What’s Up With That?

Tags

1st Amendment, dominionism, teabaggers, Ted Cruz

Never let it be said that a college education isn’t a good thing.  But it does not mean, gentle folks, that everyone that secures one comes out, well, . . . educated.

Some come out with better talents at manipulating the world they hope to rule one day.

Case in point is Canadian Ted Cruz, that stalwart Haaaavard educated douche from Texas whose daddy is still quite certain that President Obama was born in Kenya, which apparently is something less good than being born in either Canada or Cuba as the case may be.

It would be inappropriate to compare Ted to another well-known demagogue, so we won’t, but gosh Ted could give any of a host of world ogres a run for their money when it comes to using white-hot rhetoric in attempts to raise the blood of the great stupid hoards.

Truth? Not so much. Truth is not the providence of a demagogue; not that truth has no place at all in propagandizing. It does, but a minor part at best. Truth becomes the kernel which is then popped all out of its original proportions in order to reach the goal of making black white and thus creating the “new” rallying cry of the duped.

My very own Senator, Tom Udall recently introduced a constitutional amendment before the Senate which would try to put a stop the abuses that stem from Citizens United. As you recall, the SCOTUS held in that case that corporations were “people” for purposes of the 1st Amendment and that they could spend unlimited money denouncing or supporting various candidates for office.

This led to the creation of “super Pacs” which collected millions of dollars which were funneled to various campaigns supporting various candidates. The one run by Karl Rove controlled over $300 million dollars.

Of course, we all agree (or at least most of us) that such behavior amounts to actually a very few people being able to buy elections for candidates who we must conclude feel rather beholden to their benefactors. Money has become “speech”. Indeed in the McCutcheon case, limits on the total amount an individual could spend on election campaigns were removed. All agree, that the average person, as a result has less and less a voice in these matters, being unable, even collectively to meet these staggering amounts of money, all designed to elect those who will be favorable to one’s desires.

One must remember that Citizens United involved a film, one made about Hillary Clinton, which was in all respects nothing more than a campaign tool used by the Right to smear Mrs. Clinton. That was the argument made, that the film was funded by corporate funds for one reason and one reason only, to affect the election against Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Ted has used this one fact, that it was a film to make the grandiose argument that the Democratic party intends to vote to eliminate the 1st Amendment.

He argues because this was a film (which has nothing to do with the decision at all, but is merely the vehicle for the principle embedded within it), that the very next thing to happen will be that Democrats will decide that you can’t read this particular book, view that particular movie, or go to that particular play.

Watch the video, and listen to the audible gasp by his Family Values audience as he announces this draconian fairytale. He then goes on to tell the audience that government wishes the authority to “muzzle you” if it doesn’t like your speech.

Of course this is not true at all. It is directed solely at the concept that a corporation can be a person with a political agenda, free to spend millions to do exactly what Ted decries as the eventual outcome–muzzling you. In fact it’s to keep your voice valuable, that the amendment is offered.

This all becomes the more sweet when we recognize that indeed Cruz is arguing that corporations are people in his view, a concept he shares with Willard Romney, who found that people were not really happy with his refrain, “corporations are people too, my friends.”

Indeed the irony is delicious here.

Ted is a dominionist by religious flavor, another of those Christianist offshoots that create their own theories about “what the bible means”. Ted’s daddy is a preacher who preaches this stuff through his ministry Purifying Fire International.

This ideology calls on anointed “Christian” leaders to take over the state and make the goals and laws of the nation “biblical.” It seeks to reduce government to organizing little more than defense, internal security and the protection of property rights. It fuses with the Christian religion the iconography and language of American imperialism and nationalism, along with the cruelest aspects of corporate capitalism.

Note that the ideology calls for “anointed Christian leaders”. Well as you may have guessed, Ted is one of those “anointed“. And if you are at all unsure about that, you need but ask his daddy:

Rafael Cruz indicated that his son was among the evangelical Christians who are anointed as “kings” to take control of all sectors of society, an agenda commonly referred to as the “Seven Mountains” mandate, and “bring the spoils of war to the priests”, thus helping to bring about a prophesied “great transfer of wealth”, from the “wicked” to righteous gentile believers.

So what we have here folks, is a man who is lying and making ridiculous claims about the Democrats being Fahrenheit 451 Democrats, determined to gut the 1st Amendment right to free speech, while at the same time, declaring that he has every intention of gutting the separation of church and state, and the right to freedom of religion, from the very same Amendment!

It pays to know what both hands are doing.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that perhaps the son doesn’t follow his father’s beliefs. He does folks, he certainly does.

Now, I recognize that normal people get Ted Cruz. The see him for what he is, and I have little or no doubt that he will fail miserably in his attempt to gain the GOP presidential nomination. You simply cannot hide all this stuff. It’s too well attested to by video alone.

But the antics of Ted serve to continually stir the pot of the crazy element in this country and that is a dangerous element, and becoming more so. One has only to examine the insane “open carry” nuts in Texas who even looked crazy finally to the NRA. Of course the NRA backed down, and that is even more worrisome. There is a level of crazy in Amerika that is increasingly willing, or so it seems, to use violence to achieve their goals however they articulate them beyond, “we don’t wanna pay for that” and  “we don’t want them people around us”.

