For those of you who suggest I ‘”stick to sports” you
probably should take a pass from today’s blog….although it’s probably those
very folks that need to read this the most.
Elections have consequences…..every person in Congress who
votes for this abomination of a tax bill should be voted out of office at the
first possible opportunity. Every damn one of them. They have abdicated their
responsibility to represent their constituents and deserve to be relegated to
the scrap heap of history. This isn’t only a little bad. This is a flat out
disaster for everyone who is reading this. Unless you are one of the uber-rich
like the Walton family, the Koch Brothers, and yes, the Trump family, you are
being boned by this bill. According to the CBO and the Committee on Taxation,
by 2027, people making between 40 and 50 thousand dollars per year would pay a
combined $5.3 billion more in taxes, while the group earning $1 million or more
would get a $5.8 billion cut. This is Sam Brownback’s Kansas writ large and you
don’t have to look far to see how much of an economic basket case the Jayhawk
state has become. Senator John McCain says he will vote yes, spending what will
probably be his last meaningful vote on a bill that will harm millions of
Americans. He voted against George W. Bush’s tax reform package and this is
much worse. Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA and other programs that are an intregal
part of most Americans lives will be drastically altered and people will die. It’s
just a question of how many. And the monstrosity also includes things that
people don’t even realize. It lifts the ban on political activism by churches…it
will curtail the ability of many states (mostly blue) to levy their own taxes
which will put added pressure on local spending for services. McCain said this
bill has been “carefully considered”. That’s a joke. Donald Trump said in a
speech that his family will not benefit from the bill. That’s a lie. The
smugness of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell should enrage you. They are doing
this because they can and their party needs a win. The party that has
consistently screamed when the deficit is raised will add over a trillion
dollars to it. The next time any Republican squawks about rising deficits you should
laugh in their face. The only power you have with this kind of abuse of power
against you is to vote. I know, its not much and with the gerrymandering and
voter suppression the Republicans have engaged in, probably won’t be effective
in many areas. But it will only take a few races to flip the Senate to put a
stop to this. It’s pretty simple…you can bend over and say “thank you sir, may
I have another” or you can say “enough is enough”………23 Trump businesses
including Mar-A-Lago must retain records after they receive subpoenas from the
attorneys general in Maryland and DC as part of a lawsuit accusing the
President of profiting from his office violating the Emoluments Clause of the
constitution. This should be the easiest win in judicial history……………The word
is that Trump is trying to embarrass Rex Tillerson enough to get him to quit.
Now, Tillerson has been a disaster at State but be careful what you wish for.
Mike Pompeo could be worse and installing a loon like Tom Cotton as CIA chief
is malpractice at the highest level. It would at least get his crazy ass out of
the Senate but methinks he can do a lot more damage at the CIA and certainly
will.
Quotes Of The Day
“Republicans are about to vote to transfer literally
trillions of dollars from regular people who work at regular jobs to around
5,500 people with estates, and the largest and most profitable global corporations
in human history. Don’t be despondent. Be angry.”-Brian Schatz
“Shouldn’t we hold the
President of the United States to the same standards as Jeremy Piven?”- Billy
Eichner
“Doug Jones spent 20 years prosecuting drug dealers, dirty
cops and domestic terrorists—including KKK members who murdered 4 children.
Meanwhile, as an Alabama Supreme Court judge, Roy Moore cast the sole vote in
favor of a man convicted of first-degree sodomy of a 4 year old child”-
Caroline O
“The White House has been considering a proposal for a
totalitarian-style secret police run out of Whitefish Montana”-Eric Garland
(this is apparently true)
“Republicans have lectured us in fiscal responsibility for
years, but now they want to explode the deficit by $1.5 trillion to give tax
cuts to a wealthy few. It seems the deficit hawks have flown away.”- Senator
Dick Durbin
The WIAA is voting this morning on whether or not to
continue planning to install a shot clock for high school basketball starting
in 2019. It’s been an issue that has divided coaches, players, fans and
administrators. As someone who abhors slow down basketball I don’t have a
problem with it. Will it lead to more forced bad shots? Maybe. But for me that
a small price to pay to banish the stall tactics forever. Kids practice all
week to play the game…not stand at center court and hold the ball to feed some
coaches ego.
The Wausau West hockey team, after starting the season with
two losses, bounced back with a nice 4-3 win over Stevens Point last night.
Those two teams, with maybe DCE in the mix, should be fighting for the Valley
crown again this season.
I get my first look at the East/Merrill Bluejacks tonight at
Marathon Park. They host Tomahawk and I’ll have the game as the 2
nd
half of our doubleheader on Foxsports Radio AM1390 & FM 93.9.
The Milwaukee Brewers will at least kick the tires on
Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani and his agents have submitted a questionnaire
to all major league teams that they will have to fill out if they want to be
considered. The Brewers have done that and also have some ties that should
help. Ohtani is represented by the same agent who handles Ryan Braun and Jimmy
Nelson and former Brewer Nori Aoki.
Ringo Starr is going out on tour with another addition of
his All-Star band. The 2018 tour will include former Men At Work frontman Colin
Hay, Graham Gouldman from 10cc, Steve Lukather from Toto, Greg Rolie who played
with Santana & Journey, Warren Ham and Greg Bissonette.
Songs Of The Day—Today is the anniversary of the release of
Hotel California by the Eagles in 1976. I was in London on a semester abroad
and we had been hearing tunes from this and Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of
Life for weeks on the BBC. I couldn’t wait to get home for many more important reasons. But hearing this whole album was on my list. Don Henley, one of the best voices in pop/rock music history
The Last Resort-Eagles (1976)
