"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Friday, February 09, 2018

Today's Must-Read: For the Cost of a Parade

From RawStory, a nice little list of things Trump and/or the Republicans could do that would actually benefit the troops much more than tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue to feed Trump's ego. They're mostly no-brainers; here are the first two:

1. Homes for homeless veterans.

For the cost of Trump’s military parade, the United States taxpayers could buy a nice tiny home at $10,000 each, for 14,500 of the 150,000 homeless veterans. However, there are even more affordable tiny homes available at $3,000 to 4,000, which means we could easily give homes to 39,189 homeless vets.

2. Feed homeless veterans.

For the cost of Trump’s military parade, he could feed every single homeless veteran in the United States three meals a day for a year. If he wanted to.

I can think of a couple of additions -- like, automatic citizenship for immigrants who serve in the U.S. military -- and don't deport them when their service is done.

But I forgot -- when Republicans scream about "supporting the troops," they mean Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon: the ones raking in billions from defense contracts, not the grunts who actually do the heavy lifting.

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