Are You Ready?

Tags

2nd Amendment, budget, cartoons, corporate America, CPAC, economy, filibuster, gay rights, GOP, Humor, Individual Rights, minimum wage

Have you been keeping up on CPAC, the GOP answer to absolutely nothing? It’s been a “business as usual” kinda thing so far. Trump gets up there and trashes Jindal, and babbles about himself and how great he is. Rick Perry says they have to reach out to Latinos and is booed. Rubio says just because he supports traditional marriage doesn’t make him a bigot. (yeah actually it does).

My favorite was a clip from a “workshop” wherein a younger type white dude talked about being proud of his “demographic” (code for white supremacist) and claiming that the federal government was disenfranchising same, and that he thought his “demographic” had a great culture to be preserved.

When the moderator who was black, noted that Frederick Douglass sent a letter to his “owner” many years after he had escaped, and forgave him, the young man piped up and said, “for what? For receiving food and a home?” This was met with a couple audible gasps, but far too much applause. He was heard to utter under his breath, “we just need to go back to segregation.”

Yes, that’s the state of the GOP.

You have all heard the stories in the press. As the President and rational folks in the Democratic Party responded to the upswell of opinion that favored background checks for gun buyers and at least some restrictions on the types of guns available and large capacity clips, the gun stores have been doing a booming business.

It is now an undeniable fact that a significant majority of our fellow citizens are building up arsenals for the coming Armageddon that they are sure is on the way.

Given that these people are mentally unstable and delusional, it should come as no surprise that they actually think they can fend off the American military with their pretend assault weapons. They are so effectual against tanks and drones. What they do is pose a significant danger to the poor neighbors who unbeknownst, live near them.

No doubt you noted that the Dow has hit an all-time high. That is certainly cause for much celebration.

Business feels good about itself apparently. Business is good. During the recession they spent their money on ways to improve productivity with a smaller work force.

They were successful.

They aren’t hiring much because they don’t have to.

The fools believed that they were “job creators.”

They are profit creators dummy. Always were. The last thing they want to do is hire workers. Workers are much more expensive to keep than a robot riveter.

Yet the Right continues the mantra, and the kool-aid drinkers keep repeating it.

Need I say more?

The mantra for this one is that it depresses employment because business lays off workers rather than pay them a living wage.

Yeah, business is usually known for cutting of its nose to spite its face. I can just hear them now.

“Sorry Ms Customer, you will have to wait an extra 45 minutes for service. If you don’t like it leave. I’m not going to hire another worker at $10 an hour. So take your $150 dress and rehang it. I have principles you know.”

Yeah, I’m sure that’s what they will do.

Actual studies show they do lay off workers, for a hot minute, and then hire them back when, you know, they have more customers than their current work force can handle.

And guess what? That happens across the country. And guess what? All that extra cash earned by workers? It’s SPENT for goods and services, and that causes more demand, and more hiring. Amazing how that happens.

We’ve been hearing this whine for a long time from the Right.

And under rational and normal circumstances, it might just have some validity.

Of course it doesn’t have any validity today and everybody who bothers to be alive knows that.

Why?

Because Mitch McConnell will prevent any budget bill offered by the Democrats from reaching the floor of the Senate for actual debate.

He will filibuster.

He promised he wouldn’t do that.

He lied.

What’s new?

Forgive me if I’m not suitably impressed.

Rob Portman was against it before he was for it.

Seems his personal situation, impressed him enough to consider a change of mind.

Now, I’m glad that Portman has seen the light. I really am.

But as I said, forgive me if it’s just a bit too self-serving.

As a few have said, perhaps it would help if Portman woke up with a poor son, or a senior son. Maybe then he would be in favor of SNAP, and Pell grants, and Medicare, and well, you get the idea.

His hopes of being nominated are shall we say, in trouble?

It’s a glorious day here, with the high going into the mid 80’s. Sun is shining. Time to get busy in the yard with clean up. Diego is a messy boy. He has pieces of wood and bits of things he’s torn up scattered everywhere. To day nothing of poo. Saturday is poo clean up day.

I’m cooking my corned beef today in a slow-cooker kinda way, bathed in beer. I made a couple of loaves of soda bread. I made a white cake that I will trim with green lime frosting. Tomorrow when I get home from church I can make the colcannon. It’s a St. Paddy’s Day kinda meal!

Have a great one yourselves.

