Climate Catastrophes and Hillbilly Miracle Cures

Posted on September 6, 2021 by cmebz1@yahoo.com
Home remedies are the bestest!

In the last couple months it’s becoming clear to me that I’m having some mental health issues. Specifically, the latest wave of the pandemic has pushed me towards a state of depression. I’m being slowly driven out of my mind by the halfway limbo existence of the present, sort of back to normal but not really, caused only by stupidity and lust for power. The problem is, the only way for me to climb out of this funk is some sign that matters will really start to move in the right direction, but we are living in a post-competence society. And I see very little indication of that.

As far as I’m concerned this country has been moving in the wrong direction since Reagan. Every time we are burdened with another Rethug president the country moves further towards ignorance and the extreme right. And I’m absolutely serious when I say now we live in a society where the truth and reality do not matter. The list of reality denying current events is long, pathetic and depressing.

Let’s start with the pandemic. None of this needed to happen. Public Health officials knew how to deal with it from the get go, but because of a criminally negligent lying former president, we are back into another wave of an epidemic that is now endemic. We had a chance to defeat COVID-19 last year but completely blew it because a narcissist preferred a cover up in service to his re election, which makes him a mass murderer. Then he incited a deadly insurrection of idiots yet has paid no penalty whatsoever. Yet an entire political party is supporting his many crimes and showing a united front of ridiculous unhinged from reality lies.

We have masses of idiots who would rather take deworming medicine for animals than just doing the right thing and getting a vaccination. How did this belief take hold that vaccinations are some bizarre new notion that originated as a money making hoax or government mind control instead of a traditional way of protection from sickness? This is beyond insanity, well actually, idiocy. I have heard so many dupes saying they don’t trust anything the government says, then they say they don’t trust the vaccine because it hasn’t been approved by the government! Then once it is approved they claim the whole process was speeded up too much to be safe. Then they praise the Former Fascist for speeding up the vaccine development process. You have to be pretty damn stupid to not notice the inconsistencies.

Then there are those who say they don’t want to take the vaccine because they might be in that tiny insignificant group that has a bad reaction (or die) from it. So far as I’ve heard there have been NO cases of someone dying from the vaccine. Besides, that attitude amounts to never going outside because you might get flattened by a falling communications satellite.

And there are the “it’s infringing on MY FREEDOMS! WAHHH!!” type of anti vaxxer. Do I really need to get into all the obvious examples; seat belts, shirts and shoes in a restaurant, obeying traffic signals, blah, blah blah. An awful lot of people have ignored the “license” side of the freedom equation. A free citizen has rights and responsibilities. Freedom without responsibility or the abandonment of responsibility is licentious behavior. So STFU and get vaccinated. If you don’t and get sick, then other patients need to be prioritized over your licentious behind.

Here in Cali I just dropped off my ballot regarding the recall election. Recalls are undemocratic and a huge waste of resources. I talked to an acquaintance who exclaimed that Newsom must go he’s done such a horrible job!! Really? I’m no great fan of any politician but he’s a competent governor. Jeez leave him alone. Things are screwed up enough already. The Caldor Fire is close enough to me that I can smell the smoke in the air. Homeless people are all over every neighborhood. This state is in long term super drought conditions and it’s been 100 degrees too many days to count. This state is a mess and I’m going to eventually leave. One governor can’t fix the mess that Former Fascist put this country in. I’ve heard some health experts say it will be 2023 before things begin to return to something resembling the old “normal.”

Fires in the West, and the East from Louisiana to Maine is devastated, obliterated (notice I did NOT misuse the word decimated) and the government continues to fight over what is reality and what is fantasy. Think about it! This country is in the midst of multiple crises and our so-called leaders are arguing over basic issues of FACT and REALITY. WE ARE SO SCREWED! There was a violent riot on January 6, instigated by Former Fascist and his criminal cronies, yet none of them NONE OF THEM is under arrest. The government will jail a bunch of low information insurrectionist morons who are so poorly educated that it’s a miracle they can survive through one day. How gullible do you have to be to listen to Former Fascist or his accomplices and not be immediately repulsed by their arrogance, ignorance and lack of knowledge, logic – or decency? It’s amazing, sickening and demoralizing.

