I’m confused, and troubled – of course.
Can you imagine Dwight Eisenhower or Barack Obama abusing underlings for following the facts and the law regarding damage to the reflecting pools? Of course, neither would have interfered to choose a contractor himself. The facts show that shoddy work, maybe because of the rush or the low budget, caused damage, as often happens. Mr. Trump was mortified, because anything that reflects badly on our "Grand Poobah" must be denied or destroyed. His obedient appointee, D.C.’s chief prosecutor, duly charged folks criminally for doing damage there’s no evidence they did. Recently that office concluded that, yeah, shoddy work was the problem, and dismissed the criminal cases. GP is angry, insulting his pal and may fire her. If I held that job, and he accused me of “folding like an umbrella” because I reluctantly did what the facts and law warranted, I’d have resigned. Clearly, GP’s appointed minion has no self-respect, which, I suppose, is not the greatest surprise we’ve seen this week.
I’ve got personal reasons to loathe our GP this week. Someone we love, who devotes his life these days to taking care of his helpless, unwell daughter, had to evacuate their home because of wildfires. Even his daughter would likely see that uncontrollable storms and wildfires around the world, which folks warned could happen if we didn’t combat global climate craziness, might have something to do with global climate craziness. But GP, holding great power, says all that is a hoax. People I love could have died this week because of what he’s calling a hoax, because oil companies pay him well to say it.
I also don’t like James Carville, who usually says perspicacious things in funny ways. He’s joined the rush to warn us against “democratic socialists” getting nominated for office. He’s afraid enemies will shout “Reds!" Or “Commies” as if it were the 1950s. Or 1920. And people will obediently grow fearful. I see things differently. Both our huge political parties, which often seem to exist solely to gather or retain as much power as possible, rather than to do anything much for you or me, are way too beholden to the huge corporations and the very wealthy. They both talk some great stuff. But in the past 70 years, we’ve stopped equalizing our society and let economic inequality grow like Topsy, failed to institute a national health system like every other serious nation, and failed to recognize that health and education are human rights that benefit a society. We’ve made decisions that are just plain stupid if you’re thinking about the welfare of human citizens, but brilliant for maximizing short-term corporate profits. And although Republicans have publicly pushed those decisions more fervently than Democrats, both parties have held power.
It is so bad, that large numbers elected GP [DJT] as a monkey wrench to toss into the works, ‘cause they felt the works weren’t working for them.
Meanwhile, I thank Manny Sanchez for spending a tough hour with us on radio; but I’m troubled. Not that Project Jupiter folks keep lying to us. A corporation’s job is maximizing shareholder profits. Lies are just another tool. But our commission sometimes seems to listen to Oracle with as little critical thinking as Trumpists listening to GP. I’d urge not messing with public comment. It’s time-consuming. If you’ve made that many people that angry, maybe you owe ‘em.
Peter Goodman's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.