Saturday, May 8, 2021

taking care of business and the continued decline of the republican party


Well, it was a comedy of errors with two fools but we eventually got it up.

Previously Pam had ordered a pop up canopy to give her shade loving plants in pots some shade since she has none at her house but the high wind and 8” of rain last week cratered it,


so I offered her the use of our 'show' tent that Marc used for sandblasting the glass when we did the A&M job and it's been packed away ever since so Friday we, literally, dragged the bag with the top and sides and the bag with the frame pieces over to where she wanted it and set about erecting it. My knot tying skills (yay, I still remember how to do it) from my river guide days came in handy when we secured the frame to the concrete weights she had from a previous life, back when her husband was still alive and they were doing the farmer's market out here.

Before that though, we went to an estate sale. I bought two screwdrivers for the toolkit I'm putting together for over at the shop so I'm not taking the ones from the house, cost me a whopping $1.50. We used to go on Thursday mornings when they start but that was before I started volunteering at SHARE.

Today I went to the “farmer's” market to get tamales and honey and some ground beef from local pasture raised cows.


This was probably the most vendors they've had so far this season and no produce (freeze set everyone's gardens back). I'd guess at least half the vendors were selling baked goods...bread, cookies, pastries, cupcakes, muffins, desserts. The rest was a varied assortment of crafts, canned goods, baby chicks, eggs, the local rescue outfit had kittens, the meat, local honey.

Then I tackled my project for the day...moving all the brick piles from the side of the garage where they were sinking and covered by devil's tongue and liriope and grass and weeds and leaves into the barn. Now I can see what I've got.




----------

So now there's a whole right wing trope about the stimulus money and restaurants and some other businesses not being able to hire enough staff or workers. The trope goes like this...nobody wants to work because they are getting all that free money with the stimulus and the enhanced unemployment insurance. It came up on the local chat FB page and another guy and I called bullshit. Some people were complaining that they had been to a couple of local restaurants and they had only one server and one cook and the wait was long. Maybe if they didn't pay starvation wages they wouldn't have this problem. Maybe if they offered a living wage they could keep employees. Maybe some people are choosing not to go back to work as long as they can get the unemployment which isn't making anyone rich, just enough to cover basic necessities. And I don't blame them a bit. I doubt any of the people complaining about low wage workers not returning to their jobs would give up a brief respite to go back to making less than they needed to survive and yet they are so quick to cast aspersions on an entire group of low wage workers.

At SHARE last Thursday, it came up again...twice. Hanging out with the guys, one of them repeated the BS. It's a myth, I told them, and I read later that research does not support the lie. Later, sitting with some of the other women (it was a slow day), someone else repeated the same trope. I kept my mouth shut because these are all religious republicans with one or two exceptions (republican, not the religious part) who are doing what their religion requires of them, helping those less fortunate and I do like volunteering there. Finally I put forth that if that was the case then maybe these employers should offer better wages. I got a grudging nod from one.

So, while on the one hand republicans are trashing the stimulus as destroying worker initiative, and at least three states are refusing to implement the enhanced unemployment thereby forcing their citizens back to work for starvation wages, some republican congresspeople are going out to their constituents and promoting how the stimulus package is helping them, as if they actually voted for it. Not a single republican voted for the American Rescue Act. Not one. And, big surprise, McConnell has recently stated that his sole focus is making sure this administration does not succeed. Think about that. A high ranking member of Congress is doing his best to make sure that Biden does not succeed in making the lives of ordinary Americans better.



24 comments:

  1. Thanks, Ellen, I have not been listening to republican bullshit, taking a break maybe forever- they are so predictable ,never wavering. McConnell needs to go back into the sea, he is not happy on land and just makes everyone else feel his misery.
    You are a busy bee- Farmer's market and a boot sale and shifting bricks not to mention making nearly a whole other house for Pam- You will sleep well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mostly I try to ignore it but do like to keep an eye on it.

      Delete
  2. Same when Obama was president- remember? The republicans refused to go along with anything he proposed to the great detriment of their constituents, which of course all led to the horror of Donald Trump. Our country is broken.
    You hauled all those bricks and blocks? Good lord, woman. Can you move today? I would be so sore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes, same with Obama. and, yeah, so broken. I'm not sure it can be fixed at this point.

      I didn't exactly carry every one, used the two wheeled dolly, so stack them up, roll them to the garage, restack them. took many trips with a break in between. and I'm not sore at all. go figure. not even my problematic arm.

