(no subject)
My "what-I-would-do-if-I-won-the-lottery" fantasy has always changed to some degree, depending on wherever I am in my life. Right now, it would be to temporarily go the Gulf, don a rubber apron and give every pelican, bird and washable wetlands animal bathtime. So I've started buying one Powerball ticket each week.
This isn't some "accident." This is symbolic of what America has become. Things like accountability and oversight got the slur of big government, as if asking corporations for some degree of public responsibility was akin to a horror out of 1984. For a country that prides itself on its entrepreneurialism, all I see is is a lot of investment--in advertising, in buying off the government--to keep things the way they are. All for the sake of immediate profit; all at the expense of finding safer, cleaner alternatives. I don't know whether I get more anger or laughs out of the commentary coming from our own leaders or would-be leaders. Like when Rand Paul suggested that Obama criticizing BP was anti-American. It's only anti-American if you think America is just its corporations....oh wait, I'm sure that IS what Rand Paul believes anyway. I guess I'm in the minority for thinking it's pro-American to defend people's right to live in clean, safe environments and to respect our ecosystem. And to believe there is no limit to the fines, criminal charges and regulation that has to come out of this.
I don't think I can handle the midterm elections coming up. A cynicism and ugliness always permeates them, but with this oil spill, it feels more accentuated to see all the misdirected money and superficial squabbles and distractions. I'm still feeling the disappointment of the UK election and Gordon Brown's/Labour's replacement by the Cameron-Clegg coalition, which I find absurd and bad. But back to the U.S. I loved Jerry Brown's comment that Meg Whitman's 80 million media blitz was something characteristic of totalitarianism. Yes, it certainly is. I'm putting my hopes on Brown and hoping it can end this trend of billionaries and multi-millionaries deciding that playing politician would be an amusing little thing to do post-retirement from the business world. Never mind if you don't know anything about policy, running government, or hell, if you had never much voted up to this point. It's yours because you can throw more money at it than anyone else! Eighty million dollars, and California's population is 37 million...so, it would be like paying $2.16 per vote. Funny how something so expensive can also be so cheap.
And in any other context, eighty million would do so much. Ask the Gulf.
This isn't some "accident." This is symbolic of what America has become. Things like accountability and oversight got the slur of big government, as if asking corporations for some degree of public responsibility was akin to a horror out of 1984. For a country that prides itself on its entrepreneurialism, all I see is is a lot of investment--in advertising, in buying off the government--to keep things the way they are. All for the sake of immediate profit; all at the expense of finding safer, cleaner alternatives. I don't know whether I get more anger or laughs out of the commentary coming from our own leaders or would-be leaders. Like when Rand Paul suggested that Obama criticizing BP was anti-American. It's only anti-American if you think America is just its corporations....oh wait, I'm sure that IS what Rand Paul believes anyway. I guess I'm in the minority for thinking it's pro-American to defend people's right to live in clean, safe environments and to respect our ecosystem. And to believe there is no limit to the fines, criminal charges and regulation that has to come out of this.
I don't think I can handle the midterm elections coming up. A cynicism and ugliness always permeates them, but with this oil spill, it feels more accentuated to see all the misdirected money and superficial squabbles and distractions. I'm still feeling the disappointment of the UK election and Gordon Brown's/Labour's replacement by the Cameron-Clegg coalition, which I find absurd and bad. But back to the U.S. I loved Jerry Brown's comment that Meg Whitman's 80 million media blitz was something characteristic of totalitarianism. Yes, it certainly is. I'm putting my hopes on Brown and hoping it can end this trend of billionaries and multi-millionaries deciding that playing politician would be an amusing little thing to do post-retirement from the business world. Never mind if you don't know anything about policy, running government, or hell, if you had never much voted up to this point. It's yours because you can throw more money at it than anyone else! Eighty million dollars, and California's population is 37 million...so, it would be like paying $2.16 per vote. Funny how something so expensive can also be so cheap.
And in any other context, eighty million would do so much. Ask the Gulf.