George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, written in 1945, had the ruling class, the pigs, revise the law that “All Animals Are Equal” to read “Some Animals Are More Equal than others.” Our Imperial president apparently cleaves to this credo.
We have all had the impending pain of sequestration incessantly drummed into us, day in and day out, like water torture. The president is going to make certain that “everyone” feels the pain. We’ve been promised reductions in rank-and-file government staff, the military and phantom layoffs of teachers, firefighters and emergency responders. There will be increasing, overall jobless numbers. No more White House tours (there were seven staff members in the tours department), no plowing of National Parks (which doesn’t take place until April of every year and never exceeds more than 15 miles of trails). Fire, brimstone and plague. After all, we must all share in the sacrifices, don’t we? Well, not really. The Lyin’ King, at least, isn’t feeling the slightest pinch to his Imperial toes inside of his Cole Haan’s. Miraculously, whatever the Lyin’ King deems “necessary” remains untouched.
Last week John Kerry surreptitiously forked over $265 million to Egypt. Today it was reiterated that the U.S. Treasury finances college football stadiums to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks. Yes, those would be stadiums indulging in that ghastly sport the president would have second thoughts about allowing any son of his to play.
It was also pointed out that, thus far, White House staffers, making six-figure salaries, have not been touched. These aren’t just any White House jobs; Oh no. We are talking about such crucial positions as energy and climate change “advisors”. Three of them. The salaries totaled over $370,000 in 2012.
In 2012, FOX news identified 139 White house staffers, each making over $100,000 a year. Three calligraphers are still on the payroll. The lowest White House calligrapher’s salary is $86,000. The highest paid calligrapher makes $96,725. Total White House staff salaries alone ran an annual tab of $37.8 million in 2012.
Then, of course, there is the personal, presidential belt-tightening we can expect because of the sequester … oh, wait; no, there isn’t any presidential belt tightening. While Rome burns, Nero is cheerfully fiddling away. Twenty car motorcades to meet Senators McCain and Graham for dinner. Multi-million dollar vacations to Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard, all planned and set to proceed in the near future.
No one seems to recall that, whatever one might think of George W. Bush, he gave up golf for the duration of his presidency because he didn’t feel it was decent to indulge in a game while Americans were dying on the battlefield. He took sporadic vacations on his Texas ranch or at Camp David. Yet he was still lambasted regularly by Hollywood and the mainstream media and, to this day, by The Lyin’ King.
Let’s compare and contrast; our Dear Leader takes million dollar golf trips with Tiger Woods. His vacations, some separate from his mate, and play dates remain uninterrupted. It costs America more than twice as much to support The Lyin’ King and his family than it costs England to support the entire royal family. $1.4 billion dollars per year, to be precise. There are only four presidential family members. Five, if one counts the dog. Complaints? Anyone? No?
Are some animals more equal than others? Apparently so.
Image; Slovenčina: Kniha Praktická hospodyňka z Československa v češtine, rok vydania 1929; author: Ing.Mgr.Jozef Kotulič; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