 

 

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Bring Out Your Dead. . . .A Good Guess is Close Enough

Tags

Congress, contraception, corporate America, Election 2012, embryos, evolution, GOP, life, Louis Gohmert, media whores, women's rights

Oh yes, I surely bet the GOP wishes it could spring clean and rid itself of festering nabobs of negativity. Echoes of Spiro the Agnew.

Here are just a couple of the funnier things I ran across yesterday after posting that I didn’t want you to miss.

 First off, according to Political Wire, a new Rasmussen poll shows that 43% of those polled believe that you could randomly pull names out of the phone book and have them serve in Congress and get more done. Nineteen percent “were not sure.”

And then there is our favorite whipping boy best friend, Louis Gohmert. Louis, is of the opinion, and one uses that term quite loosely where Lou is concerned, that the Alaska Pipeline has been a boon to the caribou herd. It seems that the deer males, invite the girls to warm their hooves near the line, and along with a bit of paté and a good Bordeaux, the love sours and the herd increases. So thinks our Loopey Louie. LL had no ‘splanation for why the herd just doesn’t meander down to Texas and enjoy the warmth there all over.

¶

We also get the following from Political Wire. You guys are all aware of the attempts of some GOPer’s to introduce legislation in various states to make a fertilized embryo a “life”, which created all sorts of scary scenarios, and even the folks of Old Mississippi decided that it was probably not such a good idea, and voted it down.

Well, another of those silly bills has been thrown in the hopper in Oklahoma. Trying desperately to show the dull state Republicans of their folly, Democratic State Senator Constance Johnson, offered this amendment:

“… any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.”

Beware the wet dream gentlemen, beware. And about those Penthouses? I’d burn ’em boys.

¶

You might have heard. People thing Congress is a big pile of poo. They have an approval rating of only 10%. I think rocks have a better approval rating. I’m sure having your hip replaced scores higher. Having a root canal too. Running into Satan on the way to the grocery store scores 8% by the way. And no, I have no idea who those 8% are or where they live.

¶

Newt who?

¶

Nerd alert! A hypothesis is out there, that some of our greatest genetic weaknesses are also the basis of some of our greatest strengths. You can read more at Wired, and the author, who is writing a book on the subject, promises to make available his full article now appearing in the Atlantic, when it has passed out of its exclusivity clause. Worth a look at and a note to self to look it him up in a few weeks to read the entire article. What’s available now is worth the read.

¶

I’m getting pissier by the moment. OrangeAde Boehner is spouting that the HHS ruling that hospitals and universities must provide women with contraceptive care as part of their health care, is “unconstitutional” and an “assault on religious freedom”. Well bozo, such laws, implemented in at least 28 states of the Union, have been upheld as constitutional you idiot. Furthermore, such laws have been in place for a DECADE and nobody said boo during the Bush Administration. And furthermore, the Civil Rights Commission has ruled that failing to provide such coverage when the company provides other prescription drug coverage, is a CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATION.

So save me all the wringing of hands and the moaning that we are religion is being assaulted and we are on the way to becoming a Satanist haven. And you Joe Manchin, (D-WVA) take my foot up your fat ass. You have more poor women in your state than most and they desperately need all the help they can get. Said idiot has joined Rubio with a bill to block the HHS rule.

¶

It’s something in the water I suspect. New Hampshire ReGigglicans are at it again with the stupid. Remember when they wanted all new legislation to cite to the portion of the Magna Carta they were addressed to? Well, another one of the brain-deficient GOPer’s has spent his time and taxpayer money on introducing a bill that will end the requirement that employers give their employees time for a lunch break. Ya know, because the kind CORPTOCRACY is so benevolent they will do it anyway. Isn’t that sweet? I guess he hadn’t heard of Wal-Mart and the 172 MILLION they were forced to pay for refusing to give employees a lunch break. There are others, but poor JR Hoell can’t read so what would be the point?

¶

And what rogues gallery of too dumb to live would be complete without the ever stupid, ever jaw-droppingly/finger-waggy/insufferably arrogant/so awful his hair wants a new owner, Sean of Hannity, who has become so irrelevant as of late that he has taken to suggesting that the President never really wanted to kill Bin Laden at all. Go view the video at Angry Black Lady Chronicles.

It’s almost the weekend, and it’s Fajitas for dinner!

