12-12-12

Just thought I'd hit it at 12:12 p.m.  This type of numerology doesn't come often.

12-12-12 @ 12:12 p.m.

The Death Of A Nation (Sorry To Steal The Title)

Said more poignantly than I could ever put words to paper. From Ilyse Hogue’s thoughts in The Nation, H/T (unfortunately) from C&L:

Some may say that this is business as usual in Washington and that getting frustrated at party bosses is as old as our democracy, so why am I making so much of this now? Well, for a couple of reasons. We are coming off a decade of unprecedented organizing opportunity. With the emergence of online engagement and social media, Americans were beginning to feel as though they had a way to strategically participate in the conversations in Washington that shape their lives. This president was the first one elected using broad engagement strategies, and his election changed the national psyche by demonstrating to millions of Americans that their political participation could pay off and democracy could work. The disappointment about the debt deal is especially acute against the backdrop of the record levels of political participation, enthusiasm and hope generated during the 2008 election.

In between, we had the 2010 Citizens United decision, which rebuilt those gates around the capitol that the online revolution had supposedly crashed. Corporate cash, already omnipresent in lobbying, dominated the airwaves; and thirty-second ads, played over and over once again, drowned out the millions of organized voices crying for change. That led to the 2010 election of radical candidates representing a tiny minority of Americans who were more concerned about the federal deficit than they were about joblessness and the overall economy.

The debt deal’s final resolution to what essentially amounted to a hostage crisis by that minority represents a complete unmooring of official decision-making from the will of the American people. The last few weeks could be the final straw that leads to a collapse of confidence not just in this government but in the American project of self-governance. When citizens don’t participate, democracy is in peril. At a time of so much great need in our country, sending the message that citizen involvement is futile is dangerous not just to the substance of one debate but to the core principles that allow us to call ourselves a democracy. Are we really prepared to risk that?

Apparently, we Americans are prepared to risk that, because our country is headed down the toilet, financially, politically and socially. The very core of our Constitution is being assaulted and not just by the nut jobs on the "right," but also by our very own supposed defenders of said Constitution, the Democratic party.

The signs are abundant. Verizon workers striking because the company wants them to pay more into their pensions and make less in their wages, this despite the fact that the corporate stockholders and higher ups have made unprecedented gains in their wages and earnings and dividends. Jobless people are told not to apply for new jobs that open up, as corporations and businesses are now seeking only people willing to move FROM a job TO a job, totally ignoring our unemployment crisis. Our spineless president and his echo chamber of political advisers who have so blurred the line between what used to be definitive Democratic and Republican ideals, coupled with the upsurge in stupid people having been elected to Congress by corporate money giddy over the fact they have puppets doing their dirty deeds under the guise of "representation" of a constituency, has resulted in a more resigned and depressed America. Etc.

The writing is clearly on the wall. 2012 will be interesting insofar as elections are concerned. This will be the turning point, where Americans who do vote find out that their vote (1) either was changed electronically by the corporate controlled voting process or (2) that the candidate they voted for was/is just a stupid person backed by a boatload of overseas money as well as local and national corporate controlled money with specialized agendas (and ones that do not help out the actual voter, but in reality, continue to disenfranchise the voters).

People, we will see bread lines. We will see an upsweep in homelessness, and not just by individuals, but whole families. We will end up looking a lot more like refugees in this country, than ordinary citizens of the once great democracy that America stood for.

Hope. It left the building. Obama and the Democrats shoved a desk in front of the door, bought ear plugs, and are not listening. The Republicans have put wood in front of the door and are pouring lighting fluid on it. The tea baggers have the lighter. It's just a matter of time.

Not Liking Zaire's Supposed Singing Teacher, AT ALL!

Second singing class for Zaire, and I got into it with the teacher. First I complained to the school about the fact that 5-9 year old children were in a room with a closed door and no window, alone with an adult, and we, the parents and guardians, were not allowed to be in the room! The school (Los Angeles City College) informed me that it was not the school's policy to have closed doors with minors under the tutelage of an adult without parents in the room. So .... when I informed the parents, we all stayed in the class (the teacher was late, and she didn't even show up for the first class, sending her daughter instead, and there are only five classes!). Well, when the teacher came in and I told her what LACC administration had told me, the bitch actually said she would not teach the children then ... leaving the parents to look at me. I said to her, "hey, you can call the administrative office if you wish and speak to (name withheld) if you want to." She went off on me saying she's been teaching for over 30 years and that she has never allowed the parents in to watch. I said, "well, either we are staying, or the door stays open so we can see and hear what is going on." After a few more words between us, she agreed to leave the door open and let us listen outside, and I even took a desk out of the classroom to sit in, although she made a crack remark to me "well, the surprise of the finale will be no surprise then, since you are watching them rehearse." I just zipped it as already I knew she could not be that good if she really didn't want the parents to watch or hear!

