The Country Goes Mad
I haven't been posting lately. It's because I just can't think of anything I could possibly say that could do anything to turn the nation from its race to destruction.
We need two functioning parties to run this country, and one has run so far off the rails that it has turned into a monstrosity. In pursuit of the interests of the rich, it has now descended to the most degraded attacks on the poor and the middle class. In the last couple of weeks, we have had the likes of this:
and this:
"Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all."
Vicious, heartless behavior of a piece with making teachers and firemen the enemies of America, with open race hatred and utterly unapologetic corruption. And we now hear of at least two Republican State governments that are seizing municipalities, voiding their labor contracts and running them as virtual colonies.
In the meantime, the Republican party is consciously, knowingly driving our country into economic ruin:
Sharply lower spending would, in turn, allow for big tax cuts. Those tax cuts would be virtually irreversible, since the amendment calls for a two-thirds vote of both houses to raise taxes."
I thought about making this week’s column that one sentence printed over and over 30 times. It would have been the opinion page equivalent of a Dada-esque protest against the inanity of the debate — and a cry for every news outlet to focus on this simple, clarifying fact.
For the life of me I don’t understand why the press doesn’t shove this fact in front of every Republican who says the debt limit cannot be raised unless serious new spending cuts are put in place. The supposedly “courageous,” “visionary” Paul Ryan plan — which already contains everything Republicans can think of in terms of these spending cuts — would add more debt than we’ve ever seen over a 10-year period in American history. Yet Ryan and other House GOP leaders continue to make outrageous statements to the contrary.
Without blushing. And without anyone calling them on it."
And for this, the mainstream press hails Ryan and the Republicans for their "courage" and "honesty," apparently believing that it is a brave thing to stab helpless people in the back.
Now, another giveaway to the rich looms:
And yet, the "real" issues to the mainstrteam press are whether Obama was born in Kenya, and whether Bill Ayers wrote Obama's biography, and whether Obama is an America-hating Muslim determined to destroy us.
I see no way out of the disaster that looms before us. The Repubican party is taking its chance to end democracy in America, and turn us into a fascist dictatorship. And with the collaboration of the press, they will, I believe, succeed in the next decade or so. This conclusion could not be more obvious, yet anyone who speaks it out loud is written off as a lunatic, while a man like Donald Trump is regarded as presidential material, based on a campaign devoid of a shred of content except racist attacks on the president.
We need two functioning parties to run this country, and one has run so far off the rails that it has turned into a monstrosity. In pursuit of the interests of the rich, it has now descended to the most degraded attacks on the poor and the middle class. In the last couple of weeks, we have had the likes of this:
"Under a new budget proposal from State Sen. Bruce Casswell, children in the state’s foster care system would be allowed to purchase clothing only in used clothing stores."
and this:
"Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all."
Vicious, heartless behavior of a piece with making teachers and firemen the enemies of America, with open race hatred and utterly unapologetic corruption. And we now hear of at least two Republican State governments that are seizing municipalities, voiding their labor contracts and running them as virtual colonies.
In the meantime, the Republican party is consciously, knowingly driving our country into economic ruin:
"...nothing sensible or mature is on the horizon. Republicans have vowed to extract more heedless spending cuts in exchange for their votes to raise the debt limit. To that end, they seem likely to demand changes to the budget process, like a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, or spending caps.
the amendment would hold annual spending to 18 percent of the previous year’s gross domestic product, a formula that works out to about 16.7 percent in the proposal’s early years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That is a level last seen in 1956 — a time before Medicare, before the interstate highways, when many baby boomers were not yet born, never mind aging into retirement.
the amendment would hold annual spending to 18 percent of the previous year’s gross domestic product, a formula that works out to about 16.7 percent in the proposal’s early years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That is a level last seen in 1956 — a time before Medicare, before the interstate highways, when many baby boomers were not yet born, never mind aging into retirement.
Sharply lower spending would, in turn, allow for big tax cuts. Those tax cuts would be virtually irreversible, since the amendment calls for a two-thirds vote of both houses to raise taxes."
"The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt in the next decade yet the GOP is balking at raising the debt limit. The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt in the next decade yet the GOP is balking at raising the debt limit.”
I thought about making this week’s column that one sentence printed over and over 30 times. It would have been the opinion page equivalent of a Dada-esque protest against the inanity of the debate — and a cry for every news outlet to focus on this simple, clarifying fact.
For the life of me I don’t understand why the press doesn’t shove this fact in front of every Republican who says the debt limit cannot be raised unless serious new spending cuts are put in place. The supposedly “courageous,” “visionary” Paul Ryan plan — which already contains everything Republicans can think of in terms of these spending cuts — would add more debt than we’ve ever seen over a 10-year period in American history. Yet Ryan and other House GOP leaders continue to make outrageous statements to the contrary.
Without blushing. And without anyone calling them on it."
And for this, the mainstream press hails Ryan and the Republicans for their "courage" and "honesty," apparently believing that it is a brave thing to stab helpless people in the back.
Now, another giveaway to the rich looms:
"As part of their budget plan passed last week, House Republicans want to cut the corporate tax rate to 25% from 35%. The Obama administration and many Democrats also are looking to slice the current rate...Yet despite complaints that they fork over too much money to Washington, U.S. corporations have been paying an increasingly smaller share of federal taxes over the last half-century. Nearly a third of all federal taxes came from corporations in 1952. Last year, they paid just 8.9%, according to government figures."
And yet, the "real" issues to the mainstrteam press are whether Obama was born in Kenya, and whether Bill Ayers wrote Obama's biography, and whether Obama is an America-hating Muslim determined to destroy us.
I see no way out of the disaster that looms before us. The Repubican party is taking its chance to end democracy in America, and turn us into a fascist dictatorship. And with the collaboration of the press, they will, I believe, succeed in the next decade or so. This conclusion could not be more obvious, yet anyone who speaks it out loud is written off as a lunatic, while a man like Donald Trump is regarded as presidential material, based on a campaign devoid of a shred of content except racist attacks on the president.
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