Related articles

• Things Congress Talks About: Caribou Sex (newser.com)
• Rep. Gohmert: Ninth Circuit ‘Not Smart Enough’ To Bring Egg And Sperm Together (thinkprogress.org)

Make New Friends, But Keep the Old

Tags

Congress, corporate America, Election 2012, Fox News, GOP, Iran, Media, teabaggers

I’m thinking of sending a Christmas card to the RNC.

Seriously.

The Contrarian always said that Limbaugh sent a card to the Clinton’s each year. After all, they supplied him for years with hours of material.

Well, the GOP never stops giving. When one buffoon bites the dust, another rises from the ashes of stupid glue to replace them. Sometimes even doing the deceased one, one better.

It seems only years, months, days ago, since we lost our Herm Cain. And who can forget the Sarah? Oh and we must look far, far back to the protozoan days to recall the likes of Sharron Angle and Christine McDonnell.

Happily, some of our favs pop up out of their burrows now and again, to remind us just how much we have lost.

Barbara Walters has, for the last millennium or so, had a year-end collection of the 10 most available, lazy, shockingly stupid, fascinating people of the year. I have long since stopped caring and don’t watch.

But I will this year.

Herm is one of them! And a peek at the interview, leaves nothing to doubt–it will be worth the watch. Herm was asked if he were in some alternate universe, what cabinet post he would like. His answer? Oh I will not spoil it for ya, but it caused the “I’ve seen everything” Walters, to blanch with a “WHAT???”

And then there was our witchy-poo Christine. Now I been wondering how that girl was doin’. I worry about how she pays the rent these days. But somebody thought her opinion was of value. I kid you not. So, anyway, Mittens is clapping his um, mitts together, cuz she likes him, for his “steady, calm and consistent adherence to conservative ideals.” Until it was pointed out to her, that one of the complaints about old Mittens is that he has been wildly inconsistent when it comes to a lot of important issues. To which the Poo replied, “that is what I like about him, his flexibility!”  Oh yes, you can’t write copy like that folks. It’s a gift to have such GOP friends as these.

Just to keep up the hilarity, you recall that has been, Ricky Perry has cut an ad in Iowa that says all kinds of insulting things about gays–mostly that it is a horror that they are allowed to serve openly in the military, and he will put a stop to that by stomping his foot three times, when he is given the orb of Presidency.

Well, I have no clue if it’s true, and frankly, I’m inclined to doubt it, but heck, he IS a Republican after all, and therefore prone to speaking out of multiple sides of one mouth. At least one politico in TEX-ASS suggests that Perry, while not gay himself, surely appreciated the extra delights that one might enjoy at the hands of someone of one’s own sex. Just sayin’.

And who doesn’t miss the word-salad that was our Sarah. I wonder if Todd has an eye unblackened these days. No doubt Moosilla is throwing everything in sight. “I coulda been a contenda!” I could have been flav of the week! And I woulda kept it, I tell ya! I could be queen of the country and holder of the 4th Order of Sceptre. They could be playin’ ‘Hail to the Chieftess” right now!” , I heard her exclaim as she drove out of sight.

♦

Now we return to normal Republican stupidity.

Such as: Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) introduced this amendment to an already stupid bill about Iran:

No person employed with the United States Government may contact in an official or unofficial capacity any person that…is an agent, instrumentality, or official of, is affiliated with, or is serving as a representative of the Government of Iran, and… presents a threat to the United States or is affiliated with terrorist organizations.

And, if that don’t work, stick your head in the sand and babble.

Geez are these folks just plain uneducable? I doubt that the collective IQ of House Republicans reaches 75 on a good day.

♦

Oh and did you get this little faux pas from Fox? Or was it an oops at all? Foxy (we impersonate a news operation) Noise likes to play fast and loose with facts all the time. Are they simply registering their opinion here?

♦

Once again, we here in Iowa are forced to take the walk of shame.

Yes, Love Boat aside, we confess, we harbor another ignorant oafish brain-dead, slithering excuse for DNA–one Fred Grandy, once the beloved if stupid purser on Love Boat, and long ago, ex-Congressman, and recent fired radio blabberer, and all-around Islamic phobia crazy person, has endorsed the Newtster.

I hang my head and accept your vilification.  (Hey Iowa GOP! You could go a long way to resurrecting yourself by just saying “none of the above” when you vote in the Iowa caucuses. Hint, Hint!

