Listen, if you haven’t had your Covid-19 vaccination and you have no medical proscription against the vaccine, I’d like to invoke the immortal words of that dick Cheney and invite you to go eff yourself. Alright, so I paraphrased but I’m sure you gather the sentiment. To put it bluntly, you’re being selfish. You’re declaring yourself more important than anyone – no, everyone – else on the planet. That’s some pretty high esteem you’ve got for yourself, there.

The first 600,000 Americans who died in this thing died as a direct result of the failings of Donnie the Dumbass. The blood of the first 600,000 is on his hands. But of course, he’s a proven, well-established, useless piece of crap moron. Failure is the expected paradigm for him. Now, though, some of that blood is showing up on the hands of people who could but just don’t want to get the shot. Because of people who just said no, we never reached full herd immunity. Because of people who just said no, the Coronavirus was able to mutate and mutate again and now we’ve got the far more virulent Delta and Delta Plus variant. Because of people who just said no, Covid-19 is making a comeback. That means more masks, more shutdowns, and more isolation. Why, because you’re afraid Bill Gates wants to use you as a party favor? Most of the excuses I’ve heard range from the asinine to the insane. But even if you pretend your position is science-based (not science fiction, like the ‘Nanites re-writing your DNA’ story), you’re starting to sound like a climate change denier. I mean, how much evidence do you need?

How many millions of doses have been administered? I do not pretend all has been perfection with the vaccine. Some people have had poor reactions. MORE people have had “poor reactions” to acquiring Covid-19. As a species, we can’t reach herd immunity while you’re standing in the corner, arms crossed, feet stomping, whining, “You can’t make me!” Well, that’s true enough, I guess. Great. Awesome, even. And…tell me again…WHY should I have to MAKE you do the right thing? Why don’t you just know, as an otherwise competent adult, that you have an obligation to the people and society around you? (OMG, are you also one of those assholes who won’t stop at a red light because stopping is for losers?) Sometimes, as a species, we work together as a species because it’s what’s best for the species. If you CAN get the vaccine and you DON’T get the vaccine, you’re not doing your part – for the species. You don’t have that right…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In related news, the world is trying to open up again. We went from being locked down with nothing to do and nowhere to go to just…open. 100%. Everybody wants everything again – and they want it now. Surprise! Everything isn’t available. Yet. Prices are high – on everything. They’ll come down. It’s going to take some time for everything to ramp up. People are just impatient. The “news” is reporting shortages and supply-chain disruptions as though society is collapsing around us. They have to say something. Things will settle over time…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other thing I’ve been hearing about regularly in the “news” is that crime is on the rise. Lots of questions. Why is this happening? What can be done? More police? Better laws? My, oh my what is to become of us? Let me put this as succinctly as possible for the weak thinkers in the room. Street crime is a direct result of poverty. (White collar crime is, generally, just pure greed…) The more desperate a person is, the wider his moral stance. If one can’t buy food, one steals food. Simple, really. As long as our once-great nation pursues policies of poverty (the so-called “free market”), crime is going to be ever-present.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, speaking of poverty, you want to fix the homeless problem? I have the answer(s). The way I see it, there are two main components to the issue. One is the working poor, the other group consists of the mentally incompetent, either caused by illness or drugs. First, we’ll have to force rich people to pay a living wage – the so-called honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Second, we’ll have to tax rich people and make them pay their fair share. See? Simple.

The working poor are people who often have jobs but have been priced out of the housing market. To correct the housing problem for people who work but can’t cover their living costs? Pay them a living wage. See how simple that is? But there’s a second prong to this solution. We need to regulate “pooled money investors” so they can’t buy single family homes AND require them to divest from those they already own in a short period of time.

Pooled money investors are just people who still have a couple of coins to rub together who toss some money on a pile and use the collected resources to buy up (or build) properties as opportunities become available. The problem is, they have an unfair competitive advantage when it comes to buying houses. When you hear about ANY organization that can buy property at over-asking prices, with no inspections or even questions, and give you a short escrow – in some cases as short as 72 hours, you’re dealing with pooled money investors – even if the “buyer” appears to be an individual.

They have artificially overheated housing market costs. They’ll pay whatever they need to pay to own the property without any concern for the actual value of the property. Then, they just put the house on the rental market for whatever they have to charge to accommodate some algorithm somewhere. But when single family homes cost more, apartments follow. Individual home-ownership declines – which undermines societal stability – and rents skyrocket…

Second, we’re going to have to return to involuntary confinements. For the mentally ill, that means institutions where they can be cared for. The drug addicted are normally competent but they’re drug-addled. They can’t make good choices. I’d put them into rehab facilities instead of jail (though it might have to be a rehab jail…). Of course, mental health and rehab facilities cost money so we’d have to tax the people with money to cover those without.

There are MANY more details about this but the necessary first steps – force rich people to pay a living wage and pay their fair share in taxes – are non-starters. I’ll tell you this; since we won’t do the right thing to the comfortable people in this country, we CAN’T do the right thing for the afflicted people in this country. Hey, I said I had the answer. I didn’t say I could make it happen…