Week of 08/29/2022

 

“Not Fair” Say The Hypocrites And Sadists
– by David Matthews 2

I’ll never forget my first car. 

Not the one I first used.  No, I’m talking about the first car that was in my name.  The one that I paid for.

It was a heavily-used retired police car, with all of the cop stuff removed from it except for the window-side spotlight.  My best friend’s father was the police chief for that town and he let me in on a good deal at the time.  It would be checked out, up to inspection and ready to go for a really good price.

My mom and I went to the bank, I took the money out from my account, and I soon had my own car; title and all.

My sister, however, was upset.  She demanded her own car.  She insists to this day that my mom bought me the car.  Even when I showed her the bank statement showing the money taken out of my account, she believes that my mom bought the car for me.

“It’s not fair,” she cried.

Of course, she assumed control of my mom’s vehicles.  She got into an accident with the first car, and then assumed control of the minivan, and when my mom had another car, she assumed that one too.  So much so that my parents literally gave her that vehicle.  Not sold.  Gave.  Eventually she would get her own vehicles, but I’ll never forget her cries of “It’s not fair” when it came to my first car.

It’s that self-centered indignant cry of “It’s not fair” that comes to mind anytime I hear the red-hat fascists bitch when it comes to President Joe Biden’s recent student loan debt forgiveness.

Student loan payments have been put on hold for over two years as of this posting.  You can thank the orange-skinned narcissist for that, along with a few other things that were put on hold because of the global pandemic.  But while the rent payments and foreclosures have resumed for a year now, student loan payments have continually been put on hold thanks to Biden.  This has helped millions of Americans who have been struggling to keep ends met since then, not to mention try to find work for those who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

Up until the other week, Biden’s people have been forgiving the student debt of those who were tricked into enrolling into what would essentially be diploma mills.  “Schools” that weren’t even as good as the paper students got.  About $6 billion of that debt was forgiven.

But Biden had promised to forgive a whole lot more when he was campaigning for the White House in 2020.  And the voters were reminding him of that since then.

Now he’s followed through with his pledge.  This past week, Biden announced that $10,000 of student loans will be forgiven for millions of Americans who make under $125,000 a year.  That number goes to $20,000 if those same Americans who make under $125,000 a year took out Pell Grants.

And now here come the red-hat hypocrites.

“It’s not fair!” they’re screaming.  “It’s not fair to give those deadbeats money!  If they took out a loan they should pay it off!  It’s not fair!”

“It’s not fair” cry the red-hat fascist members of Congress that had millions in “Paycheck Protection Program” loans forgiven.

“It’s not fair” cry the Big Corporate leaders and soothsayers who celebrated when they got their tax cuts and tax breaks a few years ago.

“It’s not fair” cry the “Too Big To Fail” bank execs who got billions in bailout money in 2008 and never had to worry about going to prison for the crimes they committed on the millions they screwed over.

“It’s not fair” scream the followers of a certain orange-skinned narcissist who is legendarily notorious for not paying bills and suing those who try to collect.  He even did a commercial for Dominos where he countered their deal with a duplicate of that deal and then took the pizzas without paying for them.

“It’s not fair!”

“It’s not fair!”

“It’s not fair!”

You’re right.

But there are a lot of things that aren’t fair.

It’s not fair that people got talked into taking out student loans on the false promise that they would end up working jobs that would pay enough for them to pay those loans off in a timely manner.  A false promise that is still being regurgitated today.

It’s not fair that the price of a college education is so high that only the rich can afford to go without taking on debt.  Maybe that’s the way it’s always been, but that still doesn’t make it fair.

It’s not fair that – for the most part – student loans are the only loans that cannot be automatically forgiven through bankruptcy.  A rich narcissist can claim bankruptcy and have the loans to his expensive mansion, his beach house on the Hamptons, his Gulfstream jet, and his yacht with a smaller yacht and a helipad forgiven without so much as a word in question.  But a hard-working American going through three jobs and still can’t make ends meet can’t be forgiven that $80,000 in student loans if he declares bankruptcy. They have to leap through more hurdles than the rich man’s debts.  And that is because of the actions of that same fascist party decades ago who are now screaming “It’s not fair”.

