The Kasich administration has been in office for roughly two months. Let's recap:
King John has rejected $800 million in federal funds set aside for education and high-speed rail.
He has appointed a Cabinet which is 99% Caucasian.
As our top public official, he dislikes public employees and is openly hostile to many of them.
He wants to privatize everything, from state agencies to the Turnpike to the state's prison system.
He has tried to give an administrative position to a resident of California, then gotten all pissy when he was told he couldn't do it. (Something about living in Ohio, you moron!)
Has told us that cops are idiots.
Has told us to get on his bus or he'll run us over with it.
Obviously has a union-busting agenda. In so many words, he's told us that union members are the over-privileged elite, and he'll be only too happy to see they get the pay cuts they deserve.
He has no respect for public education, its teachers or administrators.
His operatives forced the resignation of the entirely capable State Superintendent of Education, so as to replace her with one of his Tea-Bag puppets.
He will quadruple the tuition vouchers for charter schools, so even more of my tax dollars can be used to remove even more students from public schools and pay for their private education.
He, in his infinite wisdom, will decide how many more classes those lazy state college professors must teach.
He just "balanced" a state budget with a supposed $8 billion deficit without any tax increases. Instead, he carved big chunks out of local governments, education, and Medicaid while simultaneously projecting auto-magically increased revenues (but no new taxes!) He's a goddam miracle worker! Buster reminds his faithful readers that all budgets are just guesswork. Kasich's combines a lot of wishful thinking with some voo-doo economic horseshit. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
He has filled the Ohio EPA with oil industry toadies and suck-ups.
He wants to drill and "frack" (underground explosions which fracture rock and, in theory, release shale oil. But if there's no oil, you've still blown up a lot of shit. A risky practice which also releases lots of greenhouse gases.) in our state parks. In our state parks. Our state parks. Seriously.
Would enforce environmental safety regulations only after subjecting them to a "cost-benefit analysis".
Still wants to eliminate the state income tax.
Had thousands show up at his first State of the State address for the sole purpose of booing and hissing at him. Has anything like that ever happened before in Ohio? Not that I recall.
And that's the thing with John-Boy -- he's a stubborn, true-believer zealot who always thinks he's the smartest person in any room and does not give a flying fuck about anyone else's point of view. Lord knows that in politics, regime-change happens, the old political appointees are swept out, and the new ones are ushered in. That's par for the course. But we've never seen it as ruthless as it's been with King Kasich. Certainly nothing like it with Ted Strickland, a genuinely nice guy.
And nothing like it with Republicans George Voinovich or Bob Taft. They were not always Buster's cup of tea, but both were decent, reasonable fellows. Fiscal conservatives, but, like Strickland, moderate in style, personality, and approach.
By contrast, Kasich has has delighted in being extreme -- he is thoroughly smug, self-righteous, divisive, over-reaching, dictatorial, reckless, rash, belligerent, and cruel. He's an ideological warrior and basically a mean, nasty prick.
Two months of asshole, forty-six more to go. That ought to be enough, I think.
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