Not too long ago I was watching the news on TV. I don’t remember which station. This wasn’t all that important when I was growing up in the fifties because all news channels were pretty much the same: No spin. No shading the facts. No out right lying. Just the black and white of it. But which news station is very important today as there is a world of difference between say Fox Propaganda and CNN. Anyway, on some news show I saw Mr. Manaford walking into a building, escorted by high-ranking looking fellas, as the newscaster was saying he will probably go to jail. And, I thought to myself: Oh man, that’s awful. Here’s a guy walking free today who may have his freedom taken away. He might not be able to be with his wife and children. He won’t be able to choose his activities for the day…bummer.

Then I began to think: Hey wait a minute, don’t feel sorry for this guy. He had his freedom, he had a great start in life, he had contacts and money, he is a white man in a white man’s world. He chose to do wrong. He chose to be dishonest. He chose his life. We owe this man not our sympathy but the justice our laws provide. He chose to break the law and do wrong for personal gain without regard for the harm it may cause others, so he must now face the consequence. He does not deserve our caring and sympathy, which is the first thing, most Americans feel for these crooks just like I did.

Then Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, is stepping down and will not seek re-election this coming November. The newscasters are saying his decision comes out of love for his family and his love of country. BULL!

He is stepping down because he can’t handle working with this corrupt president and he doesn’t have the cohunes to stand up to him. Believe me if the conditions were different this not-so-caring, Speaker would stay at this position for as long as he could. It just got too tough for him to handle. He doesn’t have the courage to go against the flow and stand for morality, for honesty, for integrity. He could have stood up for his constituents, for the America we live in, but now he cowers and then projects his love of family as the reason he is leaving.

This makes me sick. They all sight love of family: “oh he is such a wonderful family man.” Baloney! It didn’t bother him to help pass legislation that hurts other families. The most egregious tax bill ever that will hurt millions of people he considers beneath him, the working poor, was passed under his leadership. It doesn’t seem to bother him that his whole time spent in Congress has been to make life harder for Americans and other fathers and mothers who really do care for their families. He wants to cut, or in some cases, take away Medicare and Medicaid from those who need it. He doesn’t care about those families only, apparently, his own.

And what makes matters worse is that he benefitted when his family depended on Medicare after his father died at an early age. I am happy to pay into a system that helped him and others when the unfortunate happens. I am proud to be a part of a system that helps people in need.

But not, apparently, our Speaker. Not even after he was privy to the benefits of such a system. Perhaps he feels guilty accepting aid. Perhaps he is so proud it offends him that he was in that position. Perhaps he wants to protect others from the shame he felt by cutting off such government assistance and not making it available. Whatever the reason, his time in a position of power has been to dismantle the safety nets our former leaders deemed necessary and beneficial to our society.

Yet, as he leaves office after the November elections, we will all have empathy and feel sympathy for this “wonderful family man” who cares so deeply for his own family that he dismantled programs set to help others, this “loving family man” whose only concern is for his family and to hell with other family men.

And the list of men in power that we feel empathy for (that don’t deserve it) goes on and on. Are they held to account? Certainly not like the poor black man who died selling cigarettes to make some money or the black man who was selling, I don’t know, CDs or something that got shot and killed by police. The justice system favors those with money and power and is harder on those without money and power.

If you think about it, this should be reversed. Those with money and power can do far more harm than those without. So why aren’t they held to a higher standard and when guilty punished more harshly?

Bush and Cheney should be arrested and tried for war crimes. Their actions, supported by a lie, caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraq citizens and what 4000+ American soldiers and how many maimed and wounded, both physically and mentally? How do their actions compare to someone selling a few cigarettes? The cigarette seller lost his life while Cheney gets a heart transplant and Bush paints and goes on TV shows showing off his artwork. ( By the way, take it from this writer, he is no DaVinci.)

And then the rich like dt who screw businesses and people that performed services for him and get shortchanged or not paid at all. Look at the harm this lying unethical louse causes and the numerous people he has harmed. Now he bombs Syria without the consent of congress, an action he called out on President Obama. How many dead wounded, misplaced now?

Feeling sick? Fed Up? Take two aspirins and call me in the morning!