And I was right. First off, this is 2010, ok? And there is one 5 year old, but the other four kids are 7 or 8. The three songs she was teaching them were, get this, Elvis Presley's "Houndog," George M. Cohan's "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and The Beatles' "Octopus Garden." Now, mind you, we are in Los Angeles, an ethnic barrio if there ever was one. Of the five kids in her class, one was Filipino, two were Hispanic, one was mixed Hispanic and Caucasian (I know that only because both the mother and father came and duh), and then Zaire, who is half African American. Ok, NONE of these kids knew these songs. And the mixed Latin family (the dad was not Mexican, but of Spanish background based on his accent) were the only ones that even knew the Beatles song (although the teenage son of one of the Mexican girls - not in the class, sitting outside with me - knew the Beatles song). I think many kind of knew the Elvis song, but pretty much, no one knew "Yankee Doodle Dandy" except me. The Spanish dad was complaining to me about why the teacher wasn't teaching them age appropriate songs, like more children style, I mean, the kids aren't even tweens yet for goodness sake! And, there is a ton of Disney Channel music that is, of course, geared to the tweens, and I know Zaire watches those shows and sings the songs, so I am sure the other 7-8 year old kids watch them as well. I mean, even I watch "Victorious," "I Carly" and "Big Time Rush" and know the songs and singing styles of "that" age group.

I will again call the school on Monday and complain. And I will tell the teacher to her face after the last class that she sucked big time as a teacher. Hell, I might even get all the parents to complain (LOL). Seriously, I have taught kids better. There are a plethora of songs universally recognized for kids that age, which they probably already know, and so if you want to "teach" singing techniques, at least work with a song that the kids already know both the music and the words to. I taught children's classes, singing and playing the uke, as recently as three years ago, and we still sang the old "if you're happy and you know it" kind of songs! We're not talking protege kids here!

I guess you can tell from this rant that I am pretty peeved. The only reason I am not making a statement by pulling Zaire out of the class is that he's enjoying the interaction with the children. In fact, I thought it was funny that when they were singing the Elvis song, he raised his hand and asked the teacher if he could sing it with the "Elvis lip" ha ha ha! I taught him the Elvis Lip because he liked the Sugarland Song "All I Want To Do" (see him lipsynching on his blog or on MyYouTube) and there's a line in there about "give me a kiss from those Elvis lips" and I had to explain to him what "Elvis lips" were!


All I Want To Do

"Stop Whining?" WTF?

This is, I believe, the third time that Obama (twice) and Biden (once) have recently belittled the Democratic base heading into this election. It's now clearly a White House strategy, for at least its wealthiest fundraisers, to knock the base of the party. That base would include labor, Latinos, gays, women, environmentalists, health care advocates, and more.

[snip]

The President, rather famously, routinely refuses to stand up to conservative Democrats and Republicans, and it's likely the primary reason we're about to lose the House. The President insisted on compromising out the gate on the stimulus - rather than asking for the amount of money we needed, he asked for half, then gave another 35% away in near-useless tax cuts, cutting the impact of the emergency legislation even further. The entire country, all of us with friends and family members currently out of a job, are paying dearly for this mistake. So for him and his to tell us and ours to stop whining is pretty pathetic. It's also a pretty idiotic strategy a month out from a crucial election.

John keeps hitting the nail on the head on this one, and I concur. I do not understand the abusive tone from the White House concerning the progressives, the GLBT groups, minorities, etc. And, if that was not enough, I get hit over the head from the "other" side of the progressive agenda (you know, the DK group) to just hold my nose and vote for the Democrats in my voting pool because, you know, they are better than the Republicans. Ya think?

How's this for NOT being better than the Republicans. From Glenn Greenwald:

At this point, I didn't believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record. In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night, according to The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims. That's not surprising: both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality. But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is "state secrets": in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are "state secrets," and thus no court may adjudicate their legality.

Kind of makes me sick to my stomach to know that the President I voted for, and actually had such high hopes that he would be so much more different than the Bush regime, turns out to be actually far worse than Bush. I know, I am shaking my head at that, because it's so obscene, but I personally believe it to be true. Bush's administration knew they were fucking with civil liberties and all that, but at least they tried to hide it. Obama's administration is just in your fucking face with the same crap of arguments that Bush's team threw out.

I'm stymied at this, for sure, and there is absolutely no way in hell I'm putting any more Democrats in office. Let the Republicans take over. At least we know they are nutjobs (most of them). We expect more from Democrats. We expect more from the so called liberals we elect.

I'm not eating the pablum any more. I'm done with it. Let this country go to hell, because we can't fix it if our only choices are "more of the same, please" regardless of party!