Most will mess their pants at the first shot fired. But I’m afraid all too many are just nuts enough to bunker down and begin a “war”, one that will take no prisoners, but will mow down anyone who appears to be “not one of them”.

To the degree that Cruz and his ilk continually rile these folks up with blatant propaganda lies, we must all be very afraid.

 

 

Serendipity Do, I Love You, or Words to That Effect

Tags

bible, dominionists, exegesis, fundamentalists, Ted Cruz, US government

There is a definite payoff to being an eclectic. I think all great minds are actually. Not that I am comparing myself to being a great mind. I am all too aware of my limitations to do that, but at least my nose is pointed in the right direction.

Which all goes to say nothing more than that my interests are myriad and lets just say, broad, broad, broad. I read a lot of stuff in any given day or week. And I’m convinced that because of that, I draw a parallel sometimes or should I more perfectly say, an idea seems to form, informed by all that flotsam free-floating around just waiting and looking for a hook to grab and attach itself.

Utterly confused? Yeah, I know, I get so in love with the flowery shimmer of words kissing that I end up just babbling. I would compare myself with Sarah Palin, but unfortunately she never manages to ever reach an idea ever, just snippets of phrases strung together in some effort to look Wall Street Journalish.

Back to business.

So my friend Tim is going to the Chicago Theological Union working on a Masters in Divinity and he sent me his book list for the semester, and I’m reading one of those (figuring out that textbooks required from that place are certainly useful for my scholarly endeavors). It’s a dry subject to most but fascinating to me–biblical exegesis–methodology to be exact. It’s called Method Matters: Essays on the Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible.

And given the political landscape, I’m reading a lot of crap about Ted Cruz, that lunatic genius from Texas who has designs on America the Beautiful that should they comes to realization would make you cry.

And I just finished reading another tome about creationism and the crazy people who believe in it, which I hated for a variety of reasons that we don’t have to go into here, but nonetheless offered real nuggets of truth too.

And can you believe that those three things all swirled around in me old head for a few days, and is now busting out in urgent spews of words and phrases all because something important is to be learned in all this? And since you haven’t (unless the universe is way more crazy than I think) been reading these same things, I just got to let you know all about it.

So let’s start at the bottom and work up. About these creationist believers. You know the one’s I mean, the silly folks who are just sure that Genesis (chapter 1, 2 or together) describe in REaLitY just exactly how the earth and everything around it were created? Them? The cognitive dissonance folks? The compartmentalized fools? Them.

They like their bible their way, as has been pointed out innumerable times. God said it, I believe it, ‘nuf said. God actually said it in the pages of the King James Bible, the only one worth reading from their point of view. And he said it, dictated it, so that the average, only sorta educated person could easily understand it. Why do they know that? Because they understand it, just fine.

No amount of showing them that they don’t understand it will be allowed. Mostly that is true, because they way they understand it suits them just fine. It allows them to hate whom they naturally hate, and condemn whom they naturally wanna condemn, and look down upon those they think should be looked down upon.

Now to suggest to them that they are wrong in their understanding is well, easily dealt with. That’s where the red guy comes in.

See, Satan is a real dude, and he is everywhere, making it his personal job to screw all mankind and womankind as well, after raping them no doubt. Satan is behind everything bad.

Satan is also the most devious trickster ever invented (and God did that, but a good fundamentalist doesn’t dwell on why too much–it was no doubt for our own good). Satan gets in people’s heads and messes them up.

Fundamentalists are pretty sure that any time somebody–anybody–says something that they don’t like, Satan is behind it.

Are you getting the drift?

So, if somebody tries to present actual facts that the bible is not as they say–that’s SATAN working again. They actually call you that to your face if you aren’t careful. Or words to that effect. I was once asked, “Sherry, why do you hate Jesus so much?” all in response to my trying to explain why evolution was actually true and believing in God and believing in EVOLUshun was really okay.

Which all led to this remark by a geologist (a real one) speaking at a creationist convention:

“. . .I am a young-age creationist because that is my understanding of the Scripture. As I shared with my professors years ago when I was in college, if all the evidence in the universe turned against creationism, I would be the first to admit it, but I would still be a creationist because that is what the Word of God seems to indicate. Here I must stand.” (Amongst the Creationists, pg 213)

That pretty much tells you that these people are not to be trifled with.

Now, Ted Cruz is a fundamentalist of the first order. His daddy is a preacher who talks about Ted being a royal priesthood, a king, and Obama of course being a Kenyan devil. These folks are serious about their fundie ways. Ted is also a dominionist among other things.  A dominionist is defined as:

The theocratic idea that regardless of theological view or eschatological timetable, heterosexual Christian men are called by God to exercise dominion over secular society by taking control of political and cultural institutions. Competes in Christianity with the idea of Stewardship, which suggests custodial care rather than absolute power. Used here in the broader sense, some analysts use the word only to refer to forms and offshoots of Reconstructionism.

Basically these folks believe to one degree or another than they should impose a Christian government over the US, based on biblical law as they understand it, and go on to do so across the world. People who are not Christian or don’t adhere to proper beliefs are to be eliminated (How that is to be done  depends on how hard-core you really are.)

Where do they get this notion? Why they get it from Genesis 1:28 where in God gave Adam “dominion” over all the earth.

See, they read this and define it as the way we would use the words today. Subdue involves or can involve force. Dominion means dominance, power and control over.

So they feel very righteousy in all their planning to destroy the Constitution as it is, in favor of what it really always was, but somehow got perverted by the LIBERALS, those heathen God-haters, also known as the N word of all words SECULARISTS, which is really an S word, but no matter.

And they mean business and no bigger proof of that is grifter girl Annie Coulter, who probably could care less, unless she can see a way to make a dime off it, but anyway, she in seriousness or jest said this:

And well, we don’t know how close to Mr. Cruz this is or isn’t, but for some, this is what they really believe, and if you try to explain to them that they are probably pretty wrong in this, well, as I said, you get Satanized.

So what is the truth about all this dominion stuff?

Well, I was reading my Method Matters and I was reading about the methodology called Comparative Methodology which to make a long story very very short, means comparing biblical texts with other textual material from other areas and groups such as Egyptian or Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and so forth. Do we find similar stories say to the flood story? And of course we do. And that helps us understand the Hebrew flood story in some context. Get it?

So when we look at the “man made in the image of God” we wonder what that means. And it suggests that in Mesopotamia, the king made images of himself for the temple (to be worshipped) and in territories taken in war. So if God made an image of himself (in man) is this similar to showing off one’s victory–humans are the capstone of God’s creation. Except that in Mesopotamia, the images are cast to revel in war victories or hunting victories, the latter reflecting on the former. They reflect violent acts by the King.

Is this the same in the bible or different. The author of that essay, argues different. Why? Because when we read Genesis 2:16, we see that the “dominion” previously alluded to, is tempered in the second Genesis story using the Hebrew words šmr (serving) and ‘bd (preserving). We can see that the Hebrew writer who joined the two creation stories changed the royal rhetoric of violence which we see in Mesopotamian texts to a non-violent image of caring and nurturing of the earth by this image of God–humanity. (*please note I am not suggesting that the Genesis redactor was aware of the Mesopotamian textual or iconographic rhetoric)

The lesson is quite different. And rational people thus informed and having a better idea of what dominion means in the Hebrew bible, no longer can or should use it as a basis for a forceful control over others.

But of course we run into that old demon Satan once again.

I might be telling you the truth, and honestly I am, but then again, my mind might be so warped by my companion Beelzebub that I only THINK that I’m telling you the truth, and I’m really doing Satan’s handiwork. Or as they say in Star Trek: Everything I say is a lie–I’m lying.

You have now entered a circular argument and will never be released–or a black hole–or the inside of true-blue fundamentalist.

Related articles

• Rafael Cruz is an avowed creationist (dailykos.com)
• Ted Cruz’s Father is a Dangerous Religious Fanatic (politicususa.com)
• Creationist Ken Ham: Vote for godly candidates, not for policies that benefit you (rawstory.com)

 

To Christie or Not, That May or May Not Be the Question

Tags

Chris Christie, Election 2016, Rand Paul, teabaggers, Ted Cruz

Well, another election down. I won’t bore you with rehashing the results. You probably know them all too well. McAuliffe wins in Virginia, Christie wins in New Jersey, New York City goes for the progressive, Detroit goes white, Alabama chooses the moderate Republican over the Tea.

One might take from this that the Tea Party had a bad night. Both in Virginia and in Alabama the tea party candidate was way way out there in Righteous land and both were defeated, in one case by a Democrat  whom nobody really liked (McAuliffe) and in the other by a more moderate version of conservatism.

Of course the Tea Numbskulls will not learn the RIGHT lesson from all this. Rather they are already grousing that Cuccinelli was in reality not really Right enough. And if they are saying that, well what can you expect? While there are grades of insanity no doubt, from mild to severe, insanity pretty much says it all doesn’t it? No matter the degree, one is not going to let a certified one babysit the kids or take your money to bank for deposit.

This is actually good news for the rest of the country who still holds on with all its might to the last shreds of sanity allowed one in this magnificent country of denial. As I always say, the crazier they are, the saner we look by comparison. By the way a huge huge thanks for Toronto and your own brand of crazy with his band of happy pipers, the illustrious still mayor, Rob Ford. You make America look good there pal.

Any the way, where does all this leave us?

Well, it seems to me that it leaves us chomping at the bit for the big old 2016! I means it is likely to be even more a hoot than 2012 was, and who can forget all the fun we had then? We had wonderful Michele with her big ole eyes and her “win” out of Iowa or was it the straw poll that she bought with lots of corn on the cob and music entertainment? And then there was Herm and his 999 and Ickbekistan? Who can forget that Perry forgot and made famous that lovely word, “OOPS”? Oh gosh, and there was Newt and his plastic hair wife, and zoos. And Willard, ahh, dear Willard and we had dogs on roofs, and 47%, and elevators for cars, and trees just the right size. Those were the days.

And yet, I smell similar fun coming up.

Even though old Rinsed Penis has abolished all those weekly debates, there will still be enough.

Let’s look at the contenders.

