If anyone still thinks we’re not in serious do-do, they must be living on another planet. Bankers gambling with our financial future (while paying themselves handsomely to do so), CEOs of big corporations and goofy billionaires buying our elections, and television destroying our minds are one thing, but the happenings down in Ferguson, Missouri are something else again! History has tried to teach us, over and over again, that massive injustice cannot go on forever without drastic consequences. Will we ever learn?
My old pappy remembers riding the streetcar down Gay Street to downtown Baltimore during the 1968 riots, and passing people looting stores on both sides of the street. Those riots were ignited by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and affected many cities. Restoring order in Washington D.C. required federal troops, national guard, and police, probably totaling 20 or 30 thousand altogether.
Ole pap saw a cartoon the other day which asked, “Remember how many white people rioted after OJ’s acquittal? Me neither!” Obviously somebody doesn’t “get it,” probably quite a few people don’t!!
What is different from then to now? Not a great deal; basically legal racial segregation has been replaced by de facto economic segregation. As old pap and I have suggested before, we need radical change!
Ho Boy, Republicrats and Demoblicans – Barely a brass farthing’s worth between them! Old Buster here with a word or two on this nasty old subject.
At times old pappy and I do lean toward thinking that the Republicrats may be just a tad meaner, especially when you consider all the things for which they tried to tie the blame on poor old President Obama. Obviously, they were very successful, too, largely due to voter ignorance. Heck, they probably would have blamed him for Global Warming, except none of their crowd believes it to be a problem.
It’s possible that the R’s seem really mean in part because their good friend, Fox News, projects such a mean-spirited image. Have you ever seen anyone smile on Fox? Yikes, their lady news folk are even mean looking, sitting around with their 70’s era short, short skirts, sporting some really mean looking leg. Guess that’s why so many old codgers are glued to Fox all day.
Actually, the Demoblicans are no bargain either. Somehow, they got old pappy on their mailing lists a few months ago, and sent him six or eight emails a day running up to the election; asking for cash, of course. They hardly mentioned the President in any of them, we guessed because they were all running away from his supposed unpopularity. Now, suddenly, after they got drubbed in the mid-term elections, they’re touting old potus’s successful record, such as Unemployment down from 7.8% to 5.8%, Deficit as percent of GDP down from 9.8% to 2.8%, and Consumer Confidence up from 37.7 to 94.5. I can’t vouch for any of their numbers, but ya gotta wonder why they didn’t use the good news before, instead of, after the election.
You may come away fairly convinced that we are not sending the brightest bulbs in the pack to represent us down there in Washington, D.C., and they are all beholden to the overpaid CEO’s of the big multinational corporations (and other fat cats) who fund their attack ads and treat them to very nice perks in every way imaginable. What a system! What are we, the poor slobs who toil away in the trenches, to do?
Old pappy and I have made one major suggestion (please see my Blog #18) regarding reorganizing our military by the reinstitution of the draft in order to put our youth to work repairing our infrastructure as well as defending our nation. Maybe divert a little of our military budgets from redundant weapons systems to a sort of domestic peace corps.
Howsomever, in order to effect any actions which could help our tired old country dispel our current malaise, we need to correct our malfunctioning political process. A potential place to begin might be the two thirds of eligible voters who are apparently completely turned off by our two contentious political parties. As I mentioned in Blog #32, could it be possible to energize and organize these dispirited citizens into a fresh force?
Editor’s Note: When old pappy and I refer to radical change, we’re certainly not advocating that regular folk stop enjoying life, that’s what it’s for. We’re just hoping that we all can think about the people we send to our various legislative bodies to make the rules. It certainly wouldn’t hurt anyone to turn off that danged Telly, and stop “asking your doctor,” either!
Noted that the estimate of people dying every day in the U.S. from overdoses of prescription opioids has been increased to forty-six, that’s about 17,000 per year! Deaths from all pharmaceutical drugs is probably over 20,000 per year; that’s equivalent to illicit drug deaths. Don’t ya think that info would make it to the old Telly once in a while; maybe not, big Pharma isn’t yet making any drugs for Ebola!
Your favorite (I hope) hound doggie, Buster.
PS: There is always a kernel of good news if you look hard enough for it: The Republicrat response to President Obama’s Thanksgiving message was rather positive! Hope y’all had a nice Thanksgiving!
Buster's Two Cents 