Draining the Swamp

Sure, Trump is draining the swamp. Right into the White House. Have you bothered to see who he has appointed to head government agencies? People whose mission is to deregulate and to deconstruct the agencies that they head. He surrounds himself with Goldman Sachs' executives, conspiracy theorists, purveyors of fake news, and people who don't like the federal government.

Just last week Trump said, "We're going to be working with Congress on helping out the state of Texas...It's going to be a costly proposition, because, again probably Ted Cruz is here." He refused to put his assets into a blind trust and is raking in money from people who are hoping to buy influence (Mar-A-Lago, Trump Tower, violations of the emoluments clause of The Constitution). He has long been known as Don the Con and regularly screwed employees and stiffed contractors. He has had numerous bankruptcies, including for a casino that he ran into the ground with a billion dollars in debt. Who loses money on a casino??

He lies constantly about easily checked things such as his inaugural crowd. He blamed Democrats for the failure of the ACA repeal even though he never bothered to talk to any of them, and now he is threatening to sabotage it because it's not imploding like he thinks it should. He thinks Climate Change is a hoax and does not understand the difference between climate and weather. He is vindictive, hateful, impetuous, and corrupt. He thinks health insurance works like life insurance, where "by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan." For $12 a year.

He pardoned Arpaio, who was labeled the worst sheriff in the U.S., and who treated presumed innocent people awaiting trial as if they were the scum of the earth. Arpaio's thugs even turned a paraplegic into a quadriplegic in the "punishment chair" because he had the temerity to request a medically necessary catheter. A paraplegic turned quadriplegic who was a guest of Arpaio for one day while he awaited trial for possession of pot. Arpaio, a man who was found guilty and then refused to follow the judge's orders and was thus found in contempt and was awaiting sentencing. A man who apparently shared Trump's disdain for the rule of law and for judges.

Trump is the guy who claimed Hillary didn't have the stamina to be president and then excused his atrocious behavior towards a foreign leader by saying that it was after 5 and he was tired. This is your hero and savior. An ignorant, narcissistic, praise-seeking, delusional, corrupt, threatening, insulting, angry, hateful idiot.

Yeah, go ahead and dismiss criticism of Trump by other world leaders as a deflection. Don't believe the confessions of collusion with Russia by Trump's people. Ignore all of the fact-checking as fake news. Just don't expect us to join you in your delusions. We have seen the truth.

You Call Yourself a Conservative

You don't like government regulations or taxes? Do you call yourself a conservative? So that means you want to eliminate worker protections, discrimination protections, environmental protections, and unemployment benefits. You want bigger banks, bigger tax cuts for the rich (including dropping capital gains taxes to zero), no financial or consumer safeguards, no Pell grants for students, and no minimum wage. You are okay with no heating assistance for the poor, no Head Start for preschoolers, no community block grants, no infrastructure spending bills, no healthcare insurance assistance and insurance protections, no Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid. But you are okay with a budget increase for our ridiculously massive military.

You do not want public libraries or public roads or bridges or dams or well-funded public schools or police or fire departments or national parks. You want a return to child labor, six-and-a-half day work weeks, senior poverty and poorhouses, sawdust in hot dogs, rivers catching fire, workers being fired for not being able to perform their jobs after being injured on those jobs, and wages that are little more than indentured servitude. You want to starve the government of funds so you can have an excuse for eliminating social programs, which means that you are not a fiscal conservative. You want freedom from ethics, oversight, responsibility, justice, fairness, and equality.

All of the above so that you can have your pure capitalist society where the free market is inherently moral and self-correcting and where discrimination is a sacred right. Where being poor is due to laziness and being sick is the result of bad choices and government should not encourage dependency nor deprive people of the self-esteem that comes from earning a living and being individually responsible. Where the wealthy do not give their hard-earned money to the sick and the poor and the lazy, to people who are moochers and less worthy and less moral. Where money making money is valued more than a worker's sweat. Where tax giveaways to the wealthy are called tax relief. Where one in five corporations pay no taxes.

So you can have your utopia where the federal government is kept out of boardrooms and put into bedrooms to enforce your notions of morality. Where you can be kicked off health insurance just when you need it because you didn't disclose that you had acne even though you were asked about your medical history for only the last 10 years. Where treatment for brain cancer is called experimental and treatment is not covered. Where the leading cause of personal bankruptcies is medical bills. Where financial advisors are not required to act in your best interests. Where the Bernie Madoffs of the world are free to steal retirement savings. Where Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco are free to fleece investors and cost consumers billions of dollars. Where commodities brokers can manipulate oil prices and drive up the costs of gasoline. Where laws and regulations and oversight are called job-killing and are eliminated.

So you can have a utopia where poisoning aquifers, clearcutting forests, filling the atmosphere and people's drinking water with lead are all just the price of living in modern times. Where pensions can be sold off and too bad if grandpa's or grandma's retirement income is cut in half. Where vulture capitalists can buy a company, take the cash, sell some assets and then saddle the company with the debt from the purchase of itself. Where billionaires are the job creators, not people who have money in their pockets to buy the things or services that a company sells. Where "Protect and Serve" means shooting people who make you afraid. Where someone carrying Skittles and walking home can legally be shot dead in the name of "stand your ground." Where the mentally ill can purchase machine guns and background checks are violations of constitutional rights, well-regulated militias be damned.

So you can have your country protected from illegal drugs by a border wall that any drone can fly over. A country where a child of two years old can grow up into an adult and be deported to a country they don't remember and where they don't speak the language. A country where a paraplegic awaiting trial for possession of pot can become a quadriplegic by having his neck broken in a "punishment chair" because he insisted on having a catheter so he could urinate and prevent his bladder from rupturing. And where a sheriff awaiting sentencing for proudly violating a court order can be pardoned because he was just "doing his job," as if racism was a legitimate job. A country where parents of a fallen soldier can be publicly and nationally shamed, where protesters against hatred are equated morally with advocates of hatred and perpetrators of deadly violence.

Congratulations. You are a conservative.

Another Attack on Social Security

To Rep. Collin C. Peterson (D-MN7)

Several of your colleagues are attaching a so-called Social Security commission to the routine debt ceiling increase in a blatant attempt to cut our earned benefits.

Social Security is self-funded and by law is separate from the federal budget. Cutting benefits or raising the retirement age does nothing for the federal budget or National Debt; the only change is the date that the Trust Fund zeroes out (2034). Only income up to the salary cap, currently $127,200, is taxed; the wealthy pay a maximum of $15,773 in Social Security payroll taxes on income which is often more than $1 million. Social Security is funded primarily by middle class and poorer workers; for me and many others, Social Security is the only retirement income we will have.

In 2015 you and a handful of other Democrats voted with Republicans to approve the rules which would govern the new Congressional session. Included in those rules was a provision that would prevent a routine reallocation between Social Security's retirement and disability programs unless the House also passed a Social Security "reform" bill.

I don't know what you have against Social Security and I don't care. The arguments against Social Security display an astonishing ignorance of how the program works and who pays for it. I am asking you to cease your hostility and join with those opposing cuts to Social Security. I am asking you to reject H.R. 3423, the Social Security Commission Act of 2017, a measure whose sole purpose is to justify cuts. Do the right thing this time.

Thank you.

Stop Congress from fast-tracking cuts to Social Security