Masters of Austerity and Deregulation: Dennis Lehane and Does the Tea Party GOP Want Another Molasses Disaster?

I am reading Dennis Lehane's great book The Given Day because I enjoyed the movie Mystic River (which was based on his novel of the same name).

Since watching the latter, I kept Lehane in my mind, telling myself, if I see one of his books on sale I will buy it. Barnes and Noble had The Given Day for 5 dollars. I would have spent 20 for such a gem of prose and social history: I deem the The Given Day a perfect purchase.

HBO's TV series Boardwalk Empire is no longer with us. We can read the poetry of World War One online or in books. We can also suffer through the movie The Great Gatsby to get a sense of the lost generation. 

I love learning just how ignorant I am about a great many things; it is also nice to be surprised by learning new things.

Dennis Lehane's book The Given Day includes a reference to The Boston Molasses Disaster--which until reading The Given Day--I had never heard of that event. 

Upon discovering The Boston Molasses Disaster I kept thinking about how Austerity and deregulation kills people, the devastating explosion in Texas, the hundreds of deaths in Bangladesh, and how the neo liberals/hyper-conservatives, will do anything to remove even the most basic protections for workers in the pursuit of the elite class's profits.

Lehane's book is a powerful reminder of how the mantra "profits over people" is not new. It remains with us through the Tea Party GOP and the cowardly and complicit members of the Democratic Party.