When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, ‘Did you sleep good?’ I said ‘No, I made a few mistakes.’ —Steven Wright
Looking at the news first thing in the morning can make the whole day difficult
The day hasn’t really even started yet and already I’m depressed. When I turned off my alarm this morning, the first thing I saw were last night’s primary election results. I didn’t want to see that. I didn’t need to see that. I made the mistake of leaving Facebook up all night, though, and politics are the hot trending topic of the moment. This is not a positive way to start the day. I’m depressed now and may have difficulty making it to my minimum word count, which I usually exceed three-fold or more. I’m worried.
I’m worried about things over which I have no control and the fact that I have no control is what worries me. More than ever, I get the feeling that it is the primaries that are the more important elections this year. By the time we get to the general election in November we’ll be once more faced with a decision of choosing the lesser of two evils. When in politics, the good guy never wins. Why? Because people are stupid and vote against their own best interest every time.
So, as I’m looking for something, anything, to cheer me, or, at least, jar me from this doom and gloom morning, I run across an article from Business Insider: “5 Countries Where It’s Relatively Easy For Americans To Become Expats.” My first thought was, “Geez, someone flunked the headline writing course.” My second thought was, “Better bookmark this; it might come in handy later.
I’ve never really been one of those people who threaten to move if my candidate doesn’t win. That tactic has never worked for anyone. No one cares if you leave the country. In fact, I rather expect that for most people making those threats, especially alleged celebrities, there would be a reasonably lengthy line of people more than willing to help them pack. If you’re just moving across town, you’re on your own, but leaving the country as a martyred political dissident? You’ll have to turn the help away. No one likes a bad sport, even in politics.
Still, regardless of how this year’s elections turn out, I’m finding it difficult to put a positive spin on any of the possible outcomes. Faced with a partisan Congress that has its collective head stuck up its collective ass too far to do anything, President Obama seems reluctant to do anything that can’t be achieved by executive order. The economy, while currently okay, shows signs of fracturing in China and Europe, which could doom us all through no fault of our own. North Korea seems to be itching to start another war. Middle Eastern terrorists are pissed that they’re not making headlines in American newspapers as often. These are all things that November’s elections can’t fix, despite all the claims those loudmouths are making. All they can do is make a bad situation worse, which is probably what will happen.
So, okay, maybe leaving the country isn’t such a bad idea. Canada and Mexico both top the list. They actually have rather relaxed immigration laws, especially when it comes to Americans. They are much more accepting of us than we are of them. We could probably learn a lesson or two from them, but we’re too stupid, collectively, to be paying attention to that. The problem with either of those countries is that, A) they’re likely to become flooded with immigration requests at the end of the year, forcing them to be a little picky about who they accept, and B) having a member of a drug cartel as a neighbor is a bit too similar to where we live now.
A little country by the name of Svalbard is on the list. Don’t worry, I had to look it up, too. It’s a tiny place just North of the Arctic Circle. I can see why they’d have a wide-open immigration policy. I’m rather surprised they have enough people to even have a country. I would be worried that a place where the population is so small that everyone has to hold a political office of some kind just to cover all the necessary bases. I don’t want to be a politician, nor do I care to freeze my ass off year-round. I’ll pass, thank you.
Sweden’s on the list, which doesn’t surprise me. Sweden’s a nice place with a lot of amenities that help you forget you’re being taxed out the wazoo. They have a huge expat population and are very good at helping newcomers feel welcome. The recent wave of Syrian immigrants has taken a toll, however, and they’re part of the European Union, which certainly looks to be on the verge of economic crisis. Moving to Sweden at this particular moment might prove to be a case of trading a bad situation for a worse one.
New Zealand is the fifth country on this list and it just might be the better option. They seem to be having a rather serious skills shortage, so if you know how to do something, pretty much anything, they’ll happily hand over a permanent work visa. Granted, their seasons are exactly the opposite of ours, which means one can likely spend Christmas on the beach, butI think we can probably adjust to that. It’s technically not illegal to be naked anywhere in New Zealand, either, which may be an issue for those of certain points of view. That doesn’t mean everyone walks around topless, mind you, just that you’re less likely to get into trouble on those stressful days where you forget to wear pants.
The biggest challenge I see to moving to New Zeland is the cost of shipping your stuff so very far away. This isn’t a mere 10-hour flight from JFK. It’s a minimum 12 hours from LAX, and from anywhere else, such as Indy, just plan on losing 24 hours. Shipping costs are expensive, so you’d have to buy all new furniture and stuff when you get there. Ya’ might want to start saving now.
I still don’t see leaving the country as the optimal choice if for no other reason than not really wanting the US to become a nation of complete imbeciles, which is what happens if all the smart people like you and I leave. I’m not ready to pack my bags and leave my extended family members stranded. I would like to think there are other options.
But then, I look at the morning headlines again and see nothing but doom and gloom. Maybe if ya’ll would start voting more intelligently we could have a better day. This morning is just getting started. Maybe a presidential candidate will slip and fall and make us all laugh. That would make for a good morning.
