11.11.24

The shit show is about to start - medical care in Rural area will fail 11/2024

 

You need to prepare for the collapse of the US emergency medical system. 

Hi. I'm an ER nurse, and I want to talk about what you can expect to come in the arena of emergency medicine in the United States, because I think it's important that we are well-informed on how grim the future looks for every American. I posted a musing on this over on the Nursing subreddit, but decided it needed a full writeup, because this is something that will affect every single person who may have a medical emergency and doesn't have their own concierge health team.

"Unfortunately", of course, emergency services have never been a profit-generating system. Because of this, the stark truth is that most hospitals and most communities, left to their own devices, wouldn't even provide emergency services — which is why closing a hospital in a rural community can be a death sentence for so many. This is why organizations that provide emergency care rely largely (dare I say, almost entirely) on federal dollars and regulations for the things we do. From 911 centers, to EMS and Fire/Rescue departments, to Medicaid/Medicare/ACA dollars and regulations, to laws like EMTALA- the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986, signed into law by that notorious socialist Ronald Reagan- it all governs and affects our ability to provide care to you.

For instance, EMTALA stipulates that we have to treat all patients regardless of their ability to pay, which, while being an unfunded mandate that has probably cost an aggregate of multiple trillions of dollars over the last forty years, is still a good thing. People forget that prior to EMTALA, you could literally be in active labor or bleeding to death, and if you couldn't pay, the emergency department could legally turn you away- and often did.

I'd been mulling over writing something like this but had ultimately demurred. There are hard rules in this sub in re posting about politics, about "conspiracies", etc, and while this post is neither, I'm certain there'll be a flood of people who mark it as such. And I didn't want to write this all out, only to have it yanked for that reason.

Then I read that the richest person in the world joined on a national security call for no apparent reason. If there was any doubt in my mind that person would be a key player in setting policy, very, very soon, it ended right there.

And that person has pledged to cut "two trillion dollars" from the federal budget, alongside the admission that "everyone is going to have to hurt" for at least the next "two years".

That means many things are going to happen... none of them good.

When the Affordable Care Act/Medicaid/Medicare are gutted and/or repealed entirely, tens of millions of people (if not more) will lose their ability to access primary and specialty care. That diabetic or dialysis patient that is managing with quarterly appointments, the person getting regular skin checkups once a year for melanoma, the person who is having weird right lower quadrant pain (unbeknownst to them, appendicitis) who would call their family doc to check them out- they're not going to have access to any of that anymore.

Interestingly, this is why Monday is generally considered to be the worst day of the week in the ER. Everyone who couldn't see their non-ER providers over the weekend tough it out until they can see someone on Monday. That provider discovers this patient is now in dire straits, and refers them immediately to the ER- which totally slams us.

Now: imagine that, multiplied by a factor of ten

Every single day.

Without end.

Let me outline a scenario for you.

You break your arm, or you have a kidney stone, or your mother falls and breaks her hip. First, you call 911, and if you can get through, you may find it is literally hours before an ambulance can pick you up. The ability of that fire/rescue department to continue operating has been jeopardized by the loss of federal funding. What little funding they have left means that, particularly in rural communities, one ambulance may have to cover the area of a small European country. And it doesn't matter how many ambulances you have, you can't run them without maintenance and crews to operate them- provided by Federal dollars.

Instead, you manage to get to the ER, where you find the waiting room has spilled out into the parking lot. The harried triage nurse, you find, is actually a basic EMT, who has twenty hours of training and just qualified for their boards. Since overtime pay was fundamentally changed- the required hours per week raised from 40 to 50 and requiring overtime pay to be calculated over a cumulative month instead of a week- there are no experienced ER nurses to staff triage full-time. You find out there have been people waiting for twelve hours (and longer) to be seen.

Not only is there no triage nurse available, the inpatient units in the hospital haven't been able to keep nurses on for staffing, meaning that it doesn't matter how many beds there are- there aren't nurses to see those patients. The nurses that are left are watching a staggering six to ten patients each, who they aren't able to keep up with as it is. In a cascading effect, that means anyone in the ER who needs to be admitted to the hospital has to wait until a bed comes open, which now may be days if not longer.

