Sunday, October 27, 2019

America Today

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I think that the thing I resent most about Donald Trump is his complete lack of knowledge regarding the country he serves.  Not only does he not understand the importance of - or even the basic workings of - the United States Constitution, he knows almost nothing of our country's history, geography, or even its character.  And, Donald Trump has no connection whatsoever with the real people who get up and go to work every morning to create a robust economy that allows  him and people like him to live like maggots off of the sweat of others.

This morning as I was sitting in the McDonald's parking lot enjoying a breakfast sandwich and availing myself of the free wifi, a young woman (probably no older than twenty) pulled her "beater" car into the spot next to my beater car and hopped out.  It wasn't until she had gone inside that I noticed the back window rolling up and down - and began to pay attention.  She had left two little girls - toddlers wearing matching pink jackets - in their car seats in the backseat of the car, and one of the children had learned how to raise and lower the automatic window next to her.  I'm guessing that the window probably would not have worked unless the car was running.

I reluctantly assumed the responsibility of watching the youngsters until Mother returned - which was about five minutes.  I assumed she had rushed in to use the bathroom or handle some emergency, and had made a poor decision to leave her girls in the car.  Or maybe she has just been going to breakfast and wanted a break from the never-ending demands of childcare.  But when mother returned to the car, she was not carrying the remains of a cappuccino or an Egg McMuffin, but rather she had a job application in her hand.

She had probably made a quick determination that trying to impress the manager would be more difficult if she was holding onto two squirming kids - and she was probably right.

I hope Mother gets her minimum wage job, and I hope that she has a husband, or boyfriend, or parent, or neighbor, or friend who will watch her beautiful little girls for free, because otherwise everything that she makes - and then some - will go to the babysitter.

That's America today:  people working themselves into the ground, literally, and falling further and further behind while they are racing from job to job.  They have no savings, they have no insurance, and if they are lucky they might have enough groceries in the house for a couple of days.   Any "spare" money goes in the gas tank, and if the car breaks down - and it will, or the kids get sick - and they will, they often lose their jobs because they can't get to work or find a sitter

I knew a young lady a few years back who walked ten miles (each way) to work at a Sonic.  Donald Trump doesn't know her and literally has no idea that people like her even exist, yet they are that toughest part of the muscle that runs the nation that he purports to lead.  Trump's response, and indeed the response from much of government, is to try and remove all government assistance from people like them, deny them health insurance - and, by extension, medical care - increase their share of the national tax burden, and force them to leave even more babies in cars as they rush door-to-door in search of more substandard employment opportunities that will further impoverish them.

That's America today, Donald.  The "emoluments clause" isn't phony, Colorado does not border Mexico, babies are being left in cars as young mothers search frantically for jobs that won't even cover childcare expenses, and poverty runs rampant.  And you're our leader.  And you're not even smart enough to realize that it's all going to shit.

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