As 2018 comes to an end, I just looked out the window.
For much of America, the sky is green.
We have lived through yet another series of mindless shootings where our friends and neighbors were killed while worshiping, relaxing at a nightclub or simply were gunned down attending school, and our so called leaders tell us that the only way to stop this carnage is to put more guns on the streets, rather than keep them out of the hands of those who mean us harm.
We are told that social security and medicaid are going bankrupt. Rather than solve the problems by returning funds plundered from the social security trust fund or by raising the threshold on social security payments throughout the year so that the super rich pay the same percentage of their income as the rest of us, we are told by those same so called leaders that the only way to save the solvency of social security and medicaid is by cutting the benefits paid to recipients after a lifetime of contributions made under the promise of payments in our golden years.
We are told that there is no right to clean water, clean air, clean energy, all so that a few corporations can make a few more bucks than they already do.
We are also told that there is no right to medical care, but there is a right to go bankrupt if one has the misfortune of getting sick. Do not tell me it is the fault of ones who do not have medical coverage. I know plenty of people who have medical coverage who now owe plenty of money to medical care providers simply because their medical insurance decided not to pay the bills their contract certainly seemed to imply were covered under their policy. Do not tell me this is the fault of the prior administration. The present administration and their enablers in Congress, once again, our so called leaders, have now spent the better part of two years trying desperately to tear down what protections were available under Obamacare without offering anything in its place, but repeated statements that they had a much better plan, a plan they never bothered to let us in on the specifics.
The sky is green.
We are told that trade wars are our best friend and are easy to win. So the price of consumer products go up and our farmers are starving because they now have no market for their crops. And our so called leader's solution is to spend billions of our dollars to bail out the farmers who would not have needed any government largess if not for the decision of our so called leader to impose tariffs unilaterally, not just against our international rivals and competitors, but against our friends as well.
Our so called leaders tell us that they are the party of family values. At the same time, they separate children, including toddlers and infants, from their parents as those parents try to enter this country in search of the same thing our parents and grandparents came here for -- a better life for their family. They separate these innocent children from their parents with no plan on how or where to reunite them in the future. Then they make conditions the children -- and their parents for that matter -- are kept under that are so barbaric that simply calling the conditions barbaric actually manages to soft sell and cheapen the term. And then these so called leaders tell us the families deserved this because they did not come here legally, ignoring the fact that the right to seek asylum has been ingrained in the laws and the very fabric of this country and humanity -- at least until the last year or so.
We are pulling out of alliances that have protected the world from mass conflagration for over seventy years. Our European allies say they can no longer count on us to be the protector of the free world. Our so called leader gets laughed at out loud while speaking at the General Assembly of the United Nations. We make excuses for foreign terrorist countries murdering our own in an embassy. We abandon an entire region just to fulfill a misguided campaign promise. And our so called leaders tell us we have never been respected as much by foreign countries than we are now.
The sky is deep green.
When the stock market goes up, we are told it is entirely his doing. When it then tanks, it is entirely the fault of career bankers and captains of industry who do not understand economics the way he does.
I did not sleep with any of those women. They were all lying. They were not paid for their silence. I did not pay them for their silence. If they were paid off, it was not by me and I knew nothing about it. Well maybe I knew a little about it. Okay, I paid them off, but it was not to influence an election. Besides, it was a private transaction that should be none of anyone else's business.
I will nominate only the best and brightest. Or at least the best and brightest that are willing to kiss my ass, fall on their swords so I don't have to and have the resources to downplay their corruption, their sexual misconduct, their frauds, their illegal and unethical business practices and their morals.
Deep, deep green.
And now we are faced with a shutdown of government functions all to fund a wall that is unnecessary and immoral. Our so called leaders tell us it is better to shut down basic, vital government functions, while forcing the rank and file government workers to show up and work anyway while not getting paid. He publicly states that he will be the one to impose a shutdown and he will be the one to take all the blame. And once the shutdown he singlehandedly started and said he would take on all responsibility for actually commences, he blames everybody else.
I just looked out the window again. We are closing in on the end of 2018 and the beginning of the new year. I am searching for blue in the sky.