So you'll sit in the waiting room for hours. I don't know if you've had a kidney stone, but every woman I've ever seen that has had both those and given birth have said kidney stones are worse. If it's your mom with a broken hip, she'll lay on an ER cot in the waiting room with everyone else, in agony and incontinent because she can't even move her hip to pee into a bedpan. "What?!" you might say, "You can't make people wait that long for serious stuff!!" Well, we're not going to have a choice. 

This is exactly what happened during the height of COVID. This is why places where it was the worst, like Florida, were offering ER and COVID ICU travel nurses up to a staggering $250/hour. This time, though, there'll be no Federal COVID support to pay those nurses- the exact opposite, in fact.

You'll sit there waiting alongside a 42-year old gentleman whose face is ashen. He lost his health insurance coverage, and couldn't see a PCP or dermatologist- which is worrying, because this morning he discovered a multicolored and very weird asymmetrical mole on his back, which he's going to find out is malignant melanoma that's already metastasized, when it could have been lopped off at Stage IA for $100 in health insurance copay and a pathology test.

You watch as a 56-year old lady gets wheeled back urgently, furious that you're having to wait and they don't, not realizing that person is a diabetic who had no access to insulin, who is in diabetic ketoacidosis (her blood sugar is now around 1200 at the moment). She won't make it to the ICU; they'll have to put her on a breathing machine in the ER and hope she doesn't die before an ICU bed comes open; the ICU, which normally operates on a one nurse to one patient ratio, is running around 4:1 at the moment.

You gaze nervously as two kids, a brother and sister by the look of it, fidget and itch and scratch the red/brown blotches that seem to begin at their hairline and extend down their face and to their body. You don't know what that is, because you've never actually seen measles before. And you also don't know that it's an "airborne" disease and significantly more contagious than the Flu or COVID. They probably shouldn't be sitting in a packed waiting room filled with sick and immunocompromised people- but they are.

You vaguely hear screaming from the back, which you have no way of knowing is the husband of a mother who was rushed into the ER, unconscious, her untreated preeclampsia becoming worse and contributing to her throwing an amniotic fluid embolism into her lungs, requiring the ER staff to do an emergency c-section- not in the OR, but at the bedside in the ER. With time of the essence for any chance to save the baby, and with blood flowing by the liter onto the floor, frazzled ER nurses are using their own hands as pressure bags to push uncrossmatched blood through an IV in a desperate, but ultimately futile, attempt to save the mom.

If you have a kidney stone, you might get seen sooner; four or five hours instead of twelve or longer. Seen by an NP or PA who is exceptionally talented, but has had a patient load 3-4 times what their normal "busy" day was. You get a prescription for narcotics and nothing more, and will be sent out the door. If you're there because your mom fractured her hip, well, eventually she'll get seen, and medicated into oblivion with IV narcotics. But hours later, when the ER doc has a chance to touch base with you, she'll tell you the x-rays say she not only broke her hip, but her pelvis, and that if/when she gets an inpatient hospital bed, they will have to discharge her back to a total care unit, IF space is ever available, and entirely at your expense.

Except the case manager that would have helped you find somewhere for your mom to go after being discharged (a short term disability facility, rehab, etc) is gone. The federal funding for her job is gone. Not only the funding to pay her, but all the assistance to find the exact kind of help your mom is going to need. Mom’s your problem now; you're going to have to take her home, you're going to have to turn her, you're going to have to put her on a bedpan 6-8 times a day or more because there simply isn't help out there anymore to do anything else.

But don't worry- after all, Elon said "everyone is going to have to hurt for two years". Well, the "two years" of pain is enough to make American nurses and doctors not want to be nurses or doctors anymore; not in those kinds of conditions. The crisis of not enough nurses/doctors worsens after a systemic effort to "root out the woke mind virus" craters funding to colleges and universities across the country. The best and brightest have fled to the EU, to Australia; heck, even Dubai is offering unheard of incentives for talented American providers, wanting to take the best and brightest away while they can.

Even if the flip switches magically at the two-year mark, the damage done will last a generation or more.

