Does it really need to be said?

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The LR (locker Room) boys were at it again, this past week. (Side note: if anybody reading this is from one of the two locker rooms I frequent, think before you get upset.) The arguments for and against whatever was being discussed (and the offered solutions) all percolated around a central theme: NIMBY, with a touch of GMGA.

NIMBY is “Not In My Back Yard”, and from past essays, GMGA is “Got Mine Go Away”, the process where once someone escapes poverty, or homelessness, or drug addiction, or has an abortion, the same person does little to help anyone else do the same, and even (See: Mark Robinson, 2024 candidate for NC Governor and Justice Thomas) wants to prevent anyone in the same position from getting the same help. Also known as “Ladder Pullers.

Every solution by our group was centered on removing the topical issue from our neighbor hoods, or from our minds. For example, homeless were collected and “removed” to some other locale. Criminals were put in jail for long stretches of time, assuming the time was long enough to rehabilitate them. There was another more vigilantistic (sic) solution, but it was offered more with frustration than actual intent.

Immigration is a perfect example of small, local conversations lacking the power to reach anything but a small, local solution. In a “Tales of Wells Fargo” western starring Dale Robertson, Wells Fargo Agent, he was dispatched to El Paso, Texas, to investigate gun-running by Mexican Bandits illegally crossing the Texas-Mexican border. Crates supposed to be full of shovels for Mexican farmers were really full of standard issue US Army carbines. That’s a TV show from 1957, dealing with southern border problems in 1870’s. THE 1870’s, capitalized for emphasis.

Crime in NY City? Especially post-Giuliani? Watch the 2002 Oscar Winning Movie, “The Gangs of New York” and wonder how much safer or unsafer (sic) NY City is today, compared to 1860. And in the 1960s when the FBI cracked down on NYC organized Crime families, the families moved upstate where the FBI captured many Family Members running through hay fields in Appalachin, NY.

Homelessness, and the poor, are not new to the American Problem Pile, either. But can you solve a national problem by busing the homeless from one state to another?

Health care. There are people who move from state to state to find affordable, decent health care. As a Financial Planner, I saw several foreign born clients leave America entirely, and move back to their original European countries for the free Long Term Care help, something NOT offered in America’s capitalistic Healthcare system. Boy, wait until the United State’s Long Term Care Crisis hits…

These issues need strong, central, deliberative and fair government to reach comprehensive, effective, and lasting solutions. The problems can only be solved from the top down, with the unicornish (sic) “everyone” participating. Even then…

As recently as 2013, The Gang Of Eight (a bi-partisan group of four Republican and 4 Democrat senators) designed a comprehensive bill to fix immigration. It passed the Senate with vote of 68-32 (54 D’s and 14 Rs voted yes) and was killed in a Republican House Committee, never even coming up for vote. Why?

No current politician, or Political Party, NONE, have the will to solve America’s problems. And if the politicians don’t care, why should we?

And what about world-wide problems like pollution and climate change? Can me and my locker room buddies solve those, too?

Yes, but the first step? STOP being Democrat or Republican. Now.

Why me?

ness23456 Leave a comment

I recently (about an hour ago) left the comfort of The Chair and drove to my favorite Italian restaurant for my daily dose of Buffalo Chicken Pizza. There’s probably a really good reason why Grande’s Pizza’s Buffalo Chicken Pizza has me hooked, but please don’t explicate it. It’s been my lunch for five straight days since I discovered it last week. Grande’s has a drive through, too, and the pizza slice comes right to the car window so I can drive it, carefully, back to my apartment, turn on The Young and The Restless, push back The Chair, and enjoy. Five straight days of spicy, greasy, doughy, crispy-edged, heavenly, cheesy goodness. And the chicken part makes it a healthy meal, right? Protein.

But not today: Grande’s was sold out. Could I wait 45 minutes for a new pizza to be cooked?

My first thought was “Why me? If only I’d gotten here sooner.” I sat, dazed and confused, staring at my steering wheel, upset, forlorn, distraught, near tears…maybe…this can’t be true.

“Cheeseburger with Cheddar Cheese. Broccoli and pickle. Hawaiian with pineapple, Ham, bacon, and salami. Rabbit with salmon roe. Dunning-Kruger with extra provolone. Taco shell with hummus.”

