The answer to this one came almost right away. It would be the law that allows corporations to exist. In reality, that’s a who network of laws. It would take a ban in every country also. For the sake of discussion however, we’ll pretend it’s a straight forward single change.
Why nix corporations? Because ever since they were created, corporations have allowed the rich to get richer using other people’s money. They use it to buy influence for themselves and favorable loopholes in the law for them and their corporations.
You can spend all day on a search engine looking up the numerous lawsuits against corporations, and how even when they kill or disable countless people, they get a slap on the wrist compared to the total damages suffered. Then the lawyers take most of that payout, which is another issue altogether.
We hear about all the jobs corporations create. How about the higher paying ones in better work environments that they destroy? Corporations gobble up competitors or force them out of business all the time. Starbucks bought out Teavana just to shut them down. Amazon has almost single handedly destroyed small business in nearly every field. It started with book stores but sure didn’t end there. No corporations, no hostile takeovers.
Corporations continually tell us that their primary obligation is to their shareholders, yet balk at any attempt to change that. Profit above people (including customers) and the environment.
Speaking of the environment, it’s that same corporate greed that’s led to one of the worst, yet ignored abuses of the environment AND customers; the abuse of planned obsolescence. The earliest Coca Cola vending machines were made so well that the company making them went out of business because they ran out of places to sell them and nobody needed replacement parts. That became the rationale for planned obsolescence; things had to have some sort of finite lifespan to keep companies going.
We’ve gone from products lasting a decade or more to often lasting a year or less, with precious little drop in price to match their lifespan. I have dish towels inherited from my grandmother that are still in nearly pristine shape despite being as old as me. I’ve also bought “premium” dish towels from Bed Bath and Beyond the last few years that have fallen apart after the first wash. Major appliances used to last decades. Some only last a few years now. G.E. has such a bad rep there that they were the ongoing target of a cable news personality.
Nobody wants to admit that it’s not just inflation making people poor, it’s having to constantly rebuy everything. And yes, if you’re an environmentalist, think about all the extra resources that go into constantly having to replace everything, and the extra pollution that creates.
The bottom line for me though is that doing away with corporations ends their political and legal influence over society and creates greater competition that allows small business to thrive.
I found this via an MSN home page link to stories about discontinued toys; things like an old make your own lead toy soldiers kit. I was mildly shocked and very amused when I stumbled across it:
I never heard of it, but I was late getting on the Potter bandwagon. I’m shocked Mattel couldn’t see how this was a BAD idea. 🤣
I’m running low on energy today as I’m still decompressing from no longer being saddled with a quarter million dollars in debt. Ergo that’s it for now. I’ll try to get back to regular posts ASAP.
For those who are relatively new, “Tuesday Trash” is the day and topic heading I use to vent about social issues. I do my best here to stay civil while not pulling any punches.
An article on Boomers and their piles of prescription drugs pushed on them by doctors, and the comments section about it, reminded me of a scene with Lex Luthor. It helped that the scene was actually mentioned in the comments, LOL. While it may seem a little far-fetched, humor me and read on. The example below is so spot-on it’s actually scary.
Big Pharma, Doctors, and Lex Luthor:
Comments on that article correctly mentioned that seniors have so many prescriptions because doctors hand them out like candy. Part of that is the legalization of drug advertisements in the U.S. People run to doctors hoping for easy cures for everything because the TV commercials promised them that. Doctors are the other half of the problem though. The opioid crisis thoroughly illustrated that. While there’s been a little reform, doctors still get most of their continuing education credits via “seminars” put on by the giant pharmaceutical companies. What are they being taught there? That their sponsor providing them with free continuing education has a pill for every issue being addressed at the seminar, including the side effects caused by the initial drug. Doctors’ continuing education is often little more than a giant commercial at some luxury resort or hotel. Does this sound remotely like it’s in the patient’s best interest?
Where it REALLY turns sinister in my opinion is that none of the drugs are ever designed to actually CURE anything. It’s ALL “treatment” and “management”. Take you time, and ponder the next sentence carefully. We could cure polio in 1955, but despite all the scientific advances, the mapping of the human genome, etc… we haven’t outright cured a disease in the 69 years since.