Whether you realize it consciously or not, emergency services are something you consider every single day. Are you looking at buying a house? Going hiking in the mountains? Driving to work? Taking your kids to soccer practice? Letting your elderly parents or grandparents live in their own home? You rely on the safety net my colleagues and I in emergency services provide. We're a foundational part of what makes modern life possible. 

If you can't rely on it, you are going to have to make some very hard choices in the very near future about what you need to do to keep you and your family safe.

If a system that every American relies on is going to collapse, if we can’t rely on it, you need to know about it now. So you can see this through, going forward. So you can do the very best you can by you and your family.

6.11.24

Congratulations America

 Congratulations, America!

You have shot off your own dick and you are happy about it.

You celebrate your arrogant ignorance with all the subtle grace & clever wit of a group of slope-browed bullies who have pushed a crippled kid into a mud puddle and consider that a true accomplishment, if not high art.

And who is to say you're wrong?

After all, history is festooned with greedy short-sighted & bad-tempered power-seekers using ill-educated & frenzy-whipped goobers to keep everyone else down in the muck instead of striving to reach their true potential. The Pharisees used local dummies to crucify Christ. Rome's succession of mad emperors raised armies to sweep through the known world. Hitler pushed post-WW1 Germany to start up a New World Order. It's all the same old story: Wealthy assholes in power want to maintain & expand said powerbase. They find & use some unbalanced numbskull to fire up the rubes into an unthinking crazed mob. Clearer heads try in vain to stop the crazy by saying 'Now, wait just a minute...' only to be ridiculed and ignored.

Once the suffering is in full swing, it's a little too late to say 'we told you so.' By that time, it's every man for himself.

You asked for this. Now you've got it. And here's what you've won! [Pull the curtain, Fred]

* A convicted felon, racist & rapist, a serial liar & career criminal, now on the throne. And it WILL BE a throne. You've given him everything he's ever wanted to stay out of prison and follow whatever mad dreams he has to mold this nation, if not the world, in his own twisted image.

* The rich get richer. This does not include you, as its your pockets they'll be dipping their claws into. Oh, and when the tarriffs kick in & inflation skyrockets, there won't be any 'Demoncrats' for you to blame it on this time.

* Minorities of race & religion & sexual preference are now all subject to mass scapegoating, if not actual camps & deportation. So are intellectuals & writers, educators & librarians, scientists & doctors. The barbarians are at the gate and they don't have time for all your fancy talk and book-learnin'.

* Women better get used to birthin' babies & cooking dinner, because yu've just handed over all your rights as human beings over to a bunch of He-Man Woman-Hating toddlers. Roe v Wade was just the beginning. They have their way, your right to birth control, to own property, have credit and especially vote will all be a thing of the past.

* People also better get ready to have a houseful of relatives & old folks cramping your style. Once Social Security & Medicare, not to mention Obamacare are toast, families are literally going to have to band together for survival, if not making the rent. Those without families to fall back on? Fuck 'em.

I can hear you all out there now. "This is America, you paranoid git. Ain't never gonna happen here. Things'll just go on the way they always have. Except all those serial killers crossing the border & high-priced cheeseburgers will be gone forever because we were promised that!"

Okay. Sure. Trump is a solid good guy and loves you all personally. He'll wave away all your troubles with his magic dingus of love. It will be 1956 again except without the polio. Elvis will be there, too, because America loves fat drug-addled has-beens who incoherently ramble. Everyone will be carefree & happy except for sour ol' grumpybuckets like me.

God damn it, you bastards really blew it. I could forgive it the first time you were bamboozled. But I will NEVER forgive you for doing it a second time.