What? What were these words? What?

“And we’ve got plain cheese. Pepperoni.”

Ah. Possible substitutes for my beloved Buffalo Chicken. The gall of the clerk, the chutzpah, the expressionless lack of empathy. Couldn’t he see, couldn’t he feel my suffering? He assumed anything else could make me happy? Could take the place of my new found love? Oh, the humanity…

Long story short, I took a pepperoni home and it was damn good.

As much as I missed my Buffalo Chicken, I consoled myself with the knowledge Pepperoni was a decent substitute, if it was ever needed, again.

When one door closes, another blah blah blah…

The World Is Ending…again

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In the 1960s I spent a lot of time chasing girls and learned it was beneficial to volunteer for social causes. Fresh off the farm, finding girls was never the problem but getting them to notice, well, thank God for social causes. In those days Viet Nam was the key issue, but the climate, and Earth Day, were major issues as well. Race relations were at an all time low, too, and many inner cities burned out in protest of unequal opportunity and freedoms.

The adults in my circle of life, those days, were mostly epochal, and convinced American Institutions were falling and the world was near The End. My mates and comrades on the other hand, saw signs of new life, signs of repair, signs of rebirth in the possible, hopeful complete demise of The Military Industrial Complex (MIC), Big Business (BB), and Climate Polluters (CP). My father’s father was one of the former barons of commerce who felt the world was spinning out of control, young people did not respect, their elders, and Western Civilization is headed for doom.

While my general intent for partaking in raucous and often illegal demonstrations was unapologetically romantic I did learn to see the merit in Grandpa’s warning’s, back then.

Sixty years later most of the same issues are still out there, still threatening the future of Western Civilization. Except for Viet Nam. Nam is now our 15th largest trading partner, right after Ireland and Switzerland. The size and nature of that trading says a lot about US Government Policy over the last 60 years, a history confusing older American GIs and Viet Nam vets, both.

The Viet Nam story reveals, however, the larger truth of what our nation is about, really: Money. Wealth. And the power they have over legally elected governments and regulatory institutions.

The sad fact about The End of the World in this current generation is how really close it is, but not for the reason you might think. We now have a Supreme Court loaded with justices who care not for the common sense approach to judicial thought, but to the laissez-faire attitude of the French Physiocrats who reigned over France’s governmental policies from 1775 to 1786. I don’t really know a lot about them but it is important note the French populace revolted in 1789 and overthrew the existing French government. Completely. And executed some former government officials.

It is fair to say someone benefited from the trouble young people caused in the 60s and it wasn’t the young people. The MIC and BB and CP have worked tirelessly over the past 60 years to reaffirm their control over the day to day life of Americans and their money. Some people, even some politicians have been fighting them over those 60 years but you can see who’s winning in the simple fact climate and inequality are still issues today.

Now there is a Supreme Court made up of laissez-faire minded individuals, intent on eliminating as much regulation, oversight, and legal obstacles as they can.

It is not for an old, cranky man to say the world is coming to an end, but let’s see how the next 10 years play out as power gains power, and looks for more…without restraint. Or responsibility.

Pay Attention. Please.

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Years ago, I played tennis at a park surrounded by walking trails, swimming pools, and soccer fields. It was a beautiful place. One noticeable figure was an elderly, rail thin man in shorts and a backpack walking hurriedly around the trails with his two walking sticks swinging by his side. Why didn’t he swim or play tennis or disc golf, like the rest of us?

Socrates is given the credit for saying “the unexamined life is not worth living”. He said that, what, 2,000 years ago? Or more? But who does examine life?

I do. I’ve always paid attention to the world and where I fit or if I fit at all. My memory, is not eidetic, but details are noticed and often stick in my mind for no reason.

I watched The Price is Right the other morning. They have a game where a stick figure hiker climbs a stick mountain with every wrong answer by a contestant, until the stick figure falls off the top of the mountain and the player loses. That stick figure looked just like the old man walking from the past.

So what? As age has imposed its will, I’ve made adjustments: from singles tennis at a young age, to an aggressive doubles game, covering the entire court. Then to a doubles game covering only my half, and–at age 72–simply hoping to hit back any ball hit to me. At each stage the slow progression was apparent and the requisite adjustments made by design, with the knowledge someday…well…

When The Calamities hit last year, the requisite adjustment was to plan–and hope–for a life of walking. I’d always have my mobility, at least.

