Hear the holier than thou war cry…

 ”Get a job!!!”

 As if that all who rely on public assistance and are out of work are just lazy, willingly, happily living off the dole, and we’d all be better off if they worked.
 STOP! REALLY? You think you really know the true nature of ALL these people? HA!

 Soon we’ll cut through the balderdash. But first we clear away the rubble…
 Unemployment is NOT “the public dole.” We pay for it; one of those deductions some moan and kvetch about. The rest, like food stamps, are meant to keep people at a subsistence level. Keep them off the streets. Keep their children in at least tolerable health.
 If it’s too much, done it the wrong way, channeling funds to a dead end, well… let’s have a civil discussion.
 The framing that all are lazy, etc is crap. Some are looking for jobs as best they can. Some looking for jobs while having other responsibilities: kids; one parent families. Some are physically, maybe even mentally, unable. And it’s not like suitable jobs are available all the time.
 But, hey, let’s forget all that and go for the cliché’. I assume there is some number, some percentage, of hard care unemployed… however many there may actually be. Those who simply don’t want to work, unwilling to do much but sit at home, watch TV: whatever. Read more

 Something I love to do from time to time: take a break from politics and social commentary. Except one example, I suppose. And that one I come down on two people who, while I loved their humor, were the cause of why their show’s run ended far too soon.
 This is my own personal list. Very short. I’m sure there are more, these are just 6 I can think of at this moment. Some because I started watching DVDs I just bought and forgot how bloody good that program was. PLEASE offer your own suggestions on Facebook, or the sites where this is published that accept comments.
 Anyway, here are 6. I’m sure if I rummaged around in my ever cluttered head longer there would be more… Read more

Courtesy Fun Spot America

 For a moment let’s step back from left or right finger pointing. We all know people in power, politicians, people with influence, who seem untouchable. Maybe there’s an overall point here that goes beyond partisanship? -KWC

 Climb, push, shoving their way to the top and a world of irresponsibility opens up. A world of irresponsibility they may not have had before. We all complain about influential people with power getting away with things. Unfortunately the media and those at the top have us complaining about those we disagree with. Dividing us that way serves them. This is by design. Keep the base, keep partisans riled up, keep them the other side has all the villains. And all of them one dimensional, filled with purely evil intent. Or stupidity.
 Who does this serve? It serves protecting the power they have; because for all the noise locking anyone up is even less likely than unlikely. It protects corruption. It protects their desire to take the power of the vote away. It protects their attempts to limit or deny rights.
 We may disagree which rights, but disagreement is natural. It’s also a natural way to divide us and protect those who consider themselves the privileged class. Especially because they know they may never be prosecuted for crimes they otherwise would have been been held responsible for if they were you or me.
 Displeasing such people is a huge risk for us. For those at the top truly do have the power to pee down upon the peons, or far worse.
 Dear Readers, I present to you the broke down, upside down, Ferris wheel of Justice.
 Rule of law be damned. Read more

Thanks to RC Romine for the inspiration- KWC

 The plot is so classic SciFi. Invasion of the Body Snatchers an example. Robert Heinlein had The Puppet Masters: another interesting example where society skews towards nudity to expose those possessed. The various versions of Star Trek had more than a few examples… one might even include the Borg, though the physical changes there were very obvious. Rick and Morty recently had an episode where creatures wrapped around the mouth took over their victims, or “Unity” controlled the minds on many planets.
 The irony in that last one was that the conquest actually created better beings than the non-possessed slime they replaced. This is not that kind of story.
 There are far too many of these fictional plots to mention. And “plot,” in a different, non-fiction, sense is the latest result of an invasion into the minds of our countrymen and women.
 What exactly possesses a moderate, well ‘moderate’ by today’s Republican Party standards, named Elise Stephanik, to turn into a Trumpette? I’m sure wish we could blame some alien creatures, but we really can’t. Not if we are to have the kind of country that’s anything like what we have aspired to. Read more

 Since at least the 80’s this country has leaned away from punishing, arresting, holding responsible our leaders and their enablers. So easy to predict public servants on the highest level NOT being held responsible would emboldened them, even if we have many decades showing that was exactly was happening. Nixon SHOULD have been impeached, and convicted. But by now we certainly must know impeachment is a lost cause, unless both houses are run by the opposing party and in large numbers.
 Considering the 4 times it has been attempted the result is predictable. A political answer to corruption is unlikely to ever work: at least one party in a two party system will never tolerate it. The bar is too high, and lowering it would also be used for political gain; less for actual corruption, crimes.
 Such a bad formula that; if a conviction ever does happen, most likely it will be an innocent. And the party most dedicated to purging and limiting blocks of voters that tend not to vote their way, while going over the extremist top of the political fence, will be most likely to succeed. Sorry, dear readers, that’s the way it is.
 The closest we came to a successful impeachment would have been Nixon, but that’s back when members of the president’s party had ethics. The Buckley brothers and Barry told Nixon it was time to go: albeit way too late. Good luck with that these days. Read more