It’s hard to settle on one thing when so much is so fucked up, all at once, so I’m going to just set them up and knock them down.
Boston. I am thoroughly disgusted by this crime, by the callous brutality of it. I am sick with the notion that we might be entering an era when bombs go off in our cities with some regularity – hope to hell not. I am horrified at the loss of life and limb and amazed by the selflessness of those who helped others, not knowing or seemingly caring what price they might pay. I am also angered by the eagerness on the part of some organs of the press and near-press to hang the blame on someone when they don’t know WTF they’re saying.
Gun show. Another majority vote fails to carry legislation out of the rat hole that is the U.S. Senate – the proverbial Box of Crackers has once again screwed minimally useful legislation in favor of doing absolutely nothing. These people are hopeless, so just send them the hell home. If you can’t pass something as watered down and flaccid as Manchin Toomey, hang it up. Shame!
West Texas. Very few industrial accidents are truly accidental. The West, Texas fertilizer explosion is no exception. That plant was, by virtue of its location near a school, a nursing home, and an apartment complex, a disaster waiting to happen. Add to that the fact that they had no disaster planning, no fire alarms, very few safety measures in place, and managed to evade inspections, and you’ve got yourself a town-sized bomb. Will someone go to jail for this? I’ll believe it when I see it. We’re still waiting to see BP execs behind bars.
Maduro. Chavez’s successor won by what the U.S. press terms a razor thin margin – over 200,000 votes (here, that’s a mandate). The opposition, with the encouragement of our government, no doubt, is disputing the results, bringing Venezuela to the brink of a major crisis. This is a very difficult situation for the poor in that country, who are just inches away from having their meager stake in the Venezuelan economy taken away from them. Hard to see a good outcome here.
That’s all for now. Lights out.
luv u,
jp
I think the reason it looked so empty was that there were no flags to represent the hundreds of thousands that have died since that day, and in large part because of that day. The cautionary “Never Forget” is more of a challenge to Americans than its author likely supposed. I can tell you, I will never forget September 11, 2001 – probably the most deeply horrifying day of my life. Remembering that has never been a challenge. What I think we as Americans need to work on remembering is the fact that our political leaders used that atrocity to commit other atrocities in our names. If there is any slippage of memory, it is on that particular slope.
entail new spending. So we’ve reached a pass where budget items need to (a) win approval from both houses of Congress and be signed into law, (b) run the same gauntlet a second time in the form of appropriations bills, and (c) get past the blackmail play around raising the debt ceiling to cover funds already duly appropriated. This is why the G.O.P. wants to make the debt ceiling extension a two-step process – so that down the line, they can shake us down for more concessions. This is bogus as hell and should be denounced as such, every minute of every day.