Eat the Poor

Why do rich people persecute the poor?

Why do they take away their benefits, pay them shit, work them to the bone and kick them to the dogs? They take away food, health, shelter and liberty.

Why do they treat seniors so deplorably? It is shocking how our elders are so disrespected and forgotten. They deny them health care or enough money for a decent life.

And women! We are losing all our rights! The handmaidens tale is not fiction.

All the things we fought so hard to wrench from these greedy bastards hands is being snatched back.

If they had their way, we would all be out on the streets, unable to buy a loaf of bread, with only the shirt on our backs.

And they just want more and more and more and more.

Look at what CEO’s make. Look at what their employees take home. Both values are obscene. Vile. Disgusting. Oh my. Look at what Mr. Weston got for being a good CEO to the shareholders lately for Loblaws. Since he successfully overinflates grocery prices so we can’t even afford a head of lettuce, saying companies should make a profit, he got a raise from 8 million to 11.4 million! Because he was, poor fellow, underpaid. Do you believe this crap?

What does it mean to be billionaire? It means you are above the law, above reproach, even above God. You don’t even pay taxes. I pay more taxes on my meager pension. And it means everyone is totally expendable. There are always replacements.

Yes, I am pissed.

I am pissed that we don’t fight back hard enough. We worship worthless, tone deaf, idiot billionaires and celebrities. We throw money at them for their substandard products and shows. We hang on their every opinion as if they are gods. We give them positions of power to rule over us and humiliate us.

We live in a slave economy. We all work and live to provide the rich with lavish lifestyles we will never ever experience, that they constantly shove in our faces.

They shamelessly flaunt their wealth. I am sick of seeing tours of some assholes ten million dollar homes on the beachfront. Reading about their Greek vacations, and five hundred million dollar yachts. The two dozen rare collectible cars they own. The Rembrandts hanging in their living rooms. This is not to show us what we can obtain, it is to keep us hungry, to keep us in our place, to keep us dirt poor and slaves to them.

Say Goodbye to OHIP

The pandemic has opened the door to disaster capitalism, that is, it has given the greedy rich an excuse to exploit the powerless and poor, all under the guise it is for our benefit.

Thus, here in Ontario, we are losing our long enjoyed health benefits.

We didn’t see the erosion coming of course, covid up ended everything in our lives. We have been too busy trying to survive.

Ah, but the wealthy always have their eyes, nose and ears tuned to dollar opportunities.

The pandemic has set back surgeries and the like, and this is true. There is a huge backlog.

But instead of funding our nurses and hospitals, the government had a better idea in mind. One that will ultimately end OHIP and make doctors, politicians, pharmaceutical companies. insurance companies and businessmen enormously wealthy. And the rest of us, screamingly poor and sick.

So they create a situation in which private health care are allowed to take OHIP patients, to alleviate the backlog of much needed medical help. Oh, doesn’t that sound good?

NOT.

There is nothing good about private business mucking about in health care. It turns a right into a luxury. That is, it is no longer a right to be healthy, but a privilege. Just as we see that the right to have shelter is now a privilege. A privilege for the RICH ONLY.

They stealthily do this, first by gradually eroding the rights of the sick, the elderly, the poor. Those least able to fight back and stop this. Once it gets past them, then it is too late to turn back and then everyone’s rights are gone.

We’ve had free health care so long, we forget the insidious nature of capitalism. Big business has nothing to do with charity. Nothing to do with rights. It only has to do with money. Money for shareholders. It is only and always about the bottom line. People are just wallets and bank accounts and credit. They don’t care whether you live or die. They don’t care about your problems or conditions.

Health clinics are for profit private businesses. Their goal is to make money. Not take care of people. Thus, they upsell. They happily take what OHIP gives them, but that is not enough. They are a business, not a charity. They want to make huge profits. Now there will be additional never heard of costs to the patient, that will result in out of pocket expenses in the thousands.