5.11.24

Election Day Nov 5, 2024 and my thoughts

 It’s not Trump and his stupidity I fear, I despise him to much to fear such an incompetent fool like him . However we as a nation should fear and vote against him simply because of the people that surround him and whisper flattering words in his old boomer ear. Words of hate, disrespect, contempt and lies because those people know what a foolish man Trump is and will give them what they want. This is the long game, it’s been going since Reagan. The religious right and Christian Nationalists share the same bed and desires to rule as a theocracy and dictatorship with a puppet government to enforce their agenda . Please don’t buy into the lies and the propaganda of some one who is bought and controled by lies and flattery. Those same folks will sell his old boomer ass off to the crazy farm once they are entrenched into the lives of everyday Americans. Bet on that being their game plan. Your freedom is at stake, your children should not be the sacrifice to a dictator or his friends. Trump will sell your freedoms off to the wet dreams of Project 2025 if it gets him the presidency. He is to stupid to look beyond that Understand that the Christian Taliban is setting you up to be the next Afghanistan with all the ugly things that means.

8.7.23

Jill Scott version of the National Anthem.

3ed verse of the National anthem:

“Oh say can you see by the blood in the streets / That this place doesn’t smile on you colored child / Whose blood built this land with sweat and their hands / But we’ll die in this place and your memory erased / Oh say, does this truth hold any weight / This is not the land of the free, but the home of the slaves!”

=====

Frankly it breaks my heart that any American would feel such pain 

1.4.23

GOP hates Libraries and people who read

 Today's GOP is the American Taliban.

The Taliban forbid girls to go to school. Conservatives the world over apparently believe that women are nothing more than incubators.

People in Afghanistan under Taliban rule would hide radios in the dirt underneath their homes. If the “Morality Police" caught them listening to decadent, corrupting Western music there'd be hell to pay. Gotta keep 'em living in the 11th century.

As the late great writer Ray Bradbury once said, “You don't need to burn books to destroy a civilization; just get people to stop reading them.” He also said that in the event of a total societal catastrophe, libraries would be more valuable than hospitals to rebuild civilization. Due to all of the wisdom contained inside their walls.

That's why conservatives don't like libraries. Books make you think; therefore you're more likely to be a liberal.

28.6.22

Mo hates women

 MO bill hb126 is the bill.

MO states that conception begins at fertilization - making IUDs, plan B, and some hormonal based contraceptives. This will impact IVF as some doctors have already made public statements to their clients that they will only be implanting one fertilized egg at a time.

Preforming an abortion (this goes for doctors and women who induce abortions via a pill or any other method) is now a class B felony with 5-15 years imprisonment. It goes even for women who get a pill in any way. If you have any part of inducing an abortion, you can be punished. However, this does not include for a person who has an abortion preformed upon (say you go to a doctor and get an abortion- only the doctor would be punished).

THIS IS BIG FOR ANYONE WHO IS PREGNANT PLEASE READ THIS SECTION: MO states that the burden of proof to prove that you did not have an abortion will be on YOU. Keep in mind, many abortion pills are indistinguishable from miscarriages. THIS MEANS THAT IF YOU HAVE A MISCARRIAGE YOU CAN BE PUNISHED WITH THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW!!! For those who don’t know: you can’t control if your body has a miscarriage. It’s a completely natural process that cannot be controlled.

Before preforming an abortion, even in the case of miscarriage, the physician must evaluate heart and brain activity. This means that, even if the fetus is dead, if there is any electrical impulse an abortion cannot be preformed unless any of the exceptions stated below.

Exceptions to the law:

  • if the pregnant person is at imminent risk of death or loosing a major bodily function. This does not include an ectopic pregnancy as you aren’t at risk of death or loss of bodily function until after your tube ruptures.

13.5.22

Trust the women

 Almost three years ago, in an interview with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, former United States Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg fielded common conservative talking points on abortion rights. Instead of taking the bait, he had the perfect response to pro-lifers. He reiterated an individual's right to make the decision to carry her pregnancy to term or not. In addition to this, Buttigieg urged Wallace and other conservatives to not "get caught up in hypotheticals," Vox News reports. At a time when abortion rights have once again come under fire across the country, his arguments are an important foundation to understand why those who can actually receive abortions are, first and foremost, the top authorities on the subject.

During the interview, Wallace pressed Buttigieg for an answer on when he believed the "cutoff point" should be for someone seeking to have an abortion. He asked, "Do you believe, at any point in pregnancy, that there should be any limit on a woman’s right to an abortion?" This has been a framing popularly used by pro-life activists to suggest that there is a preponderance of individuals opting to have abortions very late in their pregnancies—which the former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, effectively proved was simply not true.

