Friday, June 24, 2016

The Wayward Messenger


I don't normally pay much attention to overseas news. Call me a nationalist -- fine. Sure, I worry about ISIS on the move, wary that they're going to do harm to us; knowing they already have. I didn't give more than a passing thought to Brexit. I frankly didn't understand the whole commotion until it was explained to me. (That's one of the grievances I have with so-called "news" -- they have a lot of talking heads, but they blather on and on without giving us THE FACTS. One more reason I've mainly switched over to CNN.)

I get it now. And I see the wave a'comin'. People in Britain are sick to death of the "poor them, lucky you" mantra. For far too long, we've allowed The Left to dominate the conversation. Well, here's the deal --- and I'm talking to elected Republicans as well as to the cynical, vote-mongering mercenaries on the other side -- There is no LUCKY ME. I'm not lucky. I'm not "privileged". Stop telling me that I am.  I live this life; I think I would know. The gated community dwellers no longer relate to people like me, if they ever did.

Here's a thought -- pay my utility bills! Juggle my checkbook and advise me on which bills I should pay on time and which ones I can let slide. The clinic put me on a payment plan because, gasp! we ran up too many medical bills! Thanks, Obamacare! You rock!

Tell me again how everyone but me is "downtrodden". Tell me after I write out my $2,000.00 check to pay my state taxes, separate from all the money that was deducted from my bi-weekly paycheck, which apparently fell far short of your goal to pay for your social programs. But, you know, I'm privileged -- and I should feel privileged to support other people while my existence is swirling furiously down the drain.

Tell me how we're going to survive in our "golden years", since I've now drained my 401K dry and my husband has been out of work for six years.

Yea, we're tired of all that privilege. And Brexit showed that a bunch of other people are sick of it, too. This could be our opportunity to flex what weak little influence we have left.

But no.

We've got Trumples The Clown representing us. I'm still not sure what his goal is, and I'm suspicious that even he doesn't know. He could have played up the whole Brexit thing today for maximum impact, but as I understand it, he chose instead to wax poetic about his Scottish golf course (I don't listen to the guy, but that's what I've heard.) Maybe his candidacy is one gigantic business promotion?

I still have nagging doubts about whether I will vote for the guy come November. If he'd just straighten up, I could envision myself checking the box for him, just to deprive That Woman from one more vote. But he's gotta show me he's a winner. And that he means it. If this is all a big joke, I'll write in George Strait or somebody, 'cause you know, I'm all for having fun, too.

The Republicans (with a big giant "R") don't give a good God-damn about people like me. They care about maintaining their lifestyles. The "D's" (as in douch....never mind) care about VOTES...voting blocks...gotta get those voting blocks! It's a game.

Meanwhile we privileged folk just need to deal.

Our country has already descended into hell.












Friday, June 17, 2016

Bored


It's not like me to be uninterested in the presidential election. Politics is my drug of choice after caffeine. It's a letdown to be bored by something I've always counted on. But this year's election has turned from euphoric to maddening to ehh. I don't find Trump to be provocative or even interesting; but rather, moronic and Gomer Pile-ish. I don't wait breathlessly to hear his latest utterance. It used to at least be a masochistic challenge to ponder what his next controversy might be, but the sheen has worn off that rubbed stone. It's no longer a surprise -- I expect him to say something stupid and therefore that thrill is gone.

There've been candidates in the past that I had to warm up to, but I eventually, ultimately, came on board. John McCain was no great shakes. I like him better, now that he's not running for president. Romney? I at least thought he was smart -- a bit too polished -- but I came around. This dude? It's not like I'm going to suddenly hop the Hillary train, but I can't picture myself punching my ballot for a guy who needs remedial training. I'm a corporate trainer -- I've been down that nowhere path before. At least the people I've had to coach weren't insane (mostly).  

So, I'm bored. I've essentially abandoned Fox News (sorry Bret -- I still like you.) I've begun to turn on CNN after work. I despise their leftward tilt, but I appreciate the absence of yelling. 

I like to have some noise in the background (just not loud noise) when I'm decompressing after being yelled at at work all day. I like Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper. I don't like BILL O'REILLY (sorry, yelling). It's gotten so I don't even care what they say; just that they're saying it quietly. 

I don't know what my state of mind will be, come November. I'm thinking, the way things are headed, there might only be one name on the ballot, because DT will spontaneously combust. Again, don't actually care if he does. The one thing I could always count on has turned into a ridiculous spectacle. 

I guess it's time to find a new hobby.





Friday, June 10, 2016

What Trump Has Done For Me


I'll admit, our household was in a rut. We turned to the same shows day after day -- The Five, then Special Report. Sometimes I would have Greta talking in the background while I read. O'Reilly? It depended on my tolerance for bombasticism on a given day. I work an early shift, so I rarely have the chance to watch Megyn. And that dumbbell who follows her? Nah. I'd hear him sometimes on my drive home from work, if the other talk radio channel had gone to commercial. I think he has a sheet of talking points that he has carried in his wallet since 2009, and he's still repeating them seven years later; only now with an extra-added dash of Trump-love.

Fox News has gone insane.

It's hard to be a conservative...at least a rational one. What are our TV news options? Yep, only one, and that one has betrayed us. It's like the Bizzaro Jerry episode of Seinfeld, in which life as we know it has been turned on its head. Maybe the whole world has gone insane and there are only a few of us left who realize it. Or maybe we are the insane ones.

Unlike Peggy Noonan, who flouts her "regular-folk" friends -- you know, the cab drivers and bodega clerks she crosses paths with, I do actually know one or so people who are Trump fans. They're normally lucid thinkers, people I admire and feel a kinship with. I admit, now I'm looking at them askance. Sort of like that thing you spot on the sidewalk in the dark when you're walking your dog, and you aren't quite sure. Is it a tree branch or a claw-tooth alien mutant that wants you to think it's a tree branch? I admit, it's caused me to semi-question my taste in friends.

I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them. "Don't you see what a brain-dead dolt he is?" I want to scream, to snap them out of it.

"Well, he's anti-establishment," they'd say.

Okay, so was Charles Manson, if we want to get nitpicky about it. Why don't you run him for president?

I don't want to ascribe any ulterior motives to the folks on Fox, but either they're in the tank for Trump because they want favors/jobs/reflected fame/a handout, or they truly are dolts.

You know who they are. Some I suspected all along weren't rocket scientists; some have enough money (e.g., Bill O'Reilly from "co-writing" books and Greta from her Scientology e-metering or whatever the hell those people do), so I haven't quite figured out their motives. Some perhaps are simply band-wagoneers. Regardless, they have a duty to the people who tune in and who buy William DeVane's gold and HurryCanes™, and who thus pay their salaries, to not be sycophants.

Therefore, we've deleted The Five from our DVR queue. We watch Bret Baier a couple of nights a week. O'Reilly is gone. We'd rather turn to an episode of "Air Disasters" than watch Greta's show. 

So, what has Trump done for me? He's freed up a few hours of my time. I like to read. I have a bunch of books downloaded to my Kindle; more than enough to last me for the next four or so years of the Clinton II administration.

I do think the fallout, though, will be interesting.  I may even have to re-tune in to Fox just to watch. 

But saying, "I told you so" is going to cut like bile in my throat.