It is already happening. I have heard lots of complaints from people who are now expected to pay thousands of dollars for procedures that are FREE under OHIP. At a private clinic, people feel pressured to have more than is necessary done, at a huge cost. If they don’t want the upsell, then they wait just as long for a surgery at the clinic as they would for a hospital stay. If they pay, they get immediate surgery. The result is they either fork over lots of money, or worse, they delay or forgo having necessary surgery done.

Nurses and professionals of course want to work in these places because they are underpaid and working in deteriorating hospitals. Private clinics are state of the art, top of the line in cleanliness and professionalism – something our hospitals and staff used to be, because the money went there.

Eventually, OHIP will disappear and we will have private insurance – if you can afford it.

Gradually, Ford, our greedy business minded Premier, who has also decided to strip us of our beautiful Greenbelt for housing – for the RICH under the guise it is to alleviate homelessness (I ask you, who will be able to buy these homes, built on prime land, who, to begin with can’t even afford rent. Do you really believe those houses will be for low income???! Developers don ‘t build for poor people. Especially on choice land!)

We are on a slippery slope to the American health system. That is NO health system. Except if you are rich.

I predict that in two years, there will be little, if anything left of OHIP. And when other provinces see the money they too can make, all of Canada will follow suit.

Personally, I would rather pay more for my OHIP through my taxes each year, as do countries like Norway and Denmark, than to have to navigate and negotiate and beg for insurance and end up penniless and sick, or dead.

I ask you, what is government for? It is to PROTECT PEOPLE. It is suppose to be socialist. Get that through your heads. It suppose to be FOR the people, not for business, not for profit. The money is there. OUR MONEY. The government is NOT cash strapped. It is just full of greedy politicians not the least bit caring about us. They are not suppose to take advantage of situations for their own benefit. The government is not a corporation, not a private business. Our tax dollars are suppose to be used for US. For our health care, schooling, roads, police…don’t you understand that?

Beware. It does not end here. These type of politicians will come for our school system next.

We have a chance to vote this guy out in October. Let’s do it. Before we become the mess that the United States is.

I suggest you read Bernie Sanders book, It’s Okay to be Angry about Capitalism, and see how little the Americans have compared to us, and where we are heading.

Pareidolia

If you are looking to have some fun while waiting for the bus, or doing a mundane task, look for patterns in the everyday. You will see faces or animals, or a host of other things if you are imaginative.

Pareidolia is seeing faces in objects, but you can see most anything. It is akin to seeing pictures in clouds, only a lot more fun.

So I had this kinda disgruntled pole watching me while I waited for the bus.

If you really use your imagination for this snow bank, you can see a cat lying on their side sleeping, splayed hind legs and bum facing you. If you have a cat you have seen this position often.

As you can tell, I have long waits for buses.

Don’t get me started.

There’s a Spot for Me

Whenever I feel overwhelmed with life (practically a daily occurrence) I am extremely fortunate to have places within walking distance that I can go to, at least, in the summertime.

Ah, to be at that picnic table, under that big tree, unapologetically doing absolutely NOTHING.

It is dead quiet there. Sigh.

No office politics. No doctor visits. No missing in non action buses. No telephones ringing. Just me, the tree, and the occasional bug, chipmunk or curious sparrows.

In the winter time, I have these pictures of solitude, and a slight anxiety.

We all need a sanctuary. I hope you find yours.

Snow

In my hometown, you have two choices with winter weather.

Either it is warm with a lot of snow and no sun, or freeze your ass off cold, no snow and sunny.

This year has been the picture postcard white winter. Even at the bus stops. Especially at the bus stops because you are going to wait forever for a bus. Might as well take pictures to pass the time.

You don’t need to know what the bus sign says. You just go out and wait. Maybe pray.

I love snow storms, I just don’t like being out in them.

Waiting for a bus.

Look Outward

Recently I was pressed by a well meaning person to check out a ‘must read’, best selling self help book.

UGH.

I wasted decades of my life (and a considerable amount of my pay cheques) on self help books and gurus and I have said it many times before, they did not help me one iota.

