putting our shoulders to the wheel

I think the military has long been barred from performing police or police-like functions.  I think that was written into the constitution because we didn't like those damn redcoats.  Seems to me there will be ways to turn aside the Caravan without shooting women and children.

And I can't credit  that hippy Chicks up front thing either.  Not the sort of thing I would have forgotten and I hear the internet has a memory like an elephant.  Just did a more specific internet search for 'hippies chicks up front,' and got three pages of nada as far as this odious practice that Beagles believes was common.  Again Occam's razor, would people do such a thing?  Weren't those chicks like the girlfriends and wives and sisters of the protesters?  Since Beagles's sister is only a fb message away I am surprised that he didn't bother to ask her before asserting this unlikely chant.


Practically speaking the reps aren't after our (us old people) social security and medicare benefits.  Not because they feel any sympathy for us but because they know we vote, and there is no way they could get away with that. Social Security, founded by FDR is wildly popular, as is Medicare, founded by LBJ.  This encourages people to like government because government is doing nice things for people, this infuriates the reps who hate government, well the not republican part.  They don't want the people to ever think the government is good for them, so they would love to take these programs away.

And the clever way they try to take them away is to claim that they are running out of money, so that future generations will not  have them and the only way to save them is cut the benefits that they provide, which will make people like them less so maybe they won't feel so bad when the republicans cut them more, until eventually they are gone and old people, well old people who aren't rich, are poor and sick the way God meant them to be.

Actually I was in favor of Social Security reform a few years ago.  I was worried about the federal budget.  Now that people are living longer it seemed like we could raise the retirement age by a few years and that would do wonders for the solvency of social security.  Even though social security is sort of separate from the US budget, it would be a way to cut into the deficit, it would be putting our shoulders to the wheel.

But the whole idea of putting your shoulder to the wheel is that it is joining many other shoulders.  But then it devolved that one of those shoulders, the braided, metal bedecked, defense budget would not be at the wheel, it would actually be increasing and therefore be pushing against the wheel.  And the silk embossed shoulder of the fabulously rich would also be on the wrong side of the wheel.

Well fuck those guys, if they aren't giving up anything, au contraire are cutting themselves even bigger slices of the pie, why should I give up anything.