I am not sure I will see it.
We have lived through yet another series of mindless shootings where our friends and neighbors were killed while worshiping, relaxing at a nightclub or simply were gunned down attending school, and our so called leaders tell us that the only way to stop this carnage is to put more guns on the streets, rather than keep them out of the hands of those who mean us harm.
We are told that social security and medicaid are going bankrupt. Rather than solve the problems by returning funds plundered from the social security trust fund or by raising the threshold on social security payments throughout the year so that the super rich pay the same percentage of their income as the rest of us, we are told by those same so called leaders that the only way to save the solvency of social security and medicaid is by cutting the benefits paid to recipients after a lifetime of contributions made under the promise of payments in our golden years.
We are told that there is no right to clean water, clean air, clean energy, all so that a few corporations can make a few more bucks than they already do.
We are also told that there is no right to medical care, but there is a right to go bankrupt if one has the misfortune of getting sick. Do not tell me it is the fault of ones who do not have medical coverage. I know plenty of people who have medical coverage who now owe plenty of money to medical care providers simply because their medical insurance decided not to pay the bills their contract certainly seemed to imply were covered under their policy. Do not tell me this is the fault of the prior administration. The present administration and their enablers in Congress, once again, our so called leaders, have now spent the better part of two years trying desperately to tear down what protections were available under Obamacare without offering anything in its place, but repeated statements that they had a much better plan, a plan they never bothered to let us in on the specifics.
The sky is green.
We are told that trade wars are our best friend and are easy to win. So the price of consumer products go up and our farmers are starving because they now have no market for their crops. And our so called leader's solution is to spend billions of our dollars to bail out the farmers who would not have needed any government largess if not for the decision of our so called leader to impose tariffs unilaterally, not just against our international rivals and competitors, but against our friends as well.
Our so called leaders tell us that they are the party of family values. At the same time, they separate children, including toddlers and infants, from their parents as those parents try to enter this country in search of the same thing our parents and grandparents came here for -- a better life for their family. They separate these innocent children from their parents with no plan on how or where to reunite them in the future. Then they make conditions the children -- and their parents for that matter -- are kept under that are so barbaric that simply calling the conditions barbaric actually manages to soft sell and cheapen the term. And then these so called leaders tell us the families deserved this because they did not come here legally, ignoring the fact that the right to seek asylum has been ingrained in the laws and the very fabric of this country and humanity -- at least until the last year or so.
We are pulling out of alliances that have protected the world from mass conflagration for over seventy years. Our European allies say they can no longer count on us to be the protector of the free world. Our so called leader gets laughed at out loud while speaking at the General Assembly of the United Nations. We make excuses for foreign terrorist countries murdering our own in an embassy. We abandon an entire region just to fulfill a misguided campaign promise. And our so called leaders tell us we have never been respected as much by foreign countries than we are now.
The sky is deep green.
When the stock market goes up, we are told it is entirely his doing. When it then tanks, it is entirely the fault of career bankers and captains of industry who do not understand economics the way he does.
I did not sleep with any of those women. They were all lying. They were not paid for their silence. I did not pay them for their silence. If they were paid off, it was not by me and I knew nothing about it. Well maybe I knew a little about it. Okay, I paid them off, but it was not to influence an election. Besides, it was a private transaction that should be none of anyone else's business.
I will nominate only the best and brightest. Or at least the best and brightest that are willing to kiss my ass, fall on their swords so I don't have to and have the resources to downplay their corruption, their sexual misconduct, their frauds, their illegal and unethical business practices and their morals.
Deep, deep green.
And now we are faced with a shutdown of government functions all to fund a wall that is unnecessary and immoral. Our so called leaders tell us it is better to shut down basic, vital government functions, while forcing the rank and file government workers to show up and work anyway while not getting paid. He publicly states that he will be the one to impose a shutdown and he will be the one to take all the blame. And once the shutdown he singlehandedly started and said he would take on all responsibility for actually commences, he blames everybody else.
I just looked out the window again. We are closing in on the end of 2018 and the beginning of the new year. I am searching for blue in the sky.
I am not sure I will see it.
