Rachel Maddow Tries to Shame the Shameless

That last tweet asking what will be enough really got to me. I’ve been mentioning here and elsewhere lately how fucking SPOILED so much of this country has become. Yes, inflation sucks and having been forced into early retirement on disability and now being in my mid sixties with a fixed income substantially less than I’d thought would be the case it stings.

But I also know, because I was taught in school and heard firsthand from so many (not just my own relatives) who lived through it what virtually all Americans (not just the ones in uniform and deployed around the world) endured during WWII. Just as the country was emerging from the Great Depression we found ourselves at war with Fascism that threatened to take over the entire world. At home, every citizen endured shortages due to rationing of all manner of items. When I say everyone I mean even infants – baby formula was among the things rationed! Not just gas, rubber, leather, wool and other materials, but foodstuffs too like coffee, sugar, flour, veggies, meat. Yet people in this country did their part. And more. People from adults to kids went around gathering up metal, rubber, glass and other things to be recycled. Despite financial hardships they scrimped and bought War Bonds too!

Compare that to the America of the past three or four decades, and especially now. Suckers believe conservative bullshit about supply side tax cuts, and about how cutting ever more regulations will “free up” the “job creators” and the average person’s life will improve. I wonder how many women (and men in their lives too) feel after Dobbs? Their fucking tax cuts and b.s promises about no regulation and getting rid of unions was more important to them than SCOTUS. They will really freak when prescription birth control gets axed by SCOTUS! And now? Inflation is the big deal. The GOP is hammering it, and Americans are swallowing the bait hook, line and sinker!

In WWII everyone was in it together. Even FDR’s sons, like other VIPs was in uniforms. Hell, one of FDR’s sons was a Marine Raider (a forerunner of spec ops) in the Pacific! The sons of powerful people died in that war. Few people were willing to try pulling strings back then. And, as I said people back here on home soil, even freaking CHILDREN pitched in however they could!

Compare that to Bush’s war of choice in the middle east. Well under two percent of the U.S. has served in uniform or is the family member of someone who has. The burdens of a twenty year war were borne by a handful. Bush wouldn’t even allow a tax increase (and the GOP fought Obama doing so) to pay the enormous costs of that war. THAT is how fucking spoiled this country has become.

If I were a person of faith I’d be praying that Murfster, Michael Moore and others are correct and that there will be some big and GOOD surprises next week. But I look at the weak, whiny, “let someone else deal with it” (i.e. having Ukraine deal with Russia on our and other’s behalf) we’ve become and I worry.

I have a laminated picture from the Mt. Airy paper of my grandparents with a story about how their 4 sons & oldest daughter’s husband were serving during WW2. I knew them all. Not one of them ever talked about the war. In my lifetime I’ve seen what I thought I’d never see…75 million of the American public, not only accepting lies, but the WORST actions by a president EVER IN OUR HISTORY. He’s killed over a million with covid, tried to destroy NATO, and stood WITH OUR ENEMIES OVER OUR OWN TROOPS. Then he organized & led a violent attempt TO OVERTHROW OUR GODDAMN DEMOCRACY!!!!! AND HES STILL FREE TO SPREAD HIS LIES. Either we stop them with the vote or we will be challenged to stop fascism in our very streets.

I’m sitting here thinking I need to say something about this but what can you say. Are we one election away from a third world country. Under trump they already had a fence around the White House. We thought if we elect Joe Biden we will cure this. To some extent we did. But although Biden has brought Ann economy that we haven’t seen in fifty years you have companies price gouging Americans. The gas companies are deliberately inflating the prices because trump isn’t in office. And when Joe says we should tax them on their windfall profits some nerd says this would blow up the economy. My answer is to tell him to shut up and tell the gas companies we will come after your I’ll gotten gains unless you knock it off. Trump is a criminal. These companies liked him for one reason. He ended many regulations that were put there to try to save our dam planet. In another fifty years and probably less. You won’t be able to walk outside without a gas mask. We will be growing food in buildings because it’s too toxic outside. But big business will have made a profit. And they will have transitioned over to growing food instead of making gas because no one has a car anymore. You will only see cars in museums. Got your gas mask yet. Good luck in a toxic America 🇺🇸!