I live in the Central US, in a region that really is sot of propped up by federal spending. I have family & neighbors who will be wrecked directly (as entitlement recipients) or indirectly (as healthcare workers) by the final end of the Great Society.
At least one factory in my hometown has a history of poisoning groundwater that people drank from. I don’t know, there may not even be an EPA in two years. And the state government is apparently run by the–i’ll call them the TEA Party, I suppose; they don’t deserve to be called Republicans nor conservatives–too.
My Congressman doesn’t even live within 50 miles of my hometown.
But I guess things are OK on Manhattan Island. Probably lots of opportunities you take for granted that people out here never see.
I wonder if the rabid “repeal Obamacare/destroy the safety net” congressmen think about all the jobs that will be lost when social service organizations lose funding through drastic Medicaid cuts. I worked for decades raising private funds for social service and medical programs for the poor. It’s a sector employing thousands of people.
As a preview, the evil Republican legislature in Texas is planning to defund all Planned Parenthood programs-- mammograms, std testing, birth control. So women won’t be able to get those services, but employees won’t be needed to dispense them either, will they? A friend runs an agency on the east coast that works with the indigent mentally ill. She says if Medicaid is drastically cut, they’ll have to close. There isn’t enough private funding to pick up the slack.
Are the Mitch McConnells and Paul Ryans of the world even capable of looking at the big picture? I know Trump isn’t. And do any of them care? That’s easy: no. On principle
Trump promised to release his tax returns once the audit was completed. Surely, the audit for his recent returns will end during the course of the next four years, so is anyone going to press him to release these?
If he’s always scamming, then he’s always getting audited. He can postpone the day of reckoning as long as he wants to by simply doing what he always does.
This sort of doublethink is not good for mental health: Trump may end up with only the Marine band NOT because he’s a Norm-Smashing Hero, but because he can’t get any entertainers to play for him even by offering ambassador posts to any talent bookers who could come through with willing entertainers.
Pretending he didn’t actually want such entertainers–pretending he’ll end up without any due to a high-minded desire to Smash Norms–is to break your brain.
Yes, well, that is one region of the country that voted Trump in. When the Republicans’ policies finally kick them squarely in the nuts, will they recognize what is happening? Even a little? Or, led by the right-wing propaganda that passes for thought in these kinds of places, will they find a way to delude themselves into believing it is those evil libruls ruining everything?
Doublethink? I don’t care why there won’t be any entertainment. I also think Trump ran a despicable campaign, and I support anyone who doesn’t want to participate in the inauguration. And, yes, I think it is stupid to have entertainers performing there in the first place, and I hope the absence becomes a tradition. I’m sorry for any negative mental health issues this may cause.