I am not alone. 

I have never been alone at Fort Snelling. There are always losers everywhere you look. I don't mean the men and women beneath the white headstones. I mean the real losers....the ones who are there, heads bowed, because they have lost someone. I stand with those losers because I have lost all my veterans. I can still hear their voices in my head on appropriate occasions. But every single one of them, if you had the great good fortune to know them, would happily tell you what was in it for them when they served their country in uniform. Without exception, they would all tell you it wasn't about them; it was about this country.

 I don't think any of them would recognize this America.

 Feckless leader says he respects the military and would never say anything bad about them. Au contraire, Monsieur President. Here's a small sample of how he respects our men and women in uniform:

These are fine examples of how to honor those who devote their lives to the preservation of our nation, dontacha think?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

 The Washington Post is one of my go-to news sources, but lately, I don't wanna go there. The paid ads are all for an America I do not recognize. They are non-stop lies that have been debunked repeatedly by fact-checkers world wide, yet the Wash Po accepts those adverts and runs these videos of dystopian disinformation. Same adverts run ad nauseum during the local news.

If you run an ad claiming your pillow cured cancer, no TV station in American would run it because it's bullshit. Yet when a political party puts up an ad that accuses a political rival of acts that just NEVER happened, it's okay. 

 How is that okay? 

 We're not talking about spin here. We're talking about vetted, disproven, debunked lies. Would you teach your kid that it's okay to lie so long as someone believes him/her?

 This is broken. 

 I not talking about censorship here; I'm talking about truth in advertising. I am not suggesting that political ads be banned...although I confess, that sounds pretty good to me, but when an advert can be PROVEN to contain falsehoods and disinformation, the media should have the right to refuse to run it. 

 This applies to both parties. 

 When I see the ads being run by the RNC, I see terror because that's what they want me to see. They talk about Biden's America v. Trump's America....but I don't understand that parallel at all. 

 Under the Obama/Biden administration, the economy was pulled back from the precipice, employment rose steadily, crime was generally, down, and while there were certainly long overdue racial issues rising rapidly to the surface, the general sense was not civil war approaching. A potential pandemic was even averted. 

 Feckless Leader has been president for three years, long enough for us to get a taste of "Trump's America," and it ain't nuthin' to brag about. His lies are documented by fact checkers on the right and left of center. The pandemic didn't just go away with the warmer weather as he promised. As of tonight (September 7th) there are 189,000 deaths reported. The economy for about 98% of Americans is in shambles. Thousands of businesses have shuttered permanently due to the pandemic, and millions of people are on the cusp of losing their homes through eviction. 

 While we're at it, most of the people who have lost jobs have also lost employer-based health insurance making accessible care a fantasy.

 Our stable genius president thinks he can fix this by permanently ending payroll taxes. He thinks that money will find its way into workers' pockets. Yeah, right. 

 Okay, let me ask you a question: can you afford to retire if there is no Social Security income?

 Now that I've scared you, I'll stop now.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Day
  From Pirke Avot - Ethics of the Fathers
(circa 200 C.E)
Chapter 2, Mishna 3 
Watch out for the government:
they befriend a person to meet their own needs,
appearing friendly when it is to their benefit; 
but they do not stand by a person 
when that person is in distress.

Ya think?

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1 comment:

  1. JillSeptember 10, 2020 at 3:13 PM

    I have a friend who has SS as her only income. I'm already figuring on putting in a chair lift for her because she has COPD and I'm not going to let her live on the streets.

    ReplyDelete

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