♦

It’s nice to know that CEO’s had pay raises of between 27 and 40% last year. These praiseworthy “job creators” are still discussing how best to create those jobs, all the while the average person 50% of whom are low-income or below (and below would be BOTTOM) saw their wages increase by 2%.

Always good to know whom to thank.

Sigh…so much to talk about, so little time. Congrats, as Keith would say, you made it through another day of crap!

 

 

The Anatomy of a Movement

Tags

corporate America, economics, editorial, Occupy Wall Street, OWS

The Occupy Wall Street movement continues. And those of us who are sympathetic, and in fact feel connected to those who camp in New York and cities throughout the land, hope that their determination does not flag.

The Right heaps all manner of garbage on the movement, demanding a “manifesto” which if given, would only cause them to proclaim that this was nothing more than a communist plot. Claims that various groups, Acorn, Van Johnson, George Soros, and all the usual suspects are put forth to wild-eyed wingnut TeaNutz® reassuring them that they are true patriots while these “unwashed” protestors are anarchists who “hate democracy.”

Of course, other than their soul-dead followers, the Right’s arguments fall on deaf ears. The average American is inclined to look favorably upon those who claim as their mantra, “we are the 99%.”

There is no manifesto, precisely because this collection of dissatisfied Americans, come from all walks of life, with all manner of complaint. For some it is unemployment, but even that is divided between older workers and just-graduated youth. There are those who are burdened by college loan debt and see no way to ever pay it back. There are those who are losing homes through foreclosure caused by Wall Street machinations that most certainly were illegal. Then we have those who have found their pensions looted and those who are facing cuts in medical care and wages in order to hold on to the lousy job they do have.

There is in fact, no end to the complaints. The bottom line: This country no longer works for the vast majority of Americans. People no longer expect that they will do better than their parents, or that their kids will do better than them. Hope is failing, and when hope fails, people get ready to march.

Most of these folks, including myself, are far from proficient in economics. I know the barest amount about supply-side crap, and free markets and all that mumbo-jumbo. I know almost no more about Keynesian theories. I don’t know if Adam Smith had it right. But I do know this, that the economics of the last thirty years or so doesn’t work for me.

It doesn’t work for most people. It seems to work really really well for the rich. It seems to work really really well for corporations. While the rest of us flounder and worry about how we will get by, the massive corporations literally cannot get up from the table, they are so bloated with profits. And a nice portion of that is bled off to the suits in massive salaries and stock options.

Being the lawyer that I used to be, I realize the point about corporate person-hood. In terms of civil law, that declaration allows the little guy to sue the corporation for all manner of tortious behavior. (Of course the current SCOTUS has worked really hard to limit their liability to peanuts.) But that was the point, originally.

It was never envisioned by anyone that corporations would be granted this status in order to allow them to use their unlimited resources to back the candidate that was prepared to be their “spokesperson” in the government. Anyone who thinks this is not what they are doing is simply brain dead.  Corporations have no other reason to give to candidates unless they expect favorable legislation in return. Citizens United in a sense really just brought this out in the open and made “buying the candidate” part of  business as usual in America.

A superb article The Politics of the Poor, explains the movement and what we should and should not expect at this point. I thought a tweet they included said it best:

“Lots saying #ows should occupy Pennsylvania Ave instead of Wall St. Eh? Why speak to middle management when you can go straight to the boss?”)

This is a clarifying statement. It shows that what is clear in the movement, is who is the enemy. While the President may be moving too slow, and Congress not at all, they are not the target here. You hear almost nothing in interviews with protestors about party affiliation.

There  is a recognition that what has gone wrong here is that corporate America, indeed global corporations are close to literally controlling all world governments, if they don’t already.

It’s unclear what these CEO’s who of course, with their boards, ARE the corporations, expect will happen. Do they expect people to just take it? Do they anticipate that they will through armed force make folks do the work at slave wages, living in slums, with poor food and water and air? Do they expect to live in bubbles themselves on islands? They seem to.

Ironic. Corporations, who we think are always looking far down the road in planning, seem to have no end game. Or not realize that it must inevitably blow up.

I find it illogical. But then I find the TeaNutz® illogical.

What about you?

So Many Targets, I Need a Revolving Head

Tags

Ayn Rand, corporate America, GOP, Paul Ryan, wingnuts

Truth is, I sit here at the keyboard browsing through my reader, looking for something to resonate. And the choices are gargantuan. Shall I talk about the GOP talking head, Noelle Nikpour who was “interviewed” by Aasif Mondvi?