No, it’s all not fair. 

And even $20,000 is not enough to relieve many Americans of their debt burden.  They’ll still have to pay when the loan payments resume this coming January.  Two years of not having to worry about those loans will come to an end and that means money coming out of their pockets again on top of higher costs for food and healthcare and everything else.

Now, full disclosure... I did go to college.  And I did take out student loans, including Pell Grants, so I could get my Bachelor’s degree. Did that degree give me jobs that would pay more than others?  Nope.  I spent years working minimum wage jobs to help keep bills paid.  In one job I ended up reporting to a guy who was hired the same day as I was, but was given a supervisory position because he was fresh out of Desert Storm.  He didn’t go to college.  Same with a few other people that I ended up having as supervisors.  But I was also very lucky in that I had a dead relative leave my parents more than enough in the will so my debt can be paid in full among other things.  I am very thankful for that.  And, yes, I am using my education... just not in ways that pay more than anyone else.

But I’m not upset that others will have a small portion of their burdens relieved.  Not in the least!  Because let’s get brutally honest here... people have been screwed over for too damned long and only a goddamned hypocritical sadist would scream “unfair” that the burden of some gets lightened while the sadist has long enjoyed their own benefits.

If you worship a narcissist who doesn’t pay his own bills, then you have no claim to cry “unfair” when others who have been struggling get a little help.

If you’ve had loans forgiven in the past, then you have no claim to cry “unfair” when others get a portion of theirs forgiven.

If you claim to be a Christian, then you sure as hell have no business whatsoever crying “unfair” about any kind of debt forgiveness when the Book of Deuteronomy says as plain as day that you should forgive all debts every seven years.  And, yes, that was part of my college education.

And if you want to sit there on your overpaid, overvalued fat ass and complain that some hypothetical worker is supposedly “paying” for some so-called “deadbeat” who went to college, I say look in the mirror, because all too often the real deadbeat is you.

Oh, and I’ll leave you with the very words you yourselves chant when the talk is about fairness when it benefits you...

Life is not fair!  Deal with it!

Week of 08/22/2022

 

Stop It!  Just Stop It!
– by David Matthews 2

The hard part about doing a weekly commentary/opinion column is that sometimes you have a problem narrowing on just one subject.  Sometimes it’s the beating the dead horse of the same subject that just can’t seem to go away.  Sometimes it’s a whole bunch of subjects that are just too small to really get a good article going.

Well in this case, these are little things that really just get on my nerves, and they all make me want to grab them by the lapels and scream “Stop it!  Just stop it!”  And I’m sure some of you would want to do that too.

Coke and Pepsi – Stop it with the “new flavors”!  The big soda companies can’t just seem to leave well enough alone with their soft drinks.  Coke keeps wanting to re-invent Coca-Cola, their premiere soda, but people keep wanting the old stuff back.  But that’s not enough for them.  Coke is trying to come up with “new flavors” to add to their list. 

Not too long ago they came up with “Coke Starlight”, which they claimed tasted “like a galaxy”.  Actually, it tasted sort of like a certain Pepsi product that is hard to find, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Their newest flavor is “Coke Dreamworld”, which is supposed to “taste like a dream”.  I’m sorry, but, no, it doesn’t taste like dreams.  It tastes like sadness with carbonated syrup.  No dream feels that sad and no nightmare comes off that sweet.

Then there’s Pepsi and their ever-changing flavors of Mountain Dew.  I mean, it’s one thing to have the original, and then they came up with “Code Red” and “Voltage” – this commentator’s personal favorite – but then they decided to shelve “Voltage” and come up with all of these other flavors involving mangos and melons and at some point they decided to go down the path of chemical warfare with their “flaming hot” cayenne pepper drink.

First, I’m glad they changed their minds and brought back “Voltage”, but it’s still hard to find because stores keep on shoving all of these “Baja” variations plus the stuff that nobody is really buying.  When “Code Red” and “Voltage” keeps on vanishing from the shelves but all of those other flavors stay there and collect dust, that should tell the Pepsi suits something that they clearly are not listening.

