Scenes from an American trainwreck, Coda

And the beat goes on:

• Republicans across the country, from state legislatures to the U.S. Congress, are happy to help turn the rest of America into Detroit--they won't fund public education, they won't fund improvements in our infrastructure, and they won't lift a finger to combat our epidemic of gun violence.
• The republican party's assaults on ordinary Americans have gone beyond the pale--cutting funding for SNAP benefits in an historic economic downturn, spending $50 million trying to repeal Obamacare 40 different times, refusing to pass sensible immigration reforms, restricting voting rights with no basis in facts, restricting a woman's right to choose, and obstructing judicial and cabinet nominations in unprecedented numbers.  They do not have the best interests of anybody other than the 20% of Americans who make up their base, i.e., the Antoinettes.
• Looking for a job?  Don't read this piece--republican attacks on the working men and women of our country have resulted in record corporate profits while wages are falling, the middle class is getting smaller, McJobs are becoming the standard, unemployment is twice what we read, the cost of college is at historic highs, and income inequality is rivaling that of the Roman Empire.  Thanks, Donnie Downer!

And in the end, from the double standards on CEO performance to the Wal-Martization of our workforce, from the Senate's catering to the wealthy to the sequester's effects literally putting our lives at risk, from the republicans' war on ordinary Americans to the futility of our job market, it's all about fairness.

Whether it is economic justice, equality before our laws, or equal access to healthcare, any time a majority of a republic's citizens do not feel they are being treated fairly that republic--and especially a democratic republic--is in serious trouble.

It is my sincerest hope that the trend lines showing America's young people leaning to the left in massive numbers will be enough to eventually offset the inequality that the Reagan Devolution has brought us over the last thirty some odd years.

If not, it's going to make the French Revolution look quaint--the French, after all, were never promised an equal chance for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Peace,
emaycee

Let's get serious

Defense spending in the U.S. currently makes up 40% of the defense spending in the entire world.  The next closest nation to ours is China, which makes up almost 8% of the world's defense spending.  We spend five times as much as our nearest competitor, and nearly as much as the rest of the world combined.  Unless our military is completely incompetent, there is no reason for this discepancy in spending between us and the rest of the world.

If the republicans are indeed serious about cutting spending, then they should be more than willing to slash defense spending significantly.  Cuts of 30-40% would  leave us no weaker in the face of any threat to our national security.  We would still have a tremendous edge in firepower over any potential enemy.

Alas, republicans are not serious about cutting spending.  They're only interested in cutting spending that their moronic base hates or their wealthy benefactors think would make them wealthier.

Most of all, they aren't about to give up their continuous gluttony at the trough of the military-industrial complex.  It's not about austerity--it's about filling their coffers with blood money.

And there's no way we should ask the poor and the middle class to shoulder more of the burden than they already do because of republican psychopathology.

Peace,
emaycee