This entry is long overdue, and I apologize for my absence. It has been a very difficult couple of months, kicking off with the death of my wife's mother and then all the ensuing financial and familial fallout which was involved.
What brings me back? Our President, that's what.
I try normally to keep the politics and religion to a minimum, but sometimes it simply cannot be avoided. President Trumplethinskin decided to hold yet another Nuremberg Rally last night, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the state whose residents he once called "really stupid" and who proved it with their unqualified adoration last night.
The rally was ostensibly in support of the senate's latest attempt to overturn the Affordable Care Act, when it wasn't blatant ego massage. What got me boiling was when Trump stated that the senate could have come up with "the best health care plan in the history of the world" but the Democrats wouldn't vote for it because they are, to an individual, all "obstructionists."
Like so much else that comes out of his mouth, it's horseshit. Utter horseshit.
Here is what he was really doing, plain and simple: There is every possibility that the Senate bill is a terrible bill. As of this writing, nobody has seen it. There have been no open hearings. All we know is that it is being rushed to the floor for a vote with virtually no discussion except those held by a select few behind closed doors. No minority senators, no Democrats, no women senators had a hand in its development. It's a creation of rich, old white guys.
So it's probably going to fail. But the Republicans have been hanging their hats on the promise that the first thing they were going to do when they won was to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. And they can't. Because until and unless America joins the rest of the developed world with a single payer health plan, THERE IS NOTHING BETTER. And that in itself sucks, but that's a whole 'nother essay.
So what the President is doing is what he always does: in anticipation of failure, he is already shifting the blame to the Democrats. When the bill fails, it won't be because it's a lousy bill, it'll be because those damned obstructionists wouldn't know "the best health care plan in the history of the world" if it came up and bit them on the ass.
Please note, he did not say that this actually IS "the best health care plan in the history of the world." He only said that, if it was, "they" still wouldn't vote for it. Why, those bastards! And of course, whatever happens, it won't be the President's fault. I have yet to hear him take responsibility for a single failure, or admit to a single failing, or acknowledge a single mistake. Again, a whole 'nother essay.
For the last six years of his Presidency, Obama got nothing from Congress. I was at a congressional hearing on non-GMO foods at which my sister, a whole-foods TV chef, was to testify. I myself heard two congresspeople discussing the bill off-microphone. One asked the other something to the effect of, "Well, what about this?" To which the other replied, "No, Obama likes it and this guy gets nothing."
"This guy gets nothing."
And Democrats are obstructionist? Please. If there is any element of truth to that, it's because it's all the Democrats got from Republicans for six years. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they don't like it? Tough shit.
The greatest con ever pulled off by the Right was when they managed to convince the average American that they were on their side. On the side of Main Street, of The Little Guy. That they support coal miners and farmers and plumbers and electricians and all the "regular folks" who make up America.
They don't. They never have. They are on the side of the rich. The mine owners, not the miners. Agribusiness, not farmers. CEO's and CFO's, not regular workers. They take away safety regulations that protect these workers; they kill trade deals that benefit them -- ask any farmer how they feel about the loss of the TPP and they'll say how they hate it, and how it hurts them because export tariffs on their goods are 38% when under TPP those tariffs would have dropped to 9%. But how did they vote? Well, Hillary had those damned emails, so....
The Democrats may keep shooting themselves in the foot in elections, but they do not hurt themselves nearly as much as the average voters hurts themselves. I'm talking about the voter who thinks that Republican values are the same as theirs. As long as these voters keep throwing themselves under the bus, we'll keep having leadership that stifles the middle class, keeps the rich richer, the poor poorer (and stupider -- why else do you think they keep cutting education and promoting that charter school bullshit?) And it will be ever harder to sift out the truth, because anything they don't like is "fake" and anybody who calls them on it is a liar. Or an obstructionist. And they will keep throwing bullshit at us, and the majority will keep believing it. Case in point: the "50,000 new jobs" in the coal industry that this administration supposedly created just in the first quarter of their existence.
It's bullshit. It's a lie. It's completely made up.
At most, 1,300 jobs were added to coal. At most. Everything else in that "information" release was complete fabrication. But call them on it, and the media become the liars. Enemies of the people.
He's a shyster, folks. And the people who prop him up are in it for themselves. And someday it will come crashing down around them, and we will all suffer for it. He's a shyster.
