A Letter to my Foreign Friends (Living in Distant Lands) Warning: Politics involved!

Friends, Amigos and Acquaintances,

I hope you are all well and sorry for the delay in getting you updates. It has now been four years since I came back to the States and what a ride. I got a nice job and joined corporate-land where they use the English language in a strange way such as say they “have so much on my plate,” and other metaphors which take me a minute to “digest.” Things are going well but I have to say I’m really envious of you all at the moment because I’m really missing life over there!!

Life in the USA for the most part has been pretty good. Of course San Francisco is a bit different from what I’m used to but I love the diversity and the weather! Also, SF has some killer technology. Yep, no blackouts by censorship or by power failure.
But boy, sometimes I wish there were. You see, everyday I pick up my awesome Iphone and read the news. This is where the problem lies. One would think by reading the “news” that everyone is extremely angry!!!

It’s not that everyone is really pissed off but the media would make us think so. You see, something close to national healthcare was just passed. No, it is not as good as what you have in your countries but is a step in the right direction. Man, I remember being over there and only having to pay the “foreigner price” of about $25 US for a doctors appointment and the prescription. When I got back here a visit to the doctor which gave me the same information I could have found on Google cost me $150 plus medicine. I then got a job and the co-pay was $25 so thank God I found a job and could let the doctor pass that horrible expense on to my employer.

Actually, I do not need to visit the doctor, almost never!! The only problem is the diet in this country makes you really fat and unhealthy so I’m trying to stick to “ethnic” diets. Otherwise I would be about 250 pounds. I only have to go to the doctor if my employer tells me to because I missed too many days of work and need a doctor’s note. This note costs them about $110. LOL suckers!!!!!

But anyway, we almost got something in terms of healthcare close to what you enjoy in your countries but it would seem everyone is really upset about it. Again, it’s not actually that everyone is *actually* upset but the media would make you think so. Here we have something called Fox news which is a bunch of prom queens, ex-quarterbacks and various neanderthals that like to yell and scream and generally get everyone into a tizzy because Obama won the election. Ever since he took office it has been one big complain-fest.
Yea, I know, Obama promised to stop having America fight all these wars that were unfunded and yea, it was in the Bush presidency in which our national deficit killed the surplus that Clinton created but Obama can’t really fix all the destruction Bush caused in just under a year you know. The problem is that everyone expected him to and the Republicans are really hounding him about it.

It’s not like they were born pissed off but Fox News made them that way so you have to cut them some slack. If you focus their attention on sports then they will forget the Fox talking points and start saying “This team or that SUCKS” or something like that. The trick is to divert their rage to sports and it works quite well!!

Unfortunately, they will watch Fox News again which claims to be “Fair and Balanced” but is the exact opposite. You see, in America you can outright lie and it is still ok. For example, the credit card companies will send you applications so you can have a low rate and then jack it up 2000 percent. Stores will tell you, you can “save money” but actually you are spending it. Yea, I know that we had trouble in the open air markets with always trying to bargain but here in the USA it is already built into the price so people think it is ok to pay outrageous prices. Better hope that the businesses in your countries do not get MBA degrees from our universities!!!

Getting back to Fox News they really have convinced a lot of people to be angry all the time. These same people have nice big houses, cars, and even air conditioning!! You would think they would be happy but no, material things do not create happiness. In the state they are in there will always be one more thing to be unhappy about.

It makes me smile when they say things like “America is trending towards socialism.” It is not that they are being creative using nouns as verbs but rather the fact that they don’t even know what Socialism is. They most likely have never been out of their city and most likely do not hold a passport and even if they could identify where France actually is, they would not realize that it is a Socialist country. They like to put down France a lot. Hell, at one point they even tried to change the name of “French Fries” to “Freedom Fries!!!” LMAO!!

They also do not realize that France was a major factor in helping the USA gain independence from Britain (Sorry Brits!) but instead just put down the country because the other boneheads on their Fox news shows do it. They seriously think that some guys in coonskin hats beat the British army all by themselves. LOLZZZ. Can you believe it!!!! You should!!

But what is really scary is the polarization happening politically now. I’ve actually had people wear “No Obama” T-Shirts and try to get me to debate while I was just walking down the street! Further, we have been having some major splits recently not only between Republicans and Democrats but also between major institutions such as the Catholic Church.

Recently, the Nuns finally put their foot down and told the priests what to do with themselves. As we all know the Nuns are actually the ones that “do the heavy lifting” as we say in business-speak. They run the hospitals, teach the students and make things happen. The priests just sit around and tell people to “have faith” and “it’s a mystery” and stuff like that. I wish the Nuns would have the priests write “I’m a stupid old fart,” 1000 times on a blackboard I swear.

