Shape of things to come.

Vlad said that the recent yellow color of the blog borders was scorching his retinas so I decided to go easy on you today with a touch of soothing gray. Now the spooky stuff.

The Trump budget is out and it is one scary wish list. Not going to reiterate or go through the whole thing but some of the cuts really do border on the inhumane. Heating oil subsidies, training for the disabled and seniors, Osha funding, major environmental rehab projects are getting axed, the Chemical Safety Board, Public Housing, Meals on Wheels, draconian cuts at the National Institute of Health, Rural clean water funding like the Water and Wastewater loan and grant programs, coal miner assistance programs in Appalachia, PBS, Legal Services, legal aid for domestic abuse, all gone. Cuts everything that doesn't have to do with the military and then takes a big hack to the State Department and soft diplomacy as well. Take a big sword to everything that smacks of humanity and then lets the unfortunate fend for themselves.

And we get a country that resembles its leader, a big bully with one tool in its quiver, a big hard stick. Let's see how that works down the road. But at least we will have a very expensive but shiny new wall across our southern border. Unless we get the contractor to throw in Canada too for free, Donald is quite the negotiator...

The elderly are really going to be taking a lot of hits in Trumpworld and I genuinely feel for them. Trumpcare will have a devastating effect on them.The gloves are off, according to Sean Spicer the AARP and the AMA are merely special interest groups. Now they can be sick, hungry and cold.

Made me think of the sixties movie, Wild in the Streets. In this great 1968 tale of the counterculture, people over 40 are termed the "Old Guard." Mandatory retirement is instituted at the age of thirty, then you are sent to a re-education camp at thirty five, where you are then narcotized and knocked off. All is good in this allegorical film, that is until the pre-teens take power.

And I can't help thinking that that is what this President is going to do the aged in this country. Restrict them from healthcare, keep them cold in the winter, take any free food they may have been leeching off the young and productive and then finally, take them out in the backyard and shoot them when they outlive their productivity and usefulness, like you would euthanize a farm animal.

WildBill had a catchy quote of unknown origin he shared with me the other day:

"A republican cannot enjoy their steak unless they know that somewhere out there, there is someone who wants steak but can't have it."

I don't like being a partisan hack. There was plenty I disliked about Obama and I was regular and emphatic in my criticism. But I could never have imagined having such a fundamental national discussion about who we are as a people and how we should care for the least among us. You know, it used to be a Christian thing, if you can remember that far back.

Bernie scared me and Hillary had her faults but welcome to the national nightmare. We will get through it eventually and hopefully people will have better memories in the future and remember that the message of the snake oil salesmen somehow never changes.
But someone you know, unless you live a highly prosperous and extremely hermetically sealed position, is about to get hurt real bad.