The Poor are Spoiled? Really?

I heard someone complain that "poor" people had satellite dishes, flat screen tvs, refrigerators, air conditioners and microwaves. They felt this was inappropriate. But we live in an information age in which you really, really need access; refrigerators keep your food from rotting; air conditioners in cement block inner city blocks that have no shade and no air circulation in 100F+ weather do not sound like a luxury to me and microwaves come in real handy and you can get them pretty damn cheap. I just can't bring myself to resent "poor" people for having what I consider the most basic necessities for any level of comfort for myself.

But I LIKE cash!

There are times when the cost of money gets me down. The monthly service charges on my checking account - including a charge for giving me badly faded copies of my checks. But only, mind you, those checks that weren't processed through ACM or ACH or whatever they call it wherein the vendor processes your check for immediate withdrawal from your checking account.

Then there are the charges on my credit card - the charges levied on the vendors. The annual fee I have to pay. Since I pay them off immediately, I can USUALLY avoid late fees and interest charges except on those rare occasions when the U. S. Postal Service fails me. (Oh yeah, I still send in my bill payments by check with a first class stamp! Old fashioned? Maybe. But far CHEAPER than paying them online!

The other day I overheard a bank officer listing penalty charges for a debit card customer who was trying to clean up her account. $30 damn bucks for each charge against the account that had insufficient funds and he listed a lot of them. A simple refusal to pay the damn debit would have been far more reasonable and fair.

Soooo. When I go to the supermarket, I pay cash. When I eat out, except on those rare occasions at VERY expensive restaurants, I pay cash.

Buying cigarettes or booze - you betcha I pay cash. No nasty entries on my credit card transactions that become part of my elusive cyberspace identity.

Trips to the casino - same thing. Why give my bank information on ATM withdrawals from  casinos? None of their damn business in my opinion.

Every credit card transaction results in a "tax" merchants have to pay. The checking account fees are obscene.

Sooner or later the PTB (Powers that Be) will eliminate cash from my choices. The advantages to them are far too great to ignore. But until they do - Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson (who absolutely HATED BANKS), Ben Franklin and company get my vote!

Enabling The Next Geological Age

For some time I have suspected my reading has been way too concentrated on science fiction and this has had a negative impact on my world vision.

For several years now a persistent thought echoes through my aching brain: the entire purpose of the human race on earth is to prepare its host planet for the next geological age.

I hope I am wrong.

As I witness the merciless, continuous depredations committed against my home, my planet's life support systems by the mindless, unaccountable, unmanageable, apparently indestructible multinational institutions that have gained control of it, I cannot but fear I am right.

Barach Obama was supposed to stem the tide. It appears to me that in the four years of his presidency, it has actually gained force, not lost it.

The United States of America has handed over its birthright lock, stock and barrel to multinational institutions. The disempowerment of its population is well underway.

The European Union is completely in thrall to the leviathan financial institutions that are bringing it to its knees.

If the earth's greatest hope lies in poisonous, Communist/Capitalist China, what hope is left? That somewhere out there in the vast universe some other life forms are faring better than we?

As for me. I surrender. I will continue to fight for survival for my loved ones as best I can. I might even still vote, but spinsters' phrases by political pundits, candidates, PACS are fantasies in which I no longer dare to believe.

It's all over now, Baby Blue

The recall of Governor Walker of Wisconsin, darling  of the Koch Brothers, poster boy of Citizens United and Scourge of Working  Stiffs everywhere, evidently failed. Early returns and a preemptive call by NBC have named Walker the winner in the recall election.

Robocalls to voters informing them they did not have to vote if they signed the recall petitions.

Robocalls to voters informing them the election was Wednesday, not Tuesday.

Eight to one funding and spending advantage, most of the funds from out of state.

And the state with the proudest progressive history in the country joins the chilling march toward corporatocracy.

If this is democracy, I am a rocket scientist. God help us all.

The United States as Super Nova?

Was the brilliant attempt at freedom and justice for all that we called the United States just another brief flash in the pan of human history? Will our children's children even know there was a time...

When common people earned a better than "living" wage that gave them respite from the constant challenge of housing, clothing and feeding themselves and their offspring?

When regular folk, freed from the restraint of constant hunger and deprivation, created a culture of innovation and self realization until the very sky did not appear to be the limit?

When a day's hard labor earned a fair day's wage?

When people banded together in times of tragedy and catastrophe not to prey upon each other but to bind each other's wounds?

When individuals could influence events and advance policy?

When the humblest citizen could obtain a world-class education?

When those who had worked hard and conscientiously all their lives could rest on the fruits of their labors once advancing years robbed them of the strength to continue laboring?

Perhaps some distant echo of those times will endure in a fragile oral history once the "official" chronicles have erased them, denying their very existence.

Was this ever a perfect society? Far from it. But it strove toward greater goals and might have achieved something far more sublime had it not been short-circuited by the veniality of those it trusted to guide and protect them.

Mad Cow Disease is no big deal? That is just wrong.

Last week a case of Mad Cow Disease was accidentally discovered in the U. S. No big deal, right?
Not according to this Mother Jones article: http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/04/mad-cow-california

U. S. Department of Agriculture claims that the discovery proves the effectiveness of U. S. screening methods appears disingenuous. The discovery, in the face of the absolutely minuscule number of tests administered, was more accidental that fortuitous.

According to the Mother Jones article, not even sick cattle are rigorously tested. And there does not seem to be any intention of increasing the testing in the face of proof Mad Cow Disease is infecting American herds.

Industrial agriculture trumps regulation again. This cannot possibly be a good thing.

Paper, plastic or cloth

Lots of suggestions online today on how individuals can do their part to preserve our planet.

Reduce/eliminate consumption of plastic bags. Take shorter showers and don't leave the water running while brushing teeth. Turn the old thermostat down during the winter and up during the summer.

These suggestions are not bad ideas. None of them seem to apply to what our institutions could/should be doing.

Stop mountaintop removal and the conversion of pure mountain springs into gobs of poisonous slurry.

Apply conscientious safety precautions to avoid turning vast swathes of the Gulf of Mexico into a tar pit.

Stop industrial agriculture's poisoning of waterways and acceleration of soil erosion.

Stop polluting the air we breath with toxic emissions.

Beef up enforcement against the slip shod maintenance of aging nuclear power plants.

Apply effective disciplinary measures, including charter suspension or removal, against corporate bad actors.

Abandon corporate welfare for big energy companies and initiate substantive support for the development of green power industries.

Admittedly just a beginning. But hey, we have to start somewhere.