Those Poor, Unappreciated, Needy Billionaires

Why do some billionaires, who have self-evidently benefited from our system to an extreme, want to destroy our system?

This is a puzzling question, to me at least.

Take the Koch brothers (please).

They are each worth upward of 50 billion dollars. Think about that for a second. 50 billion is 50 thousand million. If they never made another penny, they could each spend a million dollars a day for 137 years.

They achieved some of this wealth from inheritance, of course, but the vast majority of it they have "earned" under our system of government, including our economic system, and our taxation system.

Unfortunately, 50 billion apiece just isn't enough. In some way they still feel cheated. Poor things. They think they are overtaxed and over regulated, and that they would've done much better in the imaginary, libertarian, no-holds-barred, free market paradise that they dream of. 

So they've decided to buy up every politician they can to make sure that in the future they get a "fair" shake.

Perhaps by doing away with pesky things like clean air and water laws, OSHA, the EPA, unions, the minimum wage, and estate taxes.

Of course, contrary to 37 years of Republican economic policy, the more that flows to the top .1% the less there is for everyone else.

What pleasure do they, and their ilk, get from taking things away from poorer people? It must be intense, perhaps even sexual in nature.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

The coal industry is a dying industry for a variety of reasons.

If you live in West Virginia or Kentucky or Pennsylvania and you were hoping to work the rest of your life in the coal mines and then retire with that nagging cough to Arizona or Florida, well...

The world changes.

If you thought that voting for Der Trump would stop it from changing, well...

Now, if you had voted with your brains instead of your hatred (and your dicks), you might have elected someone who would push for a massive retraining program and new, good paying jobs in a green energy economy. And made sure you had an adequate safety net, including healthcare, regardless of employment.

But you didn't, so...lotsa luck!

Of course, you still could all become successful entrepreneurs....

HA HA HA HA HA!

We Regulate Businesses Because Some Businessmen Are Crooked As A Dog's Hind Leg

I love it when the bought and paid for conservative politicians (of both parties) start whining about "onerous government regulations" stifling business.

If only we could unleash the might of the free market and pure capitalism, everything would be perfect!

The primary reason we have these regulations is because at some point, some upstanding business man, usually a pillar of the community, and quite probably a life long Republican, decided to see how much he could fuck over the populace.

Whether by poisoning the air, water, or food supply, or screwing over his workers, or cutting corners on safety, or any one of a seemingly endless number of shortcuts to save himself a buck, all while potentially harming the rest of us.

Now, the conservative/libertarian argument against regulation is that, if you hurt and/or kill enough people, eventually you'll be forced out of business by the "self-correcting" marketplace..............

Eventually.

That is just about the stupidest argument I can think of. A clever child wouldn't make that argument.

And yet we have allegedly "serious" politicians who do just that.

Madness, I tells ya. Shear madness.

Keep 'Em Poor And Stupid... And Desperate

That my friends, is the entire economic policy of your Republican Party.

A) Let's do away with the minimum wage.

B) Let's get rid of OSHA, the EPA, the FDA, and all those pesky regulations.

C) Let's shred the safety net.

D) Let's destroy the unions.

E) Let's gut public education.

F) Let's privatize Social Security.

G) All of the above.

We need lots of uneducated, desperate people, willing to work for anything, and in any conditions.

That's what our bosses want, and that's what we're going to give them!

Oh, and God Bless America!

What Year Is It?

Ron Paul, who is from Texas, which, when you get right down to it, accounts for most of what he says, doesn't think much of FEMA. In fact, he'd prefer us to do things the way they did them in "1900". Folks helpin' folks on a local level--without the dadgum gubmint interfering. (At this point, feel free to spit some tobacco "juice" and hitch up your pants.)

So, when the hurricane, or tornado, or earthquake flattens your town, don't come crying to Ron Paul. Just bend over, grab your bootstraps, and pull. If that doesn't work, tough. You don't need no Federal aid--you just need to pull harder!

You see, this is what we're up against. There are people, not as many as Fox News wants you to think, but definitely enough to screw things up for the rest of us, who want to turn back the clock 100 years or more, to what they imagine, in their tiny little brains, was a "better" America.

Admit it, things were so much better before child labor laws, when you could work those little suckers until they dropped. When women could not vote, black people dare not vote, and homosexuals didn't even exist, except in European novels. Before all those pesky, intrusive Federal regulations that keep our food and water and air (reasonably) clean. Before the 40 hour week and OSHA, before unemployment insurance, before universal elementary education and Social Security and Medicare and all those other "socialist" ideas that have destroyed the Eden that once was.

You know, being nostalgic for the "golden age" that people like Ron Paul hold so dear is like being nostalgic for a cholera epidemic.