Alice in Wonderland

I'm really beginning to feel the way that Lewis Carroll's delightful young heroine felt after she slipped down the hole -- or how Dorothy felt after her house landed in a far, faraway place. My first thought every time I turn on the news is, "what the hell is going on here?"

I'll start with the unbelievable battle against labor the Republicans are waging right now. If I understand the Republican position correctly, getting rid of unions will both add great jobs and empower the average American worker. Could this be true? If so, how do we explain the economic prosperity that the country enjoyed when unions were at their strongest? And how do we explain the repeated recessions we've seen since Reagan and his acolytes decided that unions were the worst thing to ever happen to America? And more importantly, where are the jobs?

Here's what really gets me, that it seems that nobody is seeing. The anti-union fight corresponds EXACTLY with the anti-immigrant fight. You see, if you get rid of the unions, then those folks who want jobs will be forced into lower paying work, which of course benefits our corporate overlords. If they can't get those jobs, then who is to blame? Is it the aforementioned corporate overlords who will do anything in order to increase profits? Of course not -- it's the fault of the immigrants, damn it! If they weren't here to do those crappy jobs like cleaning toilets, then the rest of us would be forced to and the corporate overlords would then be able to increase their profits while keeping the rest of us in our place giving thanks to them for our crappy little paychecks.

Now let's talk about something that really doesn't get discussed much -- net neutrality. This is absolutely mind-boggling. You see, according to the Republicans and their corporate overlords, making sure that everyone has access to the internet, both to read and to create, actually HURTS all of us -- in fact, internet freedom is actually internet censorship! Again, it seems like I've gone straight down that rabbithole. Down is up, left is right, north is south, etc... Apparently giving corporations the ability to censor what you can read by way of raising prices, restricting access, etc.,  is actually protecting freedom of speech. I suppose that's true -- if you consider the idea of freedom of speech being "I speak, you listen, and don't you forget it."

So getting rid of the process designed to help workers actually helps workers. Getting rid of things that protect freedom of speech actually helps freedom of speech. Next thing I know, they'll be saying that getting rid of food actually helps make sure that all nutrition needs are met.....