Simply put, Coke and Pepsi... stop it!  Just stop it!

Fast Food People – enough with the crispy and spicy!  There’s a very simple reason why I don’t like fried anything from fast food people and that is that, all too often, there’s more fried than food.  If it seems thick, it’s because there’s too much breading instead of more meat.  If it’s “crispy” it means it’s over-fried and I’m likely to lose a tooth in the exchange.  And if it’s “spicy” it means there’s hot stuff on the breading, not what’s inside.

By the way, the same applies to those frozen meals.  What the hell is up with the chemical warfare options?  It’s like every microwavable meal is now loaded with the same chemicals as in tear gas.  Whatever happened to other forms of spices?  You know, salt, garlic, paprika?  Do you really have to layer everything in toxic levels of cayenne to make it uneatable?

Either way, I won’t choose it if I have to, so stop it!  Just stop it!

Warner Brothers Discovery – enough with the games!  WBD CEO David Zaslav has a problem with the new media conglomerate that he’s been put in charge of.  He axed the “Batgirl” movie on some bogus claims of it “failing” some tests, then declared that it will never be released, not in the theatres or on HBO Max.  Oh and he’s not fond of HBO Max either.  Apparently he doesn’t want stuff to premiere there.  He wants everything back on the big screens.

By the way, you should expect bootleg versions of “Batgirl” to make the convention rounds soon.  That’s what happens to a production that gets axed instead of being released.  That’s what happened with the never-released TV pilot for “Wonder Woman”, not to mention Roger Corman’s version of “Fantastic Four”.

You know, you guys should see what passes for entertainment on the Discovery channels.  “Reality” shows, documentary series, and crime dramas.  Seriously, you really want to talk about quality when you air shows called “Wicked Tuna”, “Storage Wars”, “My 90-Day Fiancé”, “Long Island Medium”, and multiple variations of a heavily censored “Naked and Afraid”?

And, you guys are going to put that catalogue in your “new” version of HBO Max, but you axed 200 episodes of Sesame Street and cancelled the popular series Young Justice?

Meanwhile, your rivals at Disney are cranking out pretty much every show they can come up with.  Second-grade villain from a Marvel series gets her own series.  A supporting character that was killed in a Star Wars movie gets a prequel series.  They’re not talking about quality or testing audiences.  They’re just putting them on their streaming service.  Anyone want a LEGO Star Wars summer special with evil characters in ugly swimsuits?  They got it, while everything that has WB or DC on it is either on the ropes or are being scrapped for “tax reasons”.

Seriously, Zaslav... stop it!  Just stop it!

Social Media – Enough with the censorship!  Now I’m not talking about people committing violent acts or doing stupid stunts or threatening insurrection and putting it on Tik Tok or Snapchat.  No, I’m talking about women who happen to have these things called breasts that end up getting reported if they’re showing anything less than a full burqa.  I am sick and tired of hearing about women who happen to show cleavage getting their videos reported and taken down while some racist thug decides to post their acts of violence for entertainment.  Enough with the misogynist reporting!

Stop it!  Just frigging stop it!

Insurance Companies – stop doing stupid ads!  Yes, I’m talking to you, Liberty Mutual and Progressive.  Your ads aren’t funny.  They’re not cute or comical.  They’re annoying.  They’ve been annoying.  I’m sorry that nobody told you guys that but it’s true.  They don’t encourage me to get insurance from you.  They encourage me to reach for the channel changer or the mute button.

Stop it.  Just... seriously... stop it.

Food People and Delivery People - Enough with the tipping fetish!  You know, I worked in the service industry once upon a time.  I flipped burgers and cooked fries and cleaned tables.  I know the frustrations of the fast-food business, and it was for a whole lot cheaper than what you’re getting today. 

But do you know what I didn’t try to do?  I didn’t put a tip jar by the drive-thru window and expect people to pay extra for the food that they already paid for.  I didn’t refuse to give food to people who didn’t already pre-tip.

