Post-Election Blues

So if you've been following this blog, you already know my feelings about the results.  I'm relieved.  On facebook I had complained and argued with people about the election, the platforms, the candidates, and fighting the pro-Romney propaganda that 80% of my friends have been posting.  It got so out of control that at one point a woman actually wrote to my wife and told her that she was no longer going to be her friend on facebook anymore because she "didn't support socialism" and that some day my wife "would regret voting for Obama".

 This is my response  to that statement.  First, what is socialism?  Webster says :

1. Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods


2. a: system of society or group living in which there is no private property

    b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3. a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done


She was, of course, referring to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) as socialism.  It's a very complicated law, and there isn't really much else I can do but oversimplify it by boiling it down to it's essence.  The law says everyone must have insurance.  You may keep your private insurance if you currently have it, but if you don't have it, you are now required by law to have it.  If you didn't have it because of pre-existing conditions that barred you from obtaining it, pre-existing conditions are discriminatory and against the law.  If you don't want private insurance, you may sign up for what I'm sure will be a really sh***y  plan from the government. If you cannot afford insurance, the premiums will be adjusted so that you can afford it. If you are so dirt poor that paying for insurance is above your cost of living, you will qualify for medicaid.

Sure, in theory, saying that everyone must have health insurance is a socialistic philosophy.  Everyone is equal in that sense.  But if you look at the execution of the law it does not meet the definition at all.

1. The government does not own the means of production.  Doctors and nurses are not government employees.  The government is not the sole provider of insurance; as evidenced by multiple insurance agencies that exist and will continue to exist after the plan is fully implemented.

2. a: You will still own your own home, car, and even your private insurance.  You can even change to another private insurance if you want.
    b. The government is now saying you have to have insurance.  If you take out a loan on a car, the bank requires you to have insurance for the car.  The government is now saying if you are alive, you need to have insurance.  It's in your best interest to have it.  If you are poor or middle class and get sick or are in an accident, you may never have the money you need for healthcare costs in your lifetime. 60% of all bankruptcies are healthcare related,  Healthcare costs are outrageously high and growing every year.  Why you would not want insurance is something I will not understand.  But according to definition 2 b., Obamacare does not equal socialism.

3. Do you really believe we are in a transition into communism?  Do you see the redistribution of wealth?  Oh, you might say, there are going to be higher taxes on the rich to pay for government programs for the poor!  That's not how it works.  Redistribution of wealth would be that at the end of the day, the money you've made that exceeds the standard of living dictated by government, would be taken from you and given to people who did not make enough to meet the standard of living.  And by the way, your employer is the government.

From what I've seen and heard, no one really understands what the word "socialism" means.  They know that it's a dirty word, so they use it to describe what they don't understand.   I don't understand why most Republicans don't want poor and sick people to get the healthcare they need.  I guess that makes me socialist.

One of the things that I liked most about this election, was Karl Rove was caught with his metaphoric pants down.  With over a billion dollars spent on the election, his superpacs gave Karl a minuscule return on investment.  In fact, according to NPR,  of all the money spent on the presidential election this year, less than 2% was supporting the candidate that actually won the election.  Less than 2%.  That's a big win for America.  It proves that democracy still works, and apparently there are still people out there that can think for themselves and are not persuaded by TV ads.  I can't help but laugh at every story I see come out about how millionaires and billionaires are gunning for Rove.  Here's a guy who was even called out on FOX news the night of the election for doing the kind of math that republican's do to "make themselves feel better."  He is so much in denial that he argued for a good twenty minutes that Ohio was not lost in the election before slinking off into the shadows to wet his pants.  Unfortunately, Rove made millions himself from this election by collecting transactional fees from the billionaires he misled.  In a way that's actually kind of cool.  Karl Rove robbing the rich to stuff his own fat pockets.  Hat's off to you Karl, you're a true capitalist.  An opportunity arose and you grabbed it by the horns.


