"Had It"

I’m afraid that for the moment I’ve “had it.” I’m going off to the British Columbia Rockies for a short session of rest and recuperation. During this time I intend to neither watch nor listen to any news, read a newspaper, or write a blog. I will probably not blog again until Monday, the 20th.

I have been led to this decision by the “news” of recent events, particularly the Republican “debate” or whatever it was supposed to be. While I did not watch this performance, as it has been shown and dissected virtually non-stop, I have a pretty good idea as to what it was like. Thus I am (not) sorry to say that I believe all seven of the participants in this basically non-event are in one or more ways hopeless. They are without exception xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, sexist, ignorant, stupid, religious nut-cases, and out of touch with reality (or severally some combination of two or more of these attributes). Romney alone seems to drift into moments of sanity when he acknowledges that global warming is real and has something to do with human activity. It seems he is not well liked by many in the Republican Party, possibly because of his moments of sanity. It is interesting that a couple of the participants were not even official candidates as yet, and even more interesting that at least one announced candidate, Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, was for some reason not allowed to participate. He, too, has some rather strange ideas, and in his case these ideas are so “far out” from what most Republicans believe I guess they just didn’t want to hear them. Some other possible candidates, Huntsman, Perry, and Giuliani, who are said to be toying with the idea of running, are just as bad or worse. Perry is an absolutely religious nut-case, Huntsman another Mormon, and Giuliani barely removed from the criminal underclass and a monumental failure when he ran previously. There may be still others lurking out there, like Silly Sarah, Trashy Trump, and Horrid Huckabee who seem to have not entirely given up making fools of themselves.

It is not surprising that few people seem satisfied with this strange line-up, and perhaps not surprising they can find no better candidates even though they seem somewhat confident they can defeat Obama. But these candidates are so excruciatingly bad, and the ones standing in the wings are every bit as bad, President Obama would have to be found with bags of counterfeit money on his way to Kenya before any of them could beat him, in spite of the terrible economic and employment situation.

Seriously, how can anyone take what is going on seriously. It is a never-ending version of slap-stick comedy. One candidate believes doctors should go to prison for performing perfectly legal operations. Another likens Muslims to Nazis, still another would not have a Muslim in his cabinet, one, possibly more than one, believes god is directing him/her to run, virtually all of them disavow global warming, still others want to decrease taxes on corporations and multi-millionaires at a time when increased revenue is absolutely required, one believes government should do nothing to help anyone, another says Obama was raised in Kenya, and even more ridiculous ideas are suggested and promoted. I regard what is going on among Republicans as so seriously deranged and to be not even worthy of attention.

On the other side of the aisle, democrats appear to be either unable or unwilling to stand up for anything they claim to honor. It seems strange to me that Republicans who control only the House of Representatives, and not the Senate or the White House, still seem to be in charge of everything. Rather than stick up for their values democrats bend over backwards to accommodate Republican demands. It appears the question of Israeli/Palestinian matters is completely in the hands of Bibi Netanyahu who does whatever he wishes while the U.S. supports him no matter how criminal. With two “wars” we can’t pay for already going, we have now started still further military action in Libya for reasons that are not at all clear, and to top that we are now beginning to move into Yemen. As a nation we are failing in every way and falling behind the rest of the industrialized world. Our economy is a shambles, our educational system is a shambles, our manufacturing base is a shambles, our infrastructure is a shambles, our political system is a shambles, our MSM is a shambles, our middle class is a shambles, and it appears we may well preserve subsidies for corporations and further tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy rather than take any meaningful action for change. Our government has become so dysfunctional it seems to me there is no way out of the mess we have created. Our citizens are depressed, I am depressed, the situation is bordering on hopeless. Depression can be usually managed, but when it slides into hopelessness becomes more dangerous and cannot always be managed, for it is the attitude that if left unchecked leads to suicide. I am hoping the mountains, the forests, the flora and fauna, the rivers and lakes, the nature that we have not as yet destroyed will rejuvenate me once again. I urge you all if you possibly can to step back and contemplate a world devoid of greed and profit if only for a short while. I, at least, find it restful and renewing.