Confusion And Illusion

If you have read many of my posts you know I have been distraught over the incredibly poor decisions the voters have been making as a result of an ignorance I have described as willful. Now I am forced to admit that even if you are paying very close attention the constant distractions and illusions of Republicana and Trumpsterism are confusing.

Draining the swamp. Why would Trump want to drain the swamp? Because he says the entrenched politicians and bureaucrats dwelling there are not representing the people. Who are they representing? The special interests. By special interests does Trump mean the multinational corporations, investment bankers, Wall Street and all the people who crashed our economy in 2008? Yes, them and the labor unions, the environmentalists and the regulators who fought for fair wages, safe workplaces and beautiful places to work, live and play. According to Trump no one but Trump really represents the people!

Trump is a populist only in the sense that he often sounds like a libertarian by attacking our government and our institutions. Trump wants to purge the government of everyone who knows how the system works because there is no such thing as public service or public servants in Trump's world. The business of America is business and it is only the plutocrats who know what is best for business, ergo what is best for America! Trump rhetorically asks, who would know how to bring back jobs better than the people who are exporting them, and who would know how to protect the economy better than the people who caused the last devastating crash?* So Trump appoints as Secretary of State Exxon Mobil's CEO, Rex Tillerson and as Secretary of the Treasury Goldman Sax' Hedge Fund Manager, Steven Mnuchin. Furthermore Trump appoints as a Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who is very unlikely to overturn Citizens United or protect voting rights, the environment or any regulation of businesses. In other words Trump is not draining the swamp he's just adding bigger alligators and snakes to make it look smaller.

All of the absurdities discussed above, however, are getting lost in the distraction caused by the bill to “Repeal and Replace” the Affordable Care Act. Now let me see if I can get this confusing mish-mash right. The Republicans want to keep most of the things people like about the ACA.  More accurately I should say what most of the right people like abut the ACA – the Republicans certainly do not want to keep what those deadbeats on expanded Medicaid like. But the republicans will give the Medicaid deadbeats something; it would be cruel not to give them something. So they, the Medicaid recipients, will get block grants rather then Medicaid, and since the Republicans do not think it is fair to require healthy, young people to buy insurance when the youngsters can sponge off of us by using emergency rooms the insured subsidize with higher medical bills, the block grants will not keep up with premiums that are soaring because not enough young, healthy people are paying for health care by buying insurance. But fear not! A better and brighter day awaits the right people! Instead of subsidized heath insurance the middle class will get tax credits. Now there is a big whoopee. And to which tax will that credit be applied; is it the income tax which 45% of the people do not pay because they do not earn enough to be taxed? Not the right question, the Republican say. Ask not what you will get, ask what the right people will get. Judging by the enormous tax breaks the wealthiest 10% of population will receive it is very unlikely that you are one of the right people. And you can bet your sweet life that under the plan put forth by the Trumpster and the Greedy Old Plutocrats health care will not trickle down like the gentle rain from heaven!

Oh oh! Here is another distraction, and this one is sucking all the air out of Trump Tower. The Trump/Russian connection is the one distraction the tawdry medicine show man named Trump really wants to go away! But Rachel Maddow, the new York Times and other journals and news sources (Trump's enemies of the people) are not going to let that happen. As Ms. Maddow pointed out one congressman, Eric Swawell even has a website outlining what public sources already reveal about Russia's interference in our election and the connection between Trump, Trump's people and Russia. The evidence is mounting, the drips are becoming a stream and the stench is growing. All but the most intellectually challenged chumps will eventually see a scandal greater than Watergate in its betrayal and destructive power.

*If I was not so aware of Trump's ignorance, I would say it sounds like he is paying homage to his favorite Russian moralist, Gigori Rasputin.