This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” The problem is not with them, it’s us. Despite all the world’s attention. Seventy-five Nobel Prize winners and 92% of the gods on Mount Olympus agree. And yet, Kamala Harris lost and lost badly. It makes no sense and yet is perfectly clear; the masses of the people simply just don’t care.

When the Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan there were only two other channels. It was either that Wild Kingdom or Bonanza. Of course, today it’s become almost stupid with all the channels available. The Martians could land, and most people wouldn’t know until they drove by the house. The media does its level best to drag out the news because 24 hrs. is a lot of time to fill. “We turn now to our panel of experts to discuss, is 24 hrs. a lot of time to fill?”

Our recent NCC poll finds certain voters prefer other candidates. And race plays no factor in their choice. Let’s go to the big board, and I’ll press some buttons and make some colored lights go on and off. Trying to make my abstract point about how certain counties vote when at least three hundred feet above sea level.

Either the American public has become like Eloi. Addled by Xbox, numbed by the talentless with twenty-seven sequined dancers, flaming fire pots and a laser show. To preprogrammed algorithms annunciated through computerized musical instruments and drum machines. Until the populace no longer sees a point in it.  Nothing ever changes for working folks. Nothing ever gets any better, no matter what they promise. Like the film “Falling Down” the hamburger never matches the picture of the hamburger they promised.

Working for social justice is great and highly commendable, but Labor Justice puts food on the table. You want to fight homelessness? Fight for Labor Justice! Would you like a healthy economy? Fight for Labor Justice. Would you like to see an end to public subsidies and food stamps? Wanna do away with free school lunches? Yeah, exactly. Then, they can buy their own damn lunch after having a decent breakfast at home.

There is something wrong when people can’t afford to feed their kids. There is something wrong when people can’t earn enough to pay their rent. They say there is a housing shortage and that it is part of the upward pricing pressure. How soon we forget. When I was in Cleveland in 2012, they were knocking down houses which could have been repaired. Young people could have been trained in the building trades for future employment. Homes then sold on government loans. Instead, they knocked them down to reduce the surplus inventory to help prop up the prices. Your tax dollars at work in service to corporate America. Gee, a shortage huh?

What’s changed? The gun laws were even looser and less restrictive and yet in the 50s and 60s and Americans barely knew how to kill each other. What’s changed besides economic opportunity? Why won’t you be good and struggle along quietly? Why won’t they ever tell the truth?

With automation and computerization less, workers are required. No need to go to college that won’t save you either. With automation and globalization, you are no longer needed. Pick out a piece of sidewalk and stay out of the way.

How else can you explain it? The American people have said, “We don’t care what you do. We just don’t care. The Republicans are out to screw us, and the Democrats are all talk. Big talk that never pans out.” Obama care was a life jacket not a Princess cruise. Nobody is going to jump up and down about Obama Care. It’s better than nothing but is going the wrong direction for national healthcare.

But that’s what always happens. The public option! Ten o’clock, a public option! Eleven o’clock, a public option. Twelve o’clock, a public option. Eight AM, no public option but the bill passed, yeah! A great victory! Happy, happy, joy, joy! Shall we go back to card check? It died the same way. Oh, Garsh and we tried so hard too! Those dastardly Republicans beat us again!

Why should anyone believe anything the Democrats say? They are sending a message of more of the same. We’ll fight for Transgender rights, but a fair minimum wage and decent housing is off the table. We could take the cap off of Social Security contributions tomorrow and solve the solvency problem forever. Will they do that? Not even a gun point. Will they force the affluent to pay the same taxes the working poor all pay every week? Not in a million years!

Will the Democrats propose a transaction tax to Wall Street? I’m only kidding, you know the answer. Will Congress address government assisted child care? No! The churches make a fortune off child care and don’t want any govment regulations messing it up. You know how Big Govment is, they’ll want fire extinguishers and lighted exit signs.

A programed populace that would rather not be bothered. The King commits crimes and gets elected.

“It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By “business” I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white-collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall” – Bob Dylan