Division cannot rule the day..

It's both fascinating and disheartening listening to conservatives these days. Some seem to believe that anyone receiving any benefits at all are greedy moochers. Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL, decided to blame two sick babies for reducing 401K benefits. It was a smokescreen for bashing the Affordable Care Act, but of course he went there. Outrage ensued, and the contribution structure was reinstated. But this typifies the lies told throughout by conservatives to keep the vitriol going. It's easy to blame the uninformed. After all, if they actually read a newspaper, or watched TV, they'd know something, right? But how is anyone supposed to know anything when there is so much confusion about it? Well, if conservative media outlets, pundits, and legislators would start telling the truth, and let everyone make decisions based upon facts, then we might actually get somewhere.

Take for example the most recent information from the CBO on the ACA reducing jobs in the future. The fact is that some people work only to pay for their health insurance. With the Affordable Care Act, these folks may be able to reduce their hours further, start a new business, go to college, retire sooner, or stay home and raise their kids. Of course if we had single payer which didn't tie health insurance to our employers, then this would be a non-issue. We would be born, receive a health care card, pay in to the system on a sliding scale if we made enough money to do so, probably in the form of taxes, and then go to the doctor when we need to. Simple. Until conservative heads explode and scream socialism. They need to get over that. If you're healthy, you can work and contribute to society. If you're not, then you shouldn't have to choose between getting the care you need and, you know, living. 

I know what that's like. When I attended college, my parents refused to let me work summers. I had to keep attending college, because in my mother's view, if I took a summer off to earn money for tuition and expenses, I'd never go back to finish my degree. She was ridiculous. Finishing my degree was a given. Eventually, I lived on my own, had a part time work study job, and after much compromise, I received additional money each month from my mother which she told me I couldn't spend. I know. My entire childhood was one impossible situation after another. I lived on approximately $350 per month. I had to pay for my apartment, phone, utilities, and my bus pass. And I had to have enough for food. I didn't. I became so ill that a co-worker left a bottle of multi-vitamins in my inbox at work. I spent a year and a half alternating between bronchitis and a staph infection, finally resulting in a kidney infection. The medicine was so expensive ($25) that I couldn't afford it. I had to beg my mother to come down to the university clinic to take me to a pharmacy and pay for them. She finally relented after a huge argument. The clinic staff stood there, dumbfounded as they listened to my side of the conversation and just stared at her when she arrived to pick me up. She bitched the whole way to the pharmacy and I was so upset that I couldn't speak. She made a fool of herself while at the pharmacy as she denigrated me for being sick, complaining she had to drive "all the way into downtown Portland" after work to do this for me. She lived seven miles from the university.

It's this "catch-22" position in which many people now find themselves. No one asked for the financial crisis and it's clear that it was created by conservative policies. Trickle down never trickled down for the rest of us like our one percent overlords promised. We do what is asked of us and we get nothing but nonsense. We're treated like we're moochers for wanting unemployment insurance to take us through difficult times that politicians created. We're treated like takers when we want affordable health insurance and like socialists if we want that to be a single payer system.

However, we're not the people who should be ashamed. The unabashedly unashamed in our country are dividing us at an alarming rate. And it feels like they do it for sport. Racism, sexism, and any other ism are ruining this country. The conservatives have created such division by lying about almost everything, couching it in racism and sexism. And if they don't get their way, they simply obstruct. They lost the presidency the last two times, so they nearly bring the country to its knees by shutting down the government. It wasn't enough to bring about the sequester which harms struggling Americans, they had to risk our country's credit rating in the process. They confuse everyone about the reality of the debt ceiling, which should confuse no one because most people have a credit card. We all understand finance charges and interest. If I don't pay off my credit card, I incur finance charges. Simple concept. It doesn't give the President a blank check to fill out with that pen he's now threatening to use. And while we're on the subject of credit, how much do we still owe for both wars? The Bush Administration lies us into two wars, doesn't pay for it because of the whole "we'll be greeted with flowers" idea, telling us that we'll be in and out in no time and oil profits will fund the war. Right. Things never turn out the way they say..

