I wrote yesterday about my belief that the idea republicans and democrats would EVER “come together” for the benefit of “we the people” is a fools errand (OK, I didn’t use that exact phraseology) because the republican message machine will be in high gear by the time Joe Biden takes office. So, today, as I usually do, I logged onto “Yahoo Finance” to check out the market and, sure enough, there was an article by someone at the Wall Street Journal suggesting there should be no more stimulus until Joe Biden takes office “and the floodgates of spending open up.” Here we go!

Whoever it is who wrote the article (I checked, his name is Mark Adams and I’m not subscribing to the WSJ so I can only read the first part of the article) was suggesting the economy has “thrived” for the past eight months so why would Moscow Mitch agree to a stimulus package now. And, he referenced the $1.8 TRILLION package which democrats refused to go along with – without, of course, explaining why – as usual it was full of tax breaks for rich people and insurance for companies to avoid liability when they put their workers’ health in jeopardy by pressuring them to work in unsafe conditions. (ie “poison pills”) Now, of course, most people who read the WSJ haven’t worked in a meat packing plant so they don’t understand why democrats would say that kind of protection is unnecessary – there are already OSHA rules which would protect an employer from liability as long as they follow the rules. Is the republican position they don’t want employers to have to follow the rules?

Here’s the long and short of it: republicans care about the corporate bigwigs and democrats care about the workers. Additionally, democrats care about ALL those workers who aren’t working – because of no fault of their own. They’ve been furloughed because of Covid-19 or worst, they’ve permanently lost their job. And, unless you’re a “tech” person, the job market is a bit slim right now. Yes, places like Amazon have been hiring, but there are roughly 20 MILLION Americans out of work right now. Mr. Adams was, as per usual, and as I predicted, using terms like “red state” and “blue state” – with his focus on “blue states” as the ones which have been mismanaged. I’m guessing he lives in one of the “blue states” and he’s doing just fine. But, whatever? Realistically, the suffering workers are located in both blue and red states and both blue and red states are in financial trouble.

But, here’s the deal, just as the virus is RAGING in “blue” and “red” states and people are out of work pretty much across the country facing evictions and standing in line at food banks how can someone like Mr. Adams claim the economy is “thriving.” I’m always reminded of a saying I heard when I was young and someone was trying to describe what a “depression” is – he said, “a recession is when you’re out of work, a depression is when I’M out of work.” Well, Mr. Adams is doing OK so it must appear to him the economy is thriving. This is exactly what I talk about when I’m trying to articulate how “we the people” have been BRAINWASHED into believing the “market” is the economy. The reality is, in my view, there’s a HUGE difference between “Wall Street” and “Main Street.” Democrats are focused on Main Street and republicans on “Wall Street.”

And, when Mr. Adams makes the comment about the “floodgates of money going to open up” when Biden takes over I just start reflexively shaking my head. This has happened so many times in my lifetime it’s simply predictable – in fact, I’ve already predicted just this type of rhetoric coming from republicans. And, our so-called “liberal media” (Which, of course, the WSJ is not part of) will let them get away with this as they “both sides” virtually every issue. Let me explain something to Mr. Adams – the $3 TRILLION spent this past year from the “CARES Act” is the reason the economy is “flourishing.” Individual 1 will be leaving office with a record deficit this year of more likely $4 TRILLION – of which, in my view, MOST of it was justified.

When 20 MILLION Americans are out of work and standing in food lines and worrying about losing their homes and taking care of their families it’s time for the government to step in with relief – period, full stop. It was, in fact, the $600 in addition to unemployment benefits which is the reason the economy is “thriving.” However, that money has mostly been funneled back into the economy because those receiving the aid, in most cases, needed to spend it to “get by.” That was the purpose and, despite the fact republicans don’t seem to understand what a gift that was to individual 1 (and, at the time, his chances for re-election – which he blundered away with his incompetent response to the pandemic itself) so their precious stock market could recover by November what it had lost in March and April.

Mr. Adams wants to wait on the desperately needed aid – needed RIGHT now – so that democrats can’t blame the spending on individual 1 – I’m not kidding you. Doesn’t that demonstrate he could care less about all the people who need the money right NOW?! Sometimes I wonder how people like this sleep at night – you know, with the attitude “I’ve got mine, screw you.” He’s more worried about who’ll get “blamed” for the spending – in fact willing to let all the people in need suffer for a couple months so that individual 1 isn’t “blamed” for even more spending. God help us!