Gonna go back to my football game, and try to stay cool! Hey, just noticed the temperature dropped to 95! Yippee! This calls for an early cocktail, ahem.

I Can't Even Say The "New" Name For The Rose Parade (Sigh), Another One For The Corporations

You know life has headed toward the really downward spiral of destruction when an old tradition succumbs ("The Tournament Of Roses Parade Sponsored By Honda"). Sure, we all are aware that the "corporations" control every thing from television (and what we see whether it be entertainment or news), government (thanks especially now to the SCOTUS decision on "Citizen's United" ruling), movies (don't get me started), sports (hell, why else did they redo just about every sports venue during the late 80's through 2000 to re-build stadiums just to have the "corporate boxes") - which is actually still undergoing a renovation given the Dallas Cowboys new stadium, and the Jets/Giants move to a brand new stadium next door to the demolished and now parking lot of the old stadium. The last bastion of private enterprise just dropped trousers to Honda. Too bad, another thing I have to add on my "I don't support corporate sponsorship" lifestyle.

I really can't imagine it's so bad one has to find a sponsor for the Rose Parade. Sheesh.

A Little Night Dancing

Debbie Allen representing 1980's dance, and Gwen Verdon, representing, well, Bob Fosse! Ah ... sitting back and enjoying.



Ok, since it's late (midnight by now) time for some hard shit dancing.



If you look closely, you'll see Janet (Jones) Gretzky among the dancers.

Hire A Relative, Don't Underestimate Their Talents (Grins)

Eschewing a car for mass transit has its positives and negatives. In my reality, the only negative is when I have to purchase something I can't take home on the bus.

I haven't been able to use my vacuum cleaner for like three weeks (ewww), so my house has been pretty sucky for a while. My daughter agreed to go get me a new vacuum today, (I paid for it, she just went "shopping") and she even used it to clean my house when she got here. After she saw how scummy my bathroom was, I asked her how much she wanted to clean it. $20 bucks was a steal, in my mind LOL.

Now, I'm having my daughter come in every two weeks to clean my house, and concentrate on one room for a full on cleaning. I'm sure I will pay her more than $20 bucks, but one of the perks while living with her was the fact that she was a fastidious cleaner. I am a cleaner ... clean enough not to attract bugs and whatnot, but to the observant eye, hey, so my wall borders are full of dust, as are corners of each room, up on the ceilings. Hey, at least I do dishes, take out the garbage, and used to vacuum regularly!

The vacuum I wanted was not available, so I settled on a cheap ass Dirt Devil. Who cares, I'll just replace it next year. It's still a far cry from spending $400 for a Dyson, damn it!

Ahhhhh... having a finally really cleaned up bathroom is bringing huge ass smiles from me (and from my ass, haha... ok, TMI, I agree!)

Craig's List

I have never used the site, never needed to. But I have been aware of its existence, and how it is used from everything to getting a job, moving or selling things.

My daughter is downsizing due to the economy, and she's moved from a one bedroom to a single. My grandson had the one bedroom, and he had the full size bed that I had bought for my daughter a few years ago (she got a queen from one of her girlfriends and will NOT part with it).

So, I offered to buy a new twin for the grandkid -- but dang, I just didn't want to spend another $300 or $400 for a new bed (I already bought him one for my apartment at a cost of $425). Someone mentioned I should check out Craigslist.

Found a twin bed, three months old (tag verifies that), the owner would deliver because he had a van and was moving TODAY, and it was 90 bucks. I called, and two hours later, I had the grandkid's new twin bed, delivered. Damn!

I have decided to let my old, old, old stereo go, which I love, but it won't fit the new layout I have designed for my apartment. I recently purchased an HD television, flatscreen. Although my old stereo (I bought it in 1987) is in perfect condition, has those 24 inch tall old fashioned woofer/tweeter speakers, etc., it still plugs into my new television, and the sound coming from those speakers, when I want to watch say, Star Wars (or listen to music) is awesome, I am putting the television on a rotational stand, so it can be viewed from one of three different viewing areas in my apartment. And the old fashioned stereo with the big ass speakers just won't work anymore (sigh).

I was going to put some things out for a garage sale (like my really incredible old fashioned dinnerware -- Mexican influenced, with dishes that can go into the oven to cook enchiladas and stuff, very much like most Mexican restaurants, and I have a ten piece set, including large serving platters, eight of them) when I decided I should take pictures of some of my things, and post them on Craigslist.

Hopefully, I'll get some calls from people really interested in what I have, as opposed to those just "driving" by my place and seeing a "garage sale."

BTW, my stereo has AM/FM, video outlet (which is how I hook up my TV) a CD platform (where I hook up the MP3 player) and a double cassette player! I hate to part with it, but honestly, it has no function anymore in my apartment ... well it still does now, but I have to move the TV soon, especially since it is where the Christmas tree usually is placed!