Oh Mr. Gramsci, you have ruined me forever. I can no longer look at “common sense” ideas without needing to pull them apart and examine them for upper class benefit.

So all the teevees, all the channels, all the talking heads owned by giant warmongering corporations spent the last few weeks encouraging, demanding, browbeating people into voting. Vote, vote or die. Get out the vote. Blah blah blah. And at this point we ALL should know that our best interest is not first and foremost in the minds of the talking heads and their corporate masters. When they tell us to do something, it is because it serves them, not us.

And it is not at all surprising that in a system that only allows for 2 parties who barely differ from each other (shit sandwich, shit sandwich with pickle) that people who are pissed at the status quo take the only option they are given for venting and vote for the slightly different status quo. There is no other option. No other option will be allowed to be viable. It is not in the best interest of the elites. And if it ain’t in the interest of the elites, you and me ain’t ever gonna get a chance to choose it. Period.

We should all be able to recognize this in the same way we recognize that commercials for painless, easy hair removal are full of shit. We know, in our hearts, that politics is a rigged shell game and we are the dupes on the street, handing over cash and trying to guess where the best governance is hidden. But we keep playing, keep giving legitimacy to our “betters”, keep voting and watching the talking heads and pretending that the screaming arguments we have over what branch of the monarchy elite controls us matter. We are kept confused with ideas of left and right, conservative and liberal so that we never ever look at the real structure, top and bottom. Up and down. Haves and Have Nots.

We fight with each other over the best way to serve the interests of our masters. We scream at the people who refuse to participate in Democracy Theater. We should all be able to see that this system is set up to divide us from each other so we keep fighting over the scraps of resources allotted to us bottom 80% instead of demanding a better split from the powers that be.

We should all be able to see this shit. We should all be able to agree on it. But Democracy Theater is a powerful show and we keep fighting each other while the powerful run off with bags of money.

So i was seriously trying to decide if I was going to spend my last 3 bucks on bus fare to go vote.

I decided nope. Not worth it.

This is a process. And because I am fairly open with who I am and what my thoughts are online, you all get to watch me waver and waffle and chew through information and figure shit out. You all get to watch me be broke and vulnerable and scared and sometimes (ugh) weak. But it’s a process and hopefully at the end of this adventure I will be a better person than I was when I started. It helps knowing that out in bloglandia there are people who watch this sausage making process and keep me honest.

So not voting. May spend the 3 bucks and hit a thrift store and see if I can find a cheap winter coat instead. Better use of time and resources. (And so obvious that I was reading feminist hulk twitters while writing this).

We’re just days from yet another election and soon we’ll have firm numbers on the Democratic enthusiasm gap. In the mean time, the layers of shitty supposition regarding why women may or may not give a flying fuck about what happens to dems at the poles or who the people are that have just said “fuck you and your democracy theater” keep piling up like kitty roca in a dirty litter box.

Here are a few things I’ve been told I am because I feel the way I do about voting:

1) There was the oh so fun Nazi reference, twice. Apparently by not voting for the not as obviously evil party, I am voting for Hitler, who is dead. And has never run for any office in the U.S. But none the less, a non-vote for democrats is a vote for the Nazi party.

2) I have been swayed by the mass propaganda machine of the right wing and the tea baggers. I find this weird because I avoid MSM like the plague, and wouldn’t go near a bit of right wing “news” if it had hundred dollar bills tied to it saying “free for the taking”. But I am a tool of the conservatives. I have not ever even considered giving a vote of a dime to a rethuglikan, but that doesn’t seem to matter. I’ve bought their propaganda, which I haven’t actually seen or heard, hook line and sinker.

3) The fact that I have serious, documented issues with the Democratic party is unimportant. They are the party of all that is good and right and wonderful. Criticism of the party as a whole and the members as individuals is not to be tolerated.

4) I just don’t know how important this election is. What with the threats to bodily autonomy (which the Dems made pretty clear they were okay with during the health care debacle when they made it HARDER for a women to get an abortion) and the economy (10% counted disemployment, 20% actual disemployment) if the rethuklicans win we can look forward to a great big heaping change in our current policy of handing out fat wads of cash to corrupt banksters and tightening governmental budgets through austerity measures. Or not.

