Tag Archives: Midterms

November 3, 2018

YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS!: The Buffalo Bill-ing of America

By JLakis

Ted Levine’s portrayal of the serial killer Jame Gumb, AKA Buffalo Bill, in The Silence of the Lambs, remains the most chilling portrait of a socio/psychopath in film history. And while the character from Jonathan Demme’s 1991 classic psychological-thriller has more famous lines — Put the fucking lotion in the basket! — his most chilling comes during his mockery of the pain of the young woman he has trapped in his basement. When she takes his dog hostage in an effort to escape, he shouts at the woman at the bottom of the filthy well “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS!”

Jame Gumb

He can’t understand or feel the pain of another, let alone validate it. And this is exactly where we are as a nation. We have all become so wrapped up in our personal axes to grind, whether they be based on gender, race, religion, class, etc, that we cannot see past our own pain, however valid. I’m not discounting the value of spreading awareness while making the case for change in our culture. Exactly the opposite. Call me crazy, #livingwithmentalillness, but I don’t view compassion, awareness, and political equality as a zero sum game.

If The United States holds out one great Promise, it’s that the constant work of making truer that original promise that we are all equal, and entitled to equal rights will bear fruit. I have no idea where the notion that there is a limit to the number and type of human beings with equal rights under the law came from. But I want to blow it up.

The #MeToo movement is as valid as #BlackLivesMatter as #BlueLives as #SupportOurTroops as #TakeaKnee as #LoveisLove as #CatholicChurchMolestation as #SecondAmendment as #GunControl as #NotOneMore. It’s only when these causes separate into little mutually exclusive cliques that we end up shouting down the well at our fellow human beings.

Is there room in this nation to support Colin Kaepernick and #BlackLivesMatter, be a Quaker who does not stand for nor salute any man-made symbol, live with a former Marine, #SupportOurTroops, and just want to celebrate The Eagles Superbowl win (finally!)?

May I support my #SecondAmendment rights, while still believing in common sense #GunReform? Can I suppot #Legalization as well as #RuleofLaw? Can I be #MeToo without incurring the wrath of males? Can males molested by the #CatholicChurch be #MeToo as well? It would make sense.

#Sexism #SexualAssault #EqualPay #ReproductiveRights and other #Feminist issues affect women of color far more than my (admittedly fine) white ass. And desiring to raise awareness about #PTSD #Depression #Anxiety and #LivingwithMentalIllness doesn’t mean I don’t also care about #PrisonReform. These issues can, and should, coexist.

Now, I absolutely do not want to associate myself with the mealy-mouthed #bothsides are to blame, nor enable the Fascist “I don’t do politics” appeasement movement of #Quislings and #Collaborators. I really don’t know how else to demonstrate my liberal cred than by practicing empathy and compassion.

I believe that this nation is big enough for all comers, and that Freedom and Equality have no limit. In fact, the more freedom, the more democracy, the more democracy, the more equality, and the more equality, the more freedom! On a purely pragmatic level, it keeps the creep of fascism at bay. And it’s also truly American and Patriotic. If America is about Freedom, let’s have it! There is enough to go around in a nation this large and diverse.

All I ask is for the practice of the compassion and empathy it takes to recognize and feel another’s pain and want to help. That’s how we humans survive, right? Working together.

I heard something that the Dalai Lama said once. I cannot remember the exact quote, but the gist of it was: When your fear touches the pain of another, you feel hatred and disgust. But when your love touches the pain of another, you find compassion.

If we don’t all embrace that as a rule to live by in the world’s oldest modern democracy, we’re all just Buffalo Bill shouting down the well in our basement at our fellow human beings. Mocking their pain. Bust down the door to your heart. And, like Clarisse Starling, save that suffering person. You never know when your turn in the well will come.

And if you really want your voice heard: VOTE! I don’t care what Russian propaganda you’ve read to the contrary, it’s the only way to gripe that really matters. Election Day is Tuesday, November 6th. Uber is offering free rides to polling places. And it is illegal for your employer to punish you for leaving work to vote.

PS – I know I teased a vlog earlier this week. It’s coming. But, as always seems to be the case anymore, current events outpaced my ability to edit. Especially with my arm still injured.

While you’re here: Please check out the wonderful work done by the people at The National Alliance on Mental Illness and donate.

Check out my Instagram! There are pictures of stuff I like and hate. 😊

While there: check out my BFF’s Instagram and share some love.

Got a comment? Click below! I love the feedback. If you like what you’ve read, tap Like and Share on Facebook! Follow and share on Twitter.

7 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in blog, geek, Politics, writing

February 26, 2018

Mueller, Midterms & Other Bedtime Stories

By JLakis

superman doing shots

This has been my favorite gif for about a year or so now. Superman in a bar doing shot after shot after shot of Johnny Walker. Superman was developed by two Jewish brothers, and was the first cartoon of its kind. He’s a super-hero. He fought Nazis and the KKK, saved kittens from trees, and stood for Truth, Justice and the American Way. Superman may have been an alien, but he cared for human beings. But he’s currently getting wasted. And I feel ya Supes.

Superman will always be the guy we hope will swoop from the skies and save us, and save us from ourselves. And to every liberal, progressive, and Democrat out there, we have collectively passed his cape on to Robert Mueller. He took down Gotti and Enron. He will save us.