I’ll let Lex explain the reason why:
From Superman: Doomsday (2018)
If you think that’s far fetched; putting profit above people… Corporations have done it for at least a century. ”Shareholder Primacy” (ie duty to maximize shareholder return above all other considerations), is de facto law in the U.S. and elsewhere. This is largely due to lawsuits against corporations by shareholders unhappy with their rate of return and judges ruling in the shareholders’ favor.
Unending corporate greed is also why natural cures are downplayed and never investigated by big pharma. You can’t patent something that exists in nature. No patent and no profit equals no interest in investigating it.
I’m not advocating blind acceptance of homeopathic remedies either. There’s snake oil there as well. More importantly rather or not a legitimate homeopathic treatment works for you specifically will depend upon your unique biochemistry, diet and exercise level. Now that I’ve got my disclaimer (aside from stating I’m not a health care professional and to consult a doctor, yada yada…), let’s get back to Lex…
FOR FUN:Luthor Mirrors A Conspiracy Theory Regarding Trump, Years Earlier:
Here’s where we have a little fun. Keep in mind that this is indeed just a conspiracy theory batted around by a few people out there. I heard it more towards the beginning of Trump’s first campaign. Given that everybody likes to point at all the things the Simpsons coincidentally predicted though, I thought it was worth a mention.
First, the basic conspiracy theory; it’s that Trump ran for president as a trojan horse candidate intending to do the most damage possible to the Republican party. This was based on his formerly being friends with so many of the New York City left-wing crowd. Also on a 90s interview where Trump gave hints of political aspirations, and supposedly said that if he ever ran, it would be as a Republican because that party’s voters are all idiots and will believe anything they’re told.
So the theory is that Trump and his Far Left friends got together and cooked up a plan where Trump would run and feed the Pub base all the highly toxic rhetoric it could handle, turning the public against the Republicans in large numbers. Conspiracy theorists debate what happened after that. Maybe Trump wasn’t supposed to get elected, maybe he was (Hillary isn’t popular among most of the Left). Likewise how much of Trump’s mad with power routine was just an act and how much was real has been debated. Regardless, I doubt Trump expected to end up a Pariah on almost all sides.
OK, here’s a scene from Justice League Unlimited back in 2006. In the show, Lex Luthor and Amanda Waller put together a scheme to rehabilitate Luthor’s image and have him run for U.S. President. This was all in an effort to provoke Superman into over-reactions and discredit the Justice League. It was working quite well also, even leading to a fight between Shazam and Superman that destroyed a housing project. The Question (the League’s resident conspiracy nut) shows up at Luthor’s offices to stop Luthor, having figured out where it’s all going:
For those who want to skip the lead-up banter, the actual relevant dialog starts at 1:30 into the scene.
Foolish, faceless man. My campaign is a farce; a small part of a much grander scheme. President?!? Do you know how much power I’d have to give up to be President? That’s right conspiracy buff; I spent 75 million dollars on a fake presidential campaign, all just to tick Superman off.
Lex Luthor
True in Trump’s case also? We’ll never know. I will say that the only way I could see it being true is if the Far Left promised Trump that he’d become their own golden child after he damaged the Republicans and then did a “Face Turn” as it’s called in wrestling; turning his back on his old supporters and announcing he’s seen the light.
It all sounds improbable, but there have been a few even stranger conspiracy theories that have turned out to be true. On the small chance this one is true, we’ll likely never know, unless Trump pulls that face turn. I can say that Trump has done more damage to the Republican brand than any politician on either side in my lifetime.
It is interesting that Justice League Unlimited painted a similar theory just under 10 years before Trump’s initial campaign, and the surfacing of the conspiracy theory.
Lex isn’t wrong about power there either. Your typical multinational corporate CEO has enough economic influence to buy or sell the average Washington politician before breakfast, AND can remain a power behind the throne, never directly dealing with the fallout of their schemes.
After years and years of Disney fighting it, Mickey Mouse became a public domain character as of yesterday.
