Another Bus Bench Lost

“When elites see a homeless person in the gutter, they assume he’s saving a parking place.” ~ P.J. O’Rourke

With the health care bill collapse and the House and Senate left stymied trying to figure out a new plan that will be similar to the old plan so that the government can continue to screw as many poor and middle-class Americans as possible, forcing them into a medical cartel so that drug profits continue to roll in, more pain-in-the-ass drudgery from government “officials” must be dispensed.

While homelessness surges in Disneyland’s shadow, Anaheim removes bus benches – latimes.com   

It’s always something the government wants to take away – even something as common as a bus bench. Bus benches, not only used by the homeless to sleep at night, but also a place where the handicapped and elderly can sit while waiting on public transportation must be demolished for the aesthetic, evidently. Forget that the eye candy within the amusement park itself can be filled with homo sapiens whose fashion sense is a step down from what the homeless may be wearing – the area surrounding the concrete den of delights must be wiped clean of any signs of the real life outside Mickey and his friends.

Life for some (actually many) here in paradise is a guano sandwich. Taking away everyday “pleasantries” for those down on their luck, such as a hard, nearly indestructible bus bench that provides a momentary (or sometimes overnight) respite, is a sign of a government that is insane – as if this were news. But we forge on.

Yet, the removal of bus benches (such a trivial thing unless it’s you who doesn’t have a place to sleep) along with cuts in benefits to our poorest of the poor here in America is understandable – after all, the charlatans running the show need the printed money for the military industrial complex – to the tune of $696 Billion for 2018 – for their goodie-basket of nation building and regime change activities. Washington’s involvement in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria…with the drumbeat for war with Russia keeping its steady pace – well, these things have to be funded – and we have the proper criminals in Washington to administer such insanity.

Russia, that most evil of nations (according to the neo-con nut jobs who continue to infest the airwaves with their unfounded accusations and lies) spent $48 Billion in 2017 to fund its military.  In other words, for Russia, $696 billion would represent enough money to fund its military for fourteen years and six months.

And that $696 Billion dollar price tag for 2018 alone also includes some choice government droppings:

From theIntercept.com

This year’s version of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) which authorizes $696 billion in military spending, includes a nice gift for contractors, particularly those that have monopolized a particular part the Pentagon needs. Buried in the NDAA, which is scheduled to pass the House Friday (it has now passed in the House) is an increase in the amount of products which can be sold to the military without providing cost information — data about the price of manufacturing and labor. Without this information, monopoly contractors could enjoy a huge markup on their sales to the government without anyone knowing about it.

Nice perks for the military industrial complex – with affordable housing cuts dished out to HUD. A messed-up set of priorities for a nation so blessed.

The (Trump) administration would slash federal investments in affordable housing at HUD by nearly 17%, or $7.7 billion, compared to FY17.

There are those, and maybe it’s the majority of Americans, who aren’t too concerned with the plight of the homeless and the poor as they believe the government will take care of them or that the guano sandwich that life can deal to some and not others is entirely the poor’s fault. Having experienced the “joy” of having only a car to sleep in for a short time many years ago, pulling one’s self out of the quagmire of poverty isn’t done without some form of assistance. With budget cuts to HUD and more cuts in the works for the Medicaid program and the American Health Care Act, more of the homeless and poor will be left without a sliver of a chance of getting back on their feet.

As we have said before in other articles on this site, national defense is extremely important, but “defense” isn’t establishing bases in Syria without their permission, isn’t sending troops back to Libya – a country we decimated under the Obama administration, isn’t sending more troops back to Afghanistan to continue our 16 year war there and surely isn’t allowing monopoly military contractors to charge whatever figure is in their heads without anyone knowing about it. $696 Billion for military spending, with another $30 Billion added in for good measure wouldn’t be necessary if we weren’t militarily involved in countries around the world.

As Dr. Ron Paul states in a recent article:

Unfortunately President Trump seems to be incapable of understanding that it is US intervention and occupation of foreign countries that creates instability and feeds terrorism. Continuing to do the same thing for more than 17 years – more US bombs to “stabilize” the Middle East – and expecting different results is hardly a sensible foreign policy. It is insanity. Until he realizes that our military empire is the source of rather than the solution to our problems, we will continue to wildly spend on our military empire until the dollar collapses and we are brought to our knees. Then what?

We here at the Asylum would add that America’s poor and homeless are already on their knees. If a nation won’t fully address the needs of its downtrodden and less fortunate first, can one expect it will ever do right to the rest of its citizens or to any sovereign nation it chooses to occupy?

The next time you hear some media gadfly or politician licking their lips with Russiaphobia venom, regime change, the war on terror and all the other interventionist policies that take billions upon billions to fund, remember that these irritants won’t go looking for a bus bench to sleep on tonight, and won’t be thinking of the needs of that fellow citizen whose life has been reduced to such vulgarities; and certainly aren’t concerned that their ideas and policies have contributed to the deaths of 1.3 million since the US-led war on terror began.

We sometimes have to remind ourselves that 1 Billion is 1000 millions. Stating the obvious – a few of these billions, these 1000 millions currently used for extremely questionable “defense” activities, could create avenues of miracles for those of our fellow citizens who suffer from homelessness, malnutrition – who are the working poor. Tragically, the purse strings that control billions are in the hands of government representatives and others who lost their humanity, if they ever had it, long ago.

And so as it presently stands, we know that Western governments are immoral, and it is up to each of us individually, to get involved and help each other out, in whatever positive manner one can and as best as our capabilities will allow.

“We all inhabit this small planet; we all breathe the same air ; we all cherrish our children’s future and we are all mortal.”  ~ John F. Kennedy

 

The following musical offering really has nothing to do with this post…we just like to include, if possible, something beautiful to counter the ugly we all have to face each day

Chopin – Valentina Igoshina – (Raindrop) Prelude Op. 28, No. 15

 

 

Photo credit (front page): By JMSuarez [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons