Worries and Politics

As you well know if you have visited this blog, I rarely talk about politics, but this time, I was a little worried. If, like me, you rely a lot on social security, this stand-off over raising the debt ceiling was frightening. Fortunately for me, I was a teacher and my career was during the period of the strong unions, so I have pension which is enough for me to survive, if not exactly thrive. Also fortunately for me, my mortgage is paid.

Yesterday in one of my news feeds on e-mail, it could have been npr, cnn or nytimes, I read about homeless senior citizens living in tents while using walkers and canes and struggling with big medical issues. The article said they had lost their homes to taxes or other issues and some have dementia and no family members nearby to help them maintain.

Also fortunately for me, I lived a life fairly free of bad habits so my brain is still in good shape, and I don't have a family history of dementia or alzheimers diseases for which no amount of healthy living can help. I stopped smoking 40 years ago, NEVER took up drinking, and always abided by the rules for maintaining good sleep habits - no blue screens in the bedroom, steady bedtime, and getting up early in the morning. Also no caffeine.

But people fall into all kinds of troubles including not having proper medical coverage and falling into debt for medical services. Also, not preparing for quarterly taxes can be a big one. Anyhow, however it happened I was surprised to read that there are so many elderly people in tents in homeless shelters.

To the point - all the concessions demanded by the right wing were to deprive the poor. There is never any move on their part to make the rich pay a fair share of their taxes. It is absolutely shocking to me that multi-millionaires and billionaires shirk their duty to pay a fair share of the financial burden to keep this country functioning. They use every trick available to avoid paying their share - like a wealthy friend who refuses to chip on the tip after a dinner out with friends. Selfishness and Greed rule the Right, along with bigotry and a deepd desire to dominate and control women's bodies. They don't get that taking care of everyone makes the country a better place. Who wants to live where the poor die in squalor on the sidewalks? Only vastly wealthy people who hide in gated communities and on giants yachts.

Our country is in deep danger because the Right Wing Republican party plays on the bigotry of so many against peope of different color or different sexuality to allow the rich to hide their money and rob the country.

Peope worry about Joe Biden's age, but the thing to worry about is a leaders character and morality and dedication to the good of the population. Franklin Delano Roosevelt got us through World War II and he was disabled! Winston Chruchill was ill and overweight and he got Britain through the worst crisis of the modern age, the Nazi Blitzkrieg!

Let us all keep in mind these facts about President Biden's performance:

"Biden has shown time and again his ability to work with whomever is across the table from him.

He did it in 2011 with Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell on the debt ceiling. And despite GOP intransigence only deepening, Biden has been able to pull off multiple bipartisan pieces of legislation since taking office, including:

the $1 trillion infrastructure bill; the CHIPS Act, which aims to build more semiconductors in the United States; the bill that provided health care and benefits for millions of veterans injured by exposure to toxins like Agent Orange in Vietnam and burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the $1.7 trillion federal government funding bill that got 68 votes in the Senate and included a revised Electoral Count Act." One of the things the McCarthy contingent did successfully strip away was funding for the IRS so that it could function adequately to catch tax cheats!

OK, I have said my piece. I am of the WWII generation nd I know we faced the Greed and Self-interest rise of domination politics in fascism before and defeated it, and we may have to do that again. I have hope that there is enough in humanity of compassion, courage, honor and justice to rise to the challenge and defeat it again.

Time to get outside and walk my dog, isten to the birds sing, watch the new leaves sway in the gorgeous Spring breeze, and put all the political worry behind me - Enjoy your day! For at least two more years my social security check will arrive and let me say one more time - it is NOT an ENTITLEMENT - It was an investment that all of us who receive it paid into throughout our decades of working lives. Jo Ann