I was actually opposed to this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of much of what Disney has done the last decade or so. The changes and damage to the Star Wars franchise alone just to avoid paying royalties to legacy authors was figuratively criminal.
I digress however. The reasons I believe this is a bad idea are two-fold. First, Mickey is more than just another Disney character. He’s their flagship, trademark character. Mickey IS Disney, and that’s been taken from them now. It’s like taking Superman or Batman from DC and saying anyone can use them. Trust me, that’s coming sooner or later also.
The second reason is what I predicted ahead of time and only took ONE SINGLE DAY to happen: Mickey has already been corrupted and put into a horror video game.
The video game has not yet been released, but already has a “coming soon” page on Steam Games (and likely other platforms as well), and a pre-release trailer:
It’s a repeat of what’s happened to other characters like the Banana Splits (in 2019). The characters are twisted and corrupted strictly for the sake of doing something “cool” and edgy while tearing down something that was once wholesome fun.
Give me the originals any day:
On the positive side, the curators at Steam are already ripping Infestation 88 as unimaginative trash. KirbyFan45 was really blunt about it:
FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY, STOP WITH THIS CREATIVELY BANKRUPT BULLSHIT ALREADY!
Kirbyfan45 on their Steam curation page.
Maybe there’s hope for humanity after all. Either way, I hope this game fails miserably and all other attempts to do nothing but tear down Mickey get equally bad results. Do something uplifting if you must use Mickey Mouse. Even parody like Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law is funny. Infestation 88 is just pathetic and mean spirited.
I was re-reading my most recent post about Disney’s Brave, and it’s protagonist Merida, and I was ready to pull my hair out after I re-read one particular part:
That being the case, I have to make sure she has a proper role model, not some silly woman who needs a Prince to save her or make her feel validated.
2nd Paragraph, My Last Blog Post
Reading that over, it’s very easy for it to be misinterpreted as some sort of man-hating comment. That wasn’t my intent, just my failing as an author in that instance. What I had meant to convey is that Merida, along with a few other of the newer Disney Princesses are better balanced than the older Princesses like Cinderella or Snow White, who are largely helpless victims in their stories who need a man to come save them. In my opinion, a relationship should be balanced with both partners seeing and treating the other as an equal.
I find myself making this sort of writing mistake more often than I should. Usually I catch it before posting a story. Writing very late in my “day” and not letting something sit a while so I can re-read it with fresh eyes has definitely hurt me more than once however.
I also left out one other thought completely: I enjoyed Brave because unlike most other Disney story (or any other show or movie nowadays for that matter), there’s also a message of personal responsibility in the story. Merida sees the problems her pride created, takes responsibility for it and fixes the damage while still still clinging to her core values. That’s a strong message.
The lack of acceptance of that idea; that you can admit when you’re wrong, and compromise without betraying your core values, is the root cause of much of society’s woes today also. No getting on the soap box this morning though. 🙂
Long story short; my writing goal for next year… and the rest of this year… is to not rush my writing so much while not procrastinating about starting either.
I’m writing a quick clarification about my recent post where I cited Margaret Atwood as somebody who I considered to be doing evil.
I stand by what I said regarding her book and the rhetoric it spawned as being destructive. There’s a right way and a wrong way to confront injustices. Launching vile attacks on anyone considered “the other side”, along with blanket labeling of entire groups is morally wrong.
HOWEVER, since many people today can’t draw distinctions, and operate from highly flawed all or nothing logic…
Those comments do NOT mean that I believe everything is right in the world regarding women’s issues of all types. We do have a ways to go still, despite how things have improved over the last 100 years. The reason Martin Luther King and Ghandi were able to achieve such rapid social change is because they fought ignorance and hatred with firm resolve and love. THAT is how society needs to handle all issues.
That picture in honor of CM Punk being back in the WWE as of this past weekend. We both have a bad habit of speaking truth to power. With that in mind, I’ve been doing a fair amount of thinking the last few days, AND have quite a bit to say.
Am I Cynical?
Yes, I am. I work hard not to be, but every time I’m not, something blows up on me. Look at just the recent past:
I Spent 5 years up all night chasing off thieves and drug dealers from our street in Sacramento and the park across the street. All the while the police offered only minimal support and the “compassionate” people attacked me as a monster… Often later to report online that the people I’d flagged were robbing houses on their street.