Here's the thing. You can't blow up the economy and then take it out on the American people by killing any and all jobs programs offered up for vote. Blowing up the economy was bad enough, but to not help Americans find work? What's wrong with you people? (HT: Ann Romney) The answer is to apologize, then get out of the way and let intelligent people try to fix it. And you can't stand by and gripe about how that happens. You caused the mess. If you can't do anything to actually help, then for the love of all that is holy, shut the hell up. The last thing any of us need is your divisive and destructive input to screw things up any further. You clearly do NOT know what you're doing.

Conservatives lost the presidency because of the way they think about, well, everything. They target voters, women, children, veterans, unemployed, healthcare, and apparently bridge traffic to control the narrative. The problem is, we're not listening anymore. The more you denigrate us and try to take our rights away, the more we detest you. And that translates into voting for the other party. Any other party. At this point, newborn infants running the country would be an improvement. Division has never gotten anyone anywhere except alone. Conservatives would do well to understand that concept. As many are Christians, you'd think that unity would be natural.

We have a chance in November, and then again in 2016 to get the country back on track. We can't do that with the current conservative viewpoint. Either they have to become compassionate and sane, or progressive and compassionate Americans have to be the adults in the room and deal with them in the best way possible..by voting blue. 

As the shutdown looms..

My husband is a disabled Vietnam veteran who receives benefits from the Veteran's Administration each month. This is what happens when something goes wrong while in service to our country. We promise to take care of our veterans. They take care of us and, in turn, we take care of them. 

Unless you're a Tea Party Republican. Those people don't care about anyone. It's almost as if they're living in an alternate universe that's bleeding into ours. They don't make any sense and clearly do not understand what governing is. These mentally challenged individuals believe that they can control spending by not raising the debt limit. Trying to reason with them only falls on deaf ears. It's a fairly simple concept, really. I'm sure they all have credit cards. If they don't pay off the balance each month, they have to pay, say it with me now, interest or finance charges on the remaining balance. Or, say you finance a car you want to buy. You'll pay a certain amount of interest on that loan. Same thing happens when you buy a home. It all adds to the debt you owe. That's what the debt ceiling thing is. Voting each time to agree to simply pay the bills we've already agreed to incur is stupid and pointless. We owe the money. And although I know that old school Republicans exist, they're either too intimidated by these people, or they just don't care anymore to stop them. And now the Tea Party Republicans want to bail on our fiscal responsibilities. How can they hold office if they don't understand this? If this were a business, they'd be fired.

Somehow, they've even managed to incorporate the idea of freedom, into the equation. Unfortunately all they've really accomplished in my estimation is reducing freedom to an unrecognizable slogan or buzzword. And yet, they seem to be the biggest control freaks around. They want to force women to have vaginal ultrasounds before having an abortion, a constitutionally protected medical procedure. They know they can't win elections so much anymore because of how insane they are so they re-draw the districting lines or find other ways to suppress the vote. It's always in areas that typically vote for Democrats, so I guess they think if they stack the vote in their favor, they'll be back in control.

But let's look at what they do when Republicans (Tea Party or not) are in control. They lied us into two wars. They ended the Assault Weapons Ban. They crashed the economy. They enact laws typically on the state level that endanger workers' rights and women's rights. They seem to favor only protecting corporations instead of protecting people. They don't believe in climate change and they don't care if the earth is polluted out of existence. They pay homage to the 1% because that's who fills their election coffers. And then there's the racism. That filters into everything. It's part of why they voted to reduce the SNAP program by almost 40 billion. And don't even get me started on immigration reform or the whole, corporations are people my friend crap. This is compassionate conservatism at its finest.

And now they want to shut down the government unless we defund the Affordable Care Act. Never mind that the ACA is covering kids until they're 26. Never mind that pre-existing conditions will be covered. Never mind that it's going to save people money. Never mind that millions will have health insurance for maybe the first time ever. Never mind the facts, because as we all have seen, the GOP doesn't ever let facts get in the way of decision-making. Instead, they make stuff up out of whole cloth and expect the rest of us to buy it hook, line and sinker. Well, we're a whole lot smarter than that.

The country is in a mess. Crazy people always come out of the woodwork when these things happen. Many of them were elected to Congress. If we don't get them out of office, our country will never get back on track. The American people deserve better than these lunatics. We cannot stay home in 2014. We have to stand up and tell these morons that we deserve better than what they've given us. Vote.