Seems our Carpetbagger Governor, Rick Scott, aka Sick Rott, aka "Skeletor," has pulled yet another fast one. This creep has really hit the ground running, establishing a Unitary Executive (yes, with huge majorities in both whorehouses of the legislature, which just made "not illegal" direct acts of bribery) and blasting out executive orders in a way that puts our President to shame. He kind of without notice, stealthily actually, hacked 35% out of big chunks of the Medicaid and other po' folks safety net budget.
My gripe today involves what the "budget-hacking" means, on the ground: Where Pam, the nurse I work with, as kindly and competent a caregiver as you could find, will have to quit her job and seek welfare. If there is any. Because why? Because she has fiercely taken care of her daughter, Jessica, for the last 21 years. Jess is a bright soul locked by cerebral palsy in an unresponsive body, who needs full-time care. Up until today, she has had a nurse who provides that care during the work day, so Pam can support her household and pay her freaking taxes and utility bills and the cost of food and fuel. There has been state funding for a home health nurse, out of the pot that we collectively have seen fit to assign to the care of the least of us, in part out of some deep recognition that there, but for the grace of God, go we.
And today Pam is desperate and in tears, because on the sly, Governor Cut Their Throats and Bleed Them Out pulled another CEO trick and killed that funding. Of course with the connivance of a bunch of empathy-less, greed-driven, self-protected cretins that run our state from the far right (Wrong, dammit!) land of Tallahassee.
Not altogether cut, you say, but in effect Maxim Healthcare, which serves Pam and Jessica and lots of similar people by retaining the nurses that provide the care, will likely be forced out of the business by this one among so many unkindest cuts. So Kathy, Jessica's nurse, who has family cares of her own, will be out of a job, and my wife, also a nurse, who takes one shift a week with Jess, won't have that any more either. Maxim and similar agencies provide care for thousands of similarly situated folks all over the state. Nurses cannot afford to work for what the silk-stockinged Carpetbagger and the skalawags in Tallahassee now tell them they are "worth." Forget about all the studies showing how much less expensive it is to care for people at home. Institutionalize them, or just let them fracking DIE. (The Governator also has ordered up a "commission" to ratify his conclusion that hospitals run by "government" need to be replaced by more of the same kind of shit he pulled as the Medicare Fraud Queen at HCA/Columbia. Here's the Wikibite on this creature: http://en.wikipedia.org/...)
Sorry to bother you with the trivial miseries from out here in this corner of not-rich-and-connected-land. There's so much to be outraged and depressed about. But Governor Carpetbagger Skeletor pulled another fast one on Friday, without notice even. The economy is in the tank. Reich says we are headed down the slope of a second dip. Everybody has to feel some pain, right? In this "budget crisis" that exists just WHY, again? WHO has been "running" this state, and the nation, for the last forever? And WHO is stripping this formerly-seen-as-mildly-paradisical place of everything that made it at all virtuous. And how much bleeding pain are the people who are stealing all the real wealth and transferring it to themselves feeling, again?
Seems to me the problem is less one of revenue than of the loss of revenue occasioned by "opening Florida and the nation for business," and warring any old place our "leaders" choose to across the planet. The Reds are continuing and accelerating the "tax relief for business in exchange for no new jobs" plot. What is so hard to understand about what's going on? The killing, the literal killing, of the poor and weak, so Governor Expensive Size 10 Cowboy Boots can feed his fellow CEOs at a Lucullan gourmand's feast.
So one story in the Saint Petersburg Times mentioned the booing of that evil, odious man at the Rays opening game, with video for the strong if you want to watch. http://www.tampabay.com/... Not much mention of the place His Imperial Nibs spent the rest of the game thereafter, closeted in the Owner's Box with Stuart Sternberg and the rest of HIS fellow MLB Team Owners carpetbaggers, and gee, I wonder if they talked about "finding" a billion or so taxpayer dollars to build a new "World Class Stadium" for the porkers at One Rays Place to leverage into a nice sellable asset. Hmmm?
This all means, personally, little to nothing to all of you, just another sob story in a whole universe of them, brought on by greed and selfishness and self-pleasing on a really amazing scale. Maybe you have written off America The Beautiful -- I noted the "conservatives" dropped their push to make that the national anthem a couple of years ago -- apparently they actually read the words finally, and were appalled and horrified that people would have that stuff about "Crown thy good with brotherhood" and "Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!" and, amazingly, "Till selfish gain no longer stain The banner of the free!" sung to them over and over... Can't have the rabble hearing that before the start of every sports event, now can we? Much better to have them thinking about those million-buck-a-pop "bombs bursting in air," right? I'm dumb enough to think there's still a vital spark of decency in there somewhere, though I admit the evidence for that is getting might thin...
The thing to remember is that Scott is a Carpetbagger He spent maybe $80 million of dirty money to buy the election (thanks to a lackluster Dem party showing, and a wimpy candidate named "Sink".) He's a guy who gets great returns on his "investments," and is very "agile," witness all the shite he's pulled and pulling because the rest of us are standing around wondering what is happening. Because we cannot believe that another human, a small group of them, really, is doing this to us. And Scott obviously studied likely states to pillage, to see if they had any laws allowing recall or impeachment or other annoyances to the arrogant exercise of dictatorial power. Florida does not, of course, thanks to years of dys-rule by the Wrongs. He will steal big, leave a trail of dead bodies and be on his way to his personal Nirvana before anyone can really get a grip on what's been and being done.
You got any idea what a revolt looks like, or how easy it will be for Skeletor to hop on his private jet and zoom out of here before the stuff hits the fan?
What kind of people are they, anyway? And what kind of people are we?
Can I at least ask you to pray for my friend and co-worker, Pam, and her daughter Jessica, and for the Down syndrome and other disabled people whose support Scott cut on the sly, while hypocritically posing for pictures with Special Olympics athletes who will be taking part in a Torch Run here? And if you do not believe in prayer, at least think kind thoughts about them? And build up a little more righteous anger and try to take back some of the terrain of the land of our forefathers?