I haven’t even touched on the infrastructure or climate crises because I don’t expect any official action to be taken. I see nothing but bad things down the road because this country is now in a post-rationality, post-competence phase. We can’t do anything right. We FINALLY got out of a war that should have ended 15 years ago, and I hear people claiming that Biden will be impeached before Christmas. You can’t lose a war and escape without consequences, what is wrong with people? The right is out for blood, they will use any excuse to impeach Biden and any future Democrat. Why? Because they need to cover up their guilt and complicity in the Rethug crimes of the last 5 years. I have no hope at all for the future if the Rethugs gain control in 2022.

So those are some of the main reasons for my depression. I haven’t even mentioned the negative effects of social distancing at my age and the probable end of many pasttimes I once enjoyed. The last time my band played a gig was February BP (before pandemic). And until selfish idiots are made to get vaccinated or if they all die off from their own stupidity, things will not get back to normal. There’s no cure without some hope that serious changes need to be made NOW and a bunch of criminals on the loose in Washington and state capitols need to be arrested tried and convicted of crimes against the USA and democracy. The rich get richer and escape any consequences for their crimes and regular people are being crushed by inflation. At this point, I only have faith that life in America is basically one big shitty dishonest scam.

Welcome to the United States of Dysfunction

Posted on August 16, 2021 by cmebz1@yahoo.com
True believers of Norm Shatterd’s OOlala Movement

Is this 2020 deja vu? Feeling in a bit of a time loop? This past week seems like we jumped back a year to a return to those mask wearing, good old pandemic times! But this time around with the added fun of inflation all around! Whoopee!

Thanks to all you ignorant anti-vaxxers we get to go through another round of hell in America, even those of us who made the responsible, principled and wise decision to get a vaccination. Thanks to you ignorant anti-vaxxers we have to continue to wear masks indoors and distance ourselves, and continue to wait for a return to normal conditions in which we can go out at night and have a good time. Sitting in a public place such as a bar or restaurant or show with a mask is NOT my idea of a good time. Thanks to you ignorant anti-vaxxers people who can’t get a hospital bed are dying.

So either get vaccinated or soon there will be a wave of businesses that demand vaccination before one is allowed to be employed by them, along with restaurants, bars, entertainment venues requiring vaccination or a same-day negative test. To think that getting a vaccination that maybe one person in a million has a poor reaction to, is more dangerous than contracting a disease that kills one in ten thousand, at the least reveals poor math skills, if not outright stupidity. Do what is right for your own health, the health of others, and the health of our society in general and take the less risky option. How can anyone rationalize delaying vaccination because the government hasn’t passed final approval on it and at the same time constantly complain about how they don’t trust anything the government tells them? This is insanity, folks! Get vaccinated.

Now take a minute away from the Monday morning routine and read the comic, you might get a laugh or it might make you mad or it might make you think. For best viewing on mobile devices, go to onthefencecomic.com for Webtoons format. Follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook & Ko-fi.

Could “Good Government” Actually be a hybrid of Capitalism and Socialism?

Posted on August 3, 2021 by cmebz1@yahoo.com
The Rich commit all the Big Crimes

We will never see good government in this country as long as the corporate masters continue to direct their minions in government and media to divide its citizens. One way they divide people is through the false framing of race, this is the most obvious to the point where racism is often referred to as America’s original sin. But the other main false framing perpetrated by the elite super rich is capitalism versus communism, or its evil spawn, SOCIALISM.

