Are We Happy?

 

So, “Are We Happy Yet?: to quote today’s NY Times. Well, today, the sun is out . . . for the time being. We seem to be moving into an era in which, like some others, perhaps we no longer need our Weathermen. We now seem to have a standard weather forecast:

“Partly cloudy, with the possibility of afternoon thundershowers, some could be severe. A tornado is possible. Avoid areas near rivers, since areal flooding is likely.”

There, that’s your standard daily forecast. So, does that make you happy? No? Well, how about this?

“Donald Trump will be giving a press conference in your neighborhood this afternoon, and he plans to inform you why a vote for his opponent is a vote to destroy America.”

There, now you feel great, right?

Yeah, so between the Climate Change daily forecast and our pseudopolitical climate, life has become Yuck. Or maybe AAARRRGGGHHH! Remember those political battles in the 70s, 80s and 90s? They were tough, huh? It was always tough listening to Nixon, or Shrub, or, for God’s sake, Reagan.  But today, listening to Trump, or the Trump MAGACultists? We are now in a different universe altogether. Having grown up listening to FDR, during and just after WW II, I grew used to having sanity on the air. 

Are you aware that, during the 1950s, the tax rates on high incomes reached over 90%? Yeah, and they complained. But can you imagine Elon Musk paying a 95% tax rate on his top income? He would be exploding.  I mean, Musk is donating $45 million/month to Trump’s campaign, because he knows, if Trump is elected, that his tax rates will go down even more than they are now.  I believe Musk now pays somewhere in the vicinity of 53%, so some 40% less than in days of old.

But even beyond taxes, our political system has, on one side, the Democrats who are trying to pass legislation to help combat the Climate Catastrophe in which we reside, to better regulate our border immigration policies, to help moderate  the Israeli-Hamas mess, to bring greater pressure on Russia to back off in Ukraine, and to induce more growth in industry, so as to create more jobs.

On the other hand, the Trump MAGACult wants to cut taxes on the wealthy, reduce Social Security payments, reduce Medicare/Medicaid expenses, prevent any abortions in the country, regardless of the health of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest, and rein in or perhaps even eliminate regulatory programs such as EPA, or FDA.  Any Federal agencies that regulate the private sector are suspect and could be eliminated under Trump. He also, per the Project 2025 agenda, would get rid of many current Federal civil service employees, and replace them with staff answerable only to the President.

So, America under Trump would move to something closer to a monarchy, or maybe just a dictatorship, as we can observe in today’s Russia under Trump’s BFF, Vlad the Impaler Putin.

Yeah, why do we need this Democracy anywise? With Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and JD, and Johnson, we would have a perfect combination of skills and attitude.

So, see what we have to look forward to, if we can only elect The Donald? Now, to be fair, The Donald is getting a bit creaky, and his brain seems a little less than perfect.  But he’s never been classed as brainy anyways, right? And, were he younger and brainier, he might not listen to Musk and his rich friends. Right? So, this is probably better for America. You can’t have a Dictatorship and still have a brainy, ethical president, right?

Hey Neil deGrasse Tyson, what do you think? Does all this presidential messiness make you think more about running? No? OK, then I guess we will just have to stick with Kamala and her BFF Tim Walz.

Oh well, maybe my approaching 90 this December is making me a little fussy. Crap weather, and crap Presidential messiness (think MAGACult) is depressing me perhaps more than it should, or would, were I younger. So, the 50s, 60s and 70s really were just more fun? Huh!

Ah well, life goes on .