And then we’ll flip the Congress in the Midterms! Then we’ll get ’em all, take down the Russians and everyone even near to Trump. And it all ends with a Biden/Romney ticket. President Warren, Oprah or Hillary, or maybe….Michelle!

Yep. The system that has fucked us for 241 years will just suddenly work for the people! And everyone in the country will rejoice. We’ll get gun reform, and repeal that horrid tax plan, and fix the National Parks, and run everything on solar, wind, or whatever Elon Musk decides. No one will lose benefits, and all of the petty and cruel GOP and Trumpian ideas will be erased.

That’s the story, as far as everyone I know, keeps telling me. But, like the young people in Florida who survived the attack on their school: I’m calling BS.

Nothing is that simple. We’ve had a school shooting every 2.5 days since January 1, 2018. That’s 1 7 school shootings in 45 or so days. I didn’t hear about all of them. Congress does nothing but cash those NRA checks, while the students take it into their own hands. And deplorable despicables argue the idea of armed teachers and prison schools. Drink up Supes!

I’ve always heard, “Americans are a fair people. They want a fair deal.” Oh yeah? How fair were we to the Native Peoples we encountered here? How fair to the human being bought and sold as a work animal? How fair to women and immigrants? How fair was it to buy cheap land off Napoleon so he could fund his conquest of Europe? How fair to save the Nazi who made Hitler’s rockets from prosecution to help us get to space before the Soviets? How fair to drop nuclear bombs on on civilians so we’d beat the Soviets to Japan? Do one for me Supes.

We live in a nation built on, and perpetually helped by, on lies. And the one President who did save our Nation through our Civil War? One super man who was not bullet-proof.

So, my dearest, darlingest fellow libtards, what makes you think getting rid of Trump will just go off without a hitch? And the system that fucks us and keeps us poor and ignorant will work? It’s laughable. And yes, more and more people are speaking out like the students in Florida. PA is no longer Gerrymandered. These are all positive. But it’s not going to be some Coke commercial in which we all hold hands and sing. Nixon bungled a stupid burglary, and look at that insanity! How can we expect an investigation of top officials in our government working with the world’s enemy, Putin, to just happen with no ill repercussions for all of us?

I’m confounded. Think being white and middle class will save you? That it’s white folks getting shot, impoverished, under-educated, and dying of heroin that the halls of government cares about? Don’t you get it? We’re all niggers now. And your children? Canon fodder. Ready to slap them with the burden with a life-time strapped with student debt? Or gamble you’ll have good health until 83? Let people you know who rely on public services get squeezed and squeezed until our lives are spent in grinding poverty with no hope of escape? Concerned about the environment, get in line between the LGBTQ community and women.

And what if the protests turn into civil unrest? Are you willing to give a drop of your blood or your children’s for this despicable nation? I’m not.

I feel like Cassandra, or worse. Seneca serving Nero. No wonder he was into Stoicism. Maybe you either get it or you don’t, but perhaps I can’t explain it to you. I’ve tried. And I’ll continue to try. Albert Einstein happened to be out of Germany when Hitler was elected Chancellor in 1933. Einstein saw the writing on the wall and never returned. Just be smart like Einstein, and quit drinking the nerves away with your Super-Mueller mythos. And I will hope that I am wrong.

“The past ain’t what it used to be.” – (not) Yogi Berra

While you’re here: Check out my Instagram! There are pictures of stuff I like and hate. 😊

While there: check out my BFF’s Instagram and share some love.

Got a comment? Click below! I love the feedback. If you like what you’ve read, tap Like and Share on Facebook! Follow and share on Twitter.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in blog, geek, Trump

November 30, 2016

We’ll Let You Know

By JLakis
wp-1480535356706.jpg

Oh, but only if, you’re really interested.

Finally sharing thoughts on the Election:

“How sad are we?
And how sad have we been?
We’ll let you know
We’ll let you know
Oh, but only if, you’re really interested”

I’m tired. And sick. Far more than disappointed. I’ll spell out my weakness for anyone who’d like to take a stab, why should I care? That is precisely how life has always worked, and I don’t see why I ought to have expected differently anymore.

A female President? The kid who yelled “faggot” in school. That’s the President of life. He always was.

I was thinking of Oscar Wilde. That is how we live again now. Hide your fear with a quip. Bury your love deep from jealous hands. Hide your soul. Live inside.

That’s how it’s always been. The kind people are tired. The tired must do for themselves. The gentle bow til they break. And we sensitive faggots, well, we know how to take the punches, until we can’t.

“You wonder how
We’ve stayed alive ’till now
We’ll let you know
We’ll let you know
But only if, you’re really interested”

– Morrissey, Your Arsenal, 1992

Click to listen to the song: We’ll Let You Know

While you’re here: Please check out the wonderful work done by the people at The National Alliance on Mental Illness and donate.

Check out my Instagram! There are pictures of stuff I like and hate. 😊

While there: check out my BFF’s Instagram and share some love.

Got a comment? Click below! I love the feedback. If you like what you’ve read, tap Like and Share on Facebook! Follow and share on Twitter.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in blog, geek, writing