Oliver Twist asks for more porridge. Victorian Web describes this as “James Mahoney’s interpretation of George Cruikshank’s frontispiece for Dickens’s The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Household Edition, page 1. 1871.”
About a third of Americans eligible to vote fail to do so. It’s possible to look at this in two ways. One is that those people are shirking their civic responsibility. The other is that not voting is a right and they simply are exercising it.
In normal times, both views are legitimate. These are not normal times, however. The political debate that is underway now and will continue through the midterms next year and the presidential election two years later is not about things about taxes, foreign policy, domestic policy, fiscal policy or anything else about which political folks usually argue. Those issues are important. But the real debate is about decency versus cruelty.
It’s difficult to understand why the current administration seems to be going out of its way to do things in as mean a way as possible. It’s also difficult to understand why it would cause as much or even more pain in right-leaning states than those that skew blue. After all, MAGA lives in rural states.
Amateur psychiatrists can try to figure it out. But make no mistake about it: The cruelty is real. In some cases, it’s the nature of the laws and directives being promulgated. In others, it’s the gratuitously nasty ways in which they are carried out.
Continue reading after the music break…
“Run on for a Long Time” is a traditional that’s been recorded by many artists, including The Blind Boys of Alabama, Johnny Cash…and Marilyn Manson. It’s really difficult to watch this video only once.
The Cash version was recorded near the end of his life and featured cameos by celebrities without makeup and in some cases awkward and seemingly unscripted moments. The idea, quite possibly, is that no matter how famous you get, God is going to catch up to you. Another version has the Blind Boys of Alabama backing Tom Jones. It’s in a meeting room of some sort and in the background, just watching, is Derek Trucks.
TDMB will keep an updated list of cruelties. Our goal–both this post and the political side of the site in general–is to make the point to those who dislike politics that for the next few years it will not really be about politics. It will be power and control. Ultimately, it will be about our humanity, about who we are. Policy and politics will be the battlefields.
Here are several with which to start. They unfortunately won’t be the end of the list:
Defunding USAID. The administration closed down much of the program in late winter. A study from the medical journal Lancet says that the death toll could be 14 million people. That’s more than the population of Pennsylvania.
Arresting immigrants at hearings. From the AP: A group of immigrants and legal advocates filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday that seeks to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from arresting migrants who appear at immigration courts for previously scheduled hearings and placing them on a fast-track to deportation. Those who show up for their hearings are being punished for complying with the law. Those who don’t show up are violating the rules and still are free.
Arresting suspected immigrants in front of their kids.
Rosalina Luna Vargas, a mother of two and the primary breadwinner for her family, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Saturday morning around 8 a.m., according to bystanders. Her children were present at the time of the incident, which took place in broad daylight in the corner of Catalina and Del Mar. (Yahoo)
Reducing food stamps and other.
The bill, which the president is expected to sign by Friday, slashes spending on Medicaid, which provides health insurance to some 37 million children and is a critical revenue source for schools. It also limits eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides food assistance to over 13 million children and makes kids automatically eligible for free meals at school. (Chalkbeat)
Not doing due diligence on firing emergency workers. The administration, though the Department of Government Efficiency and other elsewhere, has fired thousands of federal workers. This was done quickly, haphazardly and in many cases almost certainly illegally. Among those let go were emergency workers who otherwise who may have been able to avert or moderate the loss of more than 100 lives – including dozens of young campers – in Texas.
Reducing funding for medical research. Things like this are hard to understand. Presumably, the folks who decided to do this have had a relative with a terrible disease, or even had one themselves. It really makes no sense.
Hollowing out healthcare: Experts predict that almost 12 million people could lose health coverage due to the budget bill signed into law by President Trump on July 4.
Closing rural hospitals: People in rural areas are older and sicker than their suburban and urban counterparts. The hospitals that serve them struggle. OBBBA will cut roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid, their major source of funding, during the next decade. That will make a bad problem worse. Whether a $50 billion fund established to offset the cuts will be adequate remains to be seen.
Alligator Alcatraz: Multiple reports say that conditions at the new immigration detention center in the Everglades are abysmal, including forcing shackled prisoners to eat like dogs.
Deporting sick children: “We recently learned a 2-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old with Stage 4 cancer – all citizens – were whisked out of the country April 25 and deposited in Honduras with their mothers, who were being deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Gutting gun programs: The administration has terminated more $158 million, which is more than half of all federal funding for gun violence prevention programs, according to Reuters:
Of the 145 community violence intervention (CVI) grants totaling more than $300 million awarded through the U.S. Department of Justice, 69 grants were abruptly terminated, opens new tab in April, according to government data analyzed by Reuters.
Weakening worker protections. “The Trump administration slashed fines for safety violations by small businesses and other employers and plans to reduce already rare workplace inspections. Experts say that will lead to more worker injuries, illnesses and deaths.” (Inside Climate News)
Hurting the poor most. “The House bill would hit the lowest earning 10% of Americans hardest: for them, it would mean a painful $1,600 cut in income on average (a 3.9% drop), according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). (The Guardian)
*****
This research from The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (Penn LDI) was published about a month before the final bill passed. The projections from what was signed into law likely are only marginally different–and perhaps worse:
We project that implementation of the retractions outlined in the reconciliation bill would result in more than 42,500 deaths annually. This includes:
1. 11,300 deaths from the loss of Medicaid or Affordable Care Act Marketplace coverage due to 7.7 million people losing coverage
2. 18,200 deaths due to the loss of Medicaid coverage among 1.38 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries, causing loss of access to low-income prescription drug subsidies
3. 13,000 deaths among Medicaid enrollees in nursing homes due to the rollback of CMS’ 2024 nursing home minimum staffing rule.
The point is not whether any particular policy is good or not. It can be argued that there is plenty of government waste, counterproductive rules and folks here illegally. The opposite position can be taken.
The discussion doesn’t have anything to do with deporting sick children or sending innocent people to gulags in El Salvador. It doesn’t have to include arresting people who show up for their immigration hearing, deporting sick children or terminating medical research. It’s pretty clear that the real goal isn’t a fair and honest administration of justice. It’s about cruelty.
Unfortunately, the first chance we will have to right our national ship will be in essence a campaign against the enablers in about a year and a half from now. Defeating them will not be as emotionally satisfying as winning elections from the main culprits. But it will have to do.
Folks who don’t vote, no matter what the reason, should make an exception in the midterms. It’s the decent thing to do. Keep in mind that doing the right thing helps the person who does it more than the person he or she helps.