First we got Randy Paul. Randy has a bit of an issue with stealing other people’s work, as in plagiarism. Randy didn’t like the accusation when it came from Rachel Maddow, but well the rest of the lazy press when shown the pathway to success, started scrambling through Randy’s written chit, and pumping it into a plagiarism-finding site, and whoa, did they get lucky. Lots of speeches, lots of “editorials” in various newspapers, and even a good chunk from his book lifted from the Heritage Foundation, which publishes enough propaganda to choke an ox, having given up the word “think” in think tank. Nowadays Wikipedia probably does have more professional bonafides than it.

Randy, confronted with the avalanche of proof of his cheating, does the Anthony Weiner defense: there may be more of this “stuff” out there still, and tells us he will “restructure” his group of workers. This all suggests that it is staff in his office responsible which is interesting to note, since it does suggest that Randy never even wrote his own book.

But sadly this is not the first time Randy has told us that he may have a rather unique understand of ethics. Witness his gleeful explanation of how one can succeed in med school. Lie to other classmates, telling them that you have a copy of the test, which you provide freely, and letting them study for the wrong stuff, in the hopes that they will do badly and you will look better on the curve and score a better grade. All without having to know anything! Hurrah. What’s not to like about this? Oh cheating? No, Randy says, no it’s not cheating, just I guess free markets at work?

Throw in a little self-aggrandizement in the form of making yourself “board certified” by organizing your own Board of Ophthalmology, in which your wife is the Vice President and his father in law was Secretary and which operates out of a mail box. See, Randy didn’t want to take the recertification required by the state, so he just certified himself.

Now if all that leaves you a little queasy when it comes to Randy’s sense of ethics, just think of all the fun we are all gonna have come 2016? As a bonafide wanna be candidate for President, Randy is surely gonna face some fun questions from the other candidates and the press.

And then there is Teddy the Latin Cruz. Teddy is a dominionist, which means he and his daddy and others like them, (Sarah, dear girl, included) further warp and twist Genesis in the bible. In one of the creation stories God tells Adam that he has dominion over the earth. Well, Teddy takes that chit seriously, and intends to dominate it, as in Christian supremacy. That stuff about separation of church and state be damned. He is after all, as Daddy says, one of the Kings who is entitled to get the money, and the power, and rule. Meanwhile they will get rid of everyone who disagrees with a vengeance.

Teddy might also find it hard to live down his tentherism ties. Actually his 9th and 10th erism ties. Basically tentherisms contend that most all of the laws of the US are unconstitutional, since the assume power not directly given to the government by the Constitution. (read literal in the extreme). This is states rights talk, plain and simple.

Mike Lee, Senator from Utah, who showed Cruz how to win an election from a conservative Republican by running farther to the right of them, is a huge champion of this as well. Basically (all your poor hanger-on teabuzzards don’t read this lest you pass out), these guys want to repeal EVERY and I do mean every social safety net program ever invented such as social security, medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and on and on. Most government agencies would be dissolved such as the EPA and presumably things like the FDA, FAA, FCC, and so forth.

Well, then we get to Christopher Christie the big winner from Tuesday. That makes him the frontrunner to many. But of course, he has to get through Randy and Teddy, and God knows how many other loons such as Allen West, Sarah, well the mind boggles at the thought.

Christie has his own issues: an explosive temper that borders on bullying which apparently is fairly easy to set off. You know that  Randy and Teddy will be doin’ just that. And there is the fact that Willard Romney liked Christie and wanted to make him his VP, until his vetting team uncovered enough that that option was no longer viable. Now the Romney robot may have been a bit gun-shy give just how stupid Sarah turned out to be, but lordy, there are suggestions that Christie may play a little fast and loose with the government contracts and friends issue.

This may all be fairly small, but you can be sure that the field of loons the GOP is likely to field will go fast and furious in exploiting each and every alleged faux pas to its logical conclusion. And of course the red meat blogging community who is hell-bent for a REAL PATRIOT to be the candidate, well, they will again be doing the work for the regular press and feeding them every located skeleton found.

Which all, goes to say. . . .

It’s going to be a bumpy ride. Thank you Ms. Davis!

PS: Where big GOP bucks come in here is anybody’s guess at this point!

Whew! Dodged a Bullet. Time to Start Filling the Bunker

Tags

tea party, teabaggers, Ted Cruz

The shutdown is over, the fiscal cliff averted, and we can all sigh with relief and go back to Packer football, raking leaves, and worrying about whether Uncle Henry’s flatulence will ruin the Thanksgiving dinner once again this year.

Ted Cruz and Tea Party soundly defeated. Dust off the hands. Job well done.

Not so fast my dears. Not so fast.

When nearly everyone with a brain that can think of a good answer to 2 + 2 (tea baggers excluded since whatever is in their skulls doesn’t qualify as a brain anyway), says that this was a no brainer from day one in that it had a SNOWBALLS CHANCE IN HELL OF WORKING, well, methinks I smell a rat. This had nothing to do with winning on the issue of dismantling Obamacare. NEVER. It was the ruse used to light the fire under the rank and file.

