January 31, 2018
By: Linda Case Gibbons, Esq.
It gets so tiresome.
Politicians describing us as "hard working, middle-class Americans," as if we all go to work in overalls.
This week Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Nancy Pelosi took their "Elitist Liberal Show" on the road, to a town hall in Boca Raton.
And once again, this Democratic Duo disproved the old adage that two heads are better than one.
This time they were selling "Tax Bill Snake Oil," bad-mouthing the Tax Reform Package.
The message was that the president's tax bill does nada.
That's Spanish for nada.
During the conference Rep. Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and House Minority Leader Pelosi (D-Calif.) "pooh-poohed" the bonuses that 250 corporations, like Wells Fargo and Home Depot, have already given their employees since the tax legislation passed last year.
"Frankly," said Wasserman Schultz, "if you look at the bonuses, which I haven't heard of a corporate bonus more than $1,000 so far. Which, by the way, is taxed, so it's not $1,000...I'm not sure that $1,000 goes very far for almost anyone."
In their world, they're right.
Pelosi is worth $100 million. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Unless, of course, she made her bucks using Congressional insider trading tips.
And big bucks don't turn Wasserman Schultz' head.
When her IT man tried to wire $283,000 from the Congressional Federal Credit Union back home to Pakistan, then was arrested while making a run for it, she didn't think that was enough to fire him. Even after he and his family members made $4 million working as IT specialists for other Congressmen. And then were fired.
So $1,000? I guess it is chump change...when you look at it a certain way.
But who knows, when you look at it another way. A 2017 Banking Rates Survey reported that 57 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 in their bank accounts.
It's entirely about your perspective.
Liberals who collapsed with the vapors when President Trump blurted an Expletive-Not-Deleted word about Haiti and Africa, guffawed and applauded in appreciation when Robert De Niro called the president a "f***ing fool," "f***ing idiot," and "Jerk-off in chief," in a foul-mouthed rant at the National Board of Review's 2018 Gala.
And De Niro still thinks we hard-working Americans should want to come, and pay to see his Broadway play, A Bronx Tale.
It's all according to your point of view.
Most Americans are grateful when our citizens sign up to join our military, to keep our country safe.
But then again, maybe soldiers only do it because they're stupid. Or have no other options.
That could be.
At least that's what a Southern California high school teacher, Gregory Salcido, thinks.
Salcido teaches kids history at El Rancho High School.
In the course of human events, he shared his view with his class about members of the military fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Think about the people you know who are over there," Salcido said. "Your freaking stupid Uncle Louis...They're dumbs***s. They're not like high-level thinkers. They're not academic people. They're not intellectual people. They're the lowest of our low."
Thank God for our First Amendment. It gives American citizens like Gregory Salcido the right to express themselves this way. To children. In a classroom.
Thank God there was a smart kid in the class who recorded it.
And thank God we have men like Navy Chief Special Warfare Operator Aaron Vaughn protecting that First Amendment.
Vaughn was a member of Navy SEAL-Six. He died August 6, 2011 when his helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan. He was 30. He left behind two young children.
This week his Gold Star mother commented on Salcido's words.
"People like him seem to believe that America just exists, our safety and our security, just exists in this mysterious realm. And it just continues and continues, mysteriously.
"They do not understand, and are never forced to realize, that it exists out of the pain and the blood and the sacrifice of war fighters, who are willing to put themselves between us and the danger that wants to destroy and damage our nation.
"Many in this nation want to reap the benefits of being part of a free society. Few understand that those benefits have a cost."
Mrs. Vaughn finished by encouraging a dialogue about what it requires to keep America safe. "It's not some ethereal thought process that keeps us free and gives him the right to say these things to a classroom full of impressionable students who are starting to form an opinion about a free society," she said.
And then she extended an invitation to Salcido to have that dialogue.
"Meet me at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 60, Grave Marker 9927," she said, "where the remains of my son lie."
It was a terrific way for her to use her First Amendment rights.
Hold the line, America.