Kinda hating the new normal. Are you feeling it? Remember way back in 2016 when crazy summer politics meant Brexit?  Pokémon Go was everywhere and we were distracted by whether Zika virus carrying mosquitos were going to ruin the Rio Olympics. We had carefree summer goals like reading “The Girls” by Emma Klein. Simpler times.

I was writing about weed and prisons and stalking my ex on Facebook http://valleytalking.blogs.sonomanews.com/2016/08/05/stalking-the-ex/. Funny, entertaining, light but with a little hidden message. Shocking that was only two years ago.

Now it’s all fear and gloom and drama and pulling kids from their parents, sticking them in cages in repurposed Walmarts and flying them off to faraway places. The flaming shitbag on the doorstep of America has and is behaving exactly as promised. The economy, environment, and global relationships spiral downward and Melania’s coat says it all.

But does it have to be? Aren’t we better than this? Obvs yes, but maybe no too. I have intentionally not written about Donald Trump since the beginning of the year http://valleytalking.blogs.sonomanews.com/2018/01/18/grab-pitchforks-storm-castle-walls/because I get it and you should too.

The twenty traits on the Hare Psychopathy checklist are:

1. pathological lying
2. glib and superficial charm
3. grandiose sense of self
4. need for stimulation
5. cunning and manipulative
6. lack of remorse or guilt
7. shallow emotional response
8. callousness and lack of empathy
9. parasitic lifestyle
10. poor behavioral controls
11. sexual promiscuity
12. early behavior problems
13. lack of realistic long-term goals
14. impulsivity
15. irresponsibility
16. failure to accept responsibility
17. many short-term marital relationships
18. juvenile delinquency
19. revocation of conditional release
20. criminal versatility

I also get that we only have so much power in this situation, that our federal democracy means we can insulate ourselves in our California bubble and scream and post obsessively about how the other team is not fair or honest or sane. Will it help? Not so much.

America is a beautiful place full of beautiful people based on a beautiful constitution.  I doubt I could call the leader of North Korea a psychopath and not risk facial poisoning, but here I can thanks to the First Amendment.

But what if there was no other team? What if we were all on the same team, what if we started there.

Is it ever OK to put profits over people? The immigration debate is such a prime example of how the current government gets this wrong but it is also a foreshadowing of the direction we are headed.

Prioritizing profits over people is also the key to global warming and the opioid epidemic and pollution and most wars. But that’s capitalism people, or rather dumb capitalism (dumbalism).

But there’s also smart capitalism (smapitalism) where you play the long game, focusing on a bigger picture, like that our children’s children’s children should be able to live like it’s the summer of 2016. A happy, healthy, balanced future.

I’m not saying open all borders, kill the capitalists and make everyone equal, that’s crazy hippy nonsense (crappysense-OK, I’ll stop). But I am saying look at the roots of problems instead of what has grown from them. Overpopulation, lack of opportunity, poor leadership, again, do you see how the circle of dysfunction works? Bad leaders make bad choices leading to bad outcomes.

Let’s start with what we can agree on.  Fundamental human rights: keeping families together, maintaining a world with clean air, water, land and can we agree that freedom is better than oppression (there’s a reason the average life expectancy for a South Korean is 12 years longer than a North Korean).

Next, can we agree that opportunity is good and hard work is good and people who work hard deserve to get ahead? Sure we can. How about teaching the homeless how to improve their situations. A kind of “Queer Eye For The Homeless Guy” program.

Think about what you want the next new normal to be. Do you support people over profits? Dumbalism or Smapitalism? And if your leaders are not representing you, why are they your leaders?

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