Kudos to the Aaron Neville 1967 song of the same name. Some of the lyrics were so apropos to how this writer feels:

Tell it like it is
I’m nothing to play with
Go and find yourself a toy
But I… Tell it like it is
My time is too expensive and I’m not your little boy

Are you getting a little pissed off with this corporate state? Beware that when you turn on the boob tube anytime and on any channel you will be subject to the cesspool of pitchmen and pitchwomen. Big Pharma leads the way with an array of Fear commercials to get us to seek the salvation of their drugs. Thank goodness they still have to list the ‘ Side effects’. I am waiting for an ad like this one: Stay Hard can cause some side effects such as A) stopping your breathing and B) having your penis fall off the scrotum. However, this has been found in only a few rare cases. Another commercial would sound like this: Heart Guard, in rare cases, can cause severe chest pains not associated with one’s heart, but enough to cause passing out. So, do NOT use Heart Guard if you are driving a car or in a crowd of people you do not know. How about Acne Away: In  a few rare cases users could see not only the pimples fade away, but with them the ENTIRE SKIN peels away. If that occurs please not only call your physician, but also a good seamstress.

Then you have the auto and auto insurance commercials. How many working stiffs do you think can afford most of the cars they pitch on the air? How many of us can even afford  any new car? Someone once called this phenomenon being Car Poor when in debt for anywhere from $ 250 to $ 450 a month… and that’s not including the insurance! Segue to insurance companies, with their BS hype, that usually charge equal rates for similar auto coverage. I love the commercial labeled as Mayhem where the pitchman actually causes a driver to crash smack dab into the back of a parked truck… and of course the driver is a black man. I am sure that many of our fine white neighbors just used that ditty to reinforce their overt or covert racism. Now, with things economically and financially as they are, there appears a slew of insurance commercials for used car repairs . A friend of mine took out a policy for his pick-up truck a few years ago. When his transmission started to go, the company refused to pay for anything related to it. ZERO!  Matter of fact, most insurance is really just a semi con job. When Hurricane Mathew hit us in 2016, we had a giant pine tree snap in half behind our house and go through our roof. We had to evacuate for over four months while the contractor repaired the house. The water damage from the heavy rains going into our place was unbelievable. Yet, the insurance company waited months to even review our claims, and then offered peanuts to us. We had to hire an attorney and that took almost two years before we could secure a low ball settlement. Do we really need private insurance companies?

You turn on the boob tube to catch sports talk and here’s what you get: Yuppie front men and women for the networks and the owners spending most of the air time discussing contracts and  how many mega millions this player and that player wants? There are little or NO discussions about strategy or schedules etc. ‘ Money talks and only the poor schlep fans walk.’ The owners are mostly billionaires or close to it, as are the media barons. The sports talk yuppies make sure to tell us how the poor players have to struggle: ‘He has to support his family’. Perhaps that was the case back in the day when this baby boomer was growing up. I remember when the World Series share was sometimes more than a player made for the entire season, forcing most major leaguers to find off season full time jobs. Nowadays, professional athletes are very well paid, and should be considering what the Fat Cat owners and media earn.( Gee, even earning a million or two should be enough for any working stiff to support his family FOR A DECADE OR TWO!) So why are many highly paid star players doing freaking commercials!? Aaron Rogers ( $ 42 million) , Lebron James( $ 43 million)  and Bryce Harper( $ 27 million) place their mugs in front of cameras to pitch products or services. Wouldn’t it be nice if these jokers took the millions they earn in front of the pitchman camera  and donate all of it to help the needy. Back in the day, maybe 20 years ago, football star Warwick Dunn took a portion of his money and bought homes for single moms. He formed a charity that still does such a great act of kindness… and he earned peanuts compared to what today’s stars earn.

Politics, as Mark Twain so aptly called it, was then and still is ‘ The last refuge of scoundrels’. First off ,  considerably less than 1% of the American public are millionaires. In Congress that number is over 50%. Do you think a millionaire or mega millionaire has to worry about health and dental coverage? This writer’s significant other ( under the Medicare age of 65)  could get what they call a ‘ Cadillac Plan’ for health that would cost maybe $ 15k  a year.  The two of us would have to fork out $ 5k a year each for a Cadillac dental plan. In our income range no way can we afford that. You think many members of Congress can afford that cost… Oh, forgot, sorry. Those jokers get it for free or at a huge, huge discount. If  we were millionaires we could easily afford those premiums. You won’t find members of Congress with missing teeth like many of their constituents. No way! While on the subject of politicians, check out how many of them are getting mega bucks from Super Rich corporations and /or Political Action Committees. Then they stand in front of the cameras and spew the **** of why their donors need special treatment from Uncle Sam. Ya wanna cut their balls off? GET ALL PRIVATE MONEY OUT OF ELECTORAL POLITICS!!! They will either play fair or participate in the oldest game of most governments: Illegal bribery, a felony.

Finally, hopefully, all history classes in high school and college teach of insurrections in our nation’s past and throughout the world. Are they covering the insurrection and attempted coup on January 6th, 2021  that was outrageous, considering it was inside of a republic that preaches about democracy? Aren’t you tired of hearing the press and political stooges in our nation continually boasting how ‘ America’s goal is to bring democracy to the world’? And I do still have that bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

PA Farruggio
July, 2022