alomgv86-blog

[alomgv86-blog]

State of our "Union"

I have been processing what is happening in our country as of last week. I really worry about what we have become. I want to say that I feel like this hits close to home since I was born and raised in Virginia. I lived there until I was 18 years old and during my time there I saw racism. People casually making racist jokes, stereotypes, and the love of the confederate flag. I would cringe at the amount of ignorance present but my hope was that future generations would exhibit less of these traits. As I watch or read news regarding the tragic events at Charlottesville, I think how did we get to this point. I feel like I want to say so many things I don’t know if I can even put this information into words. Sorry in advance if this sounds jumbled, I am just so frustrated. First, I think why are people marching to begin with, the basic premise is to save a statue of Robert E Lee. Why do people want Robert E Lee’s statue’s saved, he was a general yes, but what he fought for was slavery. The South fought to continue to have the right to own people. White people think about this, let’s say you were born black during this time, you didn’t have freedom at all, you were owned like a piece of furniture or an animal. Imagine your life, imagine people thinking you are inferior due to the amount of melanin in your skin. This man supported slave owners enough to fight a war to protect this right. This is the man you are looking up to. When statues are put up, it is in honor of something, this person doesn’t deserve this honor, and the statue should be removed. Imagine being black today, walking past a statue celebrating this person, going to a school with the name of a confederate on it, or with a confederate flag flying proudly above it. Would you feel welcome in your own country or state? I hear people defending the confederate flag saying it is southern history, history of treasonous acts toward America and slavery. Why do we have these things on display? When learning about history, this information will still be around, but shouldn’t be celebrated. I don’t understand why this is so hard for people to understand. Do you see people in Germany putting Nazi flags above their schools or naming schools Adolf Hitler Middle? The premise being that the Nazi flag is part of German history and Adolf was a general from our past supporting our rights (same poor logic applied here). Why do you figure they don’t put this on display, because it is history that is frowned upon not celebrated. Second, I feel so ashamed of our country when I think of people in the crowds yelling Nazi chants, holding Nazi flags, wearing Nazi shirts, and making heil Hitler gestures. Do you remember that America fought against the Nazis? How can you be an American while being a Nazi? White men marching about their country being taken from them. EXCUSE ME, I remember this time that Native Americans lived here and we killed them for this land that didn’t belong to us. White people are still the majority and have actually faced no oppression. What are you talking about? I hate to sound cliche, but really CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE. Looking at pictures of the crowds, seeing white men literally up in arms, marching, if that isn’t white privilege I don’t know what is. Imagine for one instant if during Black Lives Matter, 100’s of men had guns, they would have been SHOT and KILLED by the police even if the guns were registered and not being pointed at anyone or being reached for. Native Americans that were protesting the oil pipeline were hit with water cannons by cops. A black person getting pulled over for a basic traffic stop can get murdered at the drop of a hat. Yet you actually are attacking people, holding weapons, and the cops are like “Now Now Everyone Breathe”. People are chanting White Lives Matter, who said they didn’t, when were you oppressed? I challenge anyone reading this post to tell me when the white man was held down. I will save you the time, it doesn’t exist. White men have oppressed people since the beginning, now that the minorities have fairly equal rights white men are bent out of shape. Just because a minority has rights doesn’t mean yours are taken away. Why is this so hard to figure out? But PLEASE tell me more about the oppression you feel. Third, the people stating they have the right to free speech. I agree that is their right, they have the right to assembly as well. I understand that, I also have the right to disagree with the reasoning. You know who also had the right to assemble and that is the counter-protestors. Funny how when you are making a point about hate it’s free speech but when a point about love is made you try to stop it with violence. When I see photos or video of counter protestors being hit with a car, I cry. How could this happen in our country, a country that is supposed to be free? How could Heather Heyer die and so many others be harmed so maliciously? How can this not be labeled an act of terrorism? Fourth, the Nazi blog The Daily Stormer, writes a libelous blog post entitled “Heather Heyer woman killed in road rage incident was a fat childless 32 year old slut”. WTF. There are no words to how atrocious this is. Your piece of shit supporter kills a woman in a crowd protesting your garbage and you ATTEMPT to disgrace her name. How foul a “human being” must you be to think this is “OK”? I love how they put childless in this title. So she was a worthless human being because she wasn’t a barefoot, pregnant slave, CLASSY. Fifth, is the perpetual embarrassment I feel when I see our president. When he is to address this tragedy and he proceeds to say that this is on many sides. NO IT WAS ON YOUR SIDE!!! You say that you are a “no holds barred kinda guy or tell them like it is” this is a domestic act of terrorism, call it as such. This is group of your supporters that committed this heinous crime yet you can’t call it out. After hearing how he is just brushing this under the rug, the neo-nazi groups are celebrating his response. Basically to them it is a stamp of approval for their actions. “Make America Great Again”, boy our country really feels great doesn’t it? Finally I just don’t understand how the Alt-right and the rest of this group states to be so into America, they talk of the constitution and founding fathers. Yet they hold the flags of the enemies of our UNITED states. Do they not look at history books or remember the saying “melting pot”. Our country was founded on that principle. We were never founded to be all White men. If you want to live in a fascist society, go create one somewhere else. If you don’t like the “melting pot” then get the hell out. Sorry for the long rant, just so many different emotions, angry that so many years have gone by and we are apparently regressing. I am also sad that people have this much hate in their hearts that they feel the need to protest the existence/rights of other people. I want to be hopeful but it is difficult in the current climate.

