December will be the darkest month
And I’m not just referring to the onset of meteorological winter.
Republicans will pass their moral abomination of a so-called “tax reform” bill, which is really a massive giveaway to corporations and the rich at the expense of the poor and the middle class (and, as we discovered Thursday, the deficit). They may, in fact, pass it just hours from the time of this writing, and it may already be done by the time anyone reads this. They like to hold rushed votes such as these in the dead of night in order to shield themselves from the scrutiny of primetime news or “regular order,” the process ostensibly championed by fake maverick John McCain, who has already pledged his support for this monstrosity that flouts any semblance of “order.”
The monstrosity will include a repeal of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, and with it, the repeal of health insurance coverage for millions of Americans.
The Federal Communications Commission, now best described as a puppet for Big Telecom and an enemy to the consumer, will vote to repeal net neutrality and turn over the open internet to greedy, profit-hungry corporate behemoths like Comcast and Verizon, who control so much of the market that most customers have little recourse if they’re screwed over. (Count me among them; my choices for internet access right now are — you guessed it — Comcast or Verizon.) If you’re not familiar with net neutrality or why it matters so much, read this.
Voters in Alabama will knowingly elect a child molester to the U.S. Senate.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be opened up for oil drilling. Protected national monuments in the West will be decimated by a despicable man whose narcissistic obsessions center on undoing whatever his predecessor did, no matter how destructive those pursuits may be.
Further allegations of predatory sexual behavior may be made, but the sexual predators who will be held accountable won’t include the president of the United States.
That president (I will never, ever use the title combined with his name, because he’s beneath it) will continue to offer support to bigots of various stripes, and his behavior will continue to be met with muted response by those who haven’t already normalized it entirely.
There will continue to be no action on children at risk of losing their health insurance — because, you know, “pro-life” and shit — and we’ll likely face the second government shutdown in four years. Of course, Trump’s only concern about this is whether he comes out as the winner in said fiasco.
So many awful things are happening all at once in the political arena that it’s virtually impossible to mention them all — surely I’ve omitted many here — much less mount an effective opposition to all of them simultaneously. This is certainly by design.
Indeed, dark times are upon us. How long will they last? Your guess is as good as mine.
