September

A September to remember. The joys of Autumn returning to us all. The darkness in the early morning and evening. The “back to campus” ethos.

Not a fan of “back to campus,” to be honest. Although it’s gone ok in some ways – so far, infection rates seem low (everyone is vaccinated). I am exhausted by the driving, but I have been listening to audiobooks while driving, which is actually … pretty great.

But have been sick – head cold only! – most of the month. Have had a COVID test and a Flu test, and I have neither of those. I will get a flu shot and maybe a COVID booster (crosses fingers) next week. Will feel better about life having had both of those.

Maybe it’s the head cold, but the more one watches the politics play out in this country, the more it seems the politicians are trapped in an unending Game of Thrones where nothing ever really happens for the people who matter – i.e., the people who are not rich and entitled. If you are rich, do not worry: all the talk about raising taxes is just talk: why shouldn’t you have ALL THE MONEY. If you are less than wealthy, worry: all the talk about expanding Medicare to include you is just talk, even though we have just been devastated by a pandemic. If you are one of those people who aren’t eligible to vote – either because you’ve immigrated here or because you are too young to vote – you really don’t matter: why do you have opinions? Cannon fodder for our economic expansion.

“JUST VOTE FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE AND IT WILL GET BETTER!” But what happens when it doesn’t get better? What happens when people do not see change: all that is going on is fighting – intra-party fighting at that?

It’s really not good for “democracy” for the people to get discouraged about voting.

And in the end, it won’t be good for the rich guys either. That’s the way revolutions start.

(Rich guys ginning up the rubes to take the risk to return an administration that gave them everything they wanted is not a revolution, by the way. That was sad. And frightening – because that way leads to fascism).

There has been so much drama and so much suffering in this country, and the politicians do not seem capable of doing anything to help people. What happens to government when the entitled guys are too worried about regular people being “entitled” to actually do anything that makes sense for ordinary people? Or even, gasp, “poor” people?

So many people have died. There will be no acknowledgement about that, or about the fact that we now apparently have a labor shortage because we allowed so many people to die or become long-term disabled because of a disease that was badly controlled.

We’ll get punitive financial regulations mean to ease the strain of – gasp – having to raise people’s wages in order to attract workers.

It won’t end the labor shortage.