[alomgv86-blog]

Our Environmental Crisis

I don’t know if anyone else gets a feeling that Trump has a war on the Earth.  I don’t use this phrase loosely, he has done everything he can to undermine any effort to keep the Earth alive. During the campaign, he states that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese. His polices ever since have reflected this belief. 

It started by putting Scott Pruitt in charge of the EPA. He is a man who has sued the EPA 13 times during his time as Oklahoma’s attorney general to overturn rules and regulations limiting air pollution from power plants and in 2015 when the EPA was strengthening health standards for smog. He is an adamant climate change denier and fossil fuel buddy. With the new budget proposal, a 31% budget reduction for the EPA. Seems like a way to dismantle the department in charge of protecting our precious environment.

Trump during his campaign was all about putting coal miners back to work. In an effort to put these coal miners to work, Trump has signed an executive order to get The Clean Power Plan reviewed and possibly removed. This eliminates moratoriums on coal leases on federal lands and ending language in writing new policies involving social cost of greenhouse gases. With this change in policy, a hiring frenzy should ensue you would think. NO….the coal mining companies themselves say, we won’t be putting many people back to work after-all, we have automation now.  Coal is losing in the race for energy, natural gas is preferable.  Coal jobs account for fewer than 70,000 US jobs while wind, solar, biofuels account for more than 650,000 jobs.

An additional factor affecting the coal industry is the plummeting cost of solar panels and wind turbines producing electricity cheaper than coal. So…there is another crazy dream fed to his base in an effort to get their votes going up in smoke. So who is really benefiting from this change in policy. The answer is the coal companies. Another thing that bugs me about people fighting for coal jobs, coal was literally killing people working in the industry (lung diseases as well as other work related dangers). I understand that you may have had a good paying job, but is it worth killing the planet and yourself.

Next, he is supporting the DAPL, claiming it will provide new jobs for Americans and we will use American Steel. So at this point the DAPL is made with steel from Russian and Indian companies and has the potential to employ 8,200-12,000 temporary employees while only maintaining 40-50 permanent employees after 1-2 years.

The DAPL is being run next to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota, one break and many people will be without drinking water and a major ecological setback. In case you forgot, we still have people in Flint without drinking water. I don’t feel like we need to add to this problem. Previously, the DAPL was to be run by Bismarck, ND (a mostly white town) but was re-routed due to being too close to water supplies. I don’t feel like this is a coincidence. Not only do we take the country from the Native Americans, now the small portion of land they have is going to have a potential to be polluted. How about we just not build an ecological disaster of a pipeline in the first place?

In 2015, at the UN Climate Change Conference, the Paris Agreement was forged between 174 countries to reduce global greenhouse gases and lower the global temperature increase. Each country set up goals to reduce their country’s carbon footprint. The United States vowed to reduce its greenhouse pollution by 26% from 2005 levels by 2025. With the changes in leadership and polices, it would make it impossible to meet the goals that were set. Here is a graph of what impact there would be if global goals are met.

The next step by Scott Pruitt and Trump I predict will be to withdraw from this agreement. Obama also worked with automobile companies to set new MPG standards for new automobiles, that will be another thing to get rid of by the Trump administration.

How is it even possible to deny climate change? Don’t people have eyes and ears? I witness climate change every time I see my hometown hit by natural disasters. When I was a child, natural disasters weren’t the norm. As I grew into a teen, I experienced my first major natural disaster. Hurricane Isabel destroyed homes and devastated businesses in my community. The next year another tropical storm, ruining what was just rebuilt. A few years after I moved, I see reports of tornadoes, something that had never occurred in the area. Every year since, new areas around the country hit with new natural disasters. Every year reports of the hottest year to date. In 2013, I took a road trip to explore the west coast, one place I was excited to see was the Great Salt Lake. I remember driving over the bridge looking on both sides and seeing no lake. Later realizing, when looking at the map that the Great Salt Lake is disappearing.

