My world and thinking

By Rain Trueax

February 19th-- Super Snow Moon

For this blog, I had ideas, multiples-- during the week. Then here the time comes, and my mind is more or less blank as I try to remember what I thought mattered. This was a great week for dreaming-- several of what I call my movie dreams. Once in a while one of those works into a book-- not sure if any of these will.
 

It's raining again in Tucson, which is way unusual for this month, at least in my experience. Friday, we had a rare snowfall, which brought more snow to higher elevations. It's also been colder than usual requiring twice to cover the bougainvillea hoping to protect its beauty for spring. The freezes last a few hours, but the damage takes longer to repair by nature. Bougainvillea are so colorful and say desert communities as much as anything I can think of. Their red blossoms aren't actually flowers but literally leaves.
 

I'm still stymied on finishing the fifth in the paranormal series, that is kind of paranormal and sort of not. Maybe contemporary romance with a fantasy element would better fit it. Have I whined about that before? Possibly, as figuring out genres, when books aren't cleanly in one, can be tricky. The fifth is a book I looked forward to writing once I knew who the hero and heroine were. I will write it but my spirit doesn't feel right for it-- not yet. 

Maybe some is due to following the news way too much. If I was on one side or the other of the partisan divide, I think it'd be more comfortable. I'd go somewhere that reassured me I was right; then go away maybe mad or glad. I see people who claim they read only the NYTimes, Washington Post and listen to NPR. Or someone else goes only to Fox News, NewsMax, etc. They think they get the news. They do--one side of it.
 

One thing about this supposedly fake news-- It's not so much that, in my opinion. It's what they leave out. If something happens that contradicts their agenda (and a lot of the media today has a bias), they just don't cover it, or it's shoved to the back. I got disillusioned during the 2016 primaries where I'd see a headline, read the article and have to get pages into it before they'd admit it was not confirmed. Who reads that far. Many assume the headline tells it all. It does not any more than the title of one of my books says it all.
 

I find myself disturbed that so many people don't understand what philosophical terms like fascism (a method to gain power more than what is done with the power), socialism (government takes over and controls the means of production), or communism (dividing up the wealth) mean. People call something democratic socialism that is really about a growing civilization getting together to do something that they all want but cannot do individually-- like say a better road, food inspection, libraries, etc. Socialism is something more than that but when words get used loosely, they lose meaning. Or worse, they familiarize a people into thinking they know what will happen if they go full socialist or communist.

Today, in listening to some of what candidates have been saying, there are those wanting things done that would be taking over the means of production or dividing up the wealth-- socialism or communism, but they label it under a heading of progressive. Did you know there was a progressive moment from the 1890s to 1920s? It was a period of social and political activism seeking reform of existing systems. It was intended to deal with the problems it saw coming from industrialization, immigration, urbanization, and of course, political corruption. Sound familiar?
 

It is hard to say how big a role the progressive movement played in women getting the vote, more widespread education, or better working conditions since unions were also active at that time and had an impact. The women getting the vote was something that probably had come through the changes in our civilization with more women getting educated including going to college. Teddy Roosevelt, Taft and then Wilson were presidents who considered themselves progressives. Some of whom seem to be respected today for their accomplishments and some not so much...
 

I digress as my question has been what does a progressive today want? And if it's free college tuition, health care, and the government will assure this and pay for it, it sounds like socialism on the way. Government dictating what a business must pay to an employee or how much profit it can make is heading toward pure socialism, where the government takes control over and sometimes owns the means of production. I think people who want socialism should at least study what it would mean if it goes that way and how well it works out in practicality.
 

If say the health care for all goes under the auspices of the government, then there are bound to be rules for who gets it and how much. Fat, smoke, drink too much-- you get less care. Even Obama about his ACA told a young woman that her mother in her 70s might be too old for a heart transplant, even if she was in good health, as what's the payback?
 

In the beginning, benevolent dictatorships are required for either socialism or communism. How do you make a change that big happen without power forcing it? In practicality, it does not end up benevolent, of course. Power rarely does.
 

To add to the latest is a demand for reparations for blacks due to slavery. That is from some of our presidential candidates. I am not sure what they mean by it as one mentioned for better structures. Maybe that means more businesses in black communities for jobs? Do these candidates remember it was race riots that drove out some of the businesses? How do they assure the businesses that they want to come in that this will work-- or does government take the risk for the business? Reparations sound like giving money directly to people. One guy suggested $50,000 for each newborn child in a fund for them... for what purpose?
 

Then comes the question I ask any self-described progressive. How do you pay for the programs? What do you want and what will it cost? That's when I get the instant response-- taxes are good, and everyone should want them. I understand we need taxes for programs that are important. But if those taxes eventually take more than half of what someone earned (very possible even under today's structures given state, local and federal), what's left for housing, food, and dare I say-- recreation? Does anyone truly believe only the rich will pay for the desired things? It rarely ends up that way.
 

At any rate, I am not against programs that people want when it will benefit the country as a whole-- call it what you will. Helping the poor helps us all as who wants people starving or back to breadlines like during the Depression. Affirmative action can be a positive thing if it helps someone, who is willing to work, to break out of poverty. What I am against is not affixing a price tag to them. What else do we buy that we never ask the cost??? To tell that to some on the far left is to infuriate them (I know this from experience), but I am an old woman, who has seen too much of how government can overreach and only benefit the government itself. I want to know the details. They are not easy to find but the devil is in the details as the old saying goes.

I think the worst thing I heard from one of the political leaders suggested that we don't need to figure out how to pay for the things we want-- government can print money... Has it dawned on this young woman that part of the reason you no longer can get a 19¢ gallon of gas is government already figured this out? Socialist countries soon find their saved dollars are worth less and less. Inflation is not so much happening because wages go up or materials. It's because dollars (the monetary exchange) are worth less. When I look at one of my vintage western paperbacks and see 25¢ on its upper corner, I know how this works, and folks who put their money in savings accounts, which used to be typical, they are getting the shaft-- literally.
 

Okay, that's enough, but you might get the idea of where my brain has been. There are so many stories and ideas out there that can suck a person in. Some is nothing I can do anything about. Some is what I better be thinking about as an election looms on the horizon, and I listen carefully to what the candidates say about our big issues. It will determine a lot of the future for my children and grandchildren. At my age, not me so much, but their future matters more to me than my own at this point. 

If you're interested in more on this, this showed up on Facebook Friday. I went to Snopes to see what it had to say, and it had added another meme that is floating around. 

Social Injustice