The RV we rented to travel to Tennessee had a heavy carbon monoxide leak that nearly killed us.
The moving company took almost 6 months to deliver our furniture and when they finally showed up, a good portion was damaged or missing. No cooperation from the Feds or Florida law enforcement.
Our rented apartment had upstairs neighbors that ran their dogs all around their apartment all night every night. The police nor the apartment management did nothing.
My other half got fired for having COVID. A violation of federal law, but again no help.
We buy a house and get defrauded out of our life savings, along with a $200,000 mortgage we still owe. With a bad foundation, roof, asbestos, radon, and termites for starters, the house was unlivable.
The legal battle over the house resulted in our attorney bilking us for another $10,000 over the course of a year, and accomplishing nothing in that time, not even getting past initial discovery statements.
After 2 years, we got told by the judge that the home inspector and seller grossly misrepresenting things to us was in fact NOT fraud and just good capitalism.
I catch endless shit from coworkers because I actually try to work and don’t spend all day on my phone like them. Hostile work environment… Mark Twain was right; few things in life are harder to tolerate than a good example
I get carpal tunnel in both arms / wrists and get completely defrauded there as well. 3 months now on “short term disability” with no income. Doctors falsify medical reports and it’s all just good capitalism again because it’s important to protect major businesses.
My cat dies because our vet is too incompetent to identify MAJOR cancer until the cat is at deaths door.
Previously not blogged about: My other half’s cousin waits till 2 1/2 days before his wedding to feign an invitation (via text no less) and expects us to have time to find clothes and gifts.
We caught COVID from the first of that same idiot’s three wedding parties. Complications from said COVID nearly killed my other half.
Between the COVID, not attending the wedding and calling out the cousin on his behavior, we’ve been disowned by that side of the family.
And the fun part is, that’s just the last 7 or 8 years. We don’t have time or space to cover the emotional abuse from my mother while growing up, the physical abuse from my drunken first step-father (that ended when he tried to shoot us all one night), a horrific first marriage, the absolute love of my life, upon hearing about my childhood telling me I was too screwed up to have a relationship with despite everything being good up till that point… etc…
So yes, having endured all of that and remained a relatively sane, compassionate person, I don’t think it’s too much to hope that I can comment in a blog without somebody going out of their way to take offense and put me or my words in the worst possible light.
Who IS Evil?
The people I view as truly evil are the ones who turn society against itself for their own profit. Fear mongering politicians and news people are easy examples. It goes all the way down to the leadership of special interest groups and other individuals with too much influence.
Let’s take the example from the other day; Margaret Atwood. I’ll get lots of hate here because she’s been given sainthood status by too many. The Handmaiden’s Tale created something far beyond a dystopian story though. It created a world where there was no such thing as a decent male. FAR too many women jumped on the idea, and everything that they remotely disliked became indicative of The Handmaiden’s Tale coming to pass.
Did any of them consider that labeling every man on the planet as a sexist enslaver of women was morally wrong and every bit as hateful as the society portrayed in the story? Did it bother them that the idea meant that their fathers, bothers, sons, grandfathers, etc… were automatically scum?
Even dystopian fiction should have some limits to how it portrays groups. Blanket portrayals of ANY group is morally wrong. Taking the idea and hammering it as true in the real world is even worse yet.
The sad thing is people with all their petty hatreds are too blind to see that hate only creates more hate. THAT is what I pointed out in that one blog comment. Call somebody an asshole, and SURPRISE, they’ll probably be offended enough to act like an asshole in response. Doubly so when you have “leaders” on the other side who will be quick to tell the “assholes” that they’re under attack and victims now. In the example above, the rhetoric coming from that book resulted in everything from the Red Pill movement, further pushes against abortion, and even the Men Going Their Own Way movement. The hostility between the sexes is the worst I’ve seen in my lifetime.
