“The Rude Guy”
Everyone who is calm and sensible is insane – Rumi

CLICK HERE to listen to The Rude Guy Podcast #61

Healthcare or die: people vs.corporations

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[The Rude Guy Podcast #61 August 15, 2009]

Healthcare or die: people vs.corporations

This is Rich Zubaty and I cannot believe I’m going to talk about Health care reform again. But actually I’m not gonna waste any more hot air on health care, because this debate is no longer about health care. It’s about who controls America. The corporations, or the people.

The corporate ass-kissing Republicans are right. If they smoke Obama on health care, the rest of his administration will be a lame duck. Nothing of importance will happen. Yeah, we’ll get some goofy ass social legislation saying left-handed people should receive equal rights in the workplace, or some such drivel. But the corporate boot will be pressed down on our necks, unless we get public health care.

And if we don’t, I’m voting for Nancy Pelosi for President next time. She’s the only one showing any vision or leadership at this point. Obama has been fence sitting, triangulating, as usual. Saying he favors a public option but doing nothing to browbeat and shame the conservative democrats into getting behind it. He’s making intellectual arguments, not cracking his political whip. Eight years ago, when Congress was cutting taxes on the rich, while escalating spending for war, no one was worried about what John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich and the other progressives had to say about it. So now, when the shoe’s on the other foot, why should we give a fuck what the conservatives want? It makes no sense at all. It’s OUR turn.

With virtually all Americans wanting health care reform, and a full 72% wanting a public option, to compete with insurance companies, we should be charging ahead, and threatening any legislator who stands in the way of passing this bill, that they will be toast in the next election, if they don’t get in line right now. Exactly how the Republicans intimidated wishy washy Democrats into supporting the invasion of Iraq, is exactly how the Democrats should be intimidating the conservatives who’re threatening to torpedo genuine health care reform.

45 Senators are thwarting the will of over 200 million Americans, by blocking national public health care. I HATE the Senate. Two Senators from Wyoming have the same voting power as two Senators from New York. All some Delaware corporation has to do is pay off cheap Senators from rural states like Wyoming and Alabama and Idaho, and they can control the entire goddam country. How can we call this a democracy, or a republic, or anything besides a corporate dictatorship? Corporate feudalism.

Corrupt iguanas, like Senator Max Baucus, will stroke their chins on TV claiming this debate is all about principles, assuirng us he’s not swayed by the over one million dollars in donations, he’s gotten from insurance companies. But if that’s so, if he’s not swayed, if conservatives are not swayed by the medical industry money they get, then where is the legislator who is getting lots of insurance company money, and supporting the public option. Where? He doesn’t exist. She doesn’t exist. These guys are so full of shit it’s squirting out their ears. They’re bought and paid for. Like cheap whores.

Why are we leftists always playing defense, deflecting right wing talking points, even when we have an overwhelming mandate to steer government to the left? By the time we deflect one talking point, the right wing radio pin heads have already moved on to the next one. All they’re doing is shitting on our brains. It’s a cynical ploy. Just keep us busy answering their stupid talking points so the real issues don’t get talked about.

And where are the left wing talking points? Why aren’t we saying that any one who doesn’t support full medical coverage for all Americans is un-American, and unpatriotic and greedy and selfish and should be ashamed of themselves. And should move to Mexico and try living under the lawless, Libertarian, strong-man-takes-all, political wonderland, they’ve got down there. Why aren’t we announcing on TV that any legislator, who doesn’t support the public option, is a corporate lackey, a corporate water boy, a sell-out to Big Money, and should be sent back home to grow tomatoes by voters in the next election?

Why aren’t we saying we would rather have government standing between us and our doctor, than have some huge insurance company standing between us and our doctor? Who in his right mind could possibly trust for-profit insurance companies, more than they trust government?

