I have a few things I’d like to get off my chest. I know, you’re thinking “How is that different that what you do most of the time?” Well, I guess imaginary you has a point. I often need to get things off my chest and into the (computer) world because somehow this makes me feel better. I’m not sure what the mechanism is as I’m not a psychologist (though I do play one on TV. OK, I don’t but I could…) but, for reasons unknown to me, typing my issues into the interwebsphere helps me move on with my life. This is my therapy, so to speak. Which is nice because this is free and I don’t have health insurance (one of the many “benefits” of being a poor musician… along with worrying about paying rent, drinking probably too much, keeping really weird hours, eating too much cottage cheese after shows… OK, maybe that last one is just me. Not sure why or how it started, but that’s my post-show ritual now. A glass of bourbon and some cottage cheese and kiwi. I’m weird, I know…) so actual therapy is not an option for me right now. As my therapists (or “the rapists” if you’re an SNL nerd like me), all you need to do is listen. Well, I guess technically you don’t even need to do that as I just put this out there and have no clue if anyone actually reads it or not. I could check the stats on Squarespace but I don’t care enough. That’s one of the nice things about having Asperger’s: I don’t have to care about a lot of things that “normal,” non-Aspy people care too much about. I feel like it’s a super power as my wife/friends/family/etc. ask me constantly about what I think about things before they say/do/post/etc it. I don’t really care what other people think about things. Yes, I’d like people to enjoy my music but it’s OK if they don’t. Doesn’t matter to me. If they can’t understand the wonderfully human and tragic-yet-hopeful nature of my storytelling, that’s a loss for them. I don’t gain or lose anything as a result. Well, maybe an album sale or stream here and there, but I don’t make music for money. I make money from music but I don’t make music for money. I’m wholly unconcerned about others’ opinion of me. It’s nice to be free from that burden of trying to be liked or trying to be something you’re not or whatever a related third thing is because things sound better in threes. But, I’ve gotten way off topic. I guess I technically haven’t even established a topic to get off of yet, so I’m still not off topic. Ha! I win…
1) Why are people so hard on Elizabeth Warren about Medicare for All but don’t give Bernie Sanders as much shit about it?
It’s such a double standard. Unfortunately, women know this double standard all too well. But, seriously folks, I read Bernie’s document about it on his website and he doesn’t have a solid/attainable plan to pay for it at all. His stance is the government has really low administrative costs for Medicare compared to private insurance companies so that will somehow save money by not having government subsidize those costs to the private companies. I guess. But those costs are still only a part of the total bill. The math doesn’t make sense. He then lists some random shit that “may” be options to help fund his Medicare for All plan. Like an extreme wealth tax plan (never gonna happen as rich people are more influential than poor people and won’t let this happen), lower drug costs (not gonna happen. They pill that can effectively eliminate HIV, literally a cure for AIDS, costs about $75/year in many countries but like $40,000 in America. Drug companies are not going to suddenly give up all that money…) and other things that the very rich are not just going to suddenly let happen which will take more of their money. And that is all being generous, as he couldn’t pass a bill if he wanted to as the Republicans are primed to keep the majority in the Senate anyways as half the Democratic senators are running for President. OK, it’s not half but it sure feels like it sometimes. Bernie also wants to relieve student loan debt, make college free, etc. All things that would require fundamentally changing our country and the way it runs these things. Look, he’s right. All the other first-world countries offer things like healthcare for its citizens, higher education at low-no cost, etc. in one shape or another, but America has always been about money and money and more money first and foremost. It can be good in some instances, but terrible in others. The US should not be ranked 37th in overall healthcare for its citizens. That’s awful and, frankly, unacceptable. Something does need to be done. I’m just not sure Bernie has any effective plans to make that happen.
No one has demanded a more concrete plan from Bernie like they did from Warren. And, now she’s getting angst because she stepped back and said there has to be a transition period before any Medicare for All could be put in place. And her poll numbers have slipped as a result. That’s insane. Of course there has to be a transition. It’s not as if Bernie was going to walk in on January 20th, 2021 and suddenly I’d have healthcare. That’s not how things work. Personally, I don’t think the insurance and drug companies would ever let that happen. They would literally be losing trillions of dollars. People like to have trillions of dollars, I hear. But, it’s insane that Bernie can spout whatever nonsense he wants and Warren would like to move towards one of those lofty goals and gets torn apart over it. I believe it is just because she is a woman. And I can’t believe we are still doing this to women. Think of when Hilary had the flu or whatever and everyone jumped on her like she didn’t have the toughness or health to be President. Bernie literally had a heart attack and no such claims were made. Our current President is morbidly obese, can’t form coherent sentences to save his life and apparently just recently found out that “canine” is just a fancy word for “dog,” and not much is made about his unfitness to be President. It’s stupid we’re still doing this to women so blatantly in 2019. C’mon people, we should be better than this.
2) Happy Saint Nicholas’ Day!