Do you know what tipping means?  It means gratitude for the quality of service you performed.  You’re not *owed* a tip.  You’re given one after you’ve done your service.

By the way, this includes all you self-entitled UberEats and DoorDash drivers.  If you’re not going to do your jobs because your customers don’t want to pre-tip you via their credit card, then you need to find another line of work, and those customers should consider getting their food themselves.  I don’t deal with DoorDash or UberEats or any other food delivery service for that very reason.

For the record, I do tip the pizza delivery people, and I’m pretty generous with it.  But I do it in person and give them cash.  Same when I go pick up Chinese food from my favorite restaurant.  In person and in cash. 

So stop it, you entitled pricks.  Just stop it.

And finally...

News Services – enough with the fake horse races!  Let’s get brutally honest here... I’m so sick and tired of politics right now, and the biggest reason has to do with these fake polls that the news services keep churning out about who is “ahead” or what the “approval rate” is.  The minute anyone takes office, on the state or federal level, these news services churn out “approval ratings” and whether or not they would win re-election as if it was going to happen that day.

Enough with this!  I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it.  The only poll that matters is the ballot box.  Everything else... and I mean every-single-thing-else... is fantasy politics.  It’s all fake.  It’s all speculation that has nothing to do with the actual elections.

So stop it already.  Just frigging stop it!

Week of 08/15/2022

 

Media: Shut the Hell Up About Precedence and Divisiveness!
– by David Matthews 2

This is an open message to the news services.  The real ones, that is.  Not the ones that are the poorly-disguised propagandist tools of a fascistic party and their orange-skinned narcissistic self-appointed messiah.  This doesn’t really apply to them because they’re not playing these games like you guys are.

There are two things that the news services have been obsessed with of late concerning politics in general and anything associated with said orange-skinned narcissistic self-appointed messiah of the fascistic party.  Two things that they continually drone on and on about that they really need to stop.

The first is this obsession with precedence.  This is regarding that certain orange-skinned narcissist.  You guys are really fixated on “precedence” when it comes to any kind of action concerning that orange-skinned narcissist.  Every action, be it an investigation, be it talking about criminal charges, be it a grand jury, be it the recent execution of a search warrant at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, all of it you continually say “has never happened before with any other president, current or former!”

No kidding!

No, we have never had a former President of the United States of America under actual criminal investigation, or had a search warrant executed at their residence, or had a grand jury hearing for possible criminal charges including racketeering.  We’ve also never had a former president under investigation for violating the Espionage Act.

We’ve never had a president before him who refused to release his tax returns at all and fought tooth-and-nail to keep anyone from seeing them.  Hell, he’s still fighting it!  Every time the courts rule against him, he files yet another appeal and demands they be kept secret.  He’s not even pretending to claim he’s “under audit” anymore.  No other president, current or former, has ever done that.  They have all made their returns available when asked back when they were candidates.

We’ve never had a president before him who did not previously serve in some other political or military capacity before being elected president.  Not as a soldier, not as a member of Congress, not as a governor, not as a state legislator, not even as a local dog catcher.

We’ve never had a president before him who acted like a mob boss and treated the office like a third-world criminal organization.  Who demanded one-sided loyalty and fealty over country, law, ethics, or even politics.  Who weaponized every office under his control to serve his will specifically.

We’ve never had a president before him who did not blatantly violate the emoluments clause of the United States Constitution.  All previous presidents have been careful to not give the appearance of impropriety when it came to their business dealings.  Even Jimmy Carter had to be careful because of his brother’s short-lived beer business.  But not this guy.  Nope.  If he wasn’t in the White House, he was at one of his hotels or resorts, and everyone knew it, which is why world leaders would pay those places a visit.  And his hand-picked members of the U.S. Supreme Court allowed him to get away with it.

We’ve had presidents before him who have been impeached by the House of Representatives.  Two to be precise, and one of them over lying under oath about oral gratification.  But we’ve never had a president before him who was impeached twice (and not-convicted twice).  Almost all previous presidents have had at least some modicum of respect for the office to not go through impeachment with the obvious exception of those three presidents.  Even Richard Nixon had enough respect for the office to resign before he could be impeached.  But not the narcissist.