If you don’t believe what you see in the world around you, approximately 90% of scientists agree that global warming is occurring and it is man made.

As I finish writing up a list of atrocities against our Earth, I think how can anyone not see the bigger picture. Big picture, we need a planet to live on, air to breathe, and clean water. These are basics for survival as a species. How can anyone think, ok coal jobs are a priority vs being alive? People need to wake up and take off the rosy colored sunglasses. Once the planet is gone, it is gone, no going back. We are at a pivotal point in history where we can continue to ignore science and live like there is no tomorrow or make real changes to provide a safe and healthy place for the future of humanity. This shouldn’t be a hard choice. How can a person look their children in the eyes knowing they did nothing but leave a mess for them to clean up because it was more convenient for now?

[alomgv86-blog]

Healthcare Ramblings

After watching the news, I find it so ridiculous that President Trump has decided to give up on healthcare. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that the specific bill died, but how can the White House be so nonchalant about this important issue. Per Trump “the democrats didn’t vote for this bill, so now Obamacare will explode”, this is the attitude of a bratty child. 

It frustrates me to no end that “Obamacare” or the ACA has so many problems, when it was being put forward, a public option was discussed. The Republicans fought against this option. A public option would have helped to increase the competition between plans, but this was turned down. Now we have a give away to insurance companies. We are also required to buy health insurance even if the plan is garbage. The ACA requires insurance companies to provide coverage for preventive care, maternity care, and mental health. The ACA also requires a lifetime maximum and no denying people with pre-existing conditions. These are all positives of the plan. Unfortunately, the insurance companies want to keep their insane profit margins and to accomplish this they found a way to limit the access to the insurance you pay for by raising deductibles and premiums. 

I just want to understand why our country doesn’t have universal healthcare. Most major countries have universal healthcare. Healthcare is a RIGHT not a privilege. Currently, the Republican party states it is about creating access to healthcare, but if you are unable to afford healthcare, access doesn’t mean anything. You can provide a lot of options, but the problem is still with the insurance companies holding all the cards. 

I find it disturbing that we realize healthcare costs are increasing but we don’t see that by preventing people from using their insurance when they need it the costs will continue to rise. If a person has signs or symptoms of a specific disease, they will continue to wait to be seen until they are seen at the ER or having a major procedure. Also by people waiting to go to the doctor, when they are sick these people are out of commission from work, bringing productivity down. How is this helping our cause? The complaint of universal healthcare is that people may have to wait for care. Newsflash people are waiting for care now. It is my belief that people on programs like medicaid or medicare get better healthcare than people using purchased healthcare plans through the exchange or employer based healthcare plans. 

If we have to keep insurance companies in the equation, at least provide a public option. Insurance companies will be forced to provide quality affordable plans. This is at the minimum of what we can do for this country. 

Also I find it irritating that health insurance is linked to your employer. I realize when the system was implemented it was a way for employers to attract more employees to their company, but it also has many flaws. This was a time when there were many jobs and employers had to compete for qualified people. Now for the person on the job hunt you have to consider benefits more than the actually job. With there being a limited number of jobs to be had, this makes the search even more difficult. For example, recently my husband was on the job hunt, interviewed with a small business that seemed promising. The negative is that they can’t offer him health insurance, the company is small and not required to provide this, and can’t afford to offer this benefit. He had to turn down a prospective job for this reason. He needs health insurance of some kind. He currently deals with a company he dislikes because of the benefits. What kind of quality of life is this? 

Another person affected is the self-employed, an entrepreneur for example is left to fend for themselves, because they aren’t affiliated with a company that provides health insurance. How is this motivating future small business owners?

This healthcare problem also affects current small business owners in that they have to provide health insurance to employees if they employ more than 50 people. Why should it be their responsibility to provide healthcare? Businesses at the 49 person mark may need another employee but may be unable to hire because it would create more hardship by the increase in costs due to healthcare. This is causing a loss of future jobs. 

Also there are people that may need to move or switch jobs this causes a period of time where there isn’t insurance coverage. There are adults trying to better themselves, maybe cutting hours to attend college, losing healthcare in the process. Universal healthcare would cover you at any stage in your life. There is such an inequality between people in this realm, some people have such poor healthcare while others have premium plans. Anyone who is sick should be able to go to the doctor without worrying about debt. It shouldn’t be based on how much you can afford to pay the insurance company every month for this privilege. 

Again I think universal healthcare is the ultimate goal that we should strive for, but doing nothing is going to cause death to many Americans. My only hope is that the government now realizes that the bill they tried to pass didn’t reflect what the country actually wants. I hope that our government can put their party aside and work with one another to promote the greater good for our country. Thanks for listening.