Who is it For?

Editor's (OK, my) Note: this was to go out Monday, but got stuck in the queue! All still relevant! More to come...

A "gong" type bell would ring in our elementary school. Maybe there was a pattern to it, 3 bells or something. We kindergartners through 6th graders would dutifully crawl under our desks, resting our heads on one hand, and placing one hand on the backs of our neck. We would count to 10 (?), 30 (?), using the tried and true "one-thousand and one, one thousand and two..." system to maintain a steady tempo. After our count, we would quietly go into the hallway, and when the teacher signaled, we would march, single file, out to the playground or fenceline of the school. On Fridays at noon, an incredibly loud civil defense siren would sound just outside of the school. Our somewhat annoyed teachers would pause their lessons as the siren circled around, wailing a warning at 120 dB.

Why? Why these rituals? Well, it was the mid-60s and we were on the tail end of the Cold War. These were civil defense drills. Those Russian Commies were still a threat. The Rooskies could drop an atomic bomb on us at any minute! So foul was the Soviet Union, that "Better dead than Red!" was the (civilian) battle cry.

When you're in third grade or thereabouts crawling under your desk, there were... many questions. What's a Commie? What's a USSR? And most importantly, why do we hate them so much? Well, the Soviet Union was way far away, a whole n'uther country, and they hated the U.S. first, you see. And they were a bad country that had different rules and were communists (?) socialists (?) and that basically meant... THEY DON'T TAKE CARE OF THEIR PEOPLE!

They weren't a good, caring Christian nation. Recall that the phrase "...under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 to distinguish us from the state atheism promoted by communist countries. (We wadn't no damn Godless commies!) We take care of our people!

And that was the differentiator. "We take care of our people." We based an entire Cold War on it, it defined the difference between Capitalism and Communism. We based a couple of hot wars on it, too. (See: Korea, Vietnam.) Sure, there were structural differences in those economic systems and the governments that sponsored them, but in the end, our Freedom and Christian values meant that we were able to take care of our people!

FDR had taken the reins after the disastrous Great Depression that had resulted from conservative politicians and their belief that 'government should run as a business for business' (because we know how that benefits everyone.) Instead, Roosevelt gave the public a "New Deal." He slowly pulled us out of the Depression by regulating big business, providing a basic social safety net, and promoting infrastructure. After WWII, Republican President Eisenhower expanded upon that theme, (and the prosperity of the growing middle class.) He felt that the government must protect people from disasters created by outside forces, and provide social services that would protect people from unemployment, old age, illness, accidents, unsafe food and drugs, homelessness, and disease. In the 60s, LBJ built upon the New Deal when he ushered in the Civil Rights and Voting Acts, added welfare programs and Medicaid, and many more programs to fight a "war on poverty."

The turbulent 60s and 70s (Civil Rights struggle, cultural shifts, expansion of women's rights, high oil prices, and the Vietnam War) threw the ball back to conservatism and President Reagan who promised to eliminate government waste, fraud, and abuse (sound familiar?) He cut taxes for the wealthy, cut government services, and eliminated many business regulations. His policies and tax cuts for the elite became known as "supply-side economics." It was the beginning of the myth that cutting taxes from the wealthy and businesses would mean income to plow back into business and labor. In the decades that Republicans have repeated this economic nonsense, the middle class has been gutted. Capital has flowed to the top and away from labor - never reinvested in expanding business but held as personal wealth. Surprise!

The "Reagan Revolution" swept the country - tax rates were slashed along with social services. He famously declared that "...government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." It has become the mantra of every conservative since then. As a nation, we would no longer be spared seeing poverty, mental illness, and substance abuse on the streets. As tax rates were slashed, the deficit exploded. During his two terms, he quietly raised taxes to try and make up the difference. When 'supply side economics' unsurprisingly failed to create an economic boom without raising taxes again, Reagan blamed "welfare queens in Cadillacs" for cheating the system and causing shortfalls. This, too, became part of the GOP playbook: when tax cuts for your friends don't work, blame the dark people and keep the cuts.

While Obama and Biden tried to bring the government back to a place by/for the people, overcoming the ever-present right-wing communication channels that had become entrenched by then has been almost impossible. Remember: welfare queens and immigrants are the root of all of our economic woes.

