Ramblings

Yesterday was my birthday, and today I am sort of celebrating it. I am going to make a vegan red velvet cake and hopefully go to the Loving Hut. The Loving Hut is interesting, it is a franchise run by a cult of sorts led by a woman known as Supreme Master Ching Hai. For all my hatred of religion, I can't find them harmful, just naive.

I've been thinking a lot about politics, (which is common.) Despite being very far left, my general opinion is that we need moderates in this country at the moment to keep things moving smoothly. Listening to conservative talk radio has convinced me that at least half the conservatives refuse to see this, and are batshit insane. The one I hate the most, who actually makes me rage, is Mark Levin, whose only saving grace is his strange love of dogs. If the other hosts push away liberal attempts to communicate with them, he crushes them in seconds with naming calling and instant hang-ups. He yells at and insults his own audience, and his rantings remind me of Hitler in their ferocity. Furthermore, he has gone so far as to say Reagan created, what was it, 40 million jobs?, crediting his success as part of three or four successive presidential terms after him. This must be how conservative logic works.

Ultimately though, I am most disappointed in the left. In their failure to follow through with promises and their failure to act like mature adults. In Obama's failure to close Guantanamo, with prisoners kept there outside of any legal means of trial, many of whom may simply be guilty of speaking in support of Saddam or terrorist groups, rather than being terrorists. If they are even guilty of that. If he really needed a state for a prison, force one, pick a very red state. I volunteer Florida, our voters are idiots and we are the closest. It's not super red, but it always does something stupid. This year it is the early Republican primaries.

I am disappointed in Obama's failure to raise taxes for the rich, which could have kept medicare, medicaid, and social security funded for a long time. Reagan lowered taxes for the rich so drastically, and shifted the tax burden to the poor and middle class, and Obama could have fixed that easily with a majority in the House and Senate. Instead he pushed that abortion of a bill, Obamacare. Something that was so far from the original picture that it was damaging to the poor and the middle class who live paycheck to paycheck. People shouldn't have to pay for universal healthcare through anything but taxes, and the rich should carry the burden.

As has been said in the past, no one ever became rich on their own. And as I would add, there were many backs, heads, and feet they had to crush to get there. Them having an "option" to write a check to the government isn't enough. I'm not hugely concerned about the middle class, like many Americans. They put themselves in debt and live beyond their means, though it is often as a product of society. I am much more worried for the poor. They suffer the most and have the least representation because they suffer from lower education rates, lower voting rates, higher propensity for crime, all due to poverty and living conditions and lack of funding to aid them. The rich whine the loudest, the politicians promise the middle class the most (but rarely deliver the full amount,) and the poor get pushed away every time.

Obviously I am for full redistribution of wealth and I think their are certain rights that the government owes its people, such as housing, food, clothing, education to college, health insurance, and other necessities. It's not impossible to pay for these. I just don't believe in a speedy path to communism. More of a slow crawl that slips into it gradually enough to get people used to it.