The history of the idea of “good government” is necessary to understand how such an argument actually is misleading and invalid. The July 2009 Report What Is Good Governance, by the United Nations details the 8 characteristics of good governance, that basically boil down to the importance of the rule of law. The original form of government was the baddest meanest dude in the Stone Age cave clan society got to make the rules.

The Allegory of Good and Bad Government is a series of three fresco panels painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti between February 1338 and May 1339. This idea has been around for awhile. The idea of good governance was behind the Boston Tea Party and the Revolution. In other words, the concept of Good Government is as American as a concept can be. It has been here since the early immigrants from Europe came here to escape their starvation level existences. In the early days of the USA, corporations were tightly controlled because it was understoobd how concentrated wealth can endanger the freedom of the average citizen—and democracy itself. But now uncontrolled monopolistic corporations have seized American democracy by the throat and are slowly strangling it. One of their most potent weapons is to recategorize ANY government assistance to working people as SOCIALISM! OOH scaaary!! What used to be considered Humanist or altruistic behavior is called socialist and is classified as weakness. A weakness that will destroy your liberties!

Capitalism is all about every man (person) for themselves and dog eat dog zero sum relationships with other people. This extreme outlook that you have to be tough, you have to be unscrupulous, you have to be dishonest, unethical and borderline illegal to prevail in the USA has made us into a nation of alienated and desperate people. On top of which one has to deal with inadequate wages, health crises, imminent climate change and the outright normalization of lying as Standard Operating Procedure. No wonder we’re to the point where a third to half of the country has lost a firm grasp on the truth or basic facts.

So now we have one party that’s beholden to profits over people yet weakly attempts to pretend their loyalty to working people, the Democrats. They never seem to be able to work up the gumption and backbone to take on the really evil people who truly have bad and selfish intentions. When in the majority they freely allow their power to effect change to dissipate through their naive desire to work in collaboration with unscrupulous scumbags who care only about wealth and power.

Meanwhile The Republicans have somehow managed to cast themselves as the champions of truth and liberty and Democrats as a pack of lying thieves. As usual, they are projecting their nature onto the opposition. Republicans don’t believe in fighting fairly for a set of principles. They have no qualms about cheating and lying about elections or anything else, including their oath to the Constitution. They will demonize any attempt to ease the burdens of working people as GODLESS SOCIALISM, in a country founded on the principle that there is no state religion.

The increasingly extreme capitalism of the last 40 years has turned this population into a collection of desperate, distrustful, greedy, self-centered, short-sighted, directionless, ignorant people, Bad for making well-informed decisions but good for mindless consumerism. The type of people who are easily manipulated. And that’s just what the super wealthy power hungry inhuman monsters who worship profits over people require in their continuing strategy to create a New World Order where they have all the power. That’s what unregulated capitalism will bring about, not anything approaching a Utopian society.

So the question is what is good governance? I have no desire to see a communist system, I put a lot of effort into my work and expect to be compensated. But when the rules don’t apply to the filthy rich and work is no longer fairly compensated, the failure points of pure capitalism are exposed. Self interest is a great motivator but uncontrolled greed is dangerous to everyone. The truth is that the weak character of some people is revealed by acquiring vast wealth and the total power that it confers. This kind of total power really amounts to an immunity to the rules of decent behavior. A well-adjusted ethical person may not need artificial constraints to their behavior. But a greedy narcissist is a different situation. Some people need a measure of control and the sad truth is those highly motivated by ambition are the most likely to have that character defect.

So the case can be made that empathy and altruism have their place in good government. The profits over people caucus will always scream SOCIALISM every time the government adopts any policy that’s good for the average Joe. The reason for that is, their goal is to go back to that original form of “government”, in which the baddest most murderous dude gets to make all the rules.

Giving Away The Groceries

Posted on July 19, 2021 by cmebz1@yahoo.com

It’s been a rough couple weeks, which is why I never got around to posting a blog last week. Usually after I post the weekly comic page I knock out a short essay about whatever is on my mind at the time. Then I post it and move on to the next task on my list. But during the last two weeks I’ve been asking myself, how sick do you have to get before giving away the groceries. Around here that’s what we say for going to see the doctor, because the co pay they demand before any treatment is the same amount as what it costs to eat for a week.

