Bits & Pieces # 168

As the mid-Terms hover on the periphery of our daily consciousness, the Republicans have realized that their only sword in this battle is the possibility that they can continue to convince the public that the inflation which exists in the nation today, was caused by Biden when they know it was the result of decisions made by Donald Trump and his administration.

There’s no question that it’s the same kind of BIG LIE they used in the fake election bullshit. And they are still trying to sell it to a staggeringly gullible public. But eventually the facts will out. Just listen to men like Pete Buttigieg as he explains all the legislation that we have passed in just under two years of the Biden administration. It’s hard to believe, especially when held up against the lesser amount of legislation passed by every administration since Roosevelt.

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So, the big noise coming from the GOP right now is all about inflation and how they want to promote it as; “It’s all Biden’s fault,” but the reality is, selling that position takes an even bigger lie than the one about the elections that got us into this ridiculous political space.

Whether you want to believe it or not, Joe Biden had very little to do with the onset of inflation, and other than lying about the reality of COVID, Donald Trump didn’t have much more. In case you haven’t noticed inflation is an international phenomenon. We are not in it alone and we don’t even have the highest inflation numbers.

COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have had far more to do with inflation than anything any American politician has done or could do. Right this minute Saudi Arabia, a nation that we have helped and been friendly to for most of its existence, is doing more to cause international inflation than anything Trump did, or Biden is doing. Maybe it’s time we put a stop to Mohamad Bin Salam and his nonsense. We have supported Saudi goals both militarily and financially for decades and all those uncivilized sand scruve have done in return is man the terrorist contingent on 911 and manipulate oil prices to our detriment. This time they are cutting back by almost two million barrels a day on the amount of oil they are shipping, which inflates their profit and helps Russia get more for that which they export. This does more to boost inflation than any other single action currently going on in the world. It’s time we stepped on MBS’s throat. If he wants to do business with Russia let him. Let him buy all the defective military hardware that they have been supplying to their own troops. You know, the same stuff that has allowed the Ukrainians, working with pea shooters and slingshots to kick their asses all over Ukraine.

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Antony Fauci has announced that he will be retiring in December, after 54 years of service to the American people and the medical world in general. It will be a sad day for America and for world heath in particular. And yet rabid elements of the Right are vowing to bring him before GOP inspired committees to delve into his work related to the COVID pandemic. What a farce! Any reasonably intelligent individual understands that most decisions made in the pursuit of solutions to COVID were based on limited information that changed on an almost daily basis as new intelligence replaced it. That’s the way science works. It most certainly does not work like the addled brain of the former president, which is to jump at any piece of information that makes his point or denies one with which he disagrees.

Yes, Fauci was wrong about some significant stuff, but that was because he was working with incomplete information. As the input of information changed, so did Fauci’s positions. That’s how science works. Trump’s opinions all came from the same place. “How can I twist this fact to reflect a political position that will benefit me?” In the beginning Trump wanted to ignore the plague because he felt it would damage his administration and he was dead right. Later he supported the drug companies, because he knew he could claim credit for any   advancement of the time frame to a useable vaccine. That was the “Race to the Cure” that all drug companies competed in and “Warp Speed” happened because there were huge profits involved for who got there first.

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“Defund the Police!” an idiotic slogan, born out of fear and frustration after the George Floyd disaster and used far more by its opponents then those on the far Left who were supposed to be promoting it.

The problem is, there are a significant number of voters who believe that large numbers of Liberals really promote this nonsense and are willing to fight to make it happen.

Sure, there’s plenty wrong with our local police forces, but most of what’s wrong can be fixed by more selective recruiting and better training. That means more funding, not less. But even with the extra funding and attention to who we are hiring, problems will continue to exist. Not all will be solvable. The job of “cop” reaches out to those with dominant personalities and deeply ingrained biases, so it’s going to be a tough threshing process, but we can do it. In fact, we must do it because there are too many other problems dependent on the solution.

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Things to think about:

  • Supreme court’s outrageous decision. Women should be controlling their bodies not government.
  • Too many have died defending democracy, so we can’t let Right Wing crazies undermine the rights of all people to participate in democracy.
  • We live in an economy where the people on top are doing incredibly well and everybody else is struggling. Three people own more wealth than the bottom half of our society.
  • We should raise the minimum wage to a living wage. But no Republicans support that.
  • We should make it easier for workers to join unions. No Republicans support that either.
  • In a world where many of the super-rich pay not one cent in taxes, we need to ensure that they, and big corporations, be made to pay their fair share. But what Republicans say in these hard times about seniors and low wage workers is that we should cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and reduce unemployment insurance.
  • If that works for you vote Republican on Nov 8th.