Why So Many Are Angry


Reading time – 3:59; Viewing time – 5:42  .  .  .

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was promoted as a surefire way to increase the wages of working Americans and promote the hiring of additional workers. “More than 70% of this [tax cut] will be returned to workers,” said White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, reading from official White House notes. It didn’t work out quite that way.

Corporations used far more of their tax savings on stock buy-backs than on anything that would directly benefit workers. The total used for stock buy-backs has surpassed $1,100,000,000,000 and the primary beneficiaries of that are people who are already wealthy.

Let’s try one more example.

After filing for bankruptcy, Sears closed many of its stores and the pink slips they put into workers’ pay envelopes told them that there would be no severance pay for them due to the bankruptcy. Now they’re giving out $25 million in bonuses to top executives. These are atta-boys for the very geniuses who drove the company into bankruptcy.

Want another example?

Wisconsin voters elected to boot Republican Gov. Scott Walker out of office and replace him with a Democrat. The lame duck session of the Republican state legislature then passed a series of bills designed to dramatically limit the power of the incoming Democratic governor and Walker has signed those bills into law. That keeps power in the hands of the people who lost the election and effectively thwarts the will of the people.

This post isn’t about railing against fat cats or Republicans. Rather, it’s about why we citizens are angry. It’s about real grievances rooted in the lives of millions who suffer while the powerful few enrich themselves.

I’m all for capitalism, but it, like anything, can be used to abuse, which is why we have regulations. Sometimes those regulations are ignored by those in power. Sometimes they pass laws that either directly or indirectly pad their own pockets and those of their “donor class,” often at the expense of the rest of us.

One last example.

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was President Trump’s first national security advisor. He was lobbying for a foreign government at the same time that he was receiving top secret U.S. national security briefings. What’s wrong with this picture?

Flynn lied about it. Trump tolerated it. How are you feeling about the performance of the primary job of the federal government – to protect our country and ensure national security? Flynn got $600,000 for his deceit.

When it consistently feels like you’re the screw-ee, there comes a breaking point for all of us and we get very angry. Some want to carry torches in the street and burn it all down and they will vote for whoever speaks to their rage. As long as that rage is continuously validated, all other leadership outrages can be ignored, like putting numbers on the forearms of child detainees at our border concentration camps instead of assertively dealing with the crisis of people seeking asylum.

One of the reasons we remain so very angry is the continuing Russian propaganda machine that has permeated our nation. Russia has worked to divide us, polarize us, confuse us, sow dissent and stoke our anger against anything that we used to see as bedrock of our nation. The people in our national security agencies are working to unravel that, but the most important point is that the leader of our country refuses to crack down on the Russians. Rather, he continues to create chaos – distracting, America-defeating chaos – making the stock market tumble, shaking our international alliances and making foreign autocrats applaud.

All of that and more is why so many of us are angry.

One more thing in two points .  .  .

First, the government is shut down. That isn’t about immigration. It isn’t about national security and it isn’t even about a wall. It’s entirely about Trump’s infantile ego. He declared on TV, “If I don’t get what I want, I’ll shut down the government.” (Play the audio below for the recording.) That has absolutely nothing to do with what’s best for our country.

Trump is promising to hold his breath and turn blue until he gets his way. And he thinks that’s what we should care about.

How is that working for you – or for the thousands of federal workers who won’t be getting paid?

Second point: Trump’s tweet that he will swiftly remove our troops from Syria came as a surprise to literally everyone, including our own Defense Department. Trump intends to cede the entire middle-east to the Russians, the Turks and the Iranians and abandon our allies, the Kurds, again. That is past the line of what Gen. Jim Mattis can tolerate, so he’s leaving the Defense Department. That’s shaking up our allies because there are no longer any adults in the room.

Main point: As important as these two issues are, recognize that Trump has effectively changed the national story away from the known 17 current investigations into the Trump Crime Family. Keep your eye on the ball.

Last minute correction: I’m informed that the numbers being written on the forearms of detained kids at our southern border are being written by welfare workers. I don’t know how that makes a difference from the same thing being done by government workers, but I’m told that it does. Just get that if these kids hadn’t been separated from their parents there would be no need for Gestapo-like numbers on their arms or any other form of ID. And get that this tattooing is being done in your name.

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Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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3 Responses to Why So Many Are Angry
  1. Dominick Palella Reply

    Jack, the many who are angry are irrelevant to the few who are extremely pleased and in control of our government. These are the politicians and the corporations they loyally represent to earn their generous donations and keep them in office, while they learn how to be the best lobbyists for them in the future. The Republican Senate victories in the last election will keep all of the corporate gains made in the last two years for the next two years. Few can understand that if the House had 100% Democrats in office, the Senate and their corporate leaders could care less.

    One day, hopefully before our human infestation of this planet does not turn it over to cockroaches to begin anew, voters here and abroad will learn how to use our 21st century technology to free themselves as submissive servants to political hacks. However, some here at home still think that Russian trolls are influencing our elections more than our corporate-run political parties and mass media that promote the elections of our political toady con artists.

    TrueDemocracyNow.org

  2. John Calia Reply

    You’re getting better at this.

  3. Joni Lindgren Reply

    The “tax reform scam bill” that was passed last December was not only given to the 1%, but it was a down-right lie. Paul Ryan said it would be used to give to the people! The Republicans knew exactly what they were doing……STEALING our tax money to give to rich!
    Then when it comes to Sears, Sears has been closing stores for years AND they’ve managed to STEAL our tax money to supposedly, bail them out, but FOR YEARS, they’ve taken our money and given it to the RICH/Executives. Sears should have been out of business years ago, but they keep milking the tax payers. Good gig, huh?
    In terms of Flynn, the crime syndicate that is in power right now is another scam because NO ONE will go to jail for their crimes..Manafort, Flynn, Gates, etc. At the most, they’ll get 2 weeks in the clinker and they’ll be back to doing what they want. As Trump said, “I can go out and shoot someone on the street and nothing will happen”. THEY ALL KNOW THIS!
    If this administration was in power any longer……ALL THESE LIES about how easy it is to steal will look exactly like what happened about 6-8 years ago in Spain, Greece and Portugal. The “ELITES” stole all the money meant to take care of the people, bankrupted those economies and left the people destitute!! This is where the CRIME FAMILY is going in the U.S……JUST SIPHONING our TAX MONEY TO GIVE TO THEM!!
    The “elites” in government are also STEALING all our National Monuments to give to the “elites” who will drill and frack on OUR property…..those are public lands that have been protected for the people! Not anymore…..they are taking every drop of our national resources….water, oil, gas…..and turning them into GOLD for themselves!!
    If the people in this country don’t rise up/wake up and storm the castle to save ourselves, I’m sure they’ll TAKE IT ALL!!!