Of course, he’s not the only republican who thinks this way. Virtually all of them I know either think this way or they’ll believe whatever “spin” republicans come up with to avoid anyone thinking there was MASSIVE deficit spending under “their watch.” They’ve been doing this since the days of Ronald Reagan. Under their administrations the deficits blow up and, at the same time, they convince “we the people” the democrats are the “spenders.” It’s a sophisticated propaganda scheme which has been going on for well over 40 years, it comes right out of the strategy book of the Nazi’s back in the Third Reich, and, of course, it works. Tell the LIES over and over until people believe they’re true. It’s been going on for years and it won’t stop now.

It’s so effective that we just prevented a right wing fascist – essentially – takeover of our government. And, trust me, individual 1 is busy on his “way out” doing as much LONG TERM DAMAGE to our fundamental institutions as he can by January 20th. Maybe that’s the republican scheme here. Leave office with so much attention being (necessarily) given to providing aid to those suffering through the unemployment crisis that much of that DAMAGE will go unnoticed and remain entrenched in our bureaucracy. Additionally, by messing things up as much as they can, setting up their BLAMING of democrats for the problems, so that in four years we can go through all this once again.

OK, another thing Mr. Adams said which rankled the hair on my back just a bit was references to “lockdowns preferred by democrats.” Honestly, I don’t think ANYONE wanted a lockdown. I don’t think ANYONE wanted the virus to be devastating their communities. I’m guessing Mr. Adams might be living in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area of the country. What they went through in March and April was HORRIBLE. Why would you NOT lock down your community when you need temporary hospitals with THOUSANDS of beds and the bodies are being stored in refrigerated trucks? And, by the way, it’s like that in “red states” right now, like El Paso and Houston in Texas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama, etc. etc. Looking back, the “missing 70 days” which will forever define individual 1’s response to the virus could have prevented much of the need for “lockdowns.” Just sayin………

In some of the “red states” the governors simply order their health department officials to LIE about how the virus is affecting their states and, yet, it still looks really bad. There are cities where officials are begging to be able to initiate even a mask mandate and their “red state” governor is refusing to allow it. How did we get to this place? It’s mostly old people and people of color bearing the greatest “brunt” of the pandemic so there are officials who believe that’s a reasonable trade-off to keep the “market up.” I’m actually shaking my head as I’m writing this. By now, most people have seen the clip of the Lt. Governor of Texas essentially saying just that. And, of course, most of the people in this “red state” “camp” will tell you they’re “pro life.” The hypocrisy is so thick you could “cut it with a knife.”

Here’s the other thing about this which is such a “rub” for me. Now, I’m just an ordinary middle class American. I pay my taxes and I’m thankful to be paying them – I’ve experienced homelessness in my life and I’m thankful to have overcome it. In fact, it appears I pay a significantly larger amount of INCOME taxes than our IMPEACHED so-called two time popular vote LOSING president – which, according to him, apparently means I’m not as smart as him. I’ll give him that – but only grudgingly – as I believe had my father bequeathed me a half a BILLION dollars I could have become a BILLIONAIRE – but, I digress. What was my point? Oh yes, red states vs. blue states.

I live in Washington State – the home of Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon, etc. etc. and, I’m certain, Washington state residents put well MORE into the federal “coffers” than they take out. The same goes for California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and other “blue states.” I have no doubt some of the leaders in these states have made mistakes – for example – this is a perilous time to be a governor – when people are dying in large numbers it’s got to weigh on you – if you have compassion at all. (Yes, I’m suggesting individual 1 and some of the “reg state” governors seem to be adrift when it comes to compassion) To me, it’s ridiculous to think “blue state” or “red state” when there’s a crisis going on – in reality there’s the United States and, as the saying goes, we’re stronger together than we are apart. People in my state, as far as I’ve been able to tell, don’t complain when federal aid is given to people in Florida after one of the terrible Hurricanes (which, by the way, will continue far after the Covid crisis has been resolved – just sayin……. Oops, Didn’t I just say that?)

