Idle Thoughts

Given the current dangerous circumstances, I'm all for joining forces with less crazy Republicans to oppose Trump. The one thing that bothers me though is that while Romney is relatively sane, I clearly remember how old Mitt heavily courted Trump for his support back during the 2012 presidential run. During that time while Trump was spewing his birtherism crap about President Obama, I don't remember a single occasion where Romney took the high road and tried to stop him from spreading those lies. For that reason anyone who thinks Romney would be a voice of reason in the United States Senate does not remember how many times he easily bent with the changing political winds. 

It goes without saying the country is sliding down the slippery political slope of intolerance and people being close-minded. Yes, I am not leaving my fellow liberals/progressives out of that statement. Years ago I once said something relatively kind about former Utah governor Jon Huntsman jr. -a conservative Republican- on a left leaning website and the backlash was quite surprising. I'll go as far and say it rivaled some of the most stunted and repressive statements from conservatives. But if Trump has one true talent, he has taken American politics to a new and dangerous low. His childishness and lies on Twitter are only matched by his chilling authoritarian suggestions that everything said against him is fake news propaganda.      

One of the most surreal conversations I ever had was with an acquaintance who thought a sign of American power was the number of billionaires we had as citizens. According to Wikilpedia there are 536 American billionaires, yes we have the most with China possessing 213, India has 90, and Russia has 88 who are usually close, personal friends of Vlad Putin. I tried to explain to that idiot acquaintance having the most billionaires doesn't help the country at all. Their piles of cash are usually stowed away in banks or buying back stocks from shareholders, not rotating through the overall economy allowing Joe Blow to buy a car which in turn keeps the assembly lines fully staffed. With the automobile factories running those guys and gals get paychecks which allows them to buy all sorts of neat things like clothes, food, and other items. I tried to explain to the idiot what would really help the country is if they raised the minimum wage to a livable level, those bigger paychecks would go back into the economy creating more business. Everyone has heard the phrase, "in one ear and out the other", well I saw that literally happened after explaining my point. He was still stuck on the idea that the number of billionaires made some difference. His general idea, I guess, being that their wealth would eventually trickle down to his semi-literate level.            

Back during the 2016 presidential race I remember of good number of stoners saying there would be no difference between Trump and Hillary. Now that this fossil has rescinded the Obama-era regulations that ignored federal laws on marijuana, I can't wait to hear the screams of indignation from them. I understand Hillary was distasteful to some liberal/progressive voters back in 2016. My suggestion for 2018 and 2020, lets all just choke down our righteous indignation and desires for ideological purity and just vote for whatever Democrat happens to be running at the local, state, and national levels. After that we can whine and fight over the direction we need to take the country to recover from this disaster. 

Finally, coral reefs all over the world are in danger from increasing global temperatures and ocean acidification. Given that millions of oceanic species depend on corals for shelter and food if they are unhealthy the entire food chain is in danger. Yes, that means humans as well. Let the coral reefs die and the food chain collapse and you anti-environment morons will finally get the chance to die while clutching your precious assault rifles and money. The only question is whether it will be from lack of available oxygen or starvation.