5)What do I expect, it’s only been 2 years? Of course for things like DADT and assassinations, Guantanamo, warrantless wiretapping, internet privacy, etc etc etc, I do expect that the leader of the democratic party would be full-throatedly progressive on that shit. But I am asking too much. And of course it’s only been 2 years with a majority in the house and senate.

Perhaps if these paragons of democratic excellence turned down the misogyny, the classism, the obvious condescension towards us “low information” non-voters… Or not. My problems with the party still exist despite how its cheerleaders are currently behaving. But maybe for some other turned off voters, the idea of who we might have to share the damn poll booth with is enough to make staying home with a nice alcoholic beverage and what ever tv channel isn’t broadcasting election results sound like a more pragmatic use of time and energy.

We’re just days from yet another election and soon we’ll have firm numbers on the Democratic enthusiasm gap. In the mean time, the layers of shitty supposition regarding why women may or may not give a flying fuck about what happens to dems at the poles or who the people are that have just said “fuck you and your democracy theater” keep piling up like kitty roca in a dirty litter box.

Here are a few things I’ve been told I am because I feel the way I do about voting:

1) There was the oh so fun Nazi reference, twice. Apparently by not voting for the not as obviously evil party, I am voting for Hitler, who is dead. And has never run for any office in the U.S. But none the less, a non-vote for democrats is a vote for the Nazi party.

2) I have been swayed by the mass propaganda machine of the right wing and the tea baggers. I find this weird because I avoid MSM like the plague, and wouldn’t go near a bit of right wing “news” if it had hundred dollar bills tied to it saying “free for the taking”. But I am a tool of the conservatives. I have not ever even considered giving a vote of a dime to a rethuglikan, but that doesn’t seem to matter. I’ve bought their propaganda, which I haven’t actually seen or heard, hook line and sinker.

3) The fact that I have serious, documented issues with the Democratic party is unimportant. They are the party of all that is good and right and wonderful. Criticism of the party as a whole and the members as individuals is not to be tolerated.

4) I just don’t know how important this election is. What with the threats to bodily autonomy (which the Dems made pretty clear they were okay with during the health care debacle when they made it HARDER for a women to get an abortion) and the economy (10% counted disemployment, 20% actual disemployment) if the rethuklicans win we can look forward to a great big heaping change in our current policy of handing out fat wads of cash to corrupt banksters and tightening governmental budgets through austerity measures. Or not.

5)What do I expect, it’s only been 2 years? Of course for things like DADT and assasinations, guantanamo, warantless wiretapping, internet privacy, etc etc etc, I do expect that the leader of the democratic party would be full-throatedly progressive on that shit. But I am asking too much. And of course it’s only been 2 years with a majority in the house and senate.

Hello

So new lappy is fine, but I am working on someone else’s dead computer and while I have some skills in the dead desktop arena, I have come to the end of that skills set. If I get this thing fixed, i get a new winter coat out of the deal. So yay.

Here’s the history.

Compy was having some power button issues. Button would stick and wouldn’t let the thing be turned off sometimes. Compy got turned off. Several hours later an attempt to turn it back on failed. Nothing, no juice, no start. Just dead.

It’s decided that the power supply is the most likely culprit. New(ish) said to be working one is procured. Correct attachments to make the 20 pin into a 20/24 pin are purchased. I go through and disconnect and reconnect each connection one at a time from the old power supply to the new.

Nothing happens.

Talked to guys who built the compy originally and they recommend hot shorting the jumpers. Find the jumpers from the power button, disconnect, stick a screwdriver in to complete the circuit and turn on power. The fan gives half a lazy spin, but the compy does not start (btw, everytime the compy is on the green motherboard light is lit, so some kind of juice is getting to it.

FTR, I did change the power cord and where the cord was plugged into first.

