I haven’t felt good this week, and it feels like the gastroenteritis I periodically pick up at work, and fortunately the test says it’s not COVID. Still, it means three days of lost wages plus doctor’s bills because I am sick. I don’t particularly care for a system that allows your employer to require you to see a doctor but doesn’t require your workplace health insurance to actually cover your doctor’s visits. I lose extra money, on top of the money I lose for not working with no remaining sicks days, as a penalty for foregoing pay because I don’t feel able to work. It’s another one of the hidden taxes on working people. It’s expensive to be poor and/or working class.
Though I took this past Sunday off from streaming, I did some writing over the weekend and some more this week. Over on my Patreon, I went through my weekend tweets and wove some basic ideas together to write a short essay about the occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza. I feel pretty strongly about this and I expressed what I want people to most understand about the situation in Palestine. A 75 year occupation is a provocation, it’s just that simple.
I do have a show coming up next Sunday! Renee Johnston is coming back so we can talk about schooling, about the capitalist demands of schooling and the religious right’s plans for schooling, and about the kinds of ideas the left should have on the topic of education. So join us at 8AM Pacific/11AM Eastern on Sunday 10/22 on my YouTube channel or the show’s Twitter!
Speaking of schooling, did you know that one for-profit corporation supplies most of the material and support for nearly all of the school book fairs in the country? I learned it from a Popular Information article that I hear has gotten mainstream media following the story of how a would be competitor is trying to woo conservative dollars from parents and school boards by accusing the company that dominates the market of being, you guessed it, “woke.” The real Publishing Problem, to me, is that corporations have this kind of power over public education! Please checkout my commentary!
Feel better.