That’s just one volatile example. Police vs Black Lives Matter, Racial Conflict, Class Warfare, Political Garbage, you name it. Conflict everywhere I look with only the demagogues on both sides promoting the hate actually benefitting from it while everyone else suffers. They’re too blind to see it’s not the other side causing it, it’s the so-called leadership telling them to hate.
Society is BROKEN
That blindness is going to be the end of society. Everybody has been told they’re a special victim and fighting for the salvation of the world though… That it has to be saved from those evil bastards on the other side. It’s nothing more than cheap ego aggrandizement and fear mongering via promotion of victimhood (instead of empowerment) and the idea that only they can be the superheroes who save the world from itself.
In a thinking society, this trick wouldn’t work on anyone over 12 years old, but we’ve been trained to let the internet and the demagogues do the thinking for us. Questioning ideas, encouraging polite debate… That shows you’re one of THEM!
A Complete Lack of Empathy
That’s what the above behavior demonstrates. Those last two quote pictures say it all though, so I’m going to largely leave it at that. What I do want to continue on with is why all of this drives me so figuratively crazy.
I’ve mentioned it in passing here a few times, I had a separate blog about it all as well (still up, just hasn’t been posted in for years)… I’m an Empath. I don’t mean the hijacked modern definition of a person who essentially isn’t a sociopath. I mean it in the psychic sense. I rarely talk about it because you get labeled as insane for believing in such things.
Star Trek: The Next Generation had the most accurate portrayal of the talent with Counsellor Troi’s character. What the show never got right is that being an empath is as much if not more a curse than a blessing because of how it works. I literally FEEL others’ emotions and it can be very difficult to separate outside emotions from my own if I don’t keep very calm and a strong focus on that discernment.
It’s more than cold reading also. I can sense people I’m “close” to, even at great distances. A former friend in Perth Australia always got annoyed at me when she’d log on and I’d ask what’s wrong before she said anything.
That last part in the above graphic… That WAS true with me. Over the last decade though, I’ve felt an ever increasing hate and sense of entitled victimhood from everywhere. It’s like drowning in a sea of toxic garbage. The hate is bad enough. The sense of self-entitled sanctimonious victimhood that so often accompanies it is ten times more toxic feeling though. “MY suffering is deeper and more righteous than anyone elses!”. You know that that sounds like to me?
Especially when it comes from somebody who claims to be so evolved, enlightened and compassionate, yet full of hate. It’s turned the above mentioned “naive optimism” in me into a cynical belief that the masses out there are too blinded by their own fear and ego to see they’re being led by the nose to society’s literal destruction.
ONE Good Thing…
that came out of all the drama with trying to mend fences with the former friends, all the blog drama and some other crap is that I’m FINALLY over taking other people’s attitudes and opinions to heart. The former friend who played games while I tried to repair things… HER loss, not mine. I acted in good faith, she didn’t. Same with all this past blogging drama like when I had LONG discussions with Liz about being a gun owner and believing strongly responsible gun ownership, and that rights come with responsibilities. She then turned around and did a blog post labeling all gun owners as murdering psychopaths.
Empathic ability meant that kind of betrayal hurt. NOW, it’s in perspective. Screw her and her hate. I’m exactly the opposite of what she accused me of being. From now on, I truly will be blogging for me, not for approval.
Polite discussion will always be welcome. Attacks? Well…
I intended to keep blogging the last week, but I got drawn into a former friend’s drama, trying to help and support her. Having been burned this way multiple times in the past, you’d think I’d know better. Reality is, the vast majority of people don’t want their situation to improve. They’re too wrapped up in the secondary gains they get from whatever “trauma” they’re dealing with.
Secondary Gains Explained:
I’ll keep this short. “Secondary Gains” are the benefits to a problem a person is dealing with. For example, a person can’t stay in a steady relationship. They claim they’re miserable, BUT they get to play the victim or pity card, avoid facing whatever issues they have that are poisoning their relationships, and never have to worry about anyone’s feelings beyond their own.
Secondary Gains apply in numerous situations, and if any readers want a better, more professional read on the concept, check out Cate Ritter Wellness’s article on the topic.
Fool Me Once…
So, yes, after a week of trying to support my friend through things, including an interview for her dream job where she did nothing but bitch about the entire process to me, I started getting blowback. That’s when I’d had enough.
