Post Modern Warfare

Just watched Chris Matthews call Bergdahl a deserter. Then more commentary showing other anchors (some fox, of course) insinuate that he's gay and his father is Muslim. WOW. Poor Edward R. Murrow must be rolling in his grave. Reality has nothing to do with the news.
Perhaps Bergdahl did leave his base, trying to get out of an insane situation. His big mistake was joining the military. I am amazed by the photos of soldiers, sailors and marines in the recruiting ads and on the news...they are children. They say one's brain is not fully formed until around age 28, most of our military are not there yet and are experiences incredibly difficult learning situations. It seems totally reasonable to want to 'walk away' from the problem. I'll leave the whole sordid history of these wars aside, which is obviously what the volunteer army does and focus simply on a single young man who is now political fodder because that is really the story, not the release of an American captive for 5 prisoners who were slated for release already.
Benghazi is a no starter. No one cares anymore even though the right is trying to use that to derail Hillary Clinton's run for president. Anyone who is a student of political history knows that embassy's, American or otherwise, are full of spies. THAT IS THEIR PURPOSE.
Bergdahl is just another foci for the group of people that oppose what is good for the majority, the poorer less fortunate of us. What little we have is constantly under threat and if we can't keep the lesser of two evils in office we will have no shot at a higher minimum wage, or any of the services available to working people in all of western Europe. At any rate it's a shame that this man was held captive for 5 years in a completely foreign environment is now being maligned by the gentlemen on the right.

Broken

Yours truly broke a leg in December. It's finally healing, but it seems like a lot of things have been breaking: my computers, tv, coffee cup, chocolate easter bunny, oh and of course the U.S. economy. For 2 and a half years government and Federal Reserve officials have been assuring us that the economy is getting stronger. As usual, they are lying.
Half of the people I meet are unemployed or underemployed. The only people with extra cash are the bankers, who are still stealing money hand over fist from working people and government coffers. Our president, Obama the Hopeful, has sold out to banking interests.
I don't really blame Obama. Afterall, he is the first black president in a WASP run nation and I believe he would like to see his kids grow up. He has already accomplished more than one would have thought possible, just by getting elected. And I am sure when shadowy figures in the power elite made veiled threats, he had to take them seriously. I know that I would.
But, who will save us now? There are no aliens, no messiah, no politicians or activists powerful enough or brave enough to represent "we, the people" in the struggle for prosperity and comfort for the majority of citizens. The top 3% of wealthy people control more assets than the 120 million below them, and tax cuts for them cost said same 120 million people $36 billion in taxes and loss of services. Politicians (all of them) say we have to balance the budget and cut spending, but only for the poorer people evidently. The logic escapes me.
So, if your elected officials don't give a damn about you...and the uber-wealthy don't give a damn about you...and ET is not coming to save the day...what's to be done?
OPEN YOUR EYES AND DO THE MATH...EAT THE RICH!!!!

The New Depression

I seem to have lost the crappy job I had. My inability to allow for an elitist attitude in people, much less an employer has done me in again. I seem to be unable to play Step'n Fetchit well enough. The ironic part is that I wrote an ad for Craigslist for another assistant that got over 800 responses in 2 days for a lousy $15 an hour job. I believe that my replacement will come from this group.
I read through many of the responses and there are some highly qualified people willing to work for $15 an hour, and my employer is hoping to find a business manager, an expert in web marketing and a legal advisor all for that price. Indeed there were MBA's, web experts, accountants, paralegals, office managers for major firms, stockbrokers, grad students, artists, actors, teenagers, young, old, every type of person applied for this job. There was even an older immigrant man who simply wrote, "Please help me to find work so that I can feed my children."
Many of the applicants spoke several languages and two had even worked at the UN. I was amazed at the number of people looking for any kind of work.
Further, I find it abhorrent to take advantage of people because of the economy. My employer on the other hand believes that Christmas has come early. It's odd because she's a therapist, but seems to be, like so many people, lacking in empathy for anyone but herself and her paying clients, of course.
I, too, took the job knowing I was being underpaid because times are hard. The unfortunate part appears to be that people think because they pay you so little that that is what you are worth.

Merry Xmas - bah humbug

So, the last thing George W. Bush did before leaving office was to organized the biggest swindle of taxpayer funds ever.  The banking bail-out turns out to be nothing but grand theft.    Of course, J.P. Morgan and the Mellon bank won't reveal where they spent the money,  After all, the congress didn't specifically state that they had to when they handed them the money.

Unemployment is at a 30 year high, since they only count the people who are actually able to collect unemployment, perhaps it's a much higher number.  It's an art to lie statistically, anyone who doesn't qualify for benefits, or whose benefits have expired are not in that total.

The wealthy are complaining that Obama will raise their taxes and give it to the poor.  By that I assume they mean the working people who pay 90% or more of the taxes paid into the national treasury.  Those people who received nothing from the aforementioned bank bailout paid from said same treasury to private corporations controlled by the wealthiest 1% of the population.  Boo hoo.

Obama..bama..fo...fama...

Fee Fi Fo Fama..OBAMA.

Who'd a thunk it?  A black President.  I'm going to wait until the swearing in to relax, but this is still a good and almost unimaginable development.  

As a child growing up in the "old south", racism and religion went hand in hand in a most illogical manner.  Later as I began to grasp the nuances of power, I understood racism to be a social construct designed to keep working people from uniting against the fat cats.   A most effective strategy for thousands of years, demonizing a group of people to divert attention from the actual crimes against humanity....

However, I have also seen the brightest best hopes for the working class slaughtered for their efforts by the ruling elite.  So, vigilance is the word for the day.  Hope is here, let's protect it this time.

I wish McCain would just say it out loud...

McCain is still trying to be president, after all these years.  Twitching and snickering during the debate didn't help.  Tapping Gov. Palin to be his running mate, with her bias' coded in her acceptance speech, didn't help much.  The arrogance of the Republican party wogs was never more apparent than with that choice. "Hey, she's a woman..Hillary was a woman, ergo women will vote for her".  I think not.

McCain keeps dancing around the language to try to communicate to the right wing fringe that Obama is black and McCain is white.  Why not just run an ad that says, "Keep the white house white."  It is so obvious that the game being played is that age old one of racist priviledge, just step up and say it.  He won't get my vote, but I could respect the honesty more than the veiled allusions.

Watching the Euro Cup