I’m heading out to radioshack to buy a multimeter so I can test both the old and new power supplies. But if they are both working then I have no idea what to do next. Compy seller says he doubts it’s the cmoss battery (and I think I remember the cmoss battery doing the turn on/ turns off right away thing when it dies, not the no power at all thing).

So geeks, what do you think I should do next?

So lemme get this straight.

We’ve got a dem house, senate and president. They are the majority. And for the last two years they have failed to give the people of the country what they want/need.

But if we don’t vote to keep them in power, then another group will take over and not give us what we want/need on a much grander scale.

And no one has even noticed the most obvious problem with that logic. If the only way to govern according to the will of the people in this country is through one-party rule, then how are we still a democracy?

If you don’t vote for the Democrats, we’re all going to die die die die die.

That’s what I keep hearing for the die hard cultists loyalists. If I don’t suck it up and vote for people who hate me and who I hate, then other people who hate me and who I hate will make bad things happen.

But you know, we played that game before and George Bush 2 won anyways. And then won re-election. And yeah it sucked, but 2 years into a Democratic administration running all three fucking branches (okay, 2.5 since we’re not in the majority on the supreme court) and I don’t see any improvement. We’re still at war. We’re growing poorer by the day. Medicine is still to expensive and rent is still too damn high.

And I’ve got to wonder what exactly the Democrats need. It is seriously starting to sound like the only way they can be assed to govern under the platform they were elected for is if we have a one-party state. Anything else is a compromise our elected officials aren’t willing to make. Which is funny, cause they’ll compromise pretty much anything else, including the lives, health and safety of those who are their citizens.

But here’s the thing, it is not the job of the citizenry to compromise their ideals to fit the desires of the politicians. It is not our job to compromise our ideals. I should just type that 15 more times till it sinks in. It is not our job to compromise our ideals. And until we stop compromising with the corrupt powers that be, we will NEVER get the government we need, though we are getting the government we deserve for now. It is our job to push, pull and drag the powers that be into the future and allowing those powers to stifle our demands for more equality, more freedom, more fairness keeps us from ever realizing those goals.

I don’t care what crappy thing the republicans have done now. It won’t make a damn bit of difference when it comes to how well our country is being governed. The elites will rotate, and everytime the circle spins the democrats get closer to the central corp

Ever since I stopped believing in Democracy Theater, I no longer have any interest in discussing the minutia of politics with the so called “high information” voters. You know who they are.

I can’t stand to have the talking heads on the teevee screaming in the background. I don’t care what new scandal has happened. I really don’t have the patience to listen to the new latest evil thing the republicans have done now.

But the party loyalists, the high information voters (really, cable news =/= actual news) get livid when, in an attempt to get out away from whatever current hard sell spiel their delivering, I tell them I don’t believe in voting anymore. And if they don’t get livid, then they get this look on their face like I just kicked their dog and told them Santa isn’t real.

I guess I should do a whole post on Democracy Theater. But in the mean time, have any of you all experienced the kicked puppy/ santa is dead reaction? It makes me really unwilling to discuss politics anywhere outside the safe places of bloglandia, not so much because of the screamers, but because I don’t think people should be forced to see this until they are ready to see this. When they are ready they go seeking it out all on their own, no indoctrination required. And no kicked puppy faces.

Or what a difference a day makes.

So after a year of anti-social exile it’s amazing how fast things go back to not horrid. As soon as the plane landed my phone was full of “where are you, are you here yet” text messages. I didn’t even leave the airport before I saw the first of many long lost friends (Hi C! You are my cat-loving freaking hero!)

So today it was brunch and drinks and crafty art projects and dinner and movies and wine and fun and laughing and people who I love and like and OMG I used to be a super social fucking party girl. And I’m still charming and fun, even if I’m a wee bit older.

It is rad and the title of this post comes from what was supposed to be an hour long brunch turned into 3 and half hours plus a waitress demonstrating bad ballet moves.

It is good to be home, and urban, and social and safe. Most importantly, safe.

Thank you bloglandia. You did this.

and am seriously dreading the possible Southwest fat tax. We’re so fucked if I have to buy another seat.

So think positive happy thoughts for us.