Now here we are. In his second term, Trump (and his backers) were ready. They had a plan to disassemble the government and sell or privatize whatever parts were left over to the billionaire class. Trump is known for his admiration (adoration) of dictators around the world, Russia's Putin being number one on his dance card. He can barely contain his disdain for the democracies of Europe.* He has suggested that the US annex Canada as the 51st state, buy (or take) Greenland, abandon Ukraine and split the spoils with Putin. It is no longer hyperbole to suggest that Trump and his acolytes are attempting to dismantle our own democracy and move toward an authoritarian state.

Already Elon Musk, in his seemingly self-appointed role as "DOGE" (Department of Government Efficiency) executioner, has brought in a handful of twenty-something tech bros and let them run amuck like so many ketamine-infused honey badgers throughout the various Executive Cabinet agencies. Offering retirement buyouts to federal employees, rescinding the offers, laying off thousands, rehiring those whom he never thought would matter, replacing managers and dept. heads with inexperienced loyalists, freezing spending, cutting budgets... in the words of one of the first tech bros, "move fast, break things."

As Elon and the Muskovites gut the various departments, it has exacted a very personal toll. Tens of thousands have already lost their jobs. Many of these are specialist jobs that people have studied for and devoted their lives to. Those serving their probation periods were the first to go. This may have meant recent grads who relocated to take their first professional job. Just as often though, it could mean an employee taking a promotion in an established career - most federal jobs require a standard probationary period even if it is a lateral or upward job move. Forest rangers, researchers, scientists, janitors, nuclear waste specialists, accountants, IT experts... the list goes on and on.

The pain for them is pain for us

"A group of frustrated Yosemite National Park staffers hoping to draw attention to the federal government’s sweeping workforce cuts have hung an upside-down American flag thousands of feet off the ground on the side of El Capitan... “We’re bringing attention to what’s happening to the parks, which are every American’s properties,” Gavin Carpenter, a maintenance mechanic with Yosemite and disabled military veteran who supplied the flag and helped hang it Saturday, told the Chronicle. “It’s super important we take care of them, and we’re losing people here and it’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open.”" -San Francisco Chronicle

It isn't even Spring Break yet, and the line to get into Big Bend Nat'l Park stretched for over a mile. On the other end of the park, the gatehouse wasn't even staffed, so visitors rolled by with nowhere to deposit their $30 entrance fee or check in with a ranger.

While entrance and use fees don't cover all of the park's expenses, the economic value is such that every dollar invested in tehe Parks system returns about $15 in economic activity. Vendors, contractors, hoteliers, restaurants, Air BnB's... all orbit the national (and state) parks. In addition to the over 200 billion dollar budget cut, rules regulating leasing of parkland for oil drilling, mining, and logging, (once tightly regulated) will all be relaxed and most polluters and companies that damage the parks will not be held accountable. This, on top of the fact that park staffing has been reduced by 23% since 2010. Maintenance has been delayed if not abandoned because of continued budget strain.

The parks are more popular than ever, and one of America's favorite 'perks.' They grow more crowded even as staff and budget are being sliced. Some will close entirely. Carlsbad Caverns has already announced that there will be no tours this summer.

At most, the park service represents less than one-fifteenth of one percent of the budget. So, if they are wildly popular, have a net positive economic impact, and are already cut so deep that they no longer can function properly (if at all,) where's the waste? The fraud? The inefficiency? It's not about that, is it? It never was. And we all know it. Oligarchs like Trump-Elon have long wanted to privatize the parks, or at least open them up without restriction for development.

If they're still open by summer vacation, try to take the kids to see some of these great places. They'll mostly likely be gone, or unrecognizable in 4 years. Look for a Trump Tower on the rim of the Grand Canyon soon.

An unvaccinated kid in West Texas died of the measles on Wednesday. The first measles death in 10 years. This year's flu has been particularly bad. 86 kids and 19,000 adults have died so far. 430,000 adults have been hospitalized. Our new Health Director, RFK Jr. had promised under oath that he would notify the Senate before making changes to vaccine programs. This week, a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was supposed to begin work on the formulation for next season's flu vax. The meeting was canceled. We can only offer thots and prayers that RFK is OK and hasn't relapsed on the heroin.

The VA was told to reduce the spending limit of all its purchase and travel cards through its SmartPay program to $1, with only a few exceptions. They spend about $6 billion annually on those purchase cards... everything from gasoline used to transport vets to the hospital, oxygen, artificial limbs, hearing aids, glasses... It is the largest integrated health system in the US. And now employees will have to go through a bureaucratic process if they need so much as a box of bandages or a roll of toilet paper. Pretty efficient, no?

