OK, maybe just a little mini-rant.  OK, maybe not so mini.  Possibly some thunder involved.

Sometimes I hate this state.  If my son and gkids weren’t here, I wouldn’t be either.  Repugs are just plain evil.

I thought maybe I’d give Legal Services of MO a shot at negotiating my eligibility for Medicaid, having tried and failed myself a number of times.  After some time, they came back with the same answer.  I have a fixed annuity, which I can’t just take money from without penalties, which adds a few hundred dollars monthly to my tiny SSA income so I can survive until I die.  According to their technicality, I have “resources”.  Too much “income” for getting much-needed assistance, too little income to pay for basic medical and other needs.  The old catch-22.  Or I could spend down what little I have, be essentially homeless, and hope Medicaid would come through and not screw me.

I’m 72, retired, with Leukemia (not to play that card!), and thousands of dollars in debt to my generous son who paid for outrageous dental bills I wasn’t expecting.  I’m still getting other medical bills from months ago that it seems my insurance didn’t cover.  I can’t afford another doctor or specialist for the rest of the year.  My landlord had mercy on me and reduced my rent increase, taking a loss himself, so I could stay housed.  Along with that increase, my utilities are no longer assisted, for similar reasons to Medicaid’s, and will go up.  These are just facts, not complaints.  (OK, maybe a little kvetching.)

I worked and earned the small income I receive.  Am I supposed to go back to work with few skills, and other obligations, and pull myself up by the bootstraps?  The point I want to make is, millions of Americans are going through this right now, and not just old farts.  Single parents with kids and a job can barely make it.

The Repug agenda in MO and the nation is to take away even more basic human rights and quality of life.  Every day in this state’s legislature and courts, and in most states as well, this fascist agenda is playing out before our eyes, if we bother to pay attention.  Maybe you think it doesn’t affect you and your demographic, but it will.  Worse, it will affect your children and loved ones.  If you ignore it, you’re still complicit.

I don’t know any other way to say this, so I’m just sharing it here.  It’s not just about me and my elder issues.  It’s about my gkids and friends fearing for their lives and healthcare if they’re non-binary or trans.  It’s about my Black friends and kids fearing for their lives just by existing.  It’s about women being refused emergency medical care and told they can die or continue to be abused.  It’s about refugees from political persecution being turned away from our borders because, IDK, they’re just like the immigrants who died building this country and doing our dirty work for us.  It’s about the rightful natives of America, the few descendants who survived our genocide, being respected and treated like humans.  It’s about every one of us, if we choose to vote for nazis, or not vote at all.

So, as I said to my very kind (Black) legal counselor, unsolicited gratuitous plug for Kamala Harris!  (I could tell we were on the same page.  Also, unrelated, she had lots of cats!)  You know, I think she was the only human I’ve talked to in a week!  Solitude gives me too much time to think.

Apropos of nothing, here’s Avdi’s newly reorganized bar, now that he’s home to enjoy it.