Another Dumpster Fire Week
How many people spent last week in a state of panic over the tax bill and calling representatives and sending ominous text messages to friends and family? Uhg. What if we lived in a world where we didn’t have to exert that kind of energy on a regular basis just to keep representatives from screwing over their constituents?!
The tax bill not only represents a huge redistribution of wealth to corporations and the wealthy, it also brings to light the systematic dismantling of congressional norms. This includes members of the GOP basically becoming a firing squad targeting the official analysis of their bill. When the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) is on the hit list, who’s next?
How is it possible that the GOP is so fractured that they can’t pass a TAX CUT in broad daylight?? Without discrediting independent analysis? You don’t pass a bill that you’re proud of and easily have the votes for in the middle of the night on a Friday. The fact that this thing didn’t pass until 2am on a Saturday morning should give us all pause. It limits the news coverage and public eyes and for smaller bills up against more urgent deadlines that’s one thing… this can’t be how we get major legislation done.
Winners & Losers (hint: we all lost…)
Cut from the bill at the last minute were things like defining life as starting at conception (you know under the totally innocuous desire to open savings plans for unborn children… a crisis raging the nation), and taxing some (but not all) foreign airlines… Why were they pulled? B/c that’s not how you legislate.
Then just yesterday there was a moment where the Freedom Caucus was withholding consent to move to conference on the bill (which thank god is so riddled with mistakes and oversights that it HAS to go to conference and can’t just be voted on by the House) in order to push Congress towards a longer CR on the needed spending bill.
We’re at the brink of government shutdown weeks before Christmas and all because the Republican controlled Senate and House and WHITE HOUSE can’t get their shit together to pass something. And honestly… shut it down. The disruption of government programs and widespread furlough would be terrible, but it would be an albatross in the neck of the GOP they couldn’t escape. The Dems should argue for any number of righteous causes and let the pieces fall where they may.
What it all comes down to, honestly, is that this country doesn’t have leaders… we don’t have a President or Speaker or Majority Leader. What we have are criminals and accomplices.
Bob Mueller continues to be a source of hope in the darkness. What does it say about the state of our country that former aides to the President (his National Security Advisor no less) being indicted can elicit such cheers and joy? Mueller gives us hope that in some ways criminals will be held accountable for their actions. The charge of lying to the FBI is so minor in relation to what we’ve seen evidence of with regards to Flynn that we can’t help but hope he’s cooperating with the investigation and turning over evidence on people further up the food chain. And clearly people are starting to get nervous.
Okay so I… just… well…. This tweet (and the coordinated backpedaling) just reminds me of the Last Week Tonight bit where Donald Trump says something batshit crazy and incriminating and Jon Oliver drops the banner and pops confetti and declares that we got him. It’s a bit b/c it happens SO GODDAMN OFTEN and yet we’re still here folks… we’ll still be here for quite some time.
If Trump knew that Flynn lied to the FBI when he fired him and then proceeded to pressure Comey to let it go, he was willfully obstructing justice. Because he’s a criminal.
While we were all paying attention to the tax bill, Trump started plans to slash national monuments and basically steal national land for corporate interests. During his final days in office, Obama designated Bears Ears a National Monument. The site is considered sacred to many Native American tribes in the area and the National Monument designation protects it by limiting use. Look, it’s big for a monument. I’ll admit that. However, it’s not the largest and it’s covering many individual sites… and Trump’s decision to “free” the area of its national monument status and reopen it for potential development shows a sickening disrespect of Native peoples and their land.
Patagonia is going to the mattresses to protect these lands (so you know not all companies are evil… there is some good in the world).
And because a pedophile is better than a Democrat, the President and the RNC have gone back to fully (cough*financially*cough) supporting Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate Race. Look can’t we all just agree that someone with wide ranging accusations of sexual assault shouldn’t be allowed in the Senate? Can’t we agree that men in their thirties shouldn’t date children? Can’t we agree that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH FUCKING HELL and stop this utter embodiment of moral decay and right-wing hatred from becoming a US Senator? Fingers crossed.
Oh, and the Supreme Court is allowing the latest Travel Ban to go fully into effect while it winds its way through the courts. It looks kinda bad y’all. But you know how I feel about the Travel Ban.
Sooooooo yeah the world is burning. If you’re done shaking off the utter panic of last week and you know general disgust of the daily onslaught of new reports of terrible things the GOP is doing or backing or staying silent on, here are some things you can do:
- Call your representatives and keep fighting this tax bill. 202–224–3121
- Donate to the Doug Jones campaign and sign up to phone bank or text bank or something.
- Ask Congress to vote on the Dream Act before moving forward with a new spending bill. Be ready to SHUT IT DOWN unless we get some sort of concrete action for the thousands of undocumented Americans now twisting in the wind.
- Ask your Rep to slow down these judicial appointees.
- Buy more wine. Idk, y’all I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better so buckle up.
