She's cracking up

You can't have nice things when all the money gets spent by the kleptocracy

I went down with Roy to the public tennis courts that the local jr. high uses. With my bad right knee and general stiffness I thought I’d be playing like a total hack, but we picked up these super-cheap rackets at the Goodwill and man, I gotta tell ya, rackets made after 1999 are nothing like the clunky stuff I played with in my tennis salad days back in the late 70s and early 80s. My forehand is still solid if not blistering- enough to beat Roy, anyway. It was a perfect afternoon for tennis, sun shining and the still-snowcapped Bitterroots shimmering just to the west. The only downside was the condition of the courts. There was a sign that said “These courts need repair. Send donations to xxx.” Of course the city is out of money so there’s nothing to tap there.

These days every time I see another manifestation of the decline of our nation, even something small like cracks in a tennis court, I think about all the gobs of money being printed up and sent off to places like Ukraine, Israel, and the ledgers of the Rothschilds in the City of London. In an article day before yesterday, Ron Paul references the latest out-of-control spending bill and asks, Is this the final nail in America’s coffin?

When future historians go searching for the final nail in the US coffin, they may well settle on the date April 20, 2024.

On that day Congress passed legislation to fund two and a half wars, hand what’s left of our privacy over to the CIA and NSA, and give the US president the power to shut down whatever part of the Internet he disagrees with.

The nearly $100 billion grossly misnamed “National Security Supplemental” guarantees that Ukrainians will continue to die in that country’s unwinnable war with Russia, that Palestinian civilians will continue to be slaughtered in Gaza with US weapons, and that the neocons will continue to push us toward a war with China.

Meanwhile you have the local conservative radio station playing the Sean Hannity show, who chides those Democrats who favor a cease fire and end to hostilities (bombing hospitals and such) in Gaza. He says they don’t understand what’s going on in Israel. As far as I know, Sean, like Jared Kushner, wants the US to spend as much as needed on Israel so that Gaza can be ethnically cleansed, so that the prime beachfront real estate can be developed and sold off to wealthy New Yawkers, ASAP.

It occurred to me that all of this wildly irresponsible and immoral deficit spending doesn’t really affect the rich that much. Blowing another 100 billion on Ukraine and Israel means we don’t spend it on infrastructure and stuff, and of course also means we increase the money supply and inflation. But the rich still drive Teslas and shop at Whole Foods and vacation in Cozumel and play on pristine courts with no cracks and have enough in their bank account and stock portfolio to cover their losses via inflation. The working class has to forego nice things like decent schools and parks and money that doesn't lose its value overnight because our kleptocratic overlords keep creating more money with endless immoral spending, but the rich keep partying.

Sorry, I know it’s rather communist of me to point all this out, but our roads and bridges and parks used to be in pretty good shape- everybody benefited, not just the rich. And it used to be that a working-class family could get by on dad’s income. Why shouldn’t the filthy rich have to suffer when Congress blows another umpteen gazillion? Maybe their tennis courts need a few cracks too, so to speak.

To end on a positive note, I’ll quote the end of Ron Paul’s article:

What is the silver lining in all this bad news? Most Republicans in the House voted against continuing the Ukraine war. That’s a good start. Our ideas are growing, not only across the country but even in the DC swamp. Take courage and don’t give up! Work for peace!