Moving on to my last topic, this is something else that's been bothering me lately.  Look up at the graphic I posted above of the U.S. of A by electoral votes.  I saw a lot of complaining about how if most of the US is red, how did Obama get elected?  Well, for those of you who have never left your red state, let me tell you.  It's because states are allocated electoral votes based on population. The US census on July 1, 2011, estimated that there was a population of 568,158 people living in Wyoming.  The same census reported the population of New York (state) at 19,465,197.  New York is much more densely populated, though it is significantly smaller than Wyoming.  For those of you who understand math, New York has more people than Wyoming.  Wouldn't it make sense that New York counts more than Wyoming in elections because there are more people?  It's really pretty easy.  Don't strain your brain thinking about it.

The news has been reporting a lot of redistricting as well to suppress votes and swing elections.  Guess what, Obama also won the popular vote, so no matter how you divide it, you'll at least know that the populace didn't choose your candidate.  Get over yourselves.  

Public Persona Ted Nugent Actually Just Toned-Down Version of Private Self

Rocker/hunter Ted Nugent's "public persona" is "actually just a toned-down version of his private self," said an anonymous source close to the lunatic.  "He's actually quite bonkers."

We asked our source to describe a typical day in the life of the Nuge, and the details have been provided in full:

"Well, Ted usually wakes up and puts on a fresh pair of American flag briefs first thing.  Then, he polishes his AK-47, his shotgun, or whichever gun he fell asleep cuddling with the night before.  After smiling at himself in the mirror for ten minutes, he does a work out routine in his basement.  His routine consists of punching live dogs or cats (or whatever animals the shelter had the day before) while they swing upside down from the ceiling while singing along with Madison Rising's "Right to Bear".  For breakfast, he skins the animal that survived his workout routine the longest, and eats the raw meat like cereal using Jack Daniels for milk.  He often visits his grandkids and plays games like Hide and Seek and Kill.  It's a game where he fills a gun with blanks and tells the kids to hide, then when he finds them he empty's his clip while screaming "Death to Socialism" while the children scream.

"If he's not out brutally murdering innocent animals in the woods, he likes to google himself and update his wikipedia page.  He also enjoys the "Nuge Luge", which is a downhill racer that he constructed.  He rides down hills while playing a custom built guitar that has a shotgun barrel for the neck, and shooting it off in time with his crazy guitar licks blasting from an amplifier attached to the back (at the base of a giant American Flag with his face embroidered out of stars).

"For quiet time, he enjoys watching Tarantino films and eating a bucket of lizards. He's been known to put one particular scene of Hitler getting shot in the face on a slow-motion loop while he falls asleep.  For not-so-quiet time, "Nugebag" (as some family refer to him) enjoys throwing parties in the woods where he rehearses his post-apocalyptic survival strategy in the event of a successful full-scale Democratic re-election scenario.

"For dinner, he enjoys eating real American food from Panda Express.  Frequently, he eats with two 9mm handguns as chopsticks, fills them with blanks, and discharges them while he eats 'for the thrill of it'.

"I once asked him while visiting his house for a birthday party, 'Uncle Ted, do you carry a firearm with you at all times?'  to which he responded, '(Expletive) Yeah! How else will I be able to protect myself from the (expletive) socialists and commies when they come to burn my first edition signed copy of The Wealth of Nations, or my reel of Birth of a Nation? Or my Zeppelin shirt that Ozzy spit on during a Sabbath concert?'

I also asked him if he takes any medication for his paranoia, to which he responded '(Expletive) no, I don't take pills, I channel my fear and aggression into hunting.  Nothing calms the soul like thoughtless killing.'

"How would I describe him?  If you took Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, and Charlie Sheen (if he cared about politics the way he cares about cocaine and women) and combined them into one monster, that embarrassing representation of humanity would still pale in comparison to the atrocity that he is.  I don't know how to describe him.  He's the Nuge."