There's A Storm Coming

When (I’m talking in the years before Saint Reagan cut taxes for the rich and fucked all of us little people here), the ultra-wealthy and mega-corporations were taxed at a much higher rate (the economy worked better. Regular workers earned a living wage, healthcare was much more affordable, education was more affordable, and people hated the government less. Thus, the working and exploding middle classes were flush with money, they then pumped back into the economy, which increased demand and, by extension, increased profits, and wages. It was a win-win for everyone.

Then, in 1976, the Supreme Court tacitly legalized political bribery via the  Buckley v. Valeo decision (the platform upon which we were gifted Citizens United). Not long after, Ronald Reagan rammed his vile tax cuts through. Now the top 1% make hundreds of billions in profits during a pandemic shutdown while we scrape by or are competed plowed under losing homes, cars, freedoms, and dignity.

What followed was more than two decades of wealth redistribution from the bottom to the top. But we were told we were happy so what we were feeling had to be a lie.

The anger of the working class and shrinking middle class simmered.

In 2008 the economy collapsed. It was the worst collapse since the Stock Market crash of 1929 that kicked off the Great Depression.

Many of us lost everything we had in the wake of the financial implosion that was the Great Recession. Personally, we ended up losing our house as a result of the post-meltdown insanity. It would be ten years before we could even consider purchasing a home again.

Following the collapse, America elected Barrack Obama as the first non-white President in American history. My feelings about the President are mixed. I think he was a good man who did the best he could with the hand that he was dealt with. The Republicans loudly and publicly proclaimed they would do everything they could to make him a one-term president. They failed, but they did do a lot of damage.

I’m willing, for clarity, to set aside my problems with how President Obama conducted his portion of the never-ending war on terror. The extrajudicial killing of American citizens seems to have been forgotten by most.

I am also going to set aside how much I detest his connections to Wallstreet and the pharmaceutical industry. The drug companies were some of his biggest donors, and because of that, his administration was soft on them.

But there is one thing I have an issue with. One thing I will never be able to look past when it comes to the Obama legacy. President Obama’s treatment of Wallstreet and the Bankers who caused the collapse was sickening then and even worse in retrospect.

He famously said we can’t look backward and that we must look forward instead. Therefore, other than a few token resolutions, nothing ever happened to the bastards who caused the collapse that devastated mine, and so many others, families.

Fast forward to the Trump administration. Without question, the most administration in American history headed by the worst President to ever occupy the seat of power.

In the short time he’s had dominion over the government, Trump and his cronies have stripped almost all the remaining financial protections and regulations. They’ve passed gargantuan tax cuts for the ultra-rich and the multinational corporations. They pumped more and more of our money into the coffers of the rich while we scrambled for the scraps.

We thought this was the worst.

But we were wrong.

The Pandemic crashed our shores, and the world changed.

Millions out of work. Thousands of small businesses shuttered forever. Unemployment benefits are used up. Rents and mortgages unpaid, resulting in record evictions. Other than a one-time payment of twelve hundred dollars and a few months of enhanced unemployment, the American people have been left to fend for themselves in an increasingly feral environment.

What about the rich, you ask?

Why the nation’s billionaires have added half a trillion to their personal fortunes since the COVID pandemic shut America down. The corporations have been given Trillions in taxpayer dollars through a series of low to no interest loans, grants, and money pumped directly into the stock market to give the appearance of prosperity.

All done with our money.

We don’t live in a Capitalist Society.

We don’t live in a Socialist Society.

We don’t live in a Democracy.

We live in a Hyper-Capitalist Dystopia.

We live an Oligarchy.

- Josh (10/03/2020)