"The dialogue has gotten so caught up in where you draw the line," he responded. "I trust women to draw the line." Unsatisfied with his response, the news anchor swiftly followed up: "You would be okay with a woman well into the third trimester to obtain an abortion?" Buttigieg thus noted that such hypotheticals are typically set up to "provoke a strong emotional reaction Almost three years ago, in an interview with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, former United States Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg fielded common conservative talking points on abortion rights. Instead of taking the bait, he had the perfect response to pro-lifers. He reiterated an individual's right to make the decision to carry her pregnancy to term or not. In addition to this, Buttigieg urged Wallace and other conservatives to not "get caught up in hypotheticals," Vox News reports. At a time when abortion rights have once again come under fire across the country, his arguments are an important foundation to understand why those who can actually receive abortions are, first and foremost, the top authorities on the subject.

During the interview, Wallace pressed Buttigieg for an answer on when he believed the "cutoff point" should be for someone seeking to have an abortion. He asked, "Do you believe, at any point in pregnancy, that there should be any limit on a woman’s right to an abortion?" This has been a framing popularly used by pro-life activists to suggest that there is a preponderance of individuals opting to have abortions very late in their pregnancies—which the former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, effectively proved was simply not true.

"The dialogue has gotten so caught up in where you draw the line," he responded. "I trust women to draw the line." Unsatisfied with his response, the news anchor swiftly followed up: "You would be okay with a woman well into the third trimester to obtain an abortion?" Buttigieg thus noted that such hypotheticals are typically set up to "provoke a strong emotional reaction," prompting Wallace to share that there are 6,000 women a year who get an abortion in the third trimester. However, as the Democrat correctly replied, such cases comprise less than one percent of all abortion procedures completed in a year.

"So let us put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation," Buttigieg went on to explain. "If it is that late in your pregnancy, then almost by definition, you have been expecting to carry it to term. We are talking about women who have perhaps chosen a name. Women who have purchased a crib. Families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetimes, something about the health or the life of the mother or the viability of the pregnancy that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice."

He continued, affirming, "And the bottom line is, as horrible as that choice is, that women, that family, may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance, but that decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made." While the comments were made almost three years ago, they are an important reminder for Americans today as the country once again battles with protecting abortion rights. Just this week, the Senate failed to advance a bill developed by members of the Democratic Party that would enshrine abortion rights in federal law. All 50 Republican senators—and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin—opposed the bill.," prompting Wallace to share that there are 6,000 women a year who get an abortion in the third trimester. However, as the Democrat correctly replied, such cases comprise less than one percent of all abortion procedures completed in a year.

"So let us put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation," Buttigieg went on to explain. "If it is that late in your pregnancy, then almost by definition, you have been expecting to carry it to term. We are talking about women who have perhaps chosen a name. Women who have purchased a crib. Families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetimes, something about the health or the life of the mother or the viability of the pregnancy that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice."

He continued, affirming, "And the bottom line is, as horrible as that choice is, that women, that family, may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance, but that decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made." While the comments were made almost three years ago, they are an important reminder for Americans today as the country once again battles with protecting abortion rights. Just this week, the Senate failed to advance a bill developed by members of the Democratic Party that would enshrine abortion rights in federal law. All 50 Republican senators—and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin—opposed the bill.

22.2.22

The unborn are a convenient group of people to advocate for, unlike the living who need real help

 The unborn are a convenient group of people to advocate for.

They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn.

It's almost as if, by being born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.

Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.

-- Dave Barnhart

4.11.21

Why Gov Parsons of Missouri is a idiot

 For those who don't know, Claiborne Fox Jackson was Missouri's 15th Governor from January 3, 1861 to July 31, 1861. He and Lt. Gov. Thomas C. Reynolds conspired with the Confederate President Jefferson Davis to plan a secret coup and make Missouri secede from the Union against the orders of President Lincoln despite Jackson's campaign promises not to leave the union in 1860.