So, republicans are enlisting people like Mr. Adams to begin the propaganda campaign already (just as I had predicted) and they’ll all be “deficit hawks” again on January 20th. Actually, some of them are leaning that way right now – like Mr. Adams – where they don’t want any relief for all the American people who are desperately needing the Covid relief until Biden is in office so they can BLAME the spending on democrats. This would just confirm the republican party is more about scheming how to maintain POWER at the expense of our PEOPLE. Every day now more people are dying of Covid than who died on 9/11. I’m almost heartbroken as the reality of where our country has evolved has FINALLY fully sunk in. When I make these predictions – which almost always come true – I, internally, hope I’m wrong.

The evolution of the republican party where they’ve come to value Wall Street more than Main Street has been what has been tearing our nation apart and their approach has been so sophisticated most of us have missed it. (Me, for a very long time) For years I always felt the democrats were afraid to defend their basic values (ie New Deal, Great Society, etc.) and that has simply allowed this rightward trajectory of the republicans to succeed. Now, individual 1 has been stopped, but not the republican party. And, democrats will be attacked by the republicans in the “same old way,” and I’m anxious to see if they revert to their previous historical reticence or if they continue to FIGHT like we’ve seen from some of the young members of the House in the previous two years.

Yes, the republicans, while LOSING the “White House,” gained seats in the House – unexpectedly. I believe because they were so focused on getting individual 1 out of office they lost focus in many of the places where House members had “flipped” republican districts in 2018. I read a couple examples where republicans put phony candidates in House elections causing the democrat to unexpectedly to lose. The republicans have been the experts at “dirty tricks” since the days of Nixon and success in the future, for democrats, will require understanding this and combating it. As we’ve all watched individual 1 attempt what amounts to a coup d’etat since he LOST the 2020 election, Congressional republicans have shown themselves to be cowards. They KNOW what individual 1 is doing is TOTALLY wrong, but they’re afraid to say so in public. The only way to describe their actions is COWARDICE!

Final Thought: I still clearly remember individual 1 back in the campaign of 2016 saying to his supporters, “You’re going to get tired of all the winning.” Of course, during his four years at the helm there hasn’t been much “winning” other than a HUGE tax cut mainly for the top “1%” of Americans, which his supporters apparently haven’t noticed – because most of them are not part of the “top 1%.” So, now that our IMPEACHED so-called two time popular vote LOSING president has LOST to Joe Biden (by OVER 7 MILLION votes) he’s initiating lawsuit after lawsuit in an attempt to overthrow “the will of the people.” (Technically, again, because he LOST in 2016, as well, in the so-called “popular vote” – or, as I put it, the “vote”) So far, by my last count, the score was 1 (minor “victory” – over about 9,000 votes in Pennsylvania which weren’t counted in the first place and won’t be counted because of minor issues with the envelope in which the ballot was sent in – and there’ve been over 53 lawsuits essentially THROWN out of court – as frivolous. I have to wonder, when will individual 1’s supporters get tired of ALL the LOSING?

For heaven’s sake, the result in Georgia was certified THREE times – after repeated recounts giving the same result. In Wisconsin individual 1 spent $3 MILLION to recount the votes in two counties (the counties with significant numbers of African Americans, surprise, surprise) and, after the conclusion of the recount, Joe Biden had 87 more votes. So, of course, then individual 1’s “lawyers” tried to get ALL the votes in those two counties thrown out because……..? Well, maybe because those were the counties which went heavily for Biden? Can you imagine what would lie ahead in America if our IMPEACHED so-called two time popular vote LOSING president would succeed in this coup d’etat? Our “democracy” (actually, we have a constitutionally defined democratic republic) would be finished. And, when you read the web pages of some of individual 1’s most fervent supporters it’s easy to understand they’d be fully OK with that. Think that’s hyperbole???

Check out the website of the group calling itself “Atomwaffen.” Or the website of the “Proud Boys” – and there’s many more. From my vantage point the least radical of these groups would be called “neo-Nazi’s.” I’ll let you characterize the more zealous. My father and “the greatest generation” fought this stuff off coming from Germany back in the 1940’s and now the question is becoming are “we the people” capable of fighting it off when it’s coming from within? How many members of the republican party are “cool” (in the words of my son) with all this? I’m not sure, but it’s time we find out. It’s time we quit acting like these people are under their rocks. This right wing RACIST “wound” in America was opened with the election of Barack Obama and it’s time to face up to the reality this exists in our nation – AND, are “we the people” OK with it? Just read the words on the “home page” of Atomwaffen. It could have come from the bowels of the Third Reich. It’s real, it’s here, and ignoring it won’t make it go away.