One retiring Insurance company executive just got a compensation package worth $600 million dollars! $600 million dollars! That means that 60,000 people who paid his company for medical coverage, were each denied $10,000 worth of care, in order to pay this pig his retirement package. These paying customers did not get the tests and procedures they needed, so that this vulture could feather his nest with $600 million dollars. (more…)

How did women ever live without cell phones? What did they do with their other hand when they were driving? Fiddle with the radio? Apply mascara? They certainly didn’t use their turn signal blinkers any more then than they do now.

There’s no good reason why men don’t signal their intentions. They’re just surly and stubborn and want to pretend we still live in a time when cows and kids leaped out of your way. But women have a GOOD excuse for not letting you know they’re turning right in front of you. They’re TALKING, for goodness sake. What are they supposed to do? Put down the phone?

Considering cell phone users statistically have the same accident rate as legally drunk drivers it is nothing short of amazing how quickly we have gone from talking while driving to driving while talking.

CLICK HERE to listen to The Rude Guy Podcast #60

Live in your car

or RIGHT CLICK HERE (Apple command/click) then click “Save Target As” to DOWNLOAD the podcast to your computer or playback device

Or CLICK HERE to read the TEXT version of The Rude Guy Podcast #60

[The Rude Guy Podcast #60 August 1, 2009]

So you wanna live in your car!

I felt sorry for myself because I had no house, until I saw a man who had no car.

Screwed by corporations? Lost your house? Stop whining and go live in your car. Like me.

There’re lots of good reasons to do it: no rent, no mortgage, no grass to mow. Can’t be found by cops, process servers, auto repo guys, ex wives or needy kids.

Save on gas. You don’t have to drive to work. You can sleep right in the parking lot. Don’t have to drive home, you’re ALWAYS home.

Sound good? Here’s what you need to know.

Stealth:

It’s best to have a van or SUV with tinted windows. You want to be able to park anywhere and have no one suspect you are sleeping inside. If you snore, cut off your nose. Cops will roust you out of nice places like parks and beaches, so you gotta be able to sleep on any quiet suburban street. Stealth.

Shitting and showering:

If you’re planning on shitting and showering in your van do us all a favor and go hang yourself right now. Peeing is different. I need to pee several times a night so I bought a yellow, plastic wide-mouthed screw-top bottle in the camping section at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart?

If you are living in your car you cannot afford to shop anywhere EXCEPT Wal-Mart.

Also, it’s not a bad idea to take your morning “constitutional” there, or McDonalds or some 24-hour food store.

Showering is trickier. I often swim and shower at the beach. Some communities have free or nearly free swimming pools. You might have to join a discount health club to get at a shower. Just don’t wear out your welcome with your friends. You’ll need them for other things.

Communications:

Most folks use cell phones. Nobody ever calls me so I just use a cheap headset and Skype on my computer whenever I get somewhere I can poach bandwidth. Skype is 2 cents a minute almost anywhere on earth. Can’t beat it.

Food:

Food is a problem. I hate not being able to cook. I used to cart around a gas burner bottle and pots and pans but gave up. Too much effort for too little cooking. Bought an ice cooler but soon learned I could go broke buying ice. So now I just use the cooler for storing dry food. I score canned food from food pantries and sandwich fixin’s with foodstamps. Your mom lied. Mayonnaise does not spoil out of the fridge.

A few times a week I hit the church soup kitchens for dinner or Salvation Army for lunch. You get two choices. Starch with salt, or salt with Starch. Really tough on my high blood pressure.

I keep most of my stuff in a storage locker and just go there every day or two to grab the things I need. That way I don’t have to worry about losing my laptop.

Car-sleepers are the aristocrats of the homeless. Ground sleepers have it rough, fending off dogs and bums.

I sleep on a foam futon in my car and have an office in a storage locker.

As the economy tanked the Storage Locker place made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I got a four-times bigger locker, 10 by 10 feet, for half price: $140 a month. Now I can microwave coffee and ramen noodles and Italian sausage and baked potatoes. And it’s also quiet enough that I can record and edit podcasts, and take afternoon naps. Up town!

And when it comes to cars, check out this rolling riot. No one will even bother to wonder if you are sleeping inside something like this.