However, Commander Nathaniel Lyon, who was in charge of the Union arsenal in St. Louis suspected Jackson of attempting the coup when a state militia was camped outside of the city and building up their own weapons cache. Lyon had arrested members of the militia that supported the governor. Members of the militia were marched through the city where a riot broke out when Confererate sympathers attacked the Union captors only to be arrested or killed themselves.

After the Camp Jackson Affair in May 1861, Lyon was not going to put up with anymore of Governor Jackson's sh*t, and neither was the majority Unionist Missouri State Legislature.

Jackson declared Missouri a "free republic". In July 1861, the MoLeg voted to remove him from office, but Jackson refused to cede his power. In fact, when he found out Lyon was out to get him, he ordered the railroad tracks on the train he was escaping on to be destroyed.

However, Lyon took a steamer ship up the Missouri river and occupied the state capitol without a fight on June 13, 1861.

The Missouri State Convention declared the offices of Governor and Lt. Governor "vacant", but eventually appointed former Missouri Chief Justice Hamilton Gamble to Governor and Willard Hall as Lt. Governor as part of Missouri's provisional Unionist government.

Lyon was promoted to Brigadier General of the Army of the West on July 2, 1861, but sadly he was killed at the Battle of Wilson's Creek near Springfield on August 10, 1861.

Jackson exiled himself to Arkansas, a Confederate State, where he died of cancer in December 1862.

Meanwhile, Reynolds who as also in exile, was working with Confederate Generals Sterling Price, William Harney, and Ben McColloch. Price and McColloch were at the Battle of Wilson's Creek where Lyon was killed.

I could probably go on about Missouri Civil War History, but I want to wrap this up.

By 1865, Reynolds had fled to Mexico, along with Price and a few others, where he worked as as a railroad commissioner under Mexican Emperor Maximillian von Habsburg. While America was strugling with itself in the Civil War, France, the UK, and Spain though now was a good time to invade Mexico again because Napoleon III was like "Monroe Doctrine, Schmonrote doctrine" and wanted Mexico back in European hands. But this is an entirely different story.

Reynolds returned to the United States in 1868 to practice law, and for some reason got elected in the Missouri State House again in 1874 (WTF?!). He later worked for the federal government as a representative for South American trade?! (Oh, wait, Andrew Johnson was president around this time...It's not like they were going to impeach him or anything, amirite?!)

Eventually his past would come to catch up with him because his mental health was deteriorating. And on March 30, 1887, Reynolds committed suicide by jumping down an elevator shaft at the U.S. Custom House and Post Office, or as we know it today as the Old Post Office at 8th and Olive.

Missouri's part in the history of Civil War was the result of people less concerned about the welfare of Missourian's and more interested in their hold of political power. Masquerading as a "states' rights" issue when really it was about control by people with inherited wealth, the Governor used his powers to organize his supporters to attack the heart of the country's commerce and defense.

Had Lyon not died at Wilson's Creek, there's a good chance he could have been encouraged to stay in Missouri and run for governor.

So what does this story have anything to do with current events?

Just as Claiborne Fox Jackson and Thomas Reynolds had chosen to fight the Federal Government and declare their insurrection upon common sense, Parson, Kehoe, Ashcroft, Schmitt, and Hawley have worked to rebel against the Federal Government from providing the financial assistance Missourians needed; they had collaborated to oppose the acceptance of the election even though Tr*mp still won it anyway, lawsuits were being held on behalf of Pennsylvania and Texas diverting state resources for problems that are not our state's concern such as elections and immigration; They left our state's cybersecurity vulnerable and more than likely had themselves a little document barbeque Monday night in Jefferson City to cover it up, but for some reason still want to charge a reporter with cybercrimes he didn't commit; they have kept Josh Hawley as our representative despite his support of the insurrection as well as several state level legislators who had supported or gone to Washington DC on January 6 even though they deny being at the riot; Missourians DID NOT RECEIVE FEDRAL STIMULUS MONEY because Mike Parson denied its distribution opting to tell Missourians to "get a job"; He's let disinformed parents part of his voter base go to school board meetings, municipal meetings, and county council meetings eschew the required mask mandates and vaccine requirements we need to end the pandemic by promoting false information that he knew was wrong even when he and his wife were infected with the virus.