Wake up.
What brings me back? Our President, that's what.
I try normally to keep the politics and religion to a minimum, but sometimes it simply cannot be avoided. President Trumplethinskin decided to hold yet another Nuremberg Rally last night, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the state whose residents he once called "really stupid" and who proved it with their unqualified adoration last night.
The rally was ostensibly in support of the senate's latest attempt to overturn the Affordable Care Act, when it wasn't blatant ego massage. What got me boiling was when Trump stated that the senate could have come up with "the best health care plan in the history of the world" but the Democrats wouldn't vote for it because they are, to an individual, all "obstructionists."
Like so much else that comes out of his mouth, it's horseshit. Utter horseshit.
Here is what he was really doing, plain and simple: There is every possibility that the Senate bill is a terrible bill. As of this writing, nobody has seen it. There have been no open hearings. All we know is that it is being rushed to the floor for a vote with virtually no discussion except those held by a select few behind closed doors. No minority senators, no Democrats, no women senators had a hand in its development. It's a creation of rich, old white guys.
So it's probably going to fail. But the Republicans have been hanging their hats on the promise that the first thing they were going to do when they won was to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. And they can't. Because until and unless America joins the rest of the developed world with a single payer health plan, THERE IS NOTHING BETTER. And that in itself sucks, but that's a whole 'nother essay.
So what the President is doing is what he always does: in anticipation of failure, he is already shifting the blame to the Democrats. When the bill fails, it won't be because it's a lousy bill, it'll be because those damned obstructionists wouldn't know "the best health care plan in the history of the world" if it came up and bit them on the ass.
Please note, he did not say that this actually IS "the best health care plan in the history of the world." He only said that, if it was, "they" still wouldn't vote for it. Why, those bastards! And of course, whatever happens, it won't be the President's fault. I have yet to hear him take responsibility for a single failure, or admit to a single failing, or acknowledge a single mistake. Again, a whole 'nother essay.
For the last six years of his Presidency, Obama got nothing from Congress. I was at a congressional hearing on non-GMO foods at which my sister, a whole-foods TV chef, was to testify. I myself heard two congresspeople discussing the bill off-microphone. One asked the other something to the effect of, "Well, what about this?" To which the other replied, "No, Obama likes it and this guy gets nothing."
"This guy gets nothing."
And Democrats are obstructionist? Please. If there is any element of truth to that, it's because it's all the Democrats got from Republicans for six years. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they don't like it? Tough shit.
The greatest con ever pulled off by the Right was when they managed to convince the average American that they were on their side. On the side of Main Street, of The Little Guy. That they support coal miners and farmers and plumbers and electricians and all the "regular folks" who make up America.
They don't. They never have. They are on the side of the rich. The mine owners, not the miners. Agribusiness, not farmers. CEO's and CFO's, not regular workers. They take away safety regulations that protect these workers; they kill trade deals that benefit them -- ask any farmer how they feel about the loss of the TPP and they'll say how they hate it, and how it hurts them because export tariffs on their goods are 38% when under TPP those tariffs would have dropped to 9%. But how did they vote? Well, Hillary had those damned emails, so....
The Democrats may keep shooting themselves in the foot in elections, but they do not hurt themselves nearly as much as the average voters hurts themselves. I'm talking about the voter who thinks that Republican values are the same as theirs. As long as these voters keep throwing themselves under the bus, we'll keep having leadership that stifles the middle class, keeps the rich richer, the poor poorer (and stupider -- why else do you think they keep cutting education and promoting that charter school bullshit?) And it will be ever harder to sift out the truth, because anything they don't like is "fake" and anybody who calls them on it is a liar. Or an obstructionist. And they will keep throwing bullshit at us, and the majority will keep believing it. Case in point: the "50,000 new jobs" in the coal industry that this administration supposedly created just in the first quarter of their existence.
It's bullshit. It's a lie. It's completely made up.
At most, 1,300 jobs were added to coal. At most. Everything else in that "information" release was complete fabrication. But call them on it, and the media become the liars. Enemies of the people.
He's a shyster, folks. And the people who prop him up are in it for themselves. And someday it will come crashing down around them, and we will all suffer for it. He's a shyster.
Wake up.
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