shadowkat | (no subject)

1. Watching Riverdale, I'm struck by the fact that the parents are all my age. Or a couple of years younger. Luke Perry turned 50 in October (Archie's Dad). Skeetch Ulrich turned 47 recently (Jughead's dad).

This is Us is a bit easier, the parents are Baby Boomers and in their 60s/70s, while the kids are in their late 25-43-- kids of the Baby Boomers. Gen X - those of us between 45-55 or thereabouts, have spend our lives competing for jobs with the Baby Boomers (who refuse to retire) and their kids. We were the kids of the Silent Generation - between the Baby Boomers and the Greatest Generation. The Silent Generation were the kids born in the 1930s and early 40s during or just before the war, not after it. (74-85).

Personally, I hate these marketing categories. But, it is what it is.

As an aside, Veronica is annoying me. She's went from being likable to a self-absorbed brat. This may because I identify more with her Mom than Ronnie. And...it reminds me of why I'm glad I do not have children.

2. Beautiful day.

Making my way through "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which has some good moments. Addams apparently has issues with poetry, because he goes on a ten page tangent ripping it apart. I find the writer interesting in his tangents. He also has issues with highways...and bureaucrats.

Sky blue. Snow...multi-colored - depending on where you are. In some places it was neon green. Others orange. And some pink. (Making one wonder what people are feeding their dogs these days? Because that's some interestingly colored urine.) Mostly gray and yellow.

Warmer than it has been. In the 40s instead of the 20s. Nice change. My body was happy.

3. Addicted to chocolate. I know this, because I felt better after I had chocolate. Which means not having it for a few days resulted in withdraw symptoms. Hmmm...

I suppose there are worse things to be addicted to.

Coffee in Costa Rica is amazing by the way -- no acid burn. And the caffeine effect is rather low.
I miss it.

4. The Guest Speaker/Sermon at church was on Buddhism. We did a meditation, and learned about Buddhism. One of my favorite sermons to date. Buddhism is resonating for me, particularly Zen or Mindfulness Buddhism, originating from India. Letting go of the ego or the thoughts, and being silent in the mind. It's to date the only thing that has helped reduce anxiety and alleviate depression.
Letting go of those thoughts...not letting them take root.

Does require practice and discipline, also guide meditation -- which you can get for free via an APP put out by Insight Timer.

Afterwards, I went to an event co-sponsored by the Youth Group and Women's Alliance, where we exchanged questions and information regarding what each group did, sexist experiences, and moments of empowerment. It seemed to reiterate in an odd way the Buddhist lecture...of how attaching to certain thoughts or letting ego rule makes us miserable, which I found interesting.

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... have spend our lives competing for jobs with the Baby Boomers (who refuse to retire)

Speaking as one increasingly typical boomer, many of us cannot afford to retire. After spending over four decades working away and finding it difficult to impossible to get ahead, I have reached the sad conclusion that I will pretty much be working until I die. As it is right now, it's another 2+ years until I can get full Social Security, and until then, it's a long shot that I can retire any significant portion of the debt I'm in.

I have no health insurance, because even with subsidies from the ACA, the monthly payments are well above what I can afford, since the policies are still from private insurance companies, and they despise insuring anyone over 50, and especially over 60 (I'm 63).

And what's even sadder is-- I'm nowhere near as bad off as many are. I own my home, own my car, have food to eat and (at the moment) no serious health issues.

But I'm not worried, Donald The Magnificent!(TM)(c) and the Republicans will be fixing everything shortly!

AHHH, HAH-HAH-HAH-HAAhh-HAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

( Uhm, sorry, my momentary lapse of reason got the better of me. )

Save yer money, kids! I mean it! Hide it somewhere good and hidden!

Yeah, my co-workers have the same problem, and many of them voted for and/or support the Doofus. Oh, and the Doofus is a baby boomer...so he's part of your generation. Along with Hillary. Sanders is part of the silent generation.

But I hear you. The problem is ...there were too many people for Social Security to effectively support, companies did away with pensions, and the stock market tanked in 2008, so a lot of folks lost their savings prior to retirement. The lucky ones who invested conservatively...were okay.

It's a problem. But I have hope that the Republicans will implode with this repeal health care bit...and get booted out in the midterm elections. Sometimes winning in the short term, means losing in the long term.

But I have hope that the Republicans will implode with this repeal health care bit..

I really can't see it doing them any good. I find it especially fascinating that the most conservative members of the legislature are unhappy that Ryan and the moderates don't want the ACA gone entirely, and are threatening reprisals against the moderates if they don't get their way.

I do think what is very likely to happen is that when the mass of "ordinary citizens" who ardently supported Donald The Magnificent!(TM)(c) because they bought his line of BS about looking out for their interests discover they were simply lied to-- you're going to have some very, very angry voters. DTM!(TM)(c) may not give a whit, but there are many Republicans who are becoming unpleasantly aware of the knife edge they're suddenly walking on.

Well, the House postponed the ACA vote today, because Doofus and his allies couldn't drum up enough support. If 23 Republicans vote against it, they won't get it. And right now, 29 were voting against.

All very well good to decide to do away with Medicare and Medicaid, but how do you pay the hospital fees of all the emergency and urgen care folks who are using Medicaid and Medicare? The cost falls on the rest of us. And let's not even start talking about pre-existing conditions. Or the burden that will fall on small businesses and entrepenurs who rely on ACA and Medicare and Medicaid themselves.

The Koch Brothers basically bribed the Republicans to vote no. I never thought I'd appreciate the Koch Brothers. Small Businesses hate the alternative apparently. And no one with any sense is supporting it. NYC hates it -- and Doofus supporters in Staten Island were lobbying against it -- because it would throw a 3 million dollar tax onto the city to support upstate NY. No. The whole thing is a big mess.

I knew it would be. Watching it unfold has been rather entertaining. The Doofus thought, oh, I can get ACA repealed and a new better thing in, and look cool. I thought, eh, good luck with that. He's an idiot. His supporters are/were idiots.

They are all going to be rather miserable come fall, assuming they aren't already. The one's I see every day are -- they have gained weight, aged about five years, and look like they want to crawl into a hole. Whether that is just work or the Doofus, it's hard to tell. But work has actually been okay, so probably the Doofus.

Edited 2017-03-24 01:23 (UTC)

The Koch Brothers basically bribed the Republicans to vote no. I never thought I'd appreciate the Koch Brothers.

My understanding is that the Koch Brothers didn't want the bill passed for the same reason as the House ultra-conservatives didn't-- they want the ACA repealed in its entirety and no replacement made.

Ah yes, the Freedom Caucaus...I read about them in the NY Times today. The Republicans have a habit of calling themselves the exact opposite of what they really represent. It would be amusing, if it weren't so sad.