It was then The Price Is Right man from the past came back into focus and his reason for walking. I understood. And I am, now, at the stage of life he was, then.

One of the best things about being old and out of service is the extra time you have to examine life, to notice things. To pay attention. To learn. There is no longer any reason not to, except fear. But when I ask others if they examine their life the usual answer is “What?”, with the occasional “Why?”

None of it makes any difference, anyway. Whenever a weighty, important, monumental thought tries to invade my brain it also helps to remember this: in 150 years, everyone now alive on this planet will be dead and gone.

How’s that for examining life?

No. No more.

ness23456 Leave a comment

I was sitting around the locker room with some old men after working out. We really don’t know each other well, but we shared gripes and complaints galore. You could have powered several Lewis Black rants with the negativity. Age, youth, women, politics, weather…even God.

My first thought was to get home and write about it, share the sharp insights and general wittiness with the rest of the unenlightened world. At my desk, fingers poised above the keyboard, however, a quote from a favorite television show came to mind: “What all old people need is a positive attitude and someone to share it with.”

Hm. One of the main reasons Old People (OP) complain is it is one of the few activities we can do, anymore. It used to be OP were wise, too, from all the years of learning. But generations of non-OP folks ignoring and disrespecting us OP has left us jaded, ignored, and unheard. So we complain,…for attention.

But complaining doesn’t work, makes us even more un-noticed, and fosters an intended disrespect instead of just plain, old disinterest.

Thank God, my television show was on this morning when I began to write and the quote was repeated, a sign, I understood, from God: no more complaining.

I am by nature a contented person, liking all life offers except for fools, selfish people, and inconsiderate dolts (FSPID)*, so I was forced to explain to myself why complain, at all. Granted, a majority of the American population falls into one or more of the FSPIDs, but that’s always been the case, even when I was young. Did I complain, then? Or middle age?

So. As noted, I have someone to share my thoughts with: the locker room. Now all I need is to reignite the positivity somehow lost in the last decade. But I wonder if I’ll have to find a new locker room with a new group of OP…

* Pronounced “Fizzpids”

Aged versus Aging: A Gas Tank Analogy

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

If you are young or youngish, don’t read any more of this crap. This is a lament, not a rant, and its subtleties can only be understood by someone well over the legal drinking/ranting age.

This place is called The Aging Man for a reason. It’s not titled The Old Man. Or The Soon to be Dead Man. Its about aging and coming to grips with a force of nature bigger and larger than life and the universe and all of existence. It’s a great place for hyperbole, too.

See, when you’re old, you are done aging. Aging is the process of growing old. When you’re old, you’re old, and the process is over. Done. Kaput. Finite, the French kind.

At birth we are given a symbolic, mythical gas tank. It isn’t tangible, but its real. From birth to about age 30, the gas tank is full. It is loaded at birth with hope, promise, happiness, invincibility, and similar crap. This full tank of crap fuels our life as we mature and learn what life is really about, and what our futures will be like. We have enough gas to make several detours and be able to backtrack to where we started, and start again.

At age 30, the gas starts to run out. We sense it as we struggle with careers, family, fitness, all the important things we care about. Since we have no gas gauge, we don’t care, yet.

By age 60, it takes a little finagling, choking to start us every morning and we sometimes sputter at high speeds. This is when we begin to wonder what the heck is going on, and the gas gauge becomes visible. This is when we start to really feel the process.

We still have plenty of time and gas before we get old, but with each year the vision of the gas gauge gets clearer and clearer, and with each year that vision gets bleaker and bleaker.

And then we get old. Finally. The tank is nearly empty, just vapors left. Fumes. It’s hard to start in the morning, we can’t go fast, and we can’t go long distances. Things like grand-kids and our favorite team winning the Superbowl give us a half gallon or so of refill, but we see it, we know, it, and we learn to cherish it. We learn, too, no matter what we did the tank is empty with no gas station in site. Or in existence. The only comfort? We are not alone in the process. It happens to everyone.

It’s 2am in the morning and this is what I write? It might be time to change the title of this place.

