(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Too Bad Kevin McCarthy Won’t Learn a God Damned Thing [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-01-06 Oh, the Irony Let’s face it, it’s tough to hear, “No.” “No, Mrs. Smith — your mom’s cancer treatment isn’t covered.” “No, Ms. Davis — we can’t reverse the brain damage caused by the Flint water contamination.” ”No, M. Brown — we don’t approve of your daughter, so she can’t play sports.” “No, Mr. Jones — your son didn’t survive the school shooting.” People all across America know how badly no hurts, and now Kevin McCarthy knows it, too. Whether you’re laughing at McCarthy or pitying him, he’ll muddle through. He’s got a solid gold parachute no matter how this goes. Folks in-the-know quibble over what McCarthy’s worth. Some estimates put his assets at $95 million – with $21 million of that in real estate. Others dispute this notion and say he’s only worth $300,000 and lives in a mortgaged house. When his assets get tallied against his liabilities the millions are displaced. $300,000 and a home? For most of the people I know – that’s plenty rich in today’s America. Maybe you got no pity for the man who did this to himself by embracing everything dishonest and revering disloyalty. If laughter’s your response to the QAnon quicksand the spineless sycophant from sunny California flails in – you may as well stop reading right now. Mazel Tov! Enjoy! Couldn’t happen to a better guy. But if you pity the fool – and far be it from me to dissuade anyone from a little empathy and compassion – let’s recall for a moment McCarthy’s own titanic ability to tell suffering people, “No.” I have no intention of robbing you of your pathos for the man, I’m just pointing out the poetry in his pain. For example, last term — when we had a seated congress, McCarthy had a chance to stop the automatic cuts to Medicare that were built into the American Rescue Plan. He said, “No.” What? He said no to Medicare? You’re on Medicare? Well, sucks to be you! But listen to McCarthy, it’s for your own good and it’s the Democrats’ fault for building a bad recovery plan. Seems they suspended a few rules to help their country through a raging pandemic. No, it wasn’t help Congresspersons needed, of course… cause American taxpayers are already on the hook for their healthcare. I could go on for days telling you the myriad times Speaker-wannabe McCarthy stopped help from getting to Americans – but if you’re still reading – you’re already aware. Instead, let’s explore what it’s like to really hear the word No when it matters most. Not McCarthy’s level of disappointment. Not the, that bitch Gaetz is screwing with me level. Not the but Donald said I could have it level. No – I’m talking about the there’s toxic mold in my apartment and my landlord evicted me because I sent her my hospital bills level Truth! A guy in central Pennsylvania rented a place. Gave a security deposit. Paid his rent. Was up to date on his bills. Then heavy rains fell in July and flooded his place. Shawn (his name’s Shawn) cleaned the mess up and stayed current on his rent. Black mold began to grow. Shawn started to feel sick. Unable to get better, Shawn toughed it out – until he ended up in the hospital. Blood toxicity tests proved that Shawn’s illness was a result of black mold in his home. He contacted the landlord who gave him a big Gosar sized, “No.” He repeatedly urged the management company to contact the property owner and make her aware that her building was toxic. The response was an Andy Biggs sized, “No.” Shawn forwarded his blood test results and letters from doctors instructing him to move. Shawn begged for help. He didn’t just get an Andrew Clyde sized brush off – he got an eviction notice, too. Shawn couldn’t believe his ears. (Seriously, he looked as dismayed as McCarthy has these last few days). One wonders if the management company took joy in the eviction. Were they eating popcorn and gawking at Sean’s dismay or did they just not care? Hard to imagine that level of callous indifference. Anyway, Shawn contacted legal aid and fought for his tenancy rights. Shawn wondered why someone didn’t just tell the property owner that there was black mold in their building and she couldn’t keep renting it until it was fixed. After all, any new tenants would get sick too. He asked the judge if anyone cared. I don’t have to tell you the answer, do I? That’s right – a great big Scott Perry sized NO! (Appropriate too, because Shawn lives in Perry’s district and Perry doesn’t soil his hands advocating for tenants). With only one thing left for hard working, sickly Shawn to do – he surrendered to homelessness. Hey, at least he had options! Death or homelessness. Speaker of the House or regular obstructionist member of congress — you see the similarity between Shawn and Kevin’s suffering, I'm sure. In case you’re worried about Shawn… his cats went to a friend who will foster them while he saves for a new security deposit. Tough to get a new place though – with a history of homelessness and an eviction on one’s record. No matter. McCarthy doesn’t care about Shawn. The 20 Never Kevins don’t care about him either. Shawn’s just screwed. So yeah, laugh at McCarthy. Pity McCarthy. But know that these right wing conservatives in congress and in local and state government don’t have the slightest issue with saying no – just a hard time hearing it. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/6/2145704/-Too-Bad-Kevin-McCarthy-Won-t-Learn-a-God-Damned-Thing Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/