Thursday, October 13, 2011

Occupy Wallstreet

So the new political movement Occupy Wallstreet is a bit delusional in my opinion. I believe wholeheartedly in what they are trying to accomplish, but I believe that it is going to fail because they are not being realistic. The whole movement is about the atrocious fact that major corporations spend billions of dollars to sway elections in their favor, stockpile trillions of dollars and further distance the rich from the poor economically, outsource work to china, all the while fighting the tax hike on millionaires (saying they are the "job-creators" yet don't actually hire Americans) with the political clout that they gain from their billions of dollars in campaign financing.

I get it, all these things are awful. Corporate campaign financing has ruined our democracy and should be illegal; instead the Supreme Court has made it not only legal but has encouraged it by not putting a ban on the spending limit. I hope that Occupy Wallstreet is successful in their movement, I really do... but this is why they are going to fail...

They are shunning support from major corporations who also believe in their cause. They are lumping all major corporations into the same category and using the credo that the only thing corporations are concerned with is profit. This may be true in most circumstances, but there are major corporations out there that have had huge profits and still do their share to be globally and socially responsible. Just a few:

Clif Bars
Xerox
BackCountry
Weyerhaeuser
Disney
Nestle
Ben and Jerry's


Recently, Ben and Jerry's decided to feed the protestors in NYC's Zuccotti park that are at the base camp for the Occupy Wallstreet campaign, they did it with little fanfare and no logos on the items to show their support for the cause. Some of the protestors then had the audacity to come out against them for doing this... this is the ignorance of the protestors and why their campaign isn't going to work. Big Business rules the world. If you don't have some sort of backing by someone with public visibility or someone that the media has an interest in, your protest and your revolution is going to go unnoticed and no one is going to care about it. I think it was extremely short sighted and idealistic on the protestors part (who are all young 20 somethings) to shun the support of a large corporation showing them support.

I wish all corporations would be banned; however, since that will never happen... I think we should help support those that do their part globally and socially and recognize that not all corporations are created equal. There are the very few exceptions that do care about their customers, that do care about hiring American employees and not outsourcing their work, that care about the environment, and care about the overall impact that their product(s) have on society. The facts of life are that we live in a branded society, we live in a Target, Wal-Mart, Costco society. They have pushed out most of the competing businesses because of their ridiculously low prices from their outsourced labor... there is no way around these facts now. People should have been fighting that fight 15 years ago when the trend was beginning to set roots in our communities. There are hardly any options to get supplies locally except for these huge chains, it is a sad and terrible fact. I am going to bet that a good chunk of these people participating in the Occupy Wallstreet campaign still do their shopping at one of these major stores, or maybe one of the major grocery chains?? Whole Foods maybe?? What about the $9 billion dollars of revenue that Whole Foods generated in 2010?? I got $9 billion dollars to go with my idealistic, arrogant, attitude and my organic fruit that was shipped all the way from fucking Guatemala or Argentina... But what the fuck, who cares about the cost of the fuel to get it there because organic means BETTER... So I have my organic banana from Guatemala to eat while I protest the greed of corporate America. Don't want to get hungry in the middle of protesting such things.

Starbucks is another company that has come out publicly calling for a ban on campaign financing... Starbucks, a company that could easily make more money by lobbying FDA regulations on public health codes, yet they do not. I hate Starbucks and the branding of America that it represents, but Starbucks is doing its part to be socially and globally responsible. They have cut energy consumption, use recycled cups, give discounts to customers for using their own cups, will give away the used coffee grounds to customers for composting if requested, and they are ranked No. 15 on the EPA's list of top 25 Environmentally Friendly Companies.

This whole protest takes on the meaning to me as the saying "It is not your Christ I do not like, it is your Christians." They are delusional, idealistic, and arrogant which is just terrible because it is a great cause to support because corporate greed is ruining this country and has corrupted our democracy already.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Degree of Relativity

We all have the potential to be crazy, the degree of relativity for craziness is the huge difference between us all. So my personal experiences have dealt with a lot of crazy f*cking people, and not just "Oh Girl, that girl is SOO Crazy" or "that b*tch be crazy" I mean clinically ape sh*t crazy. For the most part I am able to contain my crazy, it usually is only seen in the form of licking strangers when I am drunk or biting nipples of random men that walk by me at concerts. I am slowly growing out of this habit though due to the fact that I could potentially get gonoherpasyphaids from this practice and I just don't think that would be much fun to take care of for the rest of my life... other than that threat that looms on the horizon, I really see nothing wrong with this practice.

This one particular person who used to be in my life until the crazy got so bad that I just had to walk away is on my mind lately. I miss the person terribly, but I have a lot of bitterness and anger in my heart over all the lying that this person did to their own detriment as well as their entire family. I miss a person who is not actually the real person. They had this persona that they would put on and say what you wanted to hear, lie straight to your face for god only knows what reason, and really told some doozies for lies. I mean big ones, that affect other people's lives. This person is clinically effing nuts to the core and it has been in my best interest thus far to walk away and have no contact because they were doing a great job of bringing me down with them, but I do love this person very dearly... so it has been a pickle. I find it heartbreaking that I have to choose between my sanity and having this person in my life... Ahhhhviously I will choose self-preservation. It still doesn't make me feel any better though, so I just don't think about it. I'm not a thinker, I don't dwell on things for very long usually. I must reiterate the word USUALLY!

I used to wonder why this person would get so mad at me whenever I told them to stop putting on their fake smile in pictures. I guess I now know it is because they don't have any other smile, they are rotten to the core and incapable of genuinely smiling because they are incapable of ever being happy. Due to this person's illness, they are not capable of seeing their mistakes and they are always the "victim" and it has always been like this... at least as long as I can remember. This person has easily replaced me and anyone else in her life that has called her out on her craziness and there appears to be nothing more that I can do anyway. So alas, I was just writing to vent some frustration/irritation/anger/hurt/hostility... and these are the days of our lives. Moving on. I want an RV... let me tell you why...

Monday, October 3, 2011

The Ever Changing Face of Miss Myrtle

I don't really know why people tout the phrase that "Change is Good For You!" with a serious face. They must not make big changes often in their life. I am not entirely convinced that change is good for you... coming from a person who attempts major changes in life on average of 3.56 major changes every 5 months. I have always been told that change is good for me, and that I should not fear change, nor get too comfortable in life... and I never have. You can ask anyone who has ever lived with me, I move frequently and I hate staying in one place for too long, it starts to smell funny to me and I just plain don't like it. I don't understand why, it is just part of who I am. I wish someone would fill me in on why change is believed to be so good for us though. I just made a major change and I haven't decided if it is good or bad. I am feeling mighty depressed about it at the moment and I am sure hoping things begin to look up, but change can be hard on human beings. It is stressful, depressing, and some times not for the best. Maybe even 50% of the time not for the best.

That seems like a high statistic, but seriously why are we always  trying to change our lives? Why can't we just live comfortably, with the people we know and love, and continue in that fashion with small regular changes such as the sheets on our beds? I don't know if this is my Gypsy soul finally settling down, not wanting change to occur so much anymore or if I am just in a stressful situation right now that I am hoping I won't end up regretting. Who knows, it is probably my rapidly deteriorating biological clock ticking its last final ticks in an attempt to get me to pop a kid out before my insides resemble dried up prunes.

I understand that change is necessary in some regards, but why are we encouraged to make major changes all the time? I think I am tired of change... this is probably that point in life where people's wardrobes stop progressing and you see people wearing their 25 year old Birkenstocks with MoM jeans and flannels. I will do my best to not let my wardrobe stop evolving... well except my 13 year old Birkenstocks.