Reverend Barber of North Carolina on TDS

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

It is not often a serious discussion gets a lengthy exposure without a gaggle of jokes on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show (TDS) on Comedy Central, streamed the next day on Paramount Plus. It is a comedy show.

But Reverend William Barber of North Carolina was a guest Monday night, June 17, 2024, and the weight of the discussion kept Jon from the usual antics during guest appearances. It is a Comedy show.

The subject of poverty is a heavy weight to bear. Watch the show or get the Reverend’s new Book titled “White Poverty” to see exactly how heavy.

Much was discussed but the one thing never mentioned, at least not heard by me, is what the real problem with poverty is: it is a historically classic example of Got Mine Go Away (GMGA). The numbers of people in poverty is staggering, even with the lowest estimates. The affect of said poverty on millions of people is a national disgrace rivaling the fentanyl and firearms catastrophes. And the border, too.

Dr. Barber’s point is the people suffering from poverty are not who you think they are. And they don’t act the way you think they act. Racism is a part of poverty, but it is more a class/caste war. Not a black-white issue but a true Us against Them in a capitalist battle nearing a tipping point. The downtrodden can only suffer so much for so long.

When you hear someone has “escaped from poverty”, who do you picture? And who did they take with them? It is a class of people and a way of life, and when you escape it there’s no going back. No returning to break the cycle for others. I’ve no facts to know this statement is true except to note poverty still exists and the Poverty Class is growing. There will be dire consequences for civilization if the Poverty Class reaches a point where there is no nope and no chance, and nothing to regret.

Musk, Bezos, Allen, Crowe, Buffet, Soros, others might be trying to help. But how hard? After all, the Capitalist System NEEDS a loser class, a Poverty Class, to ensure the unending flow of riches to those that do not need any more. Musk, alone could give nearly $1billion to every state in our union and see if helps make sure people have enough to eat, have water which won’t kill them, and healthcare when they need it.

It isn’t as simple as money because anytime money is flowing, aspiring Capitalists will be there to swallow it up. But it seems we could do something. Or at least talk about it. Anyone? Look how fast the rich respond when higher taxes are proposed. Can they solve poverty as fast? As least for one generation?

Watch the interview and check out the Reverend’s book.

Anyone.

Dems and Repubs Unite! Nah…

ness23456 Leave a comment

A small sample poll (done by me in my free time) of Americans reveals an interesting fact about the $48billion dollar Elon Musk payday: no one cares. NO ONE. At least that I have found in person. Some long distance friends are interested but since I couldn’t prove their identity with face to face communication, their votes were not included in my poll. Seriously. With AI you never know anymore who’s on the other end of you conversation unless you see them. (Sorry, Dennis.)

There is a certain segment of our American population, hereinafter known as the Flock, who view Musk as a hero, a righteous culture warrior not just winning big at capitalism and fleecing the Flock, but possibly a future power who can gobble up Anti-Trump media and shut them down. Or convert them to X.

Not one person asked had any idea how much of the $48billion might be taxpayer money, sent by the US Government to Musk subsidiaries for defense and intelligence work.

The problem is there are now about 5 to 10 people in the US alone, who have enough wealth and power to do what they want, anytime, anywhere. It appears the historical Republican effort to reduce regulations will be having an identity crisis, soon: the billionaires won’t pay any attention to regulations and laws anyway. The Billionaires can gut enforcement like the SEC by hiring all the SEC’s employees away. And for real good example of what money can do, look at all the lawyers protecting Trump (and his associates) from judicial justice. And Clarence Thomas. How many judges at state and federal levels are already influenced not by the law but by(buy) money? In Thomas’s case, he doesn’t care how it looks. Screw you, Flock,

In ten years we won’t have political countries we recognize. We’ll be back to the middle ages with fiefdoms with their own armies and governments. We’ll have a New Civil War on the American Continent between Amazonia and Muskovoy. And the European billionaires will take on the winner.

The saddest part of this poll? Even if EVERYONE cared, there probably isn’t anything we can do about it.

But for a start, we should all stop the GMGA attitude mentioned in an earlier article. Got Mine Go Away, if it is eradicated, won’t slow the Musks and Bezos of the world, but make what’s left for us, The Flock, a little easier to swallow.