      Delete
  3. I am always so inspired by how much work you get done there. I pulled a bunch of weeds yesterday, well actually I dug them out by their roots with my trusty screwdriver in hand. It feels good to get out in the yard in the sunshine.
    I stopped listening to and reading the news. I can't do it anymore. The drumbeat of monotonous insanity finally wore me down. I worry about our country, autocratic maniacs, lying bastards and idiotic believers. If I could run away to someplace sane and safe, I would go. It doesn't exist anymore anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well, I like to be active and there is so much to be done around here and once summer settles in it will be too hot to get anything big done. and I'm at that point in my life where if I stop moving, doing for any length of time, it will be hard to recover the energy and ability.

      I go through phases...pay attention or ignore. I do fear that this country is doomed. not for me because again being at this point in my life, but for my kids and grandkids.

      Delete
  4. Sure enough, your post showed up in my Feedly reader, just like it was supposed to. Now, the only trick will be my remembering to check the feed, but if I get myself in the habit now, I won't miss anything down the road.

    Where was that farmer's market? It looks like a fun one, and there's always the possibility I'd be in the general neighborhood some day. Is it on the weekend? I'm sure with you on the coming heat. I've already had a hint that it's going to affect me more this year than in the past, and I know that taking off ten pounds is the beginning of a solution. Not that there's anything hard about that, of course.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad the feedly worked but I still intend to do my own group email starting the end of June.

      the market is here in Wharton. 6 - 8 weeks in the spring and again in the fall on Saturdays.

      I don't think I've ever sweated as much as I did last year. not looking forward to more of that this summer.

      Delete
    2. I just got back from Randalls with a stash of Gatorade. It's on sale now, and it won't go bad, so why not?

      Delete
  5. Always admire your physical stamina. It's been a while since I did hauling like that. I do like doing for myself when I can.

    I wish there had been video of the shade canopy construction..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mostly the two wheeler did the hauling, I just had to stack them on and off.

      I'm sure it would have been very entertaining. made myself laugh more than a time or two.

      Delete
  6. Oh, I so dislike McConnell.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What truly puzzles me (among other things) is how he can remain in the position he is in and still be so out of touch with reality??

      Delete
  7. Amen and *&*(^% to the Republican rant. Ugh. I read Heather Richardson's letters & just shake my head.

    I would love to have seen you & Pam assembling that tent. It looks like an excellent place for her plants.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I try to follow the news a bit but it does frustrate me after a while. I do believe that there will be fewer and fewer of the old white supremacists and eventually, the young people who are more open-minded and more used to other cultures will be able to have more chances to make their mark.
    This wild burst is their fear showing as they realize they are losing control. Even big business is stepping away as they see that white supremacy will not be the future of this diverse country.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I truly hate them all. Especially Mitch.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It is unbelievable to me that most R's have worked for the failure of the Democratic presidents. And their constituents believe the lies when they could do the simple math and come to their own conclusions.
    That is the same canopy I set up summer weekends for twenty years. Light dome. Over its life time I believe I replaced every part of it except the side panels. Sold it to an aspiring artist at my last show, on the condition they tear it down and pack it away. And they did.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good work on the canopy! I wrote my stupid Rep. Governor just to show how biased he is, he is ending the Fed Pandemic Extended Unemployment end of June, 2 full months early, And in the same week he gave College Athletes the right to receive endorsement money...SO the "Football Heroes" get a free education with grants and scholarships and BIG endorsement contracts...and minimum wage earners get a kick in the ass. Shows how the Rep don't care about the individual person they only care about what THEY want they love tail gating so they gotta have football...ITS BS. I don't think a State should have the right to strip someone's right to a federally funded program during a pandemic where their job was TAKEN AWAY by the very STATE when they forced the eateries and stores to close.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. they are just so convinced that low wage workers have no work ethic when the extra money is only one consideration. how are these people supposed to go back to work if they have small children and there is no childcare available, or the restaurant isn't attracting enough customers yet to provide enough tips to live on, or that they aren't vaccinated yet since young people have just now been allowed to get the vax and they don't want to get sick from an anti-vaxxer who won't wear a mask. all kinds of reasons keeping people out of the work force.

      Delete
  12. I watched our version of a conservative weirdo candidate (general elections in Sept) and the similarities to your scenarios are all there, mostly based on lies and peddling their male sense of superiority and oh it just makes me gag.

    That market looks a treat, adventurous even.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well, that was certainly McConnell's approach during Obama's administration, too. He's the very definition of obstructionist. I hadn't heard that particular fiction about low-wage workers not returning to their jobs, but you're completely right. If they want people to work, they need to PAY THEM WHAT THEY'RE WORTH!

    That tent makes a nice "greenhouse"!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Those who work for such low wages must also pay for child care and/or transportation. My advice to the small business owner who says he cannot pay more than $7.25 and hour...get into another business or work for someone yourself.

    ReplyDelete

I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.