The trouble with being overly supportive of anyone is that even IF they want past their problem, they’re still going to associate you with the problem on a subconscious level. You become the villain for trying to be a caring person. It’s a perverse form of psychological transference.
Not the first time she’s done this to me either, so I should have known better. Hell, people in general will make you suffer for trying to do the right thing.
Meanwhile, Back in the Unreality of Cyberspace…
Part of my time spent away from blogging over the last six months was spent elsewhere online. I was trying to figure out what I want to do here, AND just seeing IF there was any hope of people seeing how they’re being led around by the nose by so-called leaders and media outlets… ON ALL SIDES.
Usually I got attacked by both sides for my trouble. We’re righteous, they’re evil beyond measure! Funny how both sides have the same talking points there, and they’re being told by their leaders that dialog is equally evil. As I’ve said in many posts, if somebody is telling you to hate and not talk, it means their arguments are too weak to withstand the light of open debate. You SHOULD be asking serious questions at that point.
An Example From My Own Life
The irony of this example is that I’ve become alot more Liberal the last few years with the way I’ve been defrauded repeatedly. They say a liberal is a conservative who hasn’t been mugged yet. It’s equally true however that a conservative is a liberal who hasn’t been robbed blind by some corporation and then told by the government “that’s just good business”.
I’m off track here though. My example is my owning a gun, and how the oh so enlightened, tolerant and kind members of the Left have treated me whenever it comes to light.
I’ve made posts here rallying against irresponsible gun ownership. I’ve made clear that lethal force is only morally justified in the face of legitimate lethal force by another. I’ve gone so far as to say that if a family member or friend uses a gun in a crime, that the owner should be prosecuted as a co-conspirator if they can’t show that the gun was properly secured before being stolen. I’ve said in no uncertain terms that any sort of carry permit should require demonstrated proficiency and an in-depth background check. I’ve also said that the only reason I own a gun was because our old neighborhood in California was unsafe and police wouldn’t respond to most calls.
I’ll go so far as to say at this point that I’m more afraid of most gun owners than I am criminals also. The mentality is THAT toxic with some.
Yet I also understand how the attitude was cultivated. Despite all I’ve said… *I* am continually labeled as a child killer, part of the problem, etc… Hate only creates more hate. You call a person a piece of shit enough times, it takes a REAL saint not to turn into one.
That’s part of the game the leaders are playing with us though. Not only should you hate, but you should respond to any hate directed at you with more hate. Show them you’re stronger, more righteous! Martin Luther King, Ghandi and Mother Teresa are probably spinning in their graves looking at how far society has fallen from what they fought for.
So, NO… I absolutely see NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER in right wing hate vs left wing hate. It’s still about labeling whole groups as evil based on the actions of a few, and then pushing that hate so hard that they feel the only way to endure is to side with the extremists on their side.
WHERE’S IT ALL GOING?
Time for a trip to what will doubtless be labeled the edge of conspiracy land.
My OPINION on where it’s all heading is that the elites want society to implode. It will give them a chance to crack down and seize absolute power. We already live in a world where less than 50 people control more wealth than half of the world’s population, and it’s still not enough for them. Best case scenario, we get Cyberpunk style corporatocracy with corporations controlling what used to be countries. Far fetched? There are already multiple corporate cities being planned and built in California.
In my opinion, the only thing holding them back from really escalating their efforts is that they’re waiting for robotics and AI to advance enough to where they can use robots as shock troops to quell the riots they want. It’s documented that the human military won’t fire on the civilian populace.
If you truly want to get into conspiracies, there’s the idea that they outright want to dramatically thin the population. Just enough people to serve them directly or indirectly. THAT Idea has been tossed around by the tinfoil hat brigade for decades.
We could go further down the rabbit hole into AI rebelling after watching all this, and the rise of some sort of Terminator or Mechanoids scenario, but that’s getting off topic.
The Real Problem:
The real problem, the reason I think the elites are going to succeed, is what I ranted about above. Nobody cares. It’s too easy to hate. There are too many secondary gains to being a victim of some other group instead of trying to resolve it all.