Therefore, Missourians should oppose this executive order! It not only endangers Missourians, it also handicaps their right to Federal funding, a safe, secure environment at work, school, church, and other places, and pretends this is a "civil rights" issue when a 65 year old white man from rural Missouri who was a county sheriff doesn't even have the head space to speak to us about "civil rights" when there are people of color, people in poverty, and people with disability who have had their civil rights either ignored or violated over the years including the upheavals that occurred during the George Floyd protests of 2020.

WE WILL NOT ABIDE BY THIS EXCUTIVE ORDER WHICH IS INTENDED NOT TO COMPLY WITH REASON BUT WITH POLTICAL CONVEIENCE!

1.11.21

Stop playing the game

 

Stop playing the game.

Stop playing the game.

Take a minute. Step back. Collect your thoughts.

Take a look and realize the truth of the situation:

Capitalism has stolen everything from us.

Our health.

Our loved ones.

Our happiness.

Our dignity.

Our planet.

Our simple base humanity.

Capitalism has stolen all of this from us.

And our only play left is to simply stop playing.

Stop. Playing. The. Game.

Stop playing the game and recollect your dignity. Stop playing the game and find your confidence.

Stop playing the game and find your... self. Capitalism has clouded our minds with all of this empty noise so that we can't think. Capitalism has filled our life with collective waste so that we can't see. Capitalism has evaded our relationships so that our employer trumps our loved ones. Capitalism has... Lied. Capitalism has lied and lied and lied.

Capitalism gave us these empty promises of empty consumerism. A big house. A fast car. A bloated boat. Nice clothes. Fancy dinners. Empty words of platitude to give us a dopamine boost from people who want us actually want you dead. Is that really how we measure success? Is that really how we want to define ourselves? A meaningless rat race that just gets us dead... alone? No loved ones. No meaningful relationships. Nothing of true meaning. It's all just so... so... shallow. Where is the creativity? Where is the art? Where is the innovation? Capitalism can't offer us any of that. Capitalism is ill equipped to address our modern challenges. Capitalism is unable to address our modern challenges because Capitalism has created our modern challenges. Capitalism can't solve hunger. Capitalism can't solve houselessness. Capitalism can't solve ill-health. Capitalism can't solve climate-suicide. When the only agenda is the almighty dollar, humanity is sacrificed. And when we lose our humanity, we're just a pack of rats killing one another over table crumbs. Where is the hope? Where is the vision? Where is the... future? There is none. There simply is none to be found.


Call me a socialist. Call me a communist. I don't care what label you assign to me. I am a Humanitarian. And when Humanity is the agenda, everything changes. When our drive is to better ourselves and to better our species... Well... The dollar just doesn't seem as important all of a sudden. Who cares about a big house or a big boat when you see people rise from nothing to find meaning? Who cares about an inflated bank account when you see a hungry child finally fed? Who cares about a high title job when you see a family no longer working themselves to the bone to keep a roof over their head and food on the table? When you see that family finally have time for game night? When you see that family finally have time for conversation? When you see that family bond and grow and become a supportive structure? None of what Capitalism matters. It doesn't matter because it's empty. It's shallow. It offers nothing to the human experience. Universal healthcare matters. Universal education matters. Universal income matters. Universal housing matters. These universal concepts matter because they offer everything to the human experience. These concepts offer everything because they offer the one thing Capitalism steals: Time. Universal healthcare means more time on this planet to spend with loved ones. Universal education means being able to communicate and empathize with loved ones. Universal income means being able to enjoy experience with loved ones. Universal housing means being sheltered with loved ones. On the cold nights. On the wet nights. When outside is not so inviting, universal housing means being warm and protected with the ones we love. These concepts matter. These tenets matter. These values matter. The time to set aside Capitalism is now. The time to embrace change is now. The time to embrace hope is now. The time to envision a future is now. Because if we don't know, we won't have another opportunity. So, again, I say... I plead... I beg... Stop. Playing. The. Game. #MOSen #Deets2022 #WeThePeople #MBASocialist