Once again, I am really, really angry at our President and all the people who blindly go along with him, ignoring the havoc he is causing and the pain he is inflicting.
All I can do is one thing, and that is to vote. And, I will vote, not for him - he’s not running in November, of course, and won’t worry about the consequences of his actions until a new Congress comes into office - but against any Republican who is running for any office on the ballot (yes, judges included) who does not speak out against the horrors of the past two years.
I have lots of good reasons for feeling this way. Personal and not-so-personal.
The first was that I recently watched my four year old grandson overnight. Now, he is a nice boy, polite and usually really happy to play in our house, run around and play with the dogs and cats, and eat whatever he wants, then go to bed after I read him a little more of Lord Of The Rings.
But, not this time. This time he missed his mother and father, and he cried. Tears came down his face. He sobbed, and finally fell asleep. Yes, he called his mommy, and she reassured him they would be back in the morning. And, they were. And he was happy again.
Not like the three and four year olds who are being held by our government and will likely never see them again. They are some of the hundreds of children who - while we could take them away quickly enough - don’t seem to have any way of returning them.
And, no matter how much we talk about it, those children will keep crying every day. Until they grow up. Now, some of them are likely to have a really bleak future - go find some expert who will tell you that being locked away during your formative years is a good thing for your child. For those defending Donald Trump’s administration, have your grandson or granddaughter declared a Person In Need of Supervision and have them locked away for a few years. Hey, it would be just like summer camp, and doubtless will improve their character.
Then, when they are eight or nine, they can get out and go to school. Bet they will be reading at, or maybe even above, grade level.
Why else? Well, my daughter’s health insurance is going up again. Remember the promise that the Affordable Care Act would be replaced with better insurance that would cost less? Well, add another $100 a week or so to the cost. Wait, that’s $5,000 or so going out of my pocket, not coming in. Even a dolt knows the difference between spending money and making money. Unless, you know, they are wearing a MAGA hat.
They, I guess, won’t learn the difference until next year, when Social Security befits get cut. You know, to pay for the big tax cut the Republicans gave America. At least, the ones whose retirement pay went up about $200,000.
Now we are facing a trillion dollar federal deficit this year, about the same amount as the tax break we gave to the whole country. But, not evenly. Households earning $1 million or more got a tax cut of $69,000, or about 3.3 percent. Families making between $50,000 and $75,000 got a tax cut of $870, or about 1.6 percent.
Want another reason? Potholes. The roads in my neighborhood are getting full of potholes, and there isn’t enough money to repair them. After all, as our state aid started drying up because federal revenue was being cut, the money the state gave to the counties started drying up. And the money the counties passed on to the towns started drying up, too.
Other reasons? Schools. Growing hatred of races and religions and nationalities. Fear. School shootings. And Trump’s seemingly endless rallies, all of them broadcast as if they were something new. Good grief, we are treated several times a week with the same applause lines, the same jokes, and even (it seems) the same women carrying the nicely printed “Women for Trump” signs. I guess the one black guy with the “Blacks for Trump” T-shirt stopped coming, or maybe they wouldn’t let him in.
Now, as one of our fearless Republican Senators said recently, none of this is new. We already knew it all. And, yes, we did.
That’s another reason to be angry.
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