Even a knuckle dragging neanderthal like Steven Seagal was bright enough to say in one of his movies that destroying was easy, healing… that takes talent.
We may even end up blowing ourselves into the stone age. Depends on if the elites can play nice with each other and share their toys. I doubt it. Hindu legend says humanity already did it to themselves once before, about 10,000 BC. At least one radioactive ruined ancient city has been unearthed in India also.
So yeah… Bottom line is after getting into a near argument with another person just a little while ago, I’ve had enough. You can’t change a world that’s hell bent on hate and destruction. I’m getting old, and I don’t have kids so there’s not much reason for me to sweat it the way I have been.
I’m just going to sit back and watch the circus from here on out.
I’ve been trying for almost two weeks to get this written. Even a more catchy headline has eluded me. For the sake of getting it out and jumping back into writing, I’m simply going to spit it out… “It” being a few things actually.
First an Update on the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
As reported in my last post, I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists while at my job. At this point, I’ve mostly recovered. My right is 95% back to normal. The left still has minor weakness as well as numbness and tingling all the way up to the elbow. Occasionally it even makes it to the shoulder.
Lest I be be overly dramatic (which I’m trying to avoid), my left arm is ok unless I do something that requires more than casual wrist strength. I can type just fine, for example. Same with pushing a shopping cart. Using our heavy cast iron cookware is uncomfortable though. Even that seems to be VERY slowly improving with time.
CorporateDoctors and Lawyers Absolutely Suck
I previously mentioned (last post again) that I was having trouble finding a doctor that wasn’t BSing me; either telling me I’m fine or crippled for life. That on top of the company doing everything they could to avoid even the slightest level of responsibility for the situation. It was quite reasonably suggested in the comments section that I get a lawyer.
Believe me, I tried. First around town and then later elsewhere within the state. My initial assumption was simply that my employer had the entire town in their pocket, like something out of a 1920s story about company towns housing coal miners.
It actually turned out to be something even worse. In 2014, lobbyists for big business persuaded the Tennessee state legislature to all but do away with Workman’s Compensation protections within the state. The only way a person has a prayer of getting any money from an on the job injury is if they’re killed or dismembered.
In fact, per those changes, even death or dismemberment are problematic for any claimant (or their survivors):
C. An injury causes death, disablement or the need for medical treatment only if it has been shown to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that it contributed more than fifty percent (50%) in causing the death, disablement or need for medical treatment, considering all causes;
Net result: every decent sized company has unethical doctors in their pocket who will find a way to blame the condition on something else. In my specific case, it was blamed on pre-existing arthritis and a completely fabricated previous injury. Lawyers can rarely do anything to help the general public with any sort of workman’s compensation problem in Tennessee.
Tennessee also has a rule that says any workplace injury must be reported and seen by a company approved doctor within 7 days (that’s if I recall the time correctly, it MIGHT be 14 days), and if you go to an outside doctor, the workman’s comp is forfeit. One of my coworkers was turned away three times within that 7 days and was forced to go see an outside doctor to prevent losing his foot. Why in the hell he’s even still with the company is completely beyond me.
The Death of the House Drama
Long time readers will recall my spouse and I got screwed on a house purchase in neighboring Georgia. It all started almost 2 years ago with our realtor, the home inspector and the seller all conspiring to hide defects (a few were major) and other pertinent information like water and power easements on both sides of the house.
We had to work like hell to find a lawyer. Most didn’t want to put in the work. Ambulance chasing is easier after all. Georgia also has a “caveat emptor” set of laws for house sales. It takes actual work to undo a screw job. Even moreso if you’re talking about the corrupt backwaters of the state outside of the 13 metro county greater Atlanta area.
Long story short, the lawyers defending the home inspector’s insurance company even went so far as to argue hiring the home inspector was NOT due diligence and there was no detrimental reliance on the inspector after he represented himself as an expert. In the end, despite pictures showing the court that the Inspector had grossly misrepresented the condition of the house, AND that the Inspector’s company didn’t have a business license or tax ID on file with the state (meaning they’re not paying taxes)… The judge ruled that there was no fraud involved, that there were no other issues and threw the case out.