Congratulations if you know what the hell I’m talking about since I usually get blank stares when I say it. The tradition is alive in the Wik household as I woke up to fresh baked cookies and other small treats in my stocking. But, apparently, at least according to Wikipedia, if you didn’t grow up with a strong German, Polish and/or Belgian influence in the cities of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Evansville, Indiana; Cincinnati, Ohio; Fredericksburg, Texas; Newport News, Virginia; St. Louis; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then you do have a pretty good excuse in having never heard of this holiday. I do love little treats and snacks so I enjoy this day a lot. I forget every year until it’s the morning of December 6th, but still. Sorry to all those who did not get something delicious to celebrate the occasion. I will have one of these delicious snickerdoodle sugar cookies while thinking of you.
3) Why do people choose such stupid shit to get all pissed off about when there are literally hundreds of things that would warrant such vitriol, angst, outrage, etc.?
That stupid Peloton commercial was just on whatever generic Hallmark movie is on TV and it got me thinking “Why on Earth are people so outraged about a stupid TV ad?” It’s permeated my newsfeeds (both Apple and Google news) and I had to click on it to see why people would give a shit about a boring, weird and ultimately stupid commercial for a $2500 stationary bike. Apparently, people think it’s sexist since the husband gave his already a model wife a bike (which implies she should lose weight). They also think it perpetuates a stereotypical model of beauty which shouldn’t be idealized. And they’re mad because the model was already fit so how did becoming slightly more fit “change her life?” Look, it’s a dumb commercial. We can all agree on that. But, Peloton is selling a lifestyle/status symbol that is 100% intended for the wealthier types out there. I’ve heard people brag about how many different Peloton products they’ve bought. Which, to be fair, I would probably get one if I had lots of expendable income too. But I don’t, so I use the free bikes down in my apartment complex workout room.
Look, nobody likes to get outraged about nonsensical things more than me (see: almost all my previous blogs. Though most of that is in jest...) and I understand what the complaints are getting at, but who cares? Seriously. We are currently in the process of possibly impeaching our President, who is clearly unfit to serve in so many different ways and is being mocked openly by other world leaders, global warming is pretty much past the point of no return and Manhattan might soon turn into the land under the sea, Puerto Rico is still in a horrible state from the hurricanes, North Korea is offering vague threats about bombing us and are close to having the technology to do so, Iran is now making nukes since the U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, we have a growing disparity between the rich and poor in our country, ungodly-wealthy companies like Facebook, Google, FedEx, Amazon, etc. don’t pay taxes despite billions in revenue (and, in fact, some even get refunds in the hundreds of millions of dollars, which is absurd), millions of kids are going to bed hungry every night in the U.S., women here and all over the world are still marginalized/oppressed/not allowed to attend school/forced into marriages/forced to hike miles and miles to fetch clean water/unable to get abortions in some states here at home/at risk for sexual assault whenever they walk down the street, go to college, get into an Uber, the list goes on and on…, racism is still alive and well, in fact, getting worse not better, there were 97 school shootings last year alone and our government has done nothing to keep guns away from anyone who wants one and would like to injure/murder others (see this quote: "It is sobering that in 2017, there were 144 police officers who died in the line of duty and about 1,000 active-duty military throughout the world who died, whereas 2,462 school-age children were killed by firearms," said Charles Hennekens, the study's lead author from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine.), our V.A. healthcare system is ridiculously broken with wait times of up to three months for care, and it is woefully unprepared to help with the mental health challenges of returning to civilian life leading to veterans being twice as likely (or more, depending on which study you read) to commit suicide as a non-veteran, which is horrible considering what they and they’re families have given up in order to serve our country, our electoral college system is so antiquated/insane that someone can lose by five million votes and still be overwhelmingly be elected to our nation’s highest seat rendering millions of peoples' votes useless, not to mention that Ellen recently went to a football game with former President George W. Bush...
OK, obviously that last one was another example of ridiculous things people get outraged about for no fucking reason. And that list above is just what’s off the top of my head as I write this. I could make an entire list just containing the shitty/absurd things that are still done to women and minorities in 2019 in the United States of America for some insane reason. Look, I don’t like to live my life outraged and angry. I spent an entire year doing that (OK, it was 4 years, aka High School) being angry about: George W. Bush becoming President because of the aforementioned antiquated/insane way we elect our leaders, a small town in Wisconsin still being actively racist against its few minority students and the school doing essentially nothing about the confederate flag waving and hate spewing students it housed, everything that had to do with Dick Cheney, including his shooting a guy in the face and the victim apologizing to him, the ridiculous war in Iraq, amongst other things like the general shittiness of High School and High School-aged people (Kristen Bell has a fantastic show on Disney+ called “Encore!” where a High School Drama club re-performs a musical they did like 20 years ago. Intentionally or unintentionally, it shows just how stupid High School was as they dredge up the past. It’s both heartening to see how some people have matured and disheartening to see how some have not…). It was awful. So, I’m not saying we should live our day to day outraged about the things I listed above. That would be a terrible society to live in. But, what I am saying, is that maybe before you get outraged and feel the need to post online about it, usually joining in an already growing chorus of indignation, maybe think to yourself: is this really something I should be this mad about? Is this more important than any of the things listed above or the hundreds of other actual tragedies occurring right now in the world? Is it?
Anyways, I’ve rambled enough for now…
(dictated but not read)
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