This limitation is also being enacted across several other departments. Purchasing computer supplies, paying contractors, fueling vehicles... And this affects not just low-level employees on the ground but also experienced managers trying to run remote offices or medical labs or chemical supplies.

Trump wants to sign an executive order to begin the process of reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe get rid of it entirely. … "I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away.” He said this while in North Carolina, surveying Hurricane Helene damage.

Officials were given hours to fire more than 100 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a civilian agency within the Department of Energy that oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Employees were shut out of their email accounts and told to clear out their desks immediately. These are the guys and gals who work on security upgrades to nuclear warheads, oversee emergency response plans at nuclear storage facilities and try to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons-grade plutonium and uranium. You know, just needless, fraudulent, lazy, government workers. Congress got a whiff of what was going on and in a panic demanded that they be rehired.

Confusion reigns at the Bonneville Power Administration. They distribute hydropower from 31 federal dams and operate 75% of the Northwest's power grid. 130 employees were let go there. But, oooooops, they were sorta mission critical. They knew which doo-hickie to push and what the red blinking light means on the console next to the big "warning" sign. So they brought most of them back. This is excellent for morale and builds trust between an employer and worker.

The USDA is trying to bring back staff members who were researching the bird flu - the one that is infecting poultry around the country and driving food prices sky-high. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced the dismissal of 1,000 employees last week, a move it said would save some $98 million annually. The public and even some Congress members were shocked that the already grossly understaffed agency could lose more people. Trump wants to eliminate or at least deal a mortal blow to the EPA. He wants to fire 65 percent of employees. It sounds like with less than half of a functioning EPA, we're in for some smoggy skies and undrinkable water! But, savings!

Musk chuckled when asked about his effort to destroy the U.S. Agency for International Development. "One of the things we accidentally canceled, very briefly was Ebola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention, so we restored the Ebola prevention immediately," he said. What a kidder, that Elon Musk. Genius, though, as any Trumper!

And for the icing on top, during a Tuesday House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, House Republican and federal employee Marjorie Taylor Greene said, "Federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks. And these are jobs that can be fired at will." Millions of people would suggest who needs to be fired, immediately.

Again, WHO IS THIS FOR?

We have not touched on the trillions of tax cuts that are being planned for the wealthiest among us. (Dear God, please see our billionaires. Thank you, God.) I haven't mentioned that most insiders suggest that Medicaid is on the chopping block to pay for those cuts along with every other reduction in service.

Did we talk about how badly the FAA is in disarray? Amid half a dozen aircraft collisions or near collisions, there have been firings, layoffs, and then the usual recalls because gee it's real important to have flight controllers at airports and gee, could you come back and take your shift, and gee, btw, would you mind working this weekend?

We haven't discussed the imminent tariffs that are coming upon the world like a bad plague. Or the threats to eliminate or mortally wound the Dept. of Education.

But this insanity is happening at every agency. These soul-crushing, mind fucking firings and layoffs and rescinded employment offers and recalls and reinstatements are destroying families,

And by the way. None of this is helping the economy. You say it's too early to tell? Well, King Trump promised that he could reduce prices immediately. He could stop the Russia/Ukraine war on the first day. "U.S. consumer confidence deteriorated at its sharpest pace in 3-1/2 years in February." The markets are down slightly for the month. Musk's Tesla stock dropped 30% in Feb., its second-worst month ever.

So who is this all for? If we lose our schools, if our vets lose proper medical care (and their jobs, since vets make up about 25% of the federal workforce,) if we can no longer count on clean drinking water, safety in our skies, vaccines and medical research to keep us well, parks for recreation, management of our power grids, oversight of the nations nuclear stockpiles... the list goes on and on... then why do we have a government? Why bother with a military? To protect... what exactly, and for whom?

If our government will no longer "take care of our people," why bother with a government at all? That is, of course, some of the wealthy elite's aim. If they can afford their own private education, gated communities, comfortable lifestyles and good security, it sounds like a dream. But a growing and increasingly angry underclass can be a pesky problem. Millions of underserved, hungry, and sick people can wreck a society. Revolutions are messy. It's madness to try to dismantle our government such that it benefits only the very top of the food chain. Civilizations are easy to break, and can rarely be put back together.

*As I wrote this, Trump kicked Zelinskii out of the Oval Office for not being grateful enough to the US for their aid, and for not groveling before him. Trump praised Putin and suggested Zelinkskii was about to start WWIII. Welcome to the New World Disorder.