The Distracting Roar

For decades the Republicans have been villainizing trial lawyers. How dare anyone make a living by filing law suits to stop deceptive sales practices, the production and sale of unsafe and often harmful products, and the violation of wage and labor laws. Republicans are always sounding the alarm. They are always telling us that if we make the mega corporations behave responsibly they are going to have to raise the price they charge for their products and services! The only alternative to raising those prices is for the corporations to cut executive incomes down to a level which is only a hundred times greater than what their average employees make, and you know that is not going to happen. So lets all shout: “Tort Reform Now! End Frivolous Lawsuits! Down With Trial Lawyers And Contingency Fees!” Did you know that contingency fees allow people to secure legal representation and file law suits even when those people do not have the money to pay attorneys? It's no wonder there are so many lawsuits when you allow the riff raff to sue people. And corporations are people (very privileged people but still people in the eyes of the adoring injustices sitting on our Supreme Court).

Now in addition to passing legislation designed to restrict your ability to hold companies accountable for their actions, the Republicans have come up with another, very clever way to deal with trial lawyers. The strategy is to distract some of the more prominent trial lawyers by hiring them to file frivolous law suits against the President of the United States, and to distract the government's attorneys by making them defend the President from those suits. You Certainly have to hand it to the high priest of the high church of right wing stupid; Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sunk well below and away from anything resembling reasonable. He actually brags about filing thirty one lawsuits against President Obama, and he has formed a coalition of twenty five other red states filing suits against the President. Next to Greg Abbott, John Boehner and the Republican members of congress are pikers. But you cannot blame the Republican members of congress too much for that. I mean they have filed suits against Obama Care and against executive orders regarding immigration, etc.   And they have filed those suits in spite of the fact that their standing to do so is highly questionable. That certainly shows some spunk. I might add that with so many highly partisan Republican Appointees sitting on our courts, forum shopping is pretty good for the Republican litigants who are able to shop. As for our Republican Congressmen, they have every reason to be optimistic. After all, we do have the worst and most partisan Supreme Court ever.

The fact that filing such frivolous suits against the President is costing the tax payers a bundle is irrelevant to the greedy old plutocrats.  They encourage those frivolous suits while demanding still more legislation to protect them from meritorious law suits. The only thing great enough to match their greed is their hypocrisy!

Somewhere there is a beleaguered Congressman sitting alone, away from maddening roar of the money, thinking about how much it will take to please the greedy old plutocrats.  Their greed is never satiated, but that is probably why they are willing to pay a high price for influence.  And that high price will keep the Congressman from sitting alone too long; although he will never admit it, he is addicted to the maddening roar of the money!

Time To Remember

Heroes, that is what they were.  They were ordinary men doing extraordinary things, and far too many of them died for their country.  I am a Vietnam era vet.  I know too well what it is like to lose many of my friends in a needless war.  As we celebrate them for their bravery and selfless dedication to this country, we should also honor them by asking ourselves how we can prevent other young men and women from paying the ultimate price for our folly.

Few wars are as clear cut as WWII.  The holocaust and other atrocities committed by the axis powers made them a grave threat to all that is civilized and decent!  Korea was a bit murkier, but I have to say that the leaders of North Korea have certainly done their best to justified our opposition to their tyranny and naked aggression.  I also applaud President Harry Truman for trying to make the United Nations stronger than the failed League of Nations.  He was smart enough to see the need for a higher moral authority than what others would perceive as our nationalism if we acted alone, and he set out to build a lasting coalition of nations to oppose aggression and promote the peace in Asia as well as Europe.

In many ways the Korean War was a harbinger of things to come.  It marked the end of unconditional surrenders and simplistic cowboy movie endings.  Many Americans, particularly jingoistic simpletons,  were and still are upset by what they perceived to be our limited success in Korea.  Fortunately, President Eisenhower was smart enough to realize that the price of removing North Korea as a threat would have been much higher than we should be willing to pay, and it would have greatly strained the coalition of nations that stood with us.  In this respect the Korean war is a symbol of cold war restraint!  The threat remains but our actions have contained it thus far.

The Vietnam war was the result of arrogance and a lack of moral courage.  Right wing dullards were still screaming about what they erroneously called the sell out at Yalta, and they blamed the constraints supposedly placed upon us by the United Nations for what they considered to be the unsatisfactory truce ending the fighting in Korea.  Needless to say there was a large segment of our population that thought America was the most powerful nation on earth, and that it should never allow itself to be constrained by other nations in any manner whatsoever.  This is why we saw both John Kennedy and Richard Nixon trying to outdo each other when it came to being tough on communism.  I believe it also played a large role in Lyndon Johnson's decision to greatly escalate our involvement in Vietnam.  Dominoes be damned!  Events subsequent to the Vietnam war show that the domino theory either has no validity or that it was misapplied in this instance!