 She was a hoot, blathering on about how science was suspect because only  other scientists could judge another scientists work.  “How convenient!” she screeched. Why The American People can tell in their “guts” what science is real and which isn’t.

As Mondvi ridiculed her with ideas about “yeah, how dare another neurosurgeon decide whether your neurosurgeon did a good job on your head”, she nodded vacantly, not getting that she was being made a fool of.

Or, take Mark Rubio. I think he may be poison to whoever turns out to be the GOP nominee. His parents were exiles, who were forced out by Castro, and they family expected to return home to Cuba. What a nice bio that made. Except it wasn’t true. His parents were immigrants (big difference) and left years before Castro took over, and never made any attempt to return. Perfectly acceptable bio, but not one that gets the sympathy juices flowing.

But, today’s winner is Paul Ryan. (What is in the drinking water in Wisconsin?) I picked up on Ryan when the Orange Slush started touting him as the Republican economic genius, who was going to blow the Democrats out of the water with his new plan.

Except it didn’t. Everybody, very quickly realized that Ryan was a shill for big business and that high on his list of targeted programs was medicare and Medicaid and social security. Republicans, individually and then in droves began distancing themselves as little old ladies with blue hair and little old men with belts under their armpits descended upon local Republican congressional offices with canes and walkers waving semi-threateningly about.

And then I learned that Paul Ryan’s hero was Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand of Atlas Shrugged.

So, me, being the curious type, and needing a good excuse to read a bit of fiction, picked up the tomb (over 1,000 pages) and began. Then I skipped to the bio of Rand, and then I realized why she was writing this stupid stuff. Then I read, and read, and read, and, heck I even read the 79 page “speech” given by John Galt.

It’s a silly book. No one could conceivably take it seriously. Except Paul did. In fact, we understand that Ryan required all his staff to read it. It’ is his Maoist version of the  “little red book” .

This is nothing new to regular readers of this blog. I’ve written about my long journey through Atlas Shrugged (use the search engine here) and my thoughts about it. Rand was an émigré from Russia, after the Revolution. Her family fared badly at the hands of communism. Her books MUST be read in light of her hatred.

But Paulie thinks that her theories about economics are actually accurate. So he referred in a recent stop at the Heritage Foundation that:

“We’re coming close to a tipping point in America where we might have a net majority of takers versus makers in society and that could become very dangerous if it sets in as a permanent condition.

As anyone who has read Rand knows, these are purely her words. Charles P. Pierce, in his, dare I say, scathing article in Esquire, literally guts Ryan and his thinking. Like Rand herself, Ryan had no philosophical qualms about taking  government money, much as he rails against the very programs themselves.

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, takes apart the entire speech, showing that as usual, the GOP and Ryan in particular deal in falsehood, and the usual politics of convenience.  While it plays to the extreme right-wing to claim that Obama and the Democrats are engaging in “class warfare”, quite clearly the American people do not buy it.

I guess what I come away with from Ryan’s speech is that it is but another example of  TeaNutz® pandering. Tell the lie, tell it often, and don’t worry. You’re talking to people who are either unable or unwilling to check out the facts. How this is done before a room full of people, albeit fellow-travelers, without bursting into guffaws of giggles is always beyond me. To suggest that Obama is engaging in class warfare and engendering envy, fear, and resentment is to simply restate the manifesto that is the TeaParty.  I mean one always figures that back stage there are some winks, smirks, and light rib jabs, at how wonderfully  “this will play to our ‘grass-roots’  minions.”

What becomes frightening, is the very thought that Ryan actually believes the stuff he spouts. If he does, then it shows a man who indeed has no common cause with Americans in general, but only with those who have proven themselves worthy of concern–the  “Creators” of wealth, the rich. All others, are in Rand’s words, mere fodder to fuel the engine, in other words, the takers.

** Many of these links originate from Constant Comments, written by Constant Weader. If you haven’t been there yet, please do go. He does what I do but in much greater breadth.

***What’s on the stove? A new creation. I call it Fusion Chicken and Corn Chowder. Check it out. Up no later than tomorrow.

