Last week there were two seemingly unrelated events that weren’t so unrelated. One was the Trumpster’s grant to himself of emergency powers to build an unnecessary wall because of a non-existence crisis. The other was the drama of Amazon’s broken engagement with it’s New York City lover. So, what could these two things possibly have in common? It’s this: they are both distortions of who is supposed to make the rules.
We were certainly taught a lot of crap in school about how our legal system works. But, one thing was true – that Congress is supposed to make the rules. We call those rules, “laws.” Trump’s emergency declaration is an attempt to ignore that fundamental principal. The hell with Congress. They didn’t give him what he wanted so he’ll make a different rule and do what he wanted to do all along.
Yes, Presidents have the authority to declare emergencies. Call me crazy, though, but I thought that kind of thing required an actual emergency. Trump now wants to pervert that process (and I say “pervert” intentionally). He wants to be the one to make the rules. The guys who wrote the Constitution would be holding their corsets in side splitting laughter over that idea. Yet, down that road we go.
And now Amazon. As between the private and public sectors, who is supposed to make the rules? Government, right? We may not always like those rules, but we can change the government. We can’t change the Amazon Board of Directors. Well, Amazon apparently doesn’t agree with that process. It is going to build a new headquarters so it demanded the rules it wanted in order to bless a city with it’s presence. New York was awarded the rose. A deal was made. But, then came trouble in paradise. New York’s legs were not opened quite wide enough for Amazon’s liking. So, Amazon welched and it will now take it’s extortion act elsewhere.
Now, look, I well recognize importance of economic development. It is essential. But, there is a way to do it. That way is for developers and government to work together. It is not for the richest man in the world who heads one of the richest companies in the world – one that paid no federal taxes last year – to dictate to government what the rules of that development have to be.
The private sector – unelected and unresponsive to the people – is not so quietly taking over. Need I mention Citizens United and all of the mischief that it has caused? The Amazon drama is an example of how far that distortion of our system has now gone.
Orange Crush says that we are confronting an invasion. He’s right, but he’s got the invaders wrong. We are being challenged not by processions of poor people looking for a better life in a fairer country. Instead, we are being challenged by a band of billionaires looking for even more billions in a country they own.
We were right 
I guess the Orange Troll never watched “Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood.” All of the necessary tools for being a person were taught in half hour segments. They were simple but valuable and he just doesn’t get it! Maybe in his next life, he’ll return as a persecuted immigrant, only to find that he is walled out of a country when he desperately needs asylum and human kindness.
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