Democrats and Republicans Unite!

ness23456 Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

It’s 7pm, June 13, 2024 and I was tucking myself in for a good nights sleep (until my first urination break) when the news hit my phone. Honestly, it is a beautiful 80 degree, dry, clear night in Upstate New York, one of those magical nights you won’t get in the south, so I really wasn’t going to sleep…just hanging out in my open window and if sleep came…blessed be the Lord. No tucking in, in other words.

That’s why the phone wasn’t off so I heard the news: Elon Musk is paying himself $48 billion dollars for his efforts this year. Hang tight, while I go throw up.

Can he now say he has more money than God? An even sadder part of the story was the reporting that over 340 CEOS paid themselves record wages this, year. RECORD WAGES. THIS YEAR.

If there is anyone reading this who knows where all this CEO pay is coming from, raise your hand. People who make this kind of money (or people who aspire to), will tell you he’s worth it. Musk’s shareholders, for example, APPROVED the pay by vote. Wonder how much of $48 billion goes back to them? Or what would have happened to those who voted against it?

It is the consummate Capitalist F*@&-you, from a part of our society who cares about NO ONE, not a liberal or conservative, Dem or Repub, racist or homophobe or Christian or Atheist, or…correction. Musk cares about us all because we are where the money is coming from. He needs us.

But he needs us a certain way. He needs us to consume and not ask questions, not wonder how much something is really worth. All the Teslas burning and being recalled? They don’t matter much. Might have cost him a few million in compensation, but who cares?

It is important to declare Musk is (probably) not doing anything illegal. Just taking advantage of a system we could all benefit from if we are as greedy, selfish, and egotistical as he is, and as are most billionaires. They see the American Public (and the world) as dollar signs, as sheep to be fleeced.

And we are a very easy population to fleece, as long as we focus on and argue about homosexuality, transgenderism, racism, religions under attack, elections being stolen. Next time you argue with someone who you think is bad for America, be sure to put your hands in your pockets so the CEOS can’t pick your pocket as you make your political points

If someone on the right or the left of the political spectrum wants to lose their mind over a conspiracy, try to figure out why anyone in the world could get away with paying himself $48 billion FOR ONE YEAR and not hear a peep about it.

Again, where, and on who, will a lot of the $48billion be spent. You could buy almost anything.

All I Want To Do Is Have Some Fun

ness23456 Leave a comment

The Sheryl Crow song referenced above was meant, I think, to celebrate the somewhat misdirected exuberance of lost youth. But it represents the mature mindset more accurately, and has become an annoying earworm.

When relocating to upstate New York, I made the mistake of buying a very comfortable rocking, recliner, henceforth known as The Chair. The error was compounded by placing The Chair in front of the wall of windows facing north. The situation was further aggravated by sitting in it.

My daily routine is early awake, bathroom duty (yes, “Duty”), small breakfast, and a small allotment of time for news of the world. Unfortunately, I receive that news from The Chair and the small allotment of time is getting bigger each day.

It wasn’t noticeable at first, the reclining just got longer and longer until one day it was time for lunch. Kidding. Any senior reading this knows urinary insecurity ruins everything and would end reclining time at some shorter, inopportune moment, but you get the point: it is a daily struggle to avoid the peacefulness, the comfort, the security, the heaven that is The Chair. And it calls my name all day, the siren call of a Naugahyde beast, though it might be real leather.

My lawyer daughter says the manufacturer can’t be sued for manufacturing such an addictive product, right after she refused an intervention to end the spiral of laziness.

When my 84 year-old mom went into the hospital for what she feared would be the end of her life, she prophetically, if enigmatically, warned me about this very thing. She was tired of being bombarded by tests and treatments no 84 year-old should have to endure when she said: “All I want to do is go home and sit in my chair one last time.”

Now, eight years later, I get it.

The addition to the morning routine, now, is the struggle to get out of The Chair and go have some fun. Do something. Pickelball. Swimming. Walking. Talk to people instead of watching them through the window. Enjoy the world.

So I make the effort every day to move from horizontal to vertical, wondering with each passing day: why bother when there is a heavenly, rocking alternative?

As the song says: “I have a feeling I am not the only one.”