But anywho, what I really miss are the great debates we had. Here, people just recite the same boring talking points they heard on Fox “News” which can get quite ridiculous. This one lady Sara Palin said she could see Russia from her house (she could not) and that we should start another war with Iran. AND PEOPLE BELIEVE HER!!! Heck, they even made her a regular news anchor on Fox!!!

It is not all my countrymen who are crazy, just the ones that listen to the prom queens on Fox News mind you. What really concerns me is even respectable people that were carefree and happy have turned into grumps that complain about everyone having affordable healthcare.

Here in the states they keep complaining about debt which is in fact a problem. One that Bush created with two unfunded wars. Actually, he even increased Medicare which is like healthcare but only for the old people. There were no problems when he did that but now that Obama is trying to get everyone under the umbrella you would think it is Armageddon. So basically when Bush tinkered with healthcare everything was dandy but now that Obama does it people are in a rage.

In fact, the Republicans have a long list of awful things they want to accomplish. To sum it up, the Republican view would be:

1. Go to war with Iran
2. Elect a moron like Sarah Palin who can see Russia from her house.
3. Deny others healthcare except for old people which is ok.
4. Create more pollution by drilling for oil so we can drive bigger cars than we already have.
5. Bitch about debt when it was under Bush’s watch that the surplus went away.
6. Argue about Climate change so eventually everyone can breath in the pollution we know is atrocious in certain cities already. Man, even in the Bay Area you can no longer see to the other side very clearly. Instead, you see a hazy brown outline of the mountains on the other side.

And to add to this nonsense they are into calling everyone “A Great American” and keep saying things like “The American People believe
…” and so on. It is almost like the propaganda we were used to except they treat it as REAL NEWS instead of simple propaganda that people can see through. I’m not sure how long it will be until we find a word just as useful as “comrade,” because “You sir, are a great American,” just takes too long to say. Perhaps they could say “Americanissimo,” but that would perhaps sound too Spanish and that is another can of worms I’ll have to address later.

Anyway, I know we had some troubles living in countries other than our own but I swear it is better than everyone being angry all the time like in the USA. Even just driving your car, the road rage that goes on here in the cities would make your head spin.

And oh yea, I read a debate about if John Kerry got a purple heart or not and again, people got really mad. There of course was no debate about the Gulf of Tonkin not being the North Vietnamese fault or about the millions of people killed there. You see, a certain portion of the population only cares about their own, not what they do to other countries. So they showcase personal stories only about US personnel and how they are coping after war. I have yet to see an equal story about the hardships that were inflicted on people living in the target country. It would seem the media really doesn’t care about all the foreigners they killed and if they do they are all just branded “Terrorists,” or a generic term they created called “Collateral Damage.” To be honest, war is entertainment now and even if things go very wrong the population has a very short term memory.

They simply cannot understand that when a simple villager sees a warplane come to drop a bomb on his village and kill his family that what the villager should recognize is that the plane is really dropping 1000 pounds of FREEDOM on the village. Besides, they are just watching it from their comfortable armchair in their living room and believe that all is just dandy. After all, the plane did not drop 1000lbs of Freedom on their neighborhood so why should they care.

And you know, those kids we saw all deformed from the chemicals, well a certain portion of the population has already forgotten about that and even if they did remember it was all in the cause of Freedom anyway so IT’S ALL GOOD in their opinion. All the devastation caused is barely a flicker of a memory except of course for the adventuresome folks such as yourselves that see it firsthand.

Sorry if I’m getting upset but living back here in America is sometimes very hard on me when I watch the news and see all the spin. It’s not that day to day life is hard, or trying to ignore all the sales pitches, or the reality TV shows which teach people to be degenerate, or the state of politics in which some people believe there will even be another CIVIL WAR due to healthcare. I just really miss the incredible debates we had and all the amazing insight. Instead, I am subjected to a nice dose of hate every single day in the news media from spoiled over-privileged folks that believe just because they were born here and afforded a good education believe they are entitled to everything and everything.
So, thanks for listening and I hope to see you guys sooner than later. I really just needed to vent and it’s impossible to do so here unless I meet another person who has spent time abroad and understands how things really are. Don’t worry about the USA, it’s still a great place to visit, especially San Francisco. But if you see someone with a placard around their neck screaming racist remarks and spitting on you please walk in the other direction. They have just watched too much Fox “News.”