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THE ABSURD TIMES
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It seems that there is so much babble about not being "Socialist," that it is time to remember what Capitalist means. Has no one heard? Stalin is dead?What's New
by
Czar Donic
Well, now, we actually are coming to an election season, only 14 months before the election. What progress and how time flies by when you are affected by severe cognitive dissonance.
I imagine a good place to start would be with the last Democratic Party Debate held on ABC on the 12th of April. One point was not sufficiently explored and I suggest it be explored here. Elizabeth Warren mentioned that she was able to enroll at the University of Texas at Houston and that the tuition at the time was $50/semester. That naturally drew quite a response, but there was little discussion about the matter. At that time, tuition at State Universities nationwide were in line with that sort of charge. The reason was that the legislature thought highly of higher education and the administration of JKF and even subsequently LBJ continued that sort of reverence or acclaim. Over the years, subsidies for Universities steadily declined to the point where now it is such a burned to go even to an in-state University without carrying an onerous burden of loan debt of at least 5 figures and even 6. That means a debt of anywhere from $30,000 to several hundreds of thousands of dollars and the debt can be garnished even from such sacred trusts as Social Security. Now how did this happen?
Quite obviously, it was a tone of disregard for education. Nobody in power liked it as an educated electorate is quite likely to vote for changes that are in their own interest. An uneducated public can be easily persuaded to vote against their own interest by telling them that someone else, be they women, people of color, people who speak a different language, and so on. In that way, the wealthy forces are about to gain even more power. They can even be persuaded to dislike education and thus enable governments not to subsidize education and, instead, spend they money on other interests.
HEALTH CARE
The last figures I heard were to the effect that the overhead for private insurance is 26% and Medicare 3%. You can easily how that 26% is spent. Those who fought for better health care at their place of work should realize that they are at the mercy of their employer and that they can change to provider at any time, thus leaving you "out of network" for certain doctors and hospitals you frequent. In addition, you are subject to charges for "out-of-network" services when you do not even know you are in the hand of such a provider. Private insurance is a profit making industry and exists solely for that purpose.
Many union workers are reluctant to give up their hard fought health plans. We notice that recently, because of a strike, General Moters cancelled the health insurance for all of its workers. Where do they go now?
SOCIALISM
The term is nw being used to scare off voters who would favor progressive candidates.
To give an idea of how absurd it can get, and how gullible the electorate can be, during the last Democratic debate many stations ran an add that featured an oriental woman talking about the evils of socialism and invoking Pol Pot as an example! It is difficult to even dignify this this, but they then burned a photo of AOC to drive the point how. Obviously, then, saying that healthcare for all is socialism and thus like Pol Pot! There are people out there who would take this seriously.
So, just to clarify: Pol Pot was a result of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger and has nothing to do with medicare for all. See, bat in the late 60s, early 70s, a Prince Sianook resisted Nixon secret "Peace Place" which constituted in an invasion of Cambodia to widen the war. The idiot they put in his place was soon overthrown by Pol Pot and we were then abliged to deal with them. I treated an ex-GI who had enormous drinking problems and well as severe PTSD. He did finally talk about it, despite his warning that both his life and mine would be in danger if he did. This was 40 years later. It seems he was sent in, was captured and tortured. The most painful thing he remembered was having his fingernails being pulled out. About a year later, he shot his own brains out.
This was hardly related to Medicare for All. However, we do have many examples of socialism here today. Traffic lights, for example. They are owned by the people in common and without them, many roads would become gridlocked. More accidents would happen. I and not put up my own traffic signal and charge people to go through in defiance of "free enterprise" and "copitalism". The same would apply to health care.
GUNS
Personally, I don't really care who has how many guns. If they want to shoot me, they may go ahead, but make sure the shot is lethal, please. However, a recent announcement on the Afghan war announced that 95 people die each day from violence. In the United States, 100 are shot each day with guns, or course. Just something to consider. It seems less likely, but not by much, that one is safer there than here.
The Climate
I rather think that it is too late and we have passed the point. We could have done something back in the 70s (which is one reason Nixon created the socialist Environmental Protection Agency so hated by Republicans today. However, there is no reason not to try to somehow slow down our rate of decline rather than hasten the age where nothing survives except cockroaches. We will have an organized movement (perhaps have already had it) and it has so much enthusiastic support as the millions who marched world-wide to prevent and invasion of Iraq.
Anti-Semitism
We are now seeing real anti-Semitism (finally) rather than shill protests in favor of Zionism. No longer does a criticism of Zionism seem to be a real problem so much as is "white" nationalism. Islamophobia fits in the same category, as does outright racism.
Health Crises
There is nothing the media likes better than a good scare story. For a long time, recently, the opiod crisis has been foremost. Having some expertixe and experience in treating such addictions, I can tell you that Oxycontin is a problem, but the others should be left out of it. Moreover, it is when such prescriptions are not available that some turn to Heroin which may be mixed with Fentenyl (a synthetic, mainly from China) that overdoses are most likely to happen.
However, that crisis seems to be daying down as "Vaping" is the new scourge. I do find it interesting to see the reports to see such billowing streams of smoke being exhaled when it was my understanding, and previous understanding, that the virtue of this product was to eliminate any signs of such smoke.
Latest
Just to bring things up to date, I have recently heard that the entire death toll in Afghanistan per day is 75, not 95, as previous information woulde have it. Also, these constant barking about witch hunts are strange indeed when there is no need to hunt for any witch – we can not escape his Orangness.
Well, that's it for awhile. I'm off on a search for my sense of humor.