Ted Cruz is not an idiot. He may be crazy and narcissistic to a fault, but stupid he is not. He got out of this exactly what he wanted: a bigger national name, money pouring into his coffers, and a brand spanking new donor list to use. If I had to guess, I’d be really really sure that Cruz has read at least one book on how Adolph Hitler (a not stupid person) managed through sheer force of charisma to incite a small group of rabble (Brown Shirts) to catapult him into the Chancellery and ultimately to the dictatorship of the German people. Ted has a plan, I can assure you of that, ill-conceived and product of a meglamaniacal mind as it may be.

While Sarah, the grinning Barbie doll,  paraded around the WWII memorial with 200 elderly veterans,  and spouted how Obama was abusing them for political gain, as she abused them for political gain, veterans across America suffered from the loss of Meals on Wheels. Oh yeah, they couldn’t quite see the photo-op there did they?

Did the teabaggers learn a lesson? Sure they did.

They learned that a rather tiny group of very angry people can wreak big havoc with government, and cause millions of people real pain. And when you are a destructionist rather than a constructionist, well, that’s a valuable lesson.

Will they do it again?

Yes. We will go through all this again in January and February because disrupting things works. They have no care whatsoever that the fortunes of the GOP are falling faster than a meteor streaking across the sky. They only care that they can disrupt and bring government to a screeching halt.

If you have any question about that read Eric Erickson, founder of Red State, and his call for making all those “RINOS” pay in the 2014 elections. “A vote to end the crisis, is a vote for Obamacare!” If you don’t believe me still, compare the votes against ending the shutdown to those who are running for re-election in 2014.

This is not to say that the Tea Creatures are only about destruction. Like just about anybody, once in actual power, they will enjoy it all too well, and will merrily go about the business of enlarging government to suit their predilections. All that talk about “getting government out of our lives” is true. They mean that, but they missed a few words that always are in their head when they say it. It’s more like getting government out of OUR lives and into the lives of all those who don’t live the RIGHT way.”

Surely women will no longer get abortions except illegally, and once the nice white people have picked all the kids they want to adopt from the foundling homes set up to deal with the influx, the rest will be raised by the states. There will be no such thing as health care for the poor, no such thing as Medicaid surely. No such things as food stamps or any of that stuff. The poor will not be left to die, but rather, work houses will be set up in every county where they will live.

Work? Oh there will be plenty of that to go around for the foundling kids and poor-house inhabitants. Streets and bridges to repair and build, lettuce to pick, trash to collect. All the stuff that white people don’t like to do, well they will do for a bed and three squares a day.

While the monied interests will pay these workhouse overseers well, letting them have a few more dribbles of cash to live in the best part of town, not quite in the elite section reserved for monied business interests, but the next best thing. For you see the rich shall be very busy once again. With no restrictions upon them at all, they will be busy building businesses that no longer have to care about working conditions, product safety and all that.

Rockefeller you may recall had no interest in fairness. He wanted to destroy the competition. When you have so much money you can’t begin to spend it, you have to do something. So winning the game is all that matters. And once they have locked up control of America they will expand the game to the rest of the planet. And then, well, there is the moon, and Mars, and from there on read whatever version of science fiction “galaxy wars” excites you, but it surely won’t be a “federation of planets” ala Star Trek.

This all works so damn beautifully. As Theda Skocpol informs us, it’s a pincer effect. The grass-roots crazy ignorant frightened white people do the dirty work and the money pays the tab. The grassroots never knows it’s being used until it’s too late. Like I said, enough of them are paid off handsomely to forget that they are nothing more than enforcers for the “man” now. No freedom for you! TeaNazi.

You remember that some weeks ago we had a conversation about physical discipline of children. I lamented that a segment of my high school classmates thought today’s youth was “disrespectful” and not as they should be, and that mostly that was due to not being beaten as they had been. Course, they don’t call it being “beaten” they call nostalgically call it, “being whooped on”. Another classmate was always telling us how her relative was “scamming” the food stamp system, and she used that example as “proof” that the system was rife with people who were “just too lazy to work”.

Skocpol says this too is normal, for these grass-roots angry white people don’t like their own kids and grandkids, finding them all too willing to take government student loans for granted, and certainly not thinking as they do on social issues.

The monied interests, on the other hand adore their fundamentalist social straight-laced attitudes, for they fit right in with their agenda. While nobody suggests that the monied interests share tea party social values, it’s convenient to them when their work force is mired in simple-minded beliefs that are focused on them versus us in so many guises. So they give lip service to ending abortion and marriage amendments to keep the ignorant teabibbers lasered in on their own neighbors and co-workers rather than of course where they should be–the uber rich who pull the strings and continue to garner all the assets.

Can we stop this?

Well, as in most things, that depends.

When most people are rightly focused on how to make ends meet as a full-time occupation, it’s hard to find time to become involved in our civic responsibilities. When monied interests are all too happy to ply us with toys of every kind (how much bigger can that big screen get and how more pixilly perfect?), we are dutifully lost in our pleasure palaces that are controlled by the flick of thumbs on buttons. So we have to move ourselves off of that to be an effective counterpoint.

I have utter faith in the instinctive goodness of most people and in their can’t-quite-put-my-finger-on-why-it’s-wrong-but-know-it-is ability to separate the goats from the sheep. I believe that the American public at large see through the smooth talk of Ted Cruz and knows him for what he is, a demagogic wannabe, much as the public saw through sista-Sarah and her grifting scheme to be a celebrity Vice President, and prance around in designer clothes and nifty heels.

