I'M GONNA ENJOY THIS MOMENT

     When is the last time you can remember a display of Republican magnanimity? You Trumpies out there, I hope you know the definition. It will make me happy to think of you Googling it. I have lived more than 70 years and would have to go back to President Eisenhauer to remember the tiniest example of Republicans providing help to blue-collar workers and small businesses. In more recent years, Republicans in Congress have been good at lip service, while failing at application. At no time since the dawn of the twentieth century has a Republican president or a republican dominated congress succeeded in helping Americans who are not from the investor class. But at least they made the appearance of concern. Since the Tea-party movement, all appearances of concern for the downtrodden have disappeared. Their proclamations of concern extend only to the corporate funders, the rightwing think-tank,  and the Wall-street bankers. To be fair, President Obama's bailout of Wall-street was a slap at the beleagured mortgage-holders, but at least that came with concessions for stress-tests in banking, or concessions from auto manufacturers who needed bailed out. 
     Donald Trump is the ascension of Republican cruelty and stupidity. He gives comfort to racists, xenophobes, and market manipulators. His Attorney General, William Barr, has put up justice roadblocks to investigations of Trumps family and friends. He has halted prosecution of Russians who were indicted for meddling in the 2016 election. The justices on lower courts, beholden to Trump and a Republican majority in the Senate, have assisted in blocking any investigation of Trumps finances. Every one of Trumps cabinet members has suspicious backgrounds. 
   Excuse me if I don't find this puny example of Republican magnanimity admirable. We have known that we needed a national healthcare reform for a century, you people called it Socialism. Even while allowing Big Pharma to increase the costs of essential medicines far beyond cost appreciation. We have known since the Great Depression that pumping stimulus to the most oppressed in the economy created the greatest middle-class in the world, that those people made the wealthy even wealthier, that those people standing in food lines in 1932 were healthy enough to defeat fascism a decade later. But that too, is socialism. The solution to every problem, according to Republicans, is lower taxes, while cutting benefits to workers, the aged, and especially people of color. Those tax-breaks reduce federal income from people who will never feel the burden of taxation, while failing to reduce the cost of living for those who live pay-check to pay-check. No one seems to recognize that subsidies to wealthy plutocrats and the top 15 of the Fortune 500, is socialism for the rich. Capitalism has become a threat to democracy. All because the cruel and stupid have captured the party.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PINKY: IN MEMORIAM

    On 2:53 AM, March 24, 2022, Pinky Conklin was relieved of the chronic pain that had bedeviled her most of her life. She was 79 years old. I was only with her a few short years, 3 of them where she was reasonably ambulatory, but we had some fun together. When we started our relationship she was living with one of her sons and his wife in Prineville, Oregon. She was 8 blocks from a senior center, but had no public transport to get her there and she walked unstably with a cane. I thought she could get better treatment in Portland, she was trying to get hip replacement, but I lived on my little 27' Bayliner cruiser. I was living the dream I had held in my mind for some four decades. I did not think she could handle the rigors of marina life, but my purchase of the boat, and the necessary costs of maintaining a boat were taxing my resources.       For a while she was able to live with a relative in Tigard. We joined the Tigard Senior Center and she had peopl...
Read more

FOUR RAZORS THAT EVERYBODY NEEDS.

     There are certain people who, without thinking very hard themselves, think they know enough to lecture the rest of us. Many of those people can be found in the party that believes there is something bad about being woke. This is where someone from that other party defensively exclaims, "but they're all the same". They are not all the same. Some things are pretty obvious. Finding higher-level intelligence can be found from most Democrats in leadership positions, from Joe Biden-who stutters, is old and moves a little slower these days, but still possesses the wit to put Republicans in their place anywhere he happens to be speaking. To Jamie Raskin, Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Occasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, Joe Nagouse, and many many of the current 213 members of the House of representatives, and the 51 members of the Senate. I seriously doubt that any single member of the Republican Caucus in either chamber can match the  mental acuity of the least member of the D...
Read more

MY EX'S DOG LOVES ME

     My ex's dog likes me. An extreme like. Aww hell, call it love. When I drive up to their driveway, Wilbur is waiting, anxious for the  backdoor to open. When he is released he rushes my car, his hind parts moving rapidly from side to side. I'm a cat person. When we were married we had cats and a dog, all rescues. When we split up, I went petless for many years. Pinkie, my girlfriend who passed on a few years ago, wanted a cat. We were sharing a cabin cruiser on the Willamette River. The cat, Gracie, became all mine when Pinky went into assisted living and later hospice care. Gracie had gravitated to me anyway. Animals don't feel obliged to be what we want them to be.        I don't think it's possible not to love a dog or cat. Being a pet parent requires certain responsibilities congruent with the temperment of the animal. Dogs need to run, cats need to roam and climb. There are some people who shouldn't have a pet. Most importantly when ...
Read more