The first Gulf war was understandable, it was a matter of us protecting an ally.  George H. W. Bush, however, was wise enough to carefully build a coalition and pursue a limited objective in order to avoid the appearance of us playing the role of the bully.  Needless to say that the jingoistic dullards considered the ending of that war to be as unsatisfactory as the ending of the Korean War.  The only good thing they had to say about it was that it was not a loss, like Vietnam.  Unfortunately, the ease with which we exerted our will on Iraq gave us back a swagger that greatly encouraged the war mongers.  Do not misunderstand what I am saying.  I do not blame George W. Bush for going after Bin Laden in Afghanistan.  But not finishing the job there, and invading Iraq were huge mistakes that have destabilized the region by destroying the balance of power there.

The thing that I think dishonors our veterans the most is the dishonest rewriting of our history.  Serving in an unnecessary war does not disparage the patriotism or the courage of patriots who served their country in good faith.  What can make their deaths meaningless are the myths that will cause other brave men to needlessly sacrifice their lives and limbs. That is not something any patriot would wish on his countrymen.  That is why we must celebrate our veterans with honesty and resolve.  That is why we must acknowledge the mistakes that cost so many of them their lives, and resolve to avoid repeating those mistakes.

One of the first lessons we should take away from unnecessary wars is that they invariably begin with lies.  They begin with bold headlines urging us to Remember the Main, or with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions, or with the Bush Administration's false accusations about Saddam Hussein's connection to Al Qaeda and alleged weapons mass destruction, particularly atomic weapons!  None of the examples of false accusations I have just given were the result of faulty intelligence.  The accusations about the sinking of the Main, the allegations stated in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions about attacks on our ships, and the allegations W. Bush used to justify invading Iraq were all deliberate falsehoods!

Skepticism is a good thing.  We should be suspicious of unsupported allegations, particularly when the people making the allegations seem a bit too eager to redress their grievances with punitive actions.  People who say we must make our adversaries fear us are idiots!  People are far too inclined to strike out in fear.  It is human nature to want to eliminate anything we consider a threat.  No one doubts our power.  What is often called into question is whether we use that power responsibly.  As John Kennedy said: "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."  It is much easier to get into a war than it is to get out of one you have entered into.

This Stinks

Hey Republicans!

Thanks for the boner pills, you assholes!  A lot of good they do me when the only birth control you allow my lady is abstinence!  I hope the AAF Ali Air Freshener I just bought can remove the stench of you when we finally vote you out of office.

In Pursuit Of Selfishness

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created [almost] equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of [Selfishness].” This is the Republican Party's interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. They think “the buck stops here” means they get to keep all the money they can lay their hands on, and that no blame or shame should be visited upon they who strive to take it all. One must do what it takes to be happy, don't you know? And God knows you would not be happy if any of that money went to the wrong people; meaning anyone you do not know or the “[almost] equal people” who are different than you and I. The attitude of the typical Republican is: “Let the rest of the damn world take care of itself. No one is going to be here that long anyhow!”

All right, as my mother used to say, I have a bee under my bonnet. What the Republicans are doing is beyond outrageous. And I am not the only one who thinks so. In a May 15, 2015 post entitled “Why Do Republicans Really Oppose Infrastructure Spending?" Daily Kos answered that question as follows:  

"The most accepted (or easily reported) explanation is that today's Republican party is dominated by Southern states, the center of heavy infrastructure (and costs) is located in the Northeast, and Republicans refuse to spend on states that don't vote Republican. There is truth to this explanation and, frankly, it is not properly reported as part of the wider partisan scandal that it is. For example, although federal disaster relief is uniformly passed in the wake of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc., the Hurricane Sandy relief bill was passed only when (as one of a few instances) the "Boehner Rule" was lifted to allow a bill to pass with largely Democratic votes. Why? Because only 70 House Republicans could be found who were willing to vote for federal emergency hurricane relief if the affected area was the East Coast. Nice."

While that might be the most accepted explanation it is not the only one, nor is it necessarily the best one. As Daily Kos points out, one of the reasons for opposing spending on our infrastructure is the old “Starve the Beast” tactic, which has become so much a part of right wing ideology. In other words, withholding the funding for much needed work on our infrastructure is taking advantage of an “opportunity to extort draconian cuts to social, regulatory, non-defense spending.” And holding hostage any and all necessary government spending for cuts to spending the Republicans deem unfavorable appeals very much to the selfish, short sighted, paranoid, government hating base of the Republican Party. As Daily Kos so aptly put it: “The goal here is not to invest in the country, but to seize upon any vulnerability to 'drown the government in a bathtub.'"