But that means we have to go further than simply voting for a Democrat come 2014. It means a whole lot more since these old angry white people are infested in our state legislatures and school boards, and city councils.

Whether we are up to the task remains to be seen.

This guy is so cynical, he thinks that YOU are no more his match than the tea party minions who are following him as their new god.

I’m betting you are more than his match.

What do you think?

 

 

 

I would highly suggest you read this post from Salon, which I read after composing this post in my head, and suggested to me, that I’m not too far off the mark here. And you might want to pick up the book by Theda Skocpol as well.

 

Related articles

• Ted Cruz Admits Budget Standoff Was All About Building Fundraising Lists (thinkprogress.org)
• The left thinks business controls the Republican Party. They’re wrong. (washingtonpost.com)
• FOCUS | Democrats Must Stop Ted Cruz’s Hollywood Ending (readersupportednews.org)
• Ted Cruz Used Texas to Create ALEC’s Anti-Obamacare Legislation (sacurrent.com)

 

What the Tedster is Really Up To

Tags

GOP, teabaggers, Ted Cruz

We have all had the deep displeasure of having watched Teddy Cruz put on a real show this week. It’s been building for weeks, capped yesterday with his virtually one-man “filibuster” against the very bill he begged the House to pass.

Seemingly normal and intelligent people are scratching their heads.

What goes here?

Well, I think I know.

And I don’t stand alone in that conviction, plenty of other folks of a political bent think they do to. My offering simply fleshes out the skeleton of what many pundits have been saying for several days now.

Why try to force a fight against Obamacare when you cannot win it? For it could not be won, make no mistake about that. Nothing was going to force Harry Reid to putting up the House version of the budget bill. NOTHING.

And even if by some miracle, the Senate and House managed that feat–to pass a bill defunding the law, Obama would simply veto it.

Everyone knows this. It’s no mystery.

Worse, the bill itself (the defunding part) actually doesn’t do that, since the act is already funded now from the current budget, so all Cruz could ever have hoped for was to not fund the future. And as we have said, it simply couldn’t be done.

So Cruz pisses off the House and certainly Boehner who are forced to engage in another useless rounding of voting down Obamacare, all for Cruz to be unable to deliver ANYTHING in the Senate.

So what gives?

It has nothing to do with Obamacare, or any piece of legislation. The budget, simply because of it being the budget with a “shutdown” looming was the perfect target to attack Obamacare as the “object”. It could just as easily have been immigration, or any other measure favored by Democrats and not by Republicans.

It has nothing to do with what, but who. The who being Cruz. I repeat what professional pundits claim on this point. Cruz is going to run in 2016 for president. Making a grandstand play, getting tons of free publicity and appearing to be “the only Republican with guts” gives him national exposure, enables him to solicit funds (which he has through TV ads), and get a national list of supporters together.

In the not too distant future Cruz will be plying these folks to donate money “so that he can “finish the job” of dismantling Obamacare, and all other sorts of Tea Bagger favorites. He will also be looking for likely candidates to help run his campaign in all those primary states he needs to win in order to build the momentum that he expects will then make his candidacy inevitable.

One pundit reported that on a recent trip to Iowa, Cruz met with “the religious right” and “mesmerized them” with his rhetoric. These folks are so tired of being solicited for votes and then forgotten once in office (ala Dubya) that they are itching to put their full force behind a true believer.

Is it this crass? Does Cruz have really no interest in America and its wellbeing?

I would argue no, he really doesn’t.

There is a GQ article on this guy entitled The Distinguished Wacko Bird from Texas.

You should read the article, and you will find a man who is supremely arrogant and very very sure of himself. You can decide for yourself whether he actually believes any of the bilge he spouts or whether it has just become the convenient means to an end.

One can of course argue that Cruz is really not smart at all, and thus for some reason can’t see the end result of his Obamacare crusade. I don’t happen to be in that group. I think he is wildly intelligent. Certainly many can matriculate through even the ivied halls of Harvard and be none too smart–some people are undeniably talented at test taking. But Cruz went to Harvard Law, and that is a bit different.

Students are routinely (it’s all they do basically) given a set of facts and asked to deduce a legal principle. They are given new facts and asked to compare, analyze and conclude whether a stated principle of law does or does not apply. The decision by the student (who wins) is highly unimportant, but how you analyze the facts is. You can’t do this and be stupid, by and large. You might be a lightweight, but you can’t be utterly stupid.

And to believe that this plan would work is, as we have stated, plainly stupid.

But Cruz pressed forward with fervor and a zeal born of a true-believer. He announced that his goal was to convince his fellow Senators to join him in passing the House bill, and he claimed that it was possible to do that. Since it was not, what are we left with?

Rather than being stupid, Cruz is a bold and blatant liar. He has lied to the very base that he will depend upon. And this suggests that not only is his agenda purely personal, but also that he has a deep and abiding disrespect from the very people he claims to stand for. So stupid are the tea party followers, in his opinion, that they will forgive that he lied to them, and whipped them up only for the purpose of learning their names and addresses to add to his campaign lists.

Worse, he figures them too stupid to even figure it out. They will, he believes, conclude that he stood alone, against the machine of the “things as usual”, striking a pose as the only principled person in the Congress. And that will make then so electrified by him, that they will break their asses to assure his nomination victory come 2016.

