Denver Women’s March – “If My Uterus Fired Bullets The G.O.P. Would Fund It.”

If My Uterus Fired Bullets The G.O.P. Would Fund It

I thought this one of the more original posters at the march. Like so many others, this one took a fair amount of time to put together, is, original and strikes a chord if you think about it, its message hits on a profound truth. It’s colorful, combines letters with bullets, hard not to notice it. Besides, the politics of it is – as we used to say – is “right on.” What is “right on” about it? It juxtaposes the contempt that the Trump administration has for women’s rights with the burgeoning military/war budget.

Kudos to the unknown author/artist!

Never has the old peace slogan of the need to cut the military budget and use those funds for human needs been more apt. In fact, the Trump presidency plans to do just the opposite: further fund military spending with money saved by cutting the federal work force, slicing federally funded social program already wounded by 35 years of Reaganomics.

The engine that will strip the United States of what is left of its regulatory powers, freeing Corporate America to pursue their plunderous search for profits uninhibited, and gut what is left of nearly a century of social legislation, is fueled by tax cuts. The cuts, yet another 365 day-a-year Christmas gift to the super-rich, “the one percent,”will result in a smaller federal budget which will be the fiscal pretext for shrinking the federal government. To justify the accompanying increased  military spending, the continued exaggerated threat of Islamic radicalism will be put forth. These policies, really pretexts for the socio-economic polarization about to intensify, are not new – they have been functioning for decades – but now they will be much crueler, for many, much more deadly than anything that came before. That is the essence of the Trump presidency, the social carnage is not particularly original, just intensified, a matter of degree.

An article in Salon.com explains nicely how the gutting of the American “social contract” will continue:

“President-elect Donald Trump is set to assume control of the White House in a manner of hours, and his longtime adviser Newt Gingrich is giddy about reported plans to cut $10.5 trillion out of the federal government over 10 years by gutting federal agency budgets by as much as 10 percent while slashing 20 percent from the federal workforce.”

Newt (Up-From-The-Political-Dead-He-Arose) Gingrich has a novel way to start trimming that federal work force, (from the same article as above) by firing all those federal employees who voted for Hillary Clinton in the first place. To accomplish that, the law protecting federal employees will have to be gutted in Congress but given the nature of the current Congress, that might not be too difficult. It turns out that the Trump transition team has reportedly met for months with career officials in the White House to outline a plan for massive cuts to the federal workforce. The plan, modeled after a budget championed by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, essentially calls for cutting nearly all of the government’s discretionary spending.

Among his stated goals is to cut regulatory agencies by some 75%. Among those agencies primarily targeted will be the Environmental Protection Agency. He started the regulatory onslaught, a reactionary wet dream come true, on Inauguration Day by ordering a freeze on all new regulations coming out of federal agencies including the EPA.  Three days later, just yesterday, January 23, 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump will order federal agencies to stop studying the greenhouse gas impacts of new projects.

The spending cuts in regulatory agencies, the money saved there will be used to boost the Pentagon budget and such “pet projects” like the anti-immigration wall with Mexico. For starters the cuts in federal employees are likely to come through attrition, hiring freezes and reorganization. More bombs and war, less healthcare, educational opportunities and a complete disregard for climate change as the staff and areas of influence of regulatory agencies are knifed. Welcome to the era of the most cut-throat capitalism imaginable. Actually, for many what will transpire over this next period will be unimaginable and it has just begun.

Yes, if her uterus fired bullets the G.O.P. would fund it.

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