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What Starlings Could Teach Trump's Mean Government By Jim Hightower
There is a species of birds named "superb starlings," and I propose that we elect one of them to be our next president.
These wise creatures have figured out how to make egalitarianism central to their society, with a diversity of birds actively supporting each other. When bringing food back to their chicks, for example, adult starlings commonly share some with hatchlings of an unrelated flock. In turn, those birds repay the good deed in later breeding seasons.
Contrast this bird-nest ethic of the Common Good with the culture of right-wing minginess now being pushed furiously by President Donald Trump's kakistocracy of billionaires and despotic ideologues.
Four of his overprivileged cabinet appointees, for example (Bobby Kennedy, Mehmet Oz, Brooke Rollins and Scott Turner), recently ganged up on hard-hit poor families who receive modest public help for essential human needs, like food and health care. The four politicos piously wailed that welfare programs are an intolerable burden on wealthy taxpayers, so they intend to slash spending by forcing the poor to take jobs before getting any public help.
But their claim that hordes of worthless sponges are living high on food stamps and Medicaid is the same nonsense such plutocrats always spread when trying to keep our society from being as smart, decent and ethical as starlings. Their scolding dictate that "you must work" is pointless grandstanding. Nearly all Medicaid recipients, for example, already have jobs — or they are children, seniors or disabled.
These wise creatures have figured out how to make egalitarianism central to their society, with a diversity of birds actively supporting each other. When bringing food back to their chicks, for example, adult starlings commonly share some with hatchlings of an unrelated flock. In turn, those birds repay the good deed in later breeding seasons.
Contrast this bird-nest ethic of the Common Good with the culture of right-wing minginess now being pushed furiously by President Donald Trump's kakistocracy of billionaires and despotic ideologues.
Four of his overprivileged cabinet appointees, for example (Bobby Kennedy, Mehmet Oz, Brooke Rollins and Scott Turner), recently ganged up on hard-hit poor families who receive modest public help for essential human needs, like food and health care. The four politicos piously wailed that welfare programs are an intolerable burden on wealthy taxpayers, so they intend to slash spending by forcing the poor to take jobs before getting any public help.
But their claim that hordes of worthless sponges are living high on food stamps and Medicaid is the same nonsense such plutocrats always spread when trying to keep our society from being as smart, decent and ethical as starlings. Their scolding dictate that "you must work" is pointless grandstanding. Nearly all Medicaid recipients, for example, already have jobs — or they are children, seniors or disabled.
https://www.creators.com/read/jim-hightower
Also: WHY WOULD ANYONE BUY A TICKET TO HELL FROM ELON MUSK?