Related articles

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• Know Thy Enemy (afeatheradrift.wordpress.com)
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What This World Needs is a Good Shirley Temple

Tags

"Mittens" Romney, Barney Frank, Constitution, corporate America, economy, environment, Eric Cantor, Humor, Judeo-Christianity, Newt Gingrich, Occupy Wall Street, wacko media

Hey it worked in the 30’s. Or so they tell me. I have no personal knowledge. I’m not that old. I refer to those old reels of celluloid to inform me.

Back in the 30’s this country, like today, was reeling from pessimism. The economy sucked and people had lost faith. So, those great minds in the country told Hollywood to get on board, and make lots of feel-good movies.

And they did. And Shirley saved America.  We just need another Shirley is all. Simple.

♦

Having saved the world before noon, let us move on. Did you know that back in the 20’s and 30’s that corporate Amerika fought Child Labor laws tooth and nail? Did you know that the first act passed by Congress, the Keating-Owens Act, was struck down by the US Supreme Court as a constitutional infringement on a child’s right to contract his or her own labor?

Do rational people believe that anything has changed in Corporacracy? The GOP continues to blame the economic woes of the country on “regulation” of business by Democrats. They assure us that our Corporate benefactors will “do the right” thing when it comes to safe working conditions, safe products, and otherwise fair business practices.

How low does your IQ have to be to believe that? Does anyone remember the company town? Does anyone remember the Triangle Shirtwaist fire? Does anyone remember GM strikers being attacked and beaten by corporate goons?

Yeah, I sure believe that the Koch brothers are lookin’ out for me. Sure I do.

♦

Just how clearly does our Constitution follow the commandments of the Christian faith? Beeryblog has a post you better darn read if you want to know. It’s an eye-opener.

♦

Don’t know if you heard or not, but Gingrich called for the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd as the ” real perpetrators” of the economic collapse in this country. When the moderators suggested that that was said tongue-in-cheek- surely, Newt the Toot, doubled down and assured everyone that he meant every word of it.

Barney Frank responded with this:

“I wish I knew that he was willing to listen to my advice, I would have given him some: I would have told him not to impeach Clinton, I would have told his successors not to go to war with Iraq, and I would have told DeLay not to go on the dance show. He’s been having a bad year, you know — this self-styled intellectual leader of the free world struggling to stay ahead of Michele Bachmann in the polls is unsettling him so he talks even sillier than he sometimes does.”

H/T to Joe.My.God

♦

The nutz on the right continue to not know what the willies to do about the Occupy Wall Street phenom. Eric (everybody’s nerdish little brother) Cantor has gone from calling them “mobs” to folks who are folks who are “justifiably frustrated.” Read how Cantor tries to backtrack and still manage to tell everyone how different this group is from his beloved (let me kiss your feet) TeaNutz®.

As the movement grows across the country, the GOP is rethinking its initial condemnation of “all those dirty hippies” and “anarchists” who are out to “divide our country” and “pit Americans against Americans”. It’s a fun thing to watch I gotta admit.

And Herm, I would be guessin’, ain’t going anywhere near the “mobs” with his “stop whining and get a job” routine.

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If you need another primer on the economy, Robert Reich has that for you in seven lies about the economy that are being pushed by the Right. 

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A couple of nice finds at Political Irony. The first is a Democratic website where you can go and watch Mitt (somebody called me Mittens and I thought that was cute) Romney flippin’ and floppin’ on a huge number of issues. All out of his own mouth. Go here for that.

Or go here for late night humor.

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There’s two guys chasing after one brain-cell award: Beck interviewing Hank Williams Jr. on his being fired from ESPN for being just plain too stupid to exist. Of course you get that Blaze, so no link is required. You would not want to read it after all.

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Did you know that erasers have magical properties? Well they do. Whatever they erase, ceases to exist. At least on planet TEX-ASS. You see, for years TEXAS has contracted with Houston Advanced Research Center to report on the state of Galveston Bay. And they did so this year. And the water levels are rising, and the scientists said it was important proof of climate change and human causation.

References to the rising water and projections of future rising were simply erased by Rick’s boys and girls who don’t care for that kinda stuff. It’s all a left-wing hoax didn’t ya know?

♦

I’m living in a land somewhere west of Andromeda this day. I awoke to a husband who out-of-the-blue and for no-definable-reason, offered to cook dinner. I had a roast out defrosting and he said, “save it until tomorrow, I’ll go down and get the liver and fix that. I know you don’t like to cook liver.”