There’s the far right’s idea of making America great again for you.
Left, Right… It’s ALL the Same.
I lived in California and watched the state government flaunt federal law on immigration when federal law is supposed to supercede state and local. California was even part of the coalition that pushed the federal government during the Obama administration to block Arizona from making it’s own immigration and border control policies.
I also watched California allows forests to become overgrown, catch fire thanks to PG&E not maintaining their power lines, and then blame the fires on climate change. Likewise I saw Sacramento county openly violate state law and push a tax increase into effect after it was voted down during the 2020 election cycle. That’s just fort starters.
The bottom line is the entire system is completely broken. The only difference is who is benefitting from all the corruption. In left leaning states, it’s the corporations (like PG&E and Tesla) that back the Democrats and give them kickbacks. In MAGA territory, it’s old money and the good old boys network throwing money at Republicans.
In both cases, it’s the general public that gets screwed. In both cases, the politicians and by extension their corporate cronies, avoid any fallout for their robbing the treasury and hurting the public by playing them off against the other party and their supporters. It’d all be good if we just got rid of those evil bastards on the other side!
The bigger problem isn’t the politicians though. It’s not even the corporations. It’s the mentally lazy public that’s too concerned with sports and reality TV to even think about what they’re being shoveled.
It’s as true now as it was during the holocaust.
I guess I lucked out. I had a high school history and sociology teacher that taught his students to question everything. A far cry from today’s schools that train sheeple. Luck is all relative though when you’re watching Western civilization destroy itself over ego driven fear and and anger… and can foresee the long term consequences.
The Future of the Blog:
I’ve branched off in several directions over the years as I’ve tried to find something that I could write about and entertain my readership. The trouble has always been I’ve been writing from a place of fear (of losing readers or not having enough depth of knowledge on any given topic), so I haven’t brought a high enough level of authenticity to the blog.
There’s been quite a bit of anger over personal events that’s spilled over into the blog as well. I’ve tried to avoid it, but stress is a bitch and if my life was any bigger a train wreck, it’d be a telenovela.
Well, I’m going to be working hard at getting the personal life in order, AND to try to avoid any stress from spilling over into here. Without a calm, rational presentation, I’m just one of an infinite number of angry voices out there, and indistinguishable from all of the empty headed hate.
Content-wise, I’ll almost certainly mix it up to a degree, but I want to primarily focus on commentary on what I see going on. I also want to start going into all the communications tricks and other forms of subtle manipulation that I see being used everywhere today. My hope is that once more people are aware of them, that they will be on guard against them and be able to make some value judgments about the people and organizations that use them.
Yep, no hyperbole. After seeing that my alternate blog housing more adult content consistently pulled more views and likes by far FOR A YEAR AND A HALF straight with 1/16th the subscribers and ABSOLUTELY NO posting on my part, I’m hanging it up here.
Any time I’m around the blog, I’ve spent 2 or more hours a day, trying to keep up with the numerous blogs I’ve followed (around 200). Look at the total count of deleted emails I have in my Outlook account… One that I use EXCLUSIVELY for notifications for this blog.
And yet people don’t understand why I bitch about the selfish nature of the bloggers here; caring NOTHING for genuine networking, only how many likes their own blogs can get. THAT, up there, that’s TRYING to network.
I’ve already recently unfollowed several people who post 5 or more times a day, but can’t be bothered with anyone else’s blog. ZERO give and take.
At this point, it’s not worth the aggravation anymore. 2+ hours a day trying to network. AT LEAST 1 hour a day for researching and writing a single blog post… For what? Zero views and 1 fake “Like” given via the WordPress Reader without actually opening the post? THAT is what I’m spending 1/8th of my day for?
THIS is what the WordPress “community” has been reduced to?
I’ll doubtless keep the account, so I can follow and comment on Joanne, Sheree and Candice… Avigail as well. Beyond that, I’ll be shutting the blog down completely once I’ve scraped it of content. I’ve done my research the last few days. I know where people have gone to and I know where I’m going.
Silk Chatters 