Morning Update: 08/14/24
One of the things that is interesting around here is how much more noise there is around the house when Kat’s not home. When Kat’s here, we all try to be as quiet as possible. The kids understand that she rarely sleeps well during the night and avoid turning on lights and speaking loudly. When she’s not here? This morning G was up and in the shower at 5:00. Tipper was up shortly thereafter and it wasn’t long before the lights were on and the chatter was going. The dogs went out, the cats were fed, and there were plenty of conversations before they headed out the door for the day. I think I prefer the quiet days because the intensity of the chatter is a bit much for this early in the morning.
I talked so much about Tipper yesterday that I forgot to mention that G is now one of the Lab’s three student ambassadors. He’ll represent the Lab at other schools and different events, and he’s in charge of administering a program that gives points to students for positive behaviors. This is a fantastic leadership opportunity for him and it’s nice to see how seriously he’s taking his responsibilities. He’s overcoming his fears and learning to speak up on issues that are important to him. I’m looking forward to seeing how this year develops.
Yesterday was the last Two Dollar Tuesday of the Indiana State Fair, so I had to go. My hope was to get some selfies with draft horses. Tipper had talked about how many of them were there on Saturday, and I just assumed (an error) that there would still be some there yesterday. Nope. The horse buildings were completely empty. Not a horse of any breed in sight. I was severely disappointed. I did get a picture with the lovely gentleman you see at the top of the page. I figure we black sheep need to stick together, you know? I also made my way around to the DNR building and asked them what I’d need to do to get more bears, wolves, and elk back into state parks. For some reason, they weren’t amused by the question. I put in nearly 10,000 steps for the day, which is probably the most I’ve walked since starting chemo. When I got home, I took the dogs out and then collapsed into bed for a nap.
The dogs really don’t like it when I’m gone all day. They barely left my side when I took them out, and when we came back in, Belvedere tried climbing into my lap while I sat in my office chair. They both have been extra snuggly anyway. I’m a little concerned that they’re sensing something that I’ve yet to grasp.
I know we talked a lot yesterday about women’s autonomy, but over the course of the day, two more states, Arizona and Missouri, put abortion on the ballot for this fall. This brings the total to seven states that are putting some form of abortion measure to a vote. No matter where you live, this is an important matter that requires everyone to get out and vote. Again, these issues are totally separate from the races for president and members of Congress. And while the number of people registering as Democrats has increased over the past three weeks, we have to realize that prior to that point Republicans had been registering significantly more people since last December. It’s going to take a lot of effort in every state to prevent the dangerous and undemocratic policies of Project 2025 from taking effect. There’s no sitting on the sidelines or trying to avoid being political. Everyone needs to speak up and let their position be known. Silence almost certainly leads to disaster come November 5.
Interesting story out of New Zealand where a food bank accidentally distributed potentially lethal doses of meth disguised as candy. Disguising drugs as food items to get past border customs isn’t new, but the question is how they became donated to the Auckland food bank. With a street value of over $600 US per candy, it seems unlikely that this was a deliberate attempt to poison low-income and homeless people. The food bank is trying to get all the candies back, but four people have already been hospitalized for taking the drug.
Folks in Japan are a little on edge after the Japan Meteorological Agency issued its first-ever “megaquake” advisory. Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone places in the word. While last week’s 7.1 quake stayed offshore and provided little threat to the island nation, concern is growing that there’s now a 70-80% chance of a significantly larger quake in the 8-9 range on the Richter scale. Such a large quake could prove devestating. Unfortunately, the announcement didn’t come with any instructions on how people might prepare for such an event. This has led to considerable confusion and criticism of the agency. What may be worse is that without specific planning instructions, people are more likely to disregard the warning, leaving them completely unprepared should such an event occur.
I posted about this on Facebook yesterday afternoon, but I want to get a little more into it this morning. The United Auto Workers Union has filed a complaint of worker intimidation with the National Labor Relations Board against the Orange Felon and Elon Musk after their glitch-filled chat on Monday. While the Felon’s campaign is trying to pass off the complaint as “frivolous” there could be some real meat to the story. Back in June, eight former workers at SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, sued the company and Musk, alleging he ordered them fired after they challenged what they called rampant sexual harassment and a hostile “Animal House”-style work environment at the company. In Monday’s chat, the Felon told Musk, “I look at what you do. You walk in and say, ‘You want to quit?’ I won’t mention the name of the company but they go on strike and you say, ’That’s OK. You’re all gone.’” That statement would seem to be a direct attempt at intimidation against unionizing efforts at Tesla and elsewhere. If you needed another reason to not vote for the lying, cheating, swindling, rapist felon, there you go.
Mornings like this, I kinda wonder if we’re all not a little bit crazy for living in a society as messed up as ours. The economy is questionable, climate change is progressing faster than anyone predicted, and it seems that politicians suck no matter what country one lives in. We can change this, you know. Young people in Bangledesh proved that last week. The question is what will it take for us to get serious about anything?
Maybe I just need more coffee.
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