I immediately began looking around for MY husband. But I’m thinkin’ I may keep this imposter around, at least until after that liver is cooked. I do love me some liver ‘n onions on occasion.

 

Related articles

• Barney Frank Rips Newt Gingrich for Suggesting He Should be Jailed (towleroad.com)

He’s a Bungler!

Tags

African Americans, class warfare, corporate America, decision making, economy, GOP, John Kasich, Michele Bachmann, Michelle Obama, Ohio, political theory, poverty, psychology, racism, Rick Perry, taxes, teabaggers, unions

H/T to LOL GOD

Or what a difference a week makes. 

It was only a few days ago that I was sure the Ricky Perry was so capturing the goofballs known collectively as the TeaNutz® that he was a shoo-in to grab the GOP ball from boring old “I wanna be president” Mitt.

But, bungler that he apparently is, Ricky “No Lucy for you” is gummin’ up the works from the git-go. A series of duh moments has alerted even the know-nothin’ TeaNutz® leadership that they may have a real clunker here.

So, I’m not at all sure that Ricky will capture the brass ring, and that leaves us, ya know, the boring but ever willing to change his mind on ANYTHING, Mitty.

 And I was so hoping for more fun. Course it’s now about even money that the Neo-cons will travel five hundred miles on their knees to grovel at the throne of Chris (burp) Christie. Will Chrissy be like Caesar? No, NO, NO, oh if you insist!

Do stay tuned.

Meanwhile Newt is hot to trot in that bed of GOP voters, HA Why HE. Yeah, the grifter keeps getting a small cadre of really really really extra stupid wingnuts to give him money so he can live the high life.

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I don’t know if you saw The Daily Show the other night. Jon went on a super rant about the pundits on False Noise who continue, in true Randianesque form to whine that 51% of the people in the US don’t pay any taxes at all. They have dubbed this “class warfare” and now are arguing that the poor should “give some skin” before they ask the rich folk to ante up a dime.

What is simply stomach wrenching about this ugly claim of theirs is that they use Randian terms such as calling the poor “parasites”, “leeches”,  “takers” and frankly worse. The rich are portrayed as the true “makers” and “creators”. This is such unbridled hatred of a “class” that it’s a wonder they don’t choke on their own words.

Of course a HUGE portion of those who don’t pay any taxes, are those who, when the few tax deductions they are entitled to take are subtracted from their income,  have zero owing. Somehow this is their fault. “Stupid poor people who don’t make enough money!!”

And do you notice that calling the rich “creators” is a lot like calling them GOD? And that might be a suggestion that they are to be “trusted” as any Creator would be? Do ya think that is all just coincidence?

And of course let’s not forget that the poor pay most all of their income out in essential services, like utilities, rent, and food, all of which are taxed.

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When do you make decisions? Well, making a good decision depends on timing in part. So I would suggest that you follow the link and read all about how to make ’em good and stop screwing up! It’s a lengthy article from the NYTimes Magazine.

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There are two Michelle’s in Washington. One is in the White House, the other is on the campaign trail in the hopes of making it her home. Are they treated differently by the press? It would appear so. Read Sophia A. Nelson’s great article in The Grio.

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Professor Alexander Keyssar puts the GOP narrative into a historical perspective. Interestingly, I had used the same term to the Contrarian–they want a return to the Gilded Age of America where business had unfettered freedom to do as they wished. And that wish included, if you recall, child labor, unsafe working conditions, virtual slave wages, and long hours and no unions. Say Robber Barons. And of course, dismantle all social programs such as social security, medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, education grants. . .well go on and on. This is the world they envision.

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I’d suggest you pop over and read Chauncey de Vega’s really good post on racism in America. He distinguishes two kinds: a white racial frame, and symbolic racism. These distinctions are terribly important and de Vega really explains what the phrase “take back America” means to the Teabagger mentality.

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If you thought the Wisconsin recall votes were not all that important, think again. Similar crap was pushed through in Ohio by the now beleaguered Governor John Kasich, and now guess what? The governor is trying really hard to placate the left in his state.

Kasich had pushed through a “kill the unions” bill through his Rethuglian-controlled legislature. But 1.3 million Ohioans have voted to put that very bill back on the ballot where they can put in their two cents. Under a weird little law, Ohioans had ninety days to get a bit over 231,000 signatures, and got, ummm 1.3 MILLION.

Kasich is trying to get the progressives to come on in and discuss the “issue.” 🙂

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