‘We’re fighting wars,’ that’s why I need a ballroom
Remember that time President Donald J. said, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.” “They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.”
I swear, this man’s obsession, whose nonspecific forgotten shin injury was used to dodge “wars to fight” during the Vietnam War, is reason 29048 he gets on my nerves. At least the Austrian of Anglo Supremacy King scammed his way into serving in the German army during WWI before enraging Europeans into rage against…well y’all know the story.
As we transition to a form of oligarchal, fascist techno-kleptocracy, I want to talk about how we have all been complicit in who we elect to divvy up the resources that we all contribute to throug taxation. Instead of berating or talking down to you, I will use this series to explain the best and worst legislation that each member of the U.S. House and Senate has introduced, alphabetized by state and by tenure. I will start with the oldest of them all, Chuck Grassley, a 92-year-old embarrassment who represents the great state of corn. His most recent pork belly legislation exposed the new big lie: “Donations” will pay for the ballroom. According to The Hill, “the funds can’t be used for any non-security features of the East Wing Project.” Are we supposed to believe the loophole administration won’t find a way to muddle all the features together?
The idea that the “Iowa Caucuses” are a political tradition that heavily weights who will be president, even though a portion of the state has sent the same person back for 45 years. Iowans must be highly satisfied with Chuck Geezler. No disrespect to elders, but Chuck has been climbing through the committee assignment ranks without really doing a damn thing of substance for his state. A prescription drug bill that limited the DEA’s power in stopping “suspicious” shipments of opioids was heavily criticized.
Grassley was first elected in 1980. I was three.
His claims to fame as a member of the United States Congress are legendarily unremarkable, except for the Medicaid Part D benefit, which was passed in 2003. It is viewed favorably by a majority of its enrollees, so yeah, Chuck, you should have retired. Just after voting to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and the Patriot Act in 2001, but before the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Grassley has not announced whether he plans to seek re-election or die in office; he’d make history as the oldest to do it. It doesn’t have to be that way. If he hops on a ballot, Iowa voters should retire him so Joni Ernst can have company. The truth is, every state needs to elect at least one House and Senate member who makes term limits part of their campaign platform.
Anyway, the senators that some of you have re-elected, some without opposition and many times over, are usurping your will, ignoring your values, and pretending that it isn’t by vote of confidence or lack of opposition that they are in the position at all. Make them remember who they work for. Make them fear you more than their tech bros and billionaire daddies…unless y'all really want to be fat and drinking 96 oz sodas like the wasting away people in the film Wall-E.
