Ten Things That Are More of an Emergency Than the Imaginary Crisis on the Border

1. The documented case of electoral fraud perpetrated by the Republicans in North Carolina.  After all that complaining the GOP has done about fake elections, look at what turned up!  It’s like they knew somehow.

2. The 2,013 people killed by guns this year alone in the United States of America as of February 23, a figure that includes 75 children under the age of twelve and 325 more between 12 and 17.  That breaks down to roughly two people killed by gunfire every three hours.  It does not include suicides, which would more than double the number of dead.  It does include 46 mass shootings, which is just under one per day.  There is no other country in the world not actively involved in a civil war where such numbers are remotely possible.

3. The thousands of migrant children forcibly kidnapped by der Sturmtrumper’s administration, stored in cages, separated from their families, and then lost.  This is, according to both American and international law, a crime against humanity.  The fact that der Sturmtrumper’s minions say that it’s juusst toooooo haaaaaaarrrd to reunite those families is a moral outrage.  Every single person involved in this program should be separated from their own families and jailed in the cages they once put those children in.

4. The fact that millions of working class and middle class Americans are seeing significant tax increases this year while billionaires enjoy vast tax cuts.

5. The federal budget deficit, which has more than doubled under der Sturmtrumper and the GOP and next year will exceed $1,000,000,000,000 for the first time in a decade.  The national debt has exceeded $22,000,000,000,000 for the first time ever.  This is the wholly unsurprising result of item four above.

6. The looming climate crisis, which der Sturmtrumper and his minions, lackeys, cronies, and enablers continue to do everything in their power to promote through their ignorance, malice, and active support.  The five hottest years on record were the last five.  We haven’t had a cooler than average year since the early 1980s.  We will likely start losing cities in my lifetime through rising sea levels and catastrophic storms. 

7. The rapid growth of right-wing terrorism in the United States – a sorry state of affairs that began in the 1990s, spiraled out of control when Americans dared to elect a non-white president (TWICE!) and has been actively condoned by der Sturmtrumper (“fine people”).  Combine that with the free availability of military-grade firearms for every short-dicked loser in America and it’s a volatile situation indeed.

8. The active corrosion of Constitutional governance by the right wing in this country, something that has been the GOP model of wielding power for over a decade now and which der Sturmtrumper is the leading symbol though not the leading problem.  It’s a far deeper rot than that.  Mitch McConnell’s name will be spoken with loathing by future generations of American patriots, provided there are any future generations after he’s done with us.  The fake emergency declared by der Sturmtrumper to get his precious catastrophically stupid wall built is just one example among many of this phenomenon.

9. The continuing interference in American government and society by Russian agents and assets, from the bots on social media to the massive security threat in the Oval Office.  If you thought the 2016 election was a festival of corruption and sleaze, wait until 2020.  Folks, in 2016 the United States lost a war with Russia that we didn’t even know we were fighting, and the current administration is doing everything in its Quisling power to keep us from ever finding out just how badly we did.

10. Honestly, the fact that the heel went out on my left sock this morning is more of an emergency than the imaginary crisis on the border.