March 19, 2021: What Fascists Fear, Modern Luddites, Their Prime Directive

 

“What our fascists fear most is competence.”

        ----from The Quotations of Chairman Joe

What our nascent fascists fear most is competence. Competence in governance restores confidence in governance. With confidence comes the return of rightful demands: good roads and infrastructure, good schools, clean air and water, the return of some semblance of justice, the return of some share of economic prosperity. This the fascist fears because the return to 'normalcy' means and end to the spurious justifications for political mischief; it means the end of the justification for coup d'etat. What need of a 'savior' if all is well?

Enter the ReSCUMlickan Party. Hell-bent on throwing monkey wrenches into the machinery, these modern Luddites seek to assassinate any such return to 'normalcy'; they seek to destroy any attempt to right the ship of state.

As a case in point, Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported in The New York Times that “(N)early two months into the Biden administration, in the thick of the worst public health crisis in a century, the Department of Health and Human Services remains largely leaderless, with President Biden's nominees to run the sprawling agency under concerted attack from Republicans over abortion and gender politics.

“Twenty-three of the 31 top leadership posts at the department—including the secretary of health and human services, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, all critical to fighting the coronavirus pandemic—are held by career officials in acting capacities.” (1)

The list of Biden appointments includes the first transgender nominee, Dr. Levine, which prompted an egregiously ugly exchange with Kentucky's other idiot, Rand Paul, “who likened sex re-assignment surgery to 'genital mutilation' and demanded to know whether she supports such procedures for minors.” (2)

To obstruct: that is their prime directive. When in power vandalize, when out of power obstruct. Do the utmost to destroy competence in governance and with it confidence in the government.

Nevertheless, Biden has set a goal of 100 million injections within 100 days. His administration has reached that goal 42 days ahead of schedule. Shots in the people's arms; money in people's pockets. Despite the worst fascist efforts, he is succeeding where they have only failed.

Convict and imprison.

___________

1. Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. “Biden's Top Health Posts Remain Empty a G.O.P. Focuses on Culture Wars” The New York Times. Thursday, March 18, 2021. Page A17

2. Ibid.

March 17, 2021: To Obstruct, Scorched-earth, Nation Be Damned

 

“When in power, they know only to vandalize; when out of power, they know only to obstruct”.

----- from The Quotations of Chairman Joe

Last week Congress passed and President Biden signed the Covid relief bill. Both the House and the Senate passed the measure without a single ReSCUMlickan vote. Indeed, the House got two bites at the apple, two opportunities to come to the aid of the nation, having passed the original bill which was then modified by the Senate. The bill contains much needed money in direct payments to everyone in the middle and lower classes, for relief to small businesses, for vaccine distribution, for health care premiums, for unemployment and rent relief, for aid to families with children. My Congressman, therefore, voted to twice reject the measure. Voting against the bill sent up to the Senate and then voting against the bill a second time after it had been amended. In this he has been consistent, as has been the entire ReSCUMlickan caucus, in demonstrating that he is nothing but a hopeless partisan hack; ready and willing to sacrifice his country in the perceived interests of his party.

We first beheld this behavior during the Clinton administration when Bill's first budget proposals were uniformly opposed by the ResCUMlickans. Vice-president Al Gore, it will be recalled, had to cast a rare deciding vote in a senate equally divided, as it is now, 50-50, in order to move to marginally raise taxes and balance the budget. It was the first in a series of actions taken by Clinton to do so but, notably, without a single ReSCUMlickan vote in either House or Senate.

This strategy would later become a permanent ReSCUMlickan default position when Obama became President. Indeed as he was attending his inaugural balls the Scum were hunkered down in a Washington hotel pledging to one another to oppose Obama on every issue even if it hurt the country.

And the strategy worked. By dragging out the fight over what became known as “ObamaCare”, and opposing virtually every Obama initiative, even issues they had once championed, every man-jack of them worked assiduously to stymie everything the administration tried to accomplish. The scum were rewarded by winning the House two years later and then the Senate another two years hence.

Let us be clear about this: the fascists have declared themselves to be in favor of disease, unemployment, homelessness, business failures and against families, children and responsible governance. Bereft of ideas and void of content the Scum have reverted to what is now their default position: total scorched-earth opposition, the nation be damned.

Convict and imprison.