The Exceptions To American Exceptionalism

We are the richest country on the face of the earth.

We always have plenty of money for new whizbang arms systems. Tanks, planes, carriers, missiles--everything the military wants, everything the defense contractors can come up with, we can't get enough of it. Just tell us how much and it's a done deal.

We always have plenty of money to fight seemingly endless wars all across the globe. Our troops have the best equipment and plenty of it.

We always have plenty of money to bail out failing banks or Wall Street institutions. All they have to do is fuck up badly, and then cry for help, and voila! Their money worries are over.

We have so much money, we can give great big tax cuts to the richest Americans and let most of our largest corporations get away with paying little or no taxes at all.

But when it comes to helping regular people, that's where we make an exception to American Exceptionalism.

Universal health care? Sorry, can't afford it.

Concerted effort to fight climate change? Sorry, can't afford it.

Free, or at least cheaper public colleges? Sorry, can't afford it.

House our homeless? Feed our hungry? Sorry, can't afford it.

Strengthen the "safety net"? Sorry, can't afford it.

Retrain those who lose their jobs to technology? Sorry, can't afford it.

Clean green economy? Sorry, can't afford it

High speed rail? Sorry, can't afford it.

Paid maternity leave? Sorry, can't afford it.

Universal pre-K and after school programs? Sorry, can't afford it.

Progressive taxes on billionaires? Wall Street transaction tax? Sorry, can't afford it.

I guess it's these "exceptions" that make us so exceptional.

American Capitalism Explained

Capital will always search out the cheapest labor. That labor may be in the next state over, or in an entirely different country. Healthy competition makes us stronger. Therefore, a mandated minimum wage should be eliminated.

Making laborers compete to see just how little pay they are willing to work for keeps businesses lean and competitive.

Mandatory minimum wages make workers soft. As does government subsidized universal health care and a sufficiently large safety net. Soft, coddled workers are a drag on our free market.

Businesses must be allowed to exploit workers. Workers, after all, are a disposable commodity.

Therefore, because of this "disposability", shareholders are much more important than workers.

Everything must be done to maximize shareholder value.

Businesses must be allowed to pollute the air and water. Any kind of regulation is just a step toward socialism. This includes safety regulations.

Ridiculously large bonuses for management are essential to keep "good" people.

Remember, corporations are people, too.

If you fail--that's your problem. If a bank fails--that's your problem, too.

So banks must be saved at all costs.

While you, after all, are disposable.

What Did You Expect?

So Bill Barr's Department of Justice is dropping all charges against Michael Flynn...

Is anyone surprised by this?

If you are, you need to remember one thing: Bill Barr has always been a Republican hack.

And if the truth is ever allowed to come out about Flynn, and Manafort, and Stone, and McConnell, and the Trump family and their Russian buddies, that would be the end of the Republican Party.

Bill Barr has fought his entire adult life to protect the simmering cesspool that is the modern Republican Party.

That, and a brutally medieval interpretation of Catholicism, are the foundation of what passes for his belief system.

Deep down, Barr is probably as repelled by Trump as anyone else with a semi-sentient brain. But that's not the point.

The point is that his party is imperiled, and he will do anything, tell any lie, break any law, shit on the Constitution, to preserve it.