DP Blogs

So Bernie just came out with yet another book. I guess being a millionaire with five houses and a six figure salary for a do-nothing job isn't enough. Here is his latest book: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/63249703 Aside from being rich, Bernie is also very stingy when it comes to his own money: To summarize, Sanders is a secular Jew who got rich via capitalism and he still wants more and more money. Here's Marx: It's a perfect fit.

According to this page, the people in NYS have to work until May in order to pay their tax burden for the year. This does not include inflation, which is also a form of taxation. In my view, this is an absolute travesty. You get only one life to live, and you have spend such a large portion of it working for the goddamn government? You cannot call yourself "pro-labor" if you support the state confiscating such a large portion of the wealth produced by working people. Of course, the political left wants taxes to be even higher than are now. Many of them would be happy with people working for the government 9, 10, or even 12 months of the year. Leftists are fundamentally anti-labor.

"Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. (There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.") Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars? I am the poor white...

When I sit and think about my sister who recently died and the loss for her feels total. This even when she was more of a nuisance and worry than anything else in my life. She was mentally ill. But when I sit here and think of all those moments, when I could see her light up because I gave her a new purse or when I could get her to sit down and enjoy some music, or when …. then my brother calls and discusses her inheritance. She didn't have much, but she had a house (dilapidated, but in a good area) and the two of us are her closest relatives. Money, it takes away some of the sadness, it takes away some of the loss and it makes us humans insignificant. It takes away reflection. It's sick actually, absolutely freaking bizarre. When we...

I got a new pet amazon parrot and it does not like to be handled. It keeps biting me and it seems always angry. Anyway to treat a bird with PTSD?

In 1965 my family and I fled Castro's communism. I was 3-years-old. Two of my uncles were serving time in Morro Castle for anti-revolutionary activities and my dad figured he was next. When we left Cuba we weren't allowed to take anything of value. My mother sewed silver dimes into the cuffs of my dad's suit. He figured if things got bad he could sell them for the silver and we'd eat that day. We landed at LaGuardia in February. My mother remembers she was terrified when she saw the trees — having never seen trees without leaves she thought they were dead. We had a sponsor so we arrived legally with green cards and a place to stay; but no car, no phone, no TV, no washer/dryer, not for a long time. I grew up on stories of the horrors...

Over the past couple of weeks, I spent some ~60 hours of personal time (on top of work) at a disaster relief shelter here in the SF Bay Area for those affected by the heavy rain and flooding. Most were homeless prior to the rains, or were directed to us by hospitals or mental health facilities who could not handle them any longer. During this time, I had many encounters, conversations and interactions that left me reeling, contemplative, inspired or depressed. I am using this post to put a number of these interactions down in writing. 1. A young woman, perhaps 18-20, by herself, well kept and exceedingly chipper. She claimed to be homeless and fleeing rising creeks, was articulate and excited to have a place to sleep, and asked...

Okay, so I thought today was going alright at first, but for some reason, I have been feeling a strangely odd sense of hunger throughout. I thought it was just because maybe I didn't eat enough last night, but I deliberately ate a big breakfast and lunch, and it didn't even satisfy my stomach for even a minute after. I thought it would go away with time, but it's still there. I still feel the hunger gripping my stomach. I have a habit of sometimes skipping meals (especially breakfast), but this does not feel like when I do that. It just feels different. I don't know what in the world is going on, but I was able to leave work early, because it's gotten to the point where it's screwing with my ability to think straight, and I couldn't do...

The MAGAsphere is a dynamic movement that has swept the country and spilled over our borders to other nations who willingly slop-it-up such as Hungary, Canada and Brazil, and while many know the overriding dogma of MAGA is a strict and overweening devotion to Trump best personified by sending him huge amounts of money, it also has many other self-righteous characteristics such as a deep devotion to Christianity, an abiding hatred of FJB, Hillary and Obama, a principled approach to foreign relations who adopt our screed, a distaste for the swarthy who aim to replace us, tanned testicles and increased vitality which leads to randy-old-men openly assaulting women with impunity, abhorrence toward the educated and education in general...