Looking inward is constrictive. It is like curling up in the fetal position. It’s being a frightened porcupine, an armadillo, or even one of those woolly caterpillars curled up in itself. With your head tucked between your knees you aren’t going to see anything, save maybe, lint on your trousers.

The problem, and the answer, is not inside of you.

Look outward first, and then try some introspection on what you have seen and heard and experienced. Reflect on experiences. Learn from them.

Looking outward is expansive. It is eye opening. It is mind blowing.

Be worldly.

Spend your money and time on experiences. Do things. Ask questions about things and people. Listen to and think about the answers. Take your nose out of self help books and your navel, get out of your living room and comfort zone and go outside!

And when you are inside, go to the learning capital of the world. The LIBRARY.

No, not the internet. The LIBRARY. A brick and mortar building. Introduce yourself to hold in your hands books, real paper and cardboard, things that make your wrists ache and your head spin. Nothing beats a book in your hands – not a self help book, but a book that is going to make you see the world.

Read about things you know nothing about. Read biographies. History. Science.

Try these on for size: The Lost Pianos of Siberia. Bono’s biography Surrender. Michelle Obama’s Becoming. Bob Stanley’s Let’s Do It. There are great fiction stories too, check out Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, The Day of the Jackal, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

And please, don’t insist I read any more self help books – especially if you think I need it.

Regrets

It seems that the older I get, the more regrets I have.

A friend of mine, many years ago told me something that I never forgot.

His mother had just died. He was in his late fifties at the time and it hit him very hard. But he told me that the shock made him realize life was finite in a way he never considered before and that he would be the next one to die. He was not being morbid, he had an extreme epiphany and he wanted me to know that I would too at some point. Someday I would realize it is all over. He hoped I would have that awakening soon enough to make changes in my life. But I didn’t. He did, but he had money. That does help things quite a bit.

At the time, I did not understand what he felt. My own Mother died many years later, but I did not have that emotional realization he talked about.

It came much later when I had to return to work after two years of being retired. Doing that made me lose hope, and that tweaked something in my soul.

It was a slow realization that this is it. There is not much future left, and there is nothing I can do to make a life now. As they say, too soon old, too late smart. I just wasn’t paying attention I guess.

Now I have a lot of regrets.

Waiting for the Cake!

My family were friends with an excellent chef. She weighed a good three hundred pounds because she made the most fabulous desserts you could imagine.

One evening we were invited to her home for dinner. Oh, we were excited! We had been to her dinner parties before and the food was five star fare.

We were seated at a long linen covered table, replete with silverware and crystal. At the head of the table was perhaps the most incredible five story high, chocolate frosted cake I ever laid eyes on. It awaited us on a silver cake stand, heavy on a white paper doily.

My whole family sat through the entire meal with our eyes riveted on that cake. We were drooling.

When at last it came time to slice into that decadence, we all requested as big of a piece as she would give us.

Watching that knife cut through at least a hundred layers of cake and frosting was dizzying.

We dove in, our forks clacked the plates.

Madame chef stood expectantly at the head of the table, arms folded, knife in hand, face beaming, waiting for the ensuing praise.

And all of us, at the same time, gagged.

That cake tasted like dog shit!

I was only maybe ten years old and I swallowed hard. Being polite and grateful guests, we chewed that leather ball and drank lots of water to get it down, all the while praising her effort. We were all quite warm and dabbing our foreheads by the time we finished our slices.

“Oh!” She delighted. “Please have some more!”

We were suddenly all quite full and refusing like mad dogs.

She explained she had made it out of sauerkraut. Which for the uninitiated, is fermented cabbage.

I still think she was trying to poison us.

Grey

During the Christmas holidays I decided to cheer up my bedroom a bit and buy some Christmas flannel bed sheets.

I don’t know what I was expecting, exactly, perhaps Christmas trees, or snowmen or brightly coloured presents, or?

I was met with a selection of GREY flannel sheets, with all of the above printed on them.

Grey, reddish brown, slate blue or ominously – black! was all the choices I found.

I searched and searched and finally found one single package of a white set with brown pine cones.

What a disappointment!