How low can they go?
Words fail. But I’m going to try to put some down anyway.
If Jesus were to show up in Washington DC today he would think he’d landed in Hell.
The world of Donald Trump—including but not limited to the zombified GOP Senate, House, and Supreme Court, Steven Miller, Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Tom Homan—is the absolute opposite of all I’ve ever been taught about being a decent human being: loving your neighbor as yourself (or at least respecting their right to be themselves), and making the world a better place.
In Trumpworld, cruelty is the point: vengeance is sweet; brown immigrants are vermin; masked ICE thugs are doing god’s work; a burning planet won’t matter because we’ll move to Mars; health care is only for the well off; vaccines are dangerous; science is too woke; self-dealing* corruption is expected; billionaires deserve big tax breaks (it’s expensive to maintain mega yachts, private jets, palatial mansions); women’s bodies should be buxom, corseted and state-controlled; diversity is a dirty word; inclusion is only for straight white men; and diplomacy is for wimps.
The Butt-Ugly Bill that passed the Senate yesterday morning has been excoriated by non-partisan experts as the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the nation—from poor and working families to the very wealthiest. The GOP has long pretended to be deficit hawks, but the BUB raises it by a gob-smacking $3.3 trillion.
Trump promised no cuts to Medicaid (and STILL proclaims there are none!), but the BUB cuts about $1 trillion over the next ten years, throwing 11.8 million Americans off health care—your elderly mother, your disabled son, your impoverished neighbor and maybe you! Expect 330 rural hospitals to close. The states cannot afford to pick up the costs, so expect your state taxes to to rise. EXCEPT—the cynical creeps don’t begin the Medicaid cuts till AFTER the mid-terms, by which time they hope voters will have forgotten the steam-roller coming down the pike.
An obscene immigration budget
Spending on this national purge of brown vermin increases to a total of $151.2 billion. About $45 billion is earmarked for expanding the immigration detention network, more than ten times the current funding level of $3.4 billion. Another $45 billion will go to building Trump’s fantasy border wall. $31 billion for immigration enforcement — hiring, training, transportation, etc. Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection get $12 billion each. $6.2 billion for border surveillance technology.
Evil and obscene: “Alligator Alcatraz”—DeSantis’s gleeful pride (Look what I made for you Daddy!) as he showed off a long row of barrack-like tents with cages inside to detain 3,000 immigrants like they’re wild animals—surrounded by barren fields and an alligator-infested watery moat to gloat about. “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison,” Trump said. If you can’t see that this administration is sick and evil, there is something seriously wrong with you. He must be stopped. This is Nazi shit.
But wait, there’s more.
Serious cuts to funding for solar, wind, and other clean energy programs in favor of fossil fuels… because fuck Democrats and their climate bullshit. It’s not hot, the ice sheets and glaciers aren’t melting, the oceans aren’t heating, the forests aren’t burning. Who ya gonna believe? Me or your lyin’ eyes?
Defunding Planned Parenthood through some very devious means, even though Medicaid money never funded abortion, and Planned Parenthood is for many women their sole reproductive health care provider. This will be a major blow to abortion providers in every state.
Freeing AI from regulation… what could possibly go wrong?
940 pages more of details that boggle the mind… a summary here. And Trump himself IS AWARE THAT THE BILL IS UNPOPULAR! You would think he’d be out there high-fiving his VP and GOP leaders, the way presidents who pass major legislation usually do. But no… not a mention of it. Instead he’s distracting everyone with his Alligator Alcatraz!
And I can’t even bring myself to discuss the latest SCOTUS decisions…
(Mural in downtown Portland. “The Struggle Continues.” Yes Ruth, it does.
It is all hands on deck to inundate your representatives
The bill is now in the hands of the House. Call, email, call and call again. Use this amazingly detailed Google spreadsheet listing ALL your reps, their emails, phone numbers, committees, when they’re up for re-election. WOW!
Why restrict yourself to your home state? Pretend you’re from a red state and call those folks especially.
* I love the smell of grift in the morning. Trump has just added a new perfume to an ever-expanding list of merchandise branded with his name and likeness, which now includes a cellphone, high-top and low-top sneakers, diamond-encrusted watches, guitars with “Make America Great Again” emblazoned across the necks and digital trading cards featuring him in an array of theatrically heroic poses, sometimes in superhero costume.
Put yourself in the way of beauty
Even when, and maybe especially when all seems so dark… Here are two views of a cotinus (smokebush) complete with “smoke” and the delicate coloring of new growth.
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Hey, thanks for reading all the way to the end. You are a trooper. We’re in this together. Joy
What has happened to "Christians?" Does anyone walk the walk anymore? Those people out there filling the churches and supporting the Felon are the antithesis of the teachings in the New Testament. We don't have to worry about Satan infiltrating our hearts. We have all those people doing it for him. Shame.
Deeply appreciate your encapsulation of the dire world we live in. Last night I was rewatching the movie The Gathering Storm with Vanessa Redgrave and Albert Finney on the years from 1933 to the start of WWII. Winston Churchill was the single voice warning against Hitler's ghastly plans to take over the world. One can draw many similarities between the two, however, the timing and ultimate reckoning of Trump's worldview may shut down sooner, hopefully, but only if the people vote in mid-term elections. Even if that succeeds, we still have three more years to deal with his narcissism. The fall-out from this past 6 months(!), much less what we might have yet to recover from in the next three years is unconscionable.