Day 1190 The Grand Old Party shows its true colors?

Sunday December 29, 2019

315 Days until the 2020 election and 396 days until the Inauguration

I started to title this screed “What happened to the Grand Old Party?” but I realized that was overused and trite. It’s easy to say, “It’s Trump,” but I think it’s more than that. True, Donald has a way of bringing out the worst in people, but has this been what the GOP has been all along and were better at hiding it?

Have they always been racist and capitalist criminals? I use the term capitalist criminal because many of the strategies that some of their richest donors used to become rich, while not illegal are certainly unethical. Perhaps, that’s to light a way to put it. Maybe they are illegal, but it’s hard to get caught. Or maybe it’s illegal, so what? Get over it.

I was reading the Forbes list of the richest people in each state. There’s a guy who heads up a hedge fund that basically extorts companies to do things to give shareholders more money short term, but leaves the company in worse shape than before. Money that one could argue could go to building the company’s infrastructure is instead funneled to shareholders. This was the sort of thing I didn’t like about Mitt Romney. What he did was to take over a company, sell off its assets, re-bundle the stock and shove it off onto someone else. Either that or after stripping the company hand it over to the government as a problem child. He did that with a steel company. His buddy did a similar thing with Dunkin Donuts, leaving Dunkin with a massive amount of debt. It didn’t help the company sell more donuts, but it made him rich. 

My father’s generation, known as the greatest generation, were people that seemed focused on doing a good job, on making things, on accomplishing something. These folk? The Trump’s and the Forbes 400? Many of them are fore flushers and con artists. They aren’t building anything, just ripping off people. How did we come to this?

If you’ve listened to the Republican arguments as to why Trump should be impeached they don’t make sense. I’m not talking about a fallacy of logic. Well, maybe that. I’m talking sentence construction. Basic grammar. I mean to make an argument you have to start with sentences. Grunting, saying random words, doesn’t count. Yet, in some cases that is what they are doing. When they do form sentences it’s usually, “I haven’t seen anything which rises to the level of impeachment.” Okay, then I have to ask, “Have you bee to an eye doctor recently?” I mean, “What’s wrong with your vision?”

You were perfectly happy to have Ken Starr wander around for years looking for something on Bill Clinton. You had how many hearings about Hillary, be it on Benghazi or her emails and yet when you have criminal conduct and flagrant flaunting of the Constitution and Congress you see nothing? 

What happened?

There is a white supremacist in the White House running immigration policy. Every agency in the government seems to be run by a fox guarding its chicken house. The president is willing to take the word of our biggest opponent rather than our intelligence or military community. The president’s attorney and AG and Secretary of State are running around the globe trying to get evidence on things that don’t exist. We look like fools and yet I see ever week people I know cheering Trump on.

The Republican Party used to be pretty good at hiding that it didn’t give a damn about the working person. Now? Now, they are carrying out a campaign against common sense. The scary thing is it’s working. The even scarier thing is that structurally they could hold the Senate for decades and block any progress for the foreseeable future. Trump like to say “the do nothing Democrats.” Yet, the House has passed over 400 bills and the Senate has yet to take up any of them.

It’s not the Democrats who are do nothing. The Republicans have been busy too. In the Senate they have rammed through lots of judges. Many of them unqualified. In fact, the Senate no longer wants the opinion of the American Bar Association. I guess they got tired of hearing that the people they were nominating to lifetime positions were idiots. Meanwhile, clean air and clean water standards are being thrown out the window. Basic safety regulation are also being eliminated. Last week the inspection of pork has been sped up. This is basic stuff. What’s the attitude? “We don’t need it,” I guess.

Measles outbreaks and Mumps outbreaks are happening.Why? We don’t need vaccinations anymore is the argument. Yeah, how many have died due to that stupidity?

Stupidity and a lack of sense – common or otherwise are the order of the day. Trump and the Republicans are leading the charge.

If you support Trump or are a Republican ask yourself this, “When have either Trump or the GOP helped you?”

The Republicans have not put forward a health care bill in over 25 years. That’s not me saying it that’s the former Republican Speaker of the House. How many times do you need to see a graph or chart showing you that from Reagan on the average worker has not had any meaningful raise? 

The only time they have gotten relief is when a Democrat has been in office, but any real relief has always been blocked by Republicans.

And when it comes to spending your money? The champs are the Republicans. They outspend Democrats on a phenomenal scale. Yet, the Republicans keep harping on how wasteful the Dems are. Why not? People stupidly believe it, despite the evidence.

Remember the Republicans have cut taxes, not on you, but on the super rich. They have spent more on programs that don’t benefit you, but are happy to chop away on the ones that might give you a leg up. Pre-existing conditions? Yeah, don’t need that. It only affects 130,000,000 Americans – vote for them. Vote for your own poverty! Helping people who are starving? Screw that. If you don’t give them food it will incentivize them to find a job. Oh, they have a job, but it doesn’t pay the rent because the basic ratio of how long you have to work to pay rent has changed drastically? Too bad. Lazy.

Meanwhile, I read about hedge fund managers who are in the business of blackmail. I’m sorry, when Carl Icahn was doing it they called it Greenmail. Did you know the IRS has a separate form for Greenmail? (Form 8725 in which they define the term “Greenmail” and tax it.) See, it’s okay to hold up a company as long as the IRS gets its due. 

This is the “it’s not illegal” argument. I’ve recently seen memes that point out just because it’s legal doesn’t make it’s moral.

I guess that’s the point. As long as it’s not illegal it’s okay to do. Trump has taken that to a new shocking level. Not only does he commit illegal and immoral acts, it is reported that he has no shame. He could care less if something is illegal, immoral, and doesn’t carry if it’s shameful. The only question in his mind seems to be, “Will I get caught?” and if so “Can I get out of it?”

Welcome to the land of Donald Trump and the real Republican Party.

Now to important stuff – football.

If you didn’t watch the two college games yesterday you missed two phenomenal performances.

In the first game LSU scored seven touchdowns – in the first half. Their quarterback, the Heisman winner, showed why he deserved to win it. He completed passes that were crazy, and he did it over and over again. Not that Oklahoma was a slouch team, but they couldn’t compete.

In the next game Clemson’s quarterback experienced something he had never experienced before, being behind in a game. Clemson showed in its last drive, and final defensive stance, why they are National Champions. This sets up one of the most interesting championship games of all time. The phenomenal Heisman Trophy winner against a player that has never lost a game. My son went to Clemson. Therefore, I’m rooting for Clemson, but LSU? Wow. I have no prediction.

315 Days until the 2020 election and 396 days until the Inauguration

PS The old Cairo Museum