Hearing an executive try to tell Congress that his is an American company and that the cars in question were American cars was the beginning...I am grateful that they are assembling some here and sourcing some of their parts here, but the design and engineering came from "home" and that is where the profits go...back to his country...the one that our military defends. My old ship was homeported there for her last 11 years as deterrent to China and North Korea; now one of her newer sisters is, along with crew and families and a helluva a lot of our tax dollars.
As the man realized he was upsetting the Congress people he tried to explain; it started to sound like he was blaming the workers when another Congressperson went after him.
Got in the truck to run errands and heard someone from Wellpoint explaining that they had to raise their rates 39% to cover their costs. When she was asked about her salary she said she got $1.3 million a year in salary, $8.5 million in stock options and another $73,000 for something else.
Geez, we didn't make $73,000 last year...both of us together!
Then I get back home and turn on CNN to find out that a "killer whale", held in captivity despite having killed twice already, had just killed it's 3rd trainer. While I'm not "anti-zoo" and I realize that there are some creatures we wouldn't have in this world anymore were it not for captivity and breeding programs, etc., I don't think Shamu is on that list!
I'm sure tomorrow I'll get up and start my day with the Weather Channel and MSNBC and CNN again, along with my news page and Facebook and Twitter and a half dozen other places I go looking for things.
But right now I'd like to climb in a barrel and pull the lid on after me!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
6 comments:
I stopped watching the news on TV a while ago. I still read about it online, but somehow not having the talking heads filtering it all for me makes it easier to handle. I read about that trainer being killed by a killer whale. While I feel bad for her, her family, loved ones, co-workers, etc. I don't blame the captive creature one bit. This is a huge ocean animal, it doesn't belong in a tank doing the same tricks over and over again.
Don't get me started on Wellpointe.
I heard that killer whale story first thing on waking this morning, and had a vision of the whale escaping to the sea and teaching all the other whales to attack people, like Hitchcock's Birds but bigger. Scary. Little brother watched killer whales in the Falklands, rushing up onto the beach to grab seals but ignoring him. I think I'd have been pretty rattled if that happened next to me.
Health care is of particular interest to me. It's indicative of the greater issue eroding America: Control of the economic elite, the ruling minority.
The rich get richer and the middle class continues its economic freefall. 1% of Americans own 75% of ALL American wealth. Yup, explains a lot when it comes to unconscionable health care premiums increases, credit card rate abuse, Wall Street fraud, precipitious home foreclosure and unabated job loss.
The economic elite not only control monetary policy, they gatekeep conservative spin to do so. Gross distortion of fact is dumbed-down into clever catch phrases aimed at hitting an emotional, "below the belt" chord with a frustrated middle America. Socialism, communism, fascism. Name your "ism" the elite will spin it to their advantage.
Ironically, this rhetorical nonsense scratches a deep, festering societal itch, placating the uninformed masses who mind-numbingly take their dutiful place in a self-destcrutive line. Like a bunch of distracted grade-schoolers lining up for recess, they gleefully drink the Kool-Aid--even as the world around them withers, collapes and falls away.
Ignorance is bliss, the uninformed are blind.
Time to open our eyes, inform ourselves and proactively engage the political process to control our own destiny.
We now return you to your regular programming. Cheers, Keri
Go Keri! Wow.
Some days are just like that.
My dad, who farmed, always told us to remember that animals are animals to always respect them and not treat them like humans.
Makes you want to plug and throw the tube out the window.
But then I would miss Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert :)
Things have to get better...
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