Seriously, I think he believes this. Along with an unhealthy dose of narcissism that would make the average dictator blush in shame.

For a Cruz nomination would be a dream for the Democrats. The middle, which contrary to what some believe, aren’t this thoughtful, wait and see, study all the candidates and issues, group, won’t vote for him. They are essentially low-information voters who have to be induced to vote, and frankly the likes of a Ted Cruz scares them to death, the same way that Sarah scared them, and Mitt and Paul scared them. The way Christine O’Donnell scared then and Ted Akin. They ain’t goin’ for crazy.

Cruz, in the end is nothing more than the average monomaniacal who has no other goal in mind other than personal power. A fair reading of the GQ article makes it abundantly clear that his career has been on his mind since the time of Harvard law when he refused to study with any students who hadn’t undergraded at Harvard, Princeton or Yale. It’s what drove him to demand a transfer to a “harder” school in high school.

Whether he believes his own rhetoric is really of no real import. He will ride the shoulders of his followers, regardless, because all he really cares about is being the power.

We all would do well to know this man well. He is dangerous. He is utterly driven. He is arrogant. He is smart. And he wants to be President of the United States.

You have been warned.

PS: there was no filibuster. Reid allowed Cruz to talk until noon 9/24. And that’s when he stopped. After starting his talking binge with th words that “I will talk until I cannot stand any longer” which was a LIE.

Related articles

• Despite Cruz, Senate heads toward Obamacare vote (cnsnews.com)
• Cruz Talk-a-Thon Seen as Opportunism Lifts Obamacare Foes (bloomberg.com)
• Joe Peyronnin: Clipping the Wings of Cruz (huffingtonpost.com)
• Reid: There will be no filibuster (politico.com)

With My Nose Pressed Up Against the Glass

Tags

crap I didn't learn, GOP, Sarah Palin, teabaggers, teaparty, Ted Cruz

Seriously, these people are just crazy.

Let me put it this way. If the rapture comes, Washington D.C. will never know. They won’t realize anything is wrong until they leave the halls of Congress and find the streets empty.

They ain’t gettin’ raptured. No way God would bring them up to the heavenly garden. Not with their penchant for stupid is as stupid does. And they be doin’ stupid most all the time now.

I can’t keep crying wolf, heck, it’s beyond that.

You just sit in fascination reading one account after another of people gone wild. The lunatics from gerrymandered red state districts tell us that their constituencies tell them to HOLD THE LINE. Even if that means that the country is destroyed? Wellllllllll, nobody ever thought past HOLD THE LINE!

It gets back to that old debate–as an elected representative, do you take a poll and vote the majority, or do you use you “independent” judgment under the theory that you know more than they do? It seems that they do pretty much both, whichever is convenient at the moment. Vote against a Syrian military action because the “folks back home are unilaterally against it.” Vote against background checks for weapon buyers because “hey, that’s my source of campaign funds” and the folks really don’t get all the fine points that I’m privy to.

To hear them tell it, Republicans in Congress hate Ted Cruz. Hate him. Think he’s a total jerk. Yet he seems to be running the show, as the country slides into the turlit. Unless it doesn’t. Like I said, crying wolf is getting old, and people are starting to yawn and ignore the entire bunch of clowns.

Until.

Until the shit hits the fan. I’m not sure what shit will hit what fans, but I bet it will.

I started reading a book about a guy who teaches math at the college level. He started reading about creationists and got intrigued and went to a homeschooling convention. It became a hobby of sorts and has written a book of his experiences with these strange folk. An example will suffice:

A speaker was giving all the rip-roaring good reasons why it was important to home school and keep the kiddies from learning about all the evil out in the real world in the form of evolution, that atheistical concocted nonsense, and homosexuality which is the devil’s joy. During the question and answer, our writer asks,

“Given that eventually your children will be going out into that world, do you ever think that it might be better to let them experience it now when they are young, and you still have some control over them, and can guide them along, rather than them getting all the worldly stuff when they leave home and you have no such control?”

The answer?

“NO! Next question.”

I mean these folks are dogmatic, and unable and unwilling to even consider alternatives to their own very weirdly structured world view.

That seems about where we are when it comes to the Tea Birchers. They have mind blocks that prevent them from even hearing the question let alone considering any alternative. If the Black guy is for it, I’m against it! Heck, I’m against it if he is neutral, that’s just a trick! The black ops are coming any day, Lord let me just get to the gun store in time to buy another Beretta, or Tank, whichever I can get.

I can sit with a bowl of popcorn, but I end up dribbling the popcorn into my lap, I’m so mesmerized by the perfect craziness of these people. This is way beyond opposition, this is infants in control of the nursery, holding the wet-nurse by the tit and demanding chocolate or they will rip it off.

I live with dry mouth as a constant condition since I can’t keep it closed long before it pops open again in disbelief and I stand there mouth agape at ANOTHER statement by another joker. Sarah is back in the mix, and somebody yesterday said it best when they realized that the reason she always has that big gulp with her everywhere is that is the only thing big enough to carry all the vodka she guzzles on a daily basis to keep beating the drums of stupid. She is stupid, she defines it, she smothers it with Wasilla grins and Moosilini winks. She’s beyond stupid, she a blinking caution light stuck on yellow.