The first thing to happen was, suddenly upon standing up from my computer desk, a pain shot through my right hip, like someone kicked me in the rear with all their strength. I’ve been limping around, and struggling to get a little sleep at night ever since. About 3 days after that, I gave myself food poisoning, apparently from eating some Trail mix. I spent 24 hours in misery, on the verge of calling somebody for a ride to the hospital. I came so close to making that call, yet the only thing worse than a fear of death was the fear of a hospital bill. So I toughed it out for 4 days of feeling more dead than alive. Neither my stomach or my hip feel anything like normal and I will probably break down and see my doctor if I’m not feeling better by next week. But at this point, I’m not quite ready to give up the groceries. That will be the last resort, since more often than not, when I see the doctor they tell me, “Oh well, that’s what it’s like to get old. Thanks for the grocery money!”

A Country of Creeping Decrepitude

Posted on June 30, 2021 by cmebz1@yahoo.com
A country in entropy, everything is tending towards chaos

So how many folks out there are thinking along the same lines as I am, that the collapse of the Champlain Towers building in Florida is an apt metaphor for the state of the country in general? Ignored, unattended to, cheapskated and ready to collapse? When a 40-year-old residential high rise collapses and crushes everyone in their homes we have passed a point of crisis. These things tend to seem to come out of the blue. Everything is bopping along in normal “low-level crisis mode” with everyone willfully ignoring the fact that we live in a swindler’s society, in which corporations rule, they make their own laws by either buying corrupt politicians or walling themselves off from the rule of law with an army of lawyers. We are stuck in a country of creeping decrepitude.

Seeing as how the country’s infrastructure has begun its disintegration before our eyes, it’s past time to admit that there is something essentially wrong with a system in which once an individual reaches a certain level of wealth, they are no longer bound by the same laws as ordinary citizens. If its cheaper for a billionaire to buy their way out of any opposition or prosecution for wrongdoing, then let’s face it, there is no law anymore. It’s over, the system is a scam and it’s exposed for everyone to see. Corporations no longer have accountability. Billionaires have no accountability. Those involved in the construction of buildings where families live—no accountability.

Was the Champlain Towers collapse an aberration? The next few years will probably tell whether or not that is true, if the government can’t finally pull themselves together and pass REAL infrastructure improvement. I don’t know how others feel about this, but I thank dog that I live in a one-floor domicile. One would think that folks who buy a condo expect the building to last their lifetime, don’t you think? These were not rental units, not that it really matters, but the thought that you could buy a condo unit to live in for many years, or perhaps your entire life, and the building’s life span itself is shorter than a person’s lifetime? Even if that doesn’t kill you it still seems like a pretty raw deal that a citizen could buy a lifetime residence that is so shoddily built that it collapses on top of you? I believe at this point we need to radically rethink the direction this society is heading towards. Are we going to be living in a society where everything for the normal citizen is crumbling while rent and house prices are through the roof and half the country is earning starvation wages?

If Congress doesn’t get their act together and pass some strong infrastructure legislation we will be accelerating along the path to a downward spiral. This is exactly what the fascists want. I’d say that when things get so bad that a person can’t fall asleep at night because they worry that the crappy building they live in might collapse there’s a problem that requires radical solutions. As usual the narrative will change to fit the desired scenario that the people who are buried in the rubble are to blame because they hesitated to scrape up the money to pay for the renovation of their overpriced residence. It is always the responsibility of the underpaid overworked people on the bottom to pay. Now those residents of Champlain Towers are literally – on the bottom. The Rethugs of course will not lift a finger to help working people. The Dems HAVE TO step up and for once go beyond good manners and play all-out hardball politics and get this done!