Political smoke stinks worse than what's around me.
Must vent. Rant ahead.
GOP in Texas are releasing ad videos and things about Obama "Letting Texas Burn While He Fundraises!ELEVENTY!" and they're popping up on friends FB's and other sites and.. grah.
Ok, yeah, Texas could use more help, mostly we need rain, which of course no government can send, but we'll need funding help to fight fires, rebuild, replant, etc. We've had amazingly little loss of life here, especially where I live in the state, but the fires are eating us away a bit of rangeland or a few homes at a time...
But it's the same GOP-Mostly pinning the blame on Obama who are cutting funding on all sorts of important educational, medical, and also INFRASTRUCTURE, giving huge tax breaks to the rich and corporations so that small towns like mine are having to go severely into hock for new fire stations and schools, and for fuck's sake, the GOP like governor Goodhair have even flirted with the secessionists WITHIN THE LAST FEW MONTHS before the fires started. Because Fed Government TOO BIG and too nosy and states' rights waaah!
Frankly, even though even part of ME feels conspiracy-theorist for thinking this... I have to wonder if our GOP government's even bothered to really and truly ASK for federal help through the proper channels.
And I know, my community and others in Texas have nerves stretched thin right now*, but I don't trust Canseco, Perry, and their cronies any more than I can throw them, and it's bothering me to see people I care about in my community jumping on the "OBAMA IS NOT HELPING US BECAUSE HE HATES REPUB STATES! OBAMA HOLDS US HOSTAGE!" bandwagon.
And I mean, I don't even really like Obama these days, except for brief moments on certain things/incidents.
*My town currently still not in danger danger, but there are FOUR FIRES that I know of around my town- the one way in backcountry NW that started last month (Rock House Fire), The one that started Sunday west of us (Holland-Gage fire, formerly Roadside Park Fire), the Schwartz fire to the east of us that is now visible on our side of the Glass Mountains, an that other fire that started on Iron Mountain or so. ( http://www.marfapublicradio.org is still best catch-all site for updates )
Oh and there was a house/structural fire IN TOWN last night. When our VFW was out at all these other fires, though they still managed to get folks here and put it out real fast.
The air is hazed with smoke, my own nerves are stretched, but I just am now even more stressed worried about how the GOP are going to play our dangers, our tragedies, into their sick Us Vs. Them, TEXANS vs US/YANKEES/LIBERALS games.
Edit to add:
Plus, yes, aware there are much more life-costing disasters happening around the US. We've been getting off light in TX *in comparison* to other places, but I did not want to turn this into comparison post. Because yes, we're getting off lighter but it still is hurting, and I don't want belittle ANY of the suffering happening due to the disasters here, or elsewhere. They are all bad, some worse than others, but whether it's a cut that needs 3 stitches or a cut that needs 100 it still is a cut that is hurting the person it's happening to, as it were. This post is JUST ABOUT the way the TX GOP is spinning what /is/ happening here into a selfish blame game wankcircle and good distraction from the shit they themselves are pulling.
GOP in Texas are releasing ad videos and things about Obama "Letting Texas Burn While He Fundraises!ELEVENTY!" and they're popping up on friends FB's and other sites and.. grah.
Ok, yeah, Texas could use more help, mostly we need rain, which of course no government can send, but we'll need funding help to fight fires, rebuild, replant, etc. We've had amazingly little loss of life here, especially where I live in the state, but the fires are eating us away a bit of rangeland or a few homes at a time...
But it's the same GOP-Mostly pinning the blame on Obama who are cutting funding on all sorts of important educational, medical, and also INFRASTRUCTURE, giving huge tax breaks to the rich and corporations so that small towns like mine are having to go severely into hock for new fire stations and schools, and for fuck's sake, the GOP like governor Goodhair have even flirted with the secessionists WITHIN THE LAST FEW MONTHS before the fires started. Because Fed Government TOO BIG and too nosy and states' rights waaah!
Frankly, even though even part of ME feels conspiracy-theorist for thinking this... I have to wonder if our GOP government's even bothered to really and truly ASK for federal help through the proper channels.
And I know, my community and others in Texas have nerves stretched thin right now*, but I don't trust Canseco, Perry, and their cronies any more than I can throw them, and it's bothering me to see people I care about in my community jumping on the "OBAMA IS NOT HELPING US BECAUSE HE HATES REPUB STATES! OBAMA HOLDS US HOSTAGE!" bandwagon.
And I mean, I don't even really like Obama these days, except for brief moments on certain things/incidents.
*My town currently still not in danger danger, but there are FOUR FIRES that I know of around my town- the one way in backcountry NW that started last month (Rock House Fire), The one that started Sunday west of us (Holland-Gage fire, formerly Roadside Park Fire), the Schwartz fire to the east of us that is now visible on our side of the Glass Mountains, an that other fire that started on Iron Mountain or so. ( http://www.marfapublicradio.org is still best catch-all site for updates )
Oh and there was a house/structural fire IN TOWN last night. When our VFW was out at all these other fires, though they still managed to get folks here and put it out real fast.
The air is hazed with smoke, my own nerves are stretched, but I just am now even more stressed worried about how the GOP are going to play our dangers, our tragedies, into their sick Us Vs. Them, TEXANS vs US/YANKEES/LIBERALS games.
Edit to add:
Plus, yes, aware there are much more life-costing disasters happening around the US. We've been getting off light in TX *in comparison* to other places, but I did not want to turn this into comparison post. Because yes, we're getting off lighter but it still is hurting, and I don't want belittle ANY of the suffering happening due to the disasters here, or elsewhere. They are all bad, some worse than others, but whether it's a cut that needs 3 stitches or a cut that needs 100 it still is a cut that is hurting the person it's happening to, as it were. This post is JUST ABOUT the way the TX GOP is spinning what /is/ happening here into a selfish blame game wankcircle and good distraction from the shit they themselves are pulling.