She would pick her nose in public if she could find it. She reserves most of her “speechifying” for Facebook where she culls the followers to only those who approve, and has ghost writers correct her world salad leaps of logic and syntax before hitting the “post”.

Harvard is busy trying to figure out who let TED into their hallowed halls and made them the laughing-stock of the Ivy League.

Texas is tipping into the gulf with so many weird ass representatives that it’s only fair to send life rafts to its citizens before they fall in the drink.  They make Arizona’s governor SEEM sane by comparison.

And it is all about comparison. If you line up Cruz, Gohmert, Perry, Bachmann, Lee, Stockman, King, and half a dozen others up in a line, they are proof positive that everybody in a mental institution should be released immediately. Again by comparison. Doesn’t that make you shiver when the crazy fool who hears voices and sees green people eaters and is thinking of getting a gun, figures he MIGHT be crazy, but then sees that bunch and says, “nah, I’m fine and heads off for the gun store?

I mean I wanna dig a hole and crawl in, and let me know Jesus when you are returning so I don’t miss your arrival to straighten all this mess out.

So how is your day going?

Water Seeks Its Own Level or How Not to Give a Speech

Tags

GOP, Marco Rubio, teabaggers, Ted Cruz

Well, I guess you could say that the Republican response to the President’s State of the Union speech, did win the day in terms of YouTube hits.

Everywhere across America, people are at the Water cooler, talking about “the” moment. Truthfully, there were six mini-moments before THE moment, but whose counting.

It appears that Marco is not ready for prime-time. Sweat trickled down his brow and he took quick swipes on four occasions. Then he moved to the corner of his upper lip, and then a full sweep across his mouth. The water, however never got to where it was needed, his parched mouth. Finally in desperation and with the look of a deer caught in the headlights, he lunged to the side, glancing at the camera, grabbed  a water bottle, and quickly gulped.

It was awkward to say the least, and make it clear that the Wednesday morning talk would be about his uncomfortable water issues than the points he tried to make in his speech.

His speech was littered with the usual untruths (Obama doesn’t like capitalism, and wants bigger government), while assuring us that he was not in it for the rich (although his re-election campaign fund is sure to dispute that assertion). Mostly it was belligerant with the usual talking points that all Republicans make (taxes are too high, regulations are too onerous, and spending is out of control), and bereft of any solutions. There were NO ideas presented, only critiques of Democratic proposals.

And then there was Rand Paul. And then he was done.

≠

Meanwhile we learn that Ted Cruz continues to be a horrific douche. Well, being a Tea Bibber, I guess nothing else could be expected. Some are starting to tout Cruz as the new Joseph McCarthy, after his fairly outrageous comments regarding Chuck Hegel’s nomination for Secretary of Defense. His requests for volumes of material is being termed “unprecedented” and that is just the beginning. He has twisted and pieced together bits here and there, all to the tune of trying to claim that somehow Hegel is another sympathizer of right-wing Islam. He questioned whether (with no evidence of course) that Hegel may have received money from radical and extreme groups and “may be friends” with Iran.

Senator Inhofe, climate denier (the bible tells him so), jumped to Cruz’s defense, claiming that extremists groups had endorsed Hegel, and that must mean his is in a “cozy” position with them.

Senator Nelson of Florida, in a fairly unprecedented move himself, rebuked Cruz for impugning the patriotism of Hegel, and trying to infer that he was somehow a
fellow traveler with enemies of the US. Claire McCaskill warned Inhofe that anybody can endorse someone. Would he appreciate being called “cosy” with someone who chose to do that? Even John McCain joined in, saying that nobody should question Hegel’s patriotism.

Such behavior by Cruz, and the response are not the norm in Senate committees according to insiders.

While Cruz no doubt will be beloved by the sick reactionary right, he will be sidelined I predict in the GOP, and will have no importance in the upper echelons of the leadership.

≠

Oh, 77% of those who watched the President’s speech either liked it okay, or really really liked it. The usual suspects didn’t of course.

And, well, that’s all I got time for. I’m all ashed up and got me some new archy things for my shoes, and my broken toe is mending, and I got me a new tablet to play with, and life is good. Have a good day!

Related articles

• Cruz’s McCarthyite accusation: Hagel got money from ‘radical and extreme… anti-Israel groups’ (mondoweiss.net)
• ‘Senator Cruz Has Gone Over The Line’: Colleagues Slam Ted Cruz For Irresponsible Rhetoric On Hagel (roybatty.newsvine.com)
• Have You, At Long Last, No Decency? (esquire.com)
• Bill Nelson lashes out at Ted Cruz for questioning of Chuck Hagel (tampabay.com)
• Rubio’s Water Gulp Goes Viral (newser.com)
• Marco Rubio: ‘I needed water’ (politico.com)
• Did Marco Rubio Partially Flood His Presidential Chances In His State of the Union Rebuttal Speech? (themoderatevoice.com)
• Matthews Blasts Rubio’s Rebuttal Speech as ‘Tinker Toy’ (crooksandliars.com)
• Speech not Rubio’s only water moment (politico.com)