We’ve never had a president before him who refused to accept the results of the election, and who blatantly said he wouldn’t years beforehand!  He was the one who out-and-out said with a straight face “I will accept the results of the election... if I win.”  He said that in 2016 and he continued to say it in 2020, laying down his plan to declare voter fraud months before the November election.

We’ve never had a president before him who refused to have a peaceful transition of power.  Instead, he filed more lawsuits than a whole law firm of ambulance-chasers, campaigned for money from his believers, and incited an insurrection on January 6^th, 2021.  No president before him has ever done that.  Ever.  He didn’t even bother to show up at the inauguration of his successor.  He just fled to Mar-a-Lago like the gutless coward that he is.

No, we’ve never had a president like him before.  Ever.  And we’d like to make sure there is never one like him ever again.

So shut the hell up about precedence.  There is none when it involves him.  At all. 

The other thing that the news services are fixated upon is this fear of “divisiveness”.  And this is focused more on the fascistic political party and the extremist faction of America that said orange-skinned narcissist has appointed himself the messiah of.

It seems like every action taken by either the White House or Congress since the orange-skinned narcissist has left office is under the news service filter of whether or not it would be “divisive” or if it would either “divide America” or “further divide America”.

Every bill being proposed, every White House action, every executive order, every investigation made, is all done with the fear that it could be “divisive”.  The news services keep asking over and over about whether or not any action done, or no action at all, would “further divide the nation”.

Stop it!  Just goddamn stop it!

Let’s get brutally honest here... America is already divided.  It has been for years now, and it’s not going to get any better.

What, did you think that we’d all just come together after the narcissist left office?  That everything would be just hunky-dory and the fascists would just work with the Democrats again like nothing happened?  You are delusional if you think that way!

America has been divided for decades now.  Decades.  And it’s only gotten worse over the years.  Where once it was a matter of political party, and then political leaning, now it’s become a death cult party of the narcissist, with all of the biases and distortions and delusions in full unapologetic view.

There is no amount of appeasement that will satisfy this faction of America.  Inflation could be erased tomorrow, gas prices brought down to a $1 a gallon, free food and Internet for every American – hell, they could each be given a million dollars in cash – and that faction will continue to hate and despise everything that isn’t connected to their messiah.  Their followers in the legislature will continue to oppose whatever their leader tells them to oppose.  They’ll continue to spin tall tales about how horrible everything is because their messiah is not in the White House.

We’ve seen this before, of course.  Not just in Italy in the 1920’s and Germany in the 1930’s, but with America in the time before and after the Civil War of 1861.  The same mindset, the same mentality, the same level of extremism, the same rhetoric, even the same level of militant posturing and acts of violence.  The divisiveness didn’t end after the Civil War did.  No, they kept it going even after the “Confederacy” died.

The only way those divisive sides ended was when their people did.  When they died off or otherwise met their ends violently.  It was easier for Germany and Italy to get rid of their fascists only because there was a World War that did them in and they happen to lose badly.  19^th and 20^th century America, not so easily. 

The folks here in the American Southeast still cling to old mindsets because that’s what their pappy and grandpappy and great-grandpappy taught them.  They whitewashed their history, making them appear to be the victims of an overreaching federal government when they themselves were the instigators who tried to break off from the government that they now claim they love.  And that mindset continues on with our current divisive group of so-called “Americans” who wave the banner of the narcissist.

So lay off with this talk about “divisiveness” and whether or not the country will be “divided” or “further divided” by anything that is done or not done by the guy currently in the White House.  Everything that is done or not done by the current President will neither mend nor widen the divide that already exists.  The faction that follows the narcissist like the death cult they are in will not see reason.  They will stay bitter and hostile and divisive until they either come to their own senses on their own or until they eventually shuffle off this mortal coil, and this commentator is leaning more towards the latter for a good majority of them.

Seriously, news service, knock it off with these games.