Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Migrant Buses and the Governments inability to respond to a crisis - Part 6: Republicans hamstringing Government to Make America Fail Again

Before Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott tried to cosplay Sam Houston, the Texas response to the border has been to take large sums of money from the Federal Government and funnel it into the hands of Private businesses. Privatization of governmental functions is the hallmark of Republican "governance" such as it is.
"The government should be run like a great American company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens.” - Jared Kushner, 2017. 

Turning Americans from free individuals in a shared society into customers and commodities of the 1% has been the goal of the Republican Party for 50 years;  undoing the Melting Pot and returning the United States to the Glided Age of Robber Barons and Wage Slaves.

Trump: Make America Fail Again
Republicans always root for America to fail when out of control of government and when in charge of government Republicans make America fail.  Because Republicans hate America.

We all know that Trump businesses failed over and over and over and over and over again and the way Trump finally successfully ran his businesses was with a heavy influx of ill-gotten cash from the Russian mob, while he stiffed everyone who ever did work for him.  James Comey can testify to that.  

But, long before Steve Bannon dreamed of drowning the administrative state, Republicans have chipped away at a functioning government and have insured the government can not do big projects as was done under the FDR administration.

There are many things which should and must be done as by Government because Profit is not the motivating factor.  Long ago, when FDR inherited an American economy wrecked from the result of Republican malfeasance and unwillingness to do anything for the American people, he stood up the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to put Americans to work since businesses weren't willing to do so.

We've been living on the bones of the WPA and New Deal for almost 90 years now. Our infrastructure shows it, but Republicans have always hated the idea of Americans having living wages and a steady job that doesn't come with their complete obedience to a rich benefactor.  Republicans believe Corporate Persons should have free reign to hire, fire, and pay people whatever they wish for decades.  

Actor Gina Carano sued Disney and Lucasfilm on Tuesday for firing her from “The Mandalorian” in 2021, over a social media post in which she compared being a Republican to being Jewish during the Holocaust.

The suit, filed in California federal court, alleges wrongful termination and discrimination, as well as a demand that the court should force Lucasfilm to recast her and pay at least $75,000 in punitive damages.

Elon Musk is funding the suit, following his promise to pay for legal actions taken by people claiming discrimination from posts to Twitter/X.
Now, this arrangement of Companies worth billions paying the vast majority of Americans less than living wages with no benefits worked as long as people had a social safety net to fall into 
  • Walmart and McDonald's are among the companies with most workers on federally-funded social safety net programs to help pay for healthcare and food assistance, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
  • Thousands of people working at the chains are on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamps and Medicaid, the watchdog found.
  • Walmart was in the top four employers of Medicaid and SNAP recipients in each of the states analyzed in the report.
But, steadily since Ronnie Raygun, accelerating under W(orst POTUS ever) and then skyrocketing under Treasonous Trump, Republicans have worked to slice away the meager social services American can rely on.  The Republican goal is simple; to impoverish Americans and make them so hungry and so desperate as to accept any job, no matter how underpaid, with gratitude.

Mean Jean Schmidt premature ejaculation over
the death of Obamacare*
President Barack Obama's ACA was a "big fucking deal" and look at how fanatically Republicans from John Roberts to little shit Jean Schmidt have tried to destroy it for the last 15 years. Republicans do not believe in a government which helps the American people, the current MAGAGOP doesn't even believe in a functioning federal government.

Of course, in trying to undercut Americans wages and benefits, Capitalists like Trump employ undocumented labor and have done so for decades. Businesses have always had a giant Now Hiring sign at the border to encourage migrants to come work here for far less than it would cost to pay Americans.  This has unofficially officially been supported by Republicans for a very long time.

However, since Ronnie Raygun granted amnesty to 11 million persons in 1986, Republicans have turned Immigration into a toxic miasma of racism, white fragility, and a political torpedo to keep the working class white men frightened and fixed as Republican voters.

Which leads us to today.  Back during the 1930's and then during World War 2, the U.S. Government understood the need to be able to build.  The Army Corps of Engineers and the Seabee's, turned inhospitable far away South Pacific Island's into environments for large numbers of servicemen.  Additionally, the coast of California was transformed from a remote primordial rainforest into the housing and jumping off point for the Pacific theater.

The scope of the building and the obvious necessity have been replaced by the non-stop rightwing effort to privatize profits and socialize losses.

Remember one of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's favorite thing to do during the Phony GWoT was to funnel tax payer money to private businesses to do work which once was accomplished by an arm of the military.  Because it was highly lucrative.  When Republicans were lamenting the state of the US Economy under President Obama, first by trying to lay the 2007 Republican Great Recession at his feet) and then by claiming there was no money available for any of President Obama's policy goals, as John Boehner took to the floor of the House after Americans decided to give the Tea Party power in 2010, and said it's time to further slash the social safety net, 
“Everything is on the table. We’re broke! Let’s be honest with ourselves.”
Well, why were we broke?  It was because Dick Cheney spent that money during the Phony GWoT.  The Deficit was born and grown in the deserts of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan.  At least 5 Trillion dollars were spent on 20 year mission, but the Corporate Media did their job and helped shield and protect Republicans throughout that period, so that when President Biden withdrew us from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Corporate Media lambasted him and declared it the biggest strategic blunder in American history.  The withdrawal wasn't the blunder you see, it was cutting off that spigot of Federal taxpayer money flowing into the coffers of rapacious private business. 

So that's a long way around reaching to the current Manufactured Crisis about the Border and Immigration.  Even the God's Army of Trump Truckers who went to the Border to see the massive invasion were surprised when they didn't see it.

So, now we have the spectacle of the Border Security Bill, which Republicans are going to submarine.  

And yet, coming on the heels of the failed Impeachment of Secretary Alexander Mayorkas the Corporate Media will not call this out as a continuation of Republican inability to govern, a failure of Republican leadership, as endemic to Republican policies and agenda; namely, Republicans hate the United States and want to make America Fail Again.  Look at this NPR headline; "Congress devolves into Chaos over border and national security" Congress en toto, not Republicans but all those Clowns in Congress. 

But, then the Corporate Media has for over 20 years followed Faux News lead and reported rightwing outrages and Republican disingenuous tantrums as though they were done in good faith and with an eye to helping the Country.  They aren't Republicans want America to fail, they want and need Government to be ineffective or dysfunctional or worse.  Because for 50 years Republicans have been telling their drones the Government is the Problem, and now those Drones are in charge of Government and they are dutifully destroying Government and destroying America to "Save it".

Saving America to rightwingers means turning it into White Supremacist Nation State in which women are tightly controlled, Queer folk are silent or incarcerated, concentration camps for immigrants and others are up and running full-speed, and anyone who dares question the orthodoxy of White Power and Fascist Fundamentalism is eliminated.  Make America Great Again means Destroy the United States. 
* - Seriously deplorable Jean Schmidt in 2011, "'Yes! Yes!' she shrieks in a manner reminiscent of Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. 'Thank God! No, they struck down the individual mandate. They took it away.'  Then she adds a final, enthusiastic 'Yes!'  Since then Schmidt in Ohio declared a raped girl should feel god blessed them with an "opportunity" to have a child thanks to their rapist.

1 comment:

Donny T said...

The same people who forced us to get vaccinated to keep our job, let in 17 million unvaccinated unemployed migrants.