My own observations tell me this is a tactic that can involve quite a bit of risk to the Plutocrats who support the Republican Party. The problem is that the bellicose, ignoramuses Republican politicians exploit on behalf of the Plutocrats often push the Republican Politicians to go too far. There is a reason why even the Koch brothers put pressure on Republicans legislators to back down when it became apparent that President Obama was not going pay the ransom the Republicans demanded in order to get them to rise the debt ceiling! What I find so dangerous about this game of chicken is the fact that the Plutocrats believe the potential rewards are great enough to justify the risks. And they believe this even when they complain about the danger posed by lunatics who primary any Republican that is not extreme enough to suit them.

So what reward, other than lower taxes, could be great enough to make the plutocrats take the risks associated with empowering people who are so angry and unreasonable, and therefore unpredictable?

According to Daily Kos the Republicans want to Privatize the Infrastructure and “...turn such public resources into privately owned profit centers.” They also want to fund projects through use of Private Equity Bonds, which means that local and state governments would “delegate the ability to issue tax-free bonds to private corporations and investors.” Talk about a boondoggle! Daily Kos is absolutely correct in saying: “Privatization is not just a golden opportunity, but a tax-payer subsidized, tax-free opportunity - - with no demonstrated public benefit[.]” Finally, the party of the Greedy Old Plutocrats wants to repeal the labor and environmental laws.

This Daily Kos post is something everyone should read. But they should not be surprised that no main stream news organization is revealing this outrageous Republican agenda. After all, the media moguls are also Plutocrats and part of the Oligopoly.  Ain't Deregulation Grand?

Paranoid Style Of American Politics

Insanity does not change and demagogues will always exploit delusions and fears.  This was brought to mind by my previous post, Paranoia Texas Style, wherein I make another reference to the John Birch Society.  I have to say another reference because I refer to the John Birch Society and Joe McCArthy in several of my posts.  The thing is that I could just as easily make my point by referring to the "No Nothings" or other paranoid parties and fear driven movements from our history.  This is why a Nov. 8, 2006 post entitled "Richard Hofstadter and the paranoid style in politics" on Rationallyspeaking is as relevant and timely today as it was in 2006 and why Richard Hofstadter's essay about the paranoid style in politics is so timeless.

The fact that this paranoid style in politics is always with us in no way minimizes the danger it poses.  It is like a sickness or disease; it is more or less dangerous depending on how well we control it.  When a major political party gives those nut jobs power the threat they pose increases exponentially.  Thanks to the Republicans that threat level is high today!

Paranoia Texas Style

Leave it to the high church of right wing stupid! A special forces exercise named Jade Helm is scheduled to take place in Texas, the state where people who drape themselves in the American flag and claim to revere our military are all too willing to believe our military is part of a despotic, Obama, conspiracy. All right, I know that sentence probably makes you think my train of thought was derailed, but I am merely reporting the truth, as implausible as that truth may appear to be. In spite of the fact that similar exercises are taking place in other states, including Arizona and California, a large number of Texans believe the Federal Government is conspiring to declare martial law and take over their state! Governor Greg Abbott is even ordering the national guard to keep an eye on federal troops. Silly me, I thought Texas was already a part of the Union, and that Texans were already afforded all the protections guaranteed by our Constitution.  Did I miss something?  Have they seceded from the Union again?

It is really tempting to react to those absurd allegations of a conspiracy by saying: “Yeah, right, and fluoridation was a communist conspiracy to control our minds, and President Eisenhower was a communist! And I really want to thank you people for making the rest of the world seem so sane and rational.” The whole idea of such a conspiracy is so ludicrous that most people are going to laugh at it the same way we laughed at the John Birch Society.  But the irrational fears that make people believe such conspiracy theories are really dangerous. Furthermore shameless demagogues, such as Governor Greg and Senator Cruz, who are promoting those fears are wittingly or unwittingly validating the hatred spawned by the imagined threats! Thanks to the NRA, the most dangerous of the paranoid lunatics are also well armed!  If this makes you think of paramilitary, right wing militia's and Timothy McVeigh you are not alone.  

Denial Of Origins

No, and I was not there to witness your conception or your birth either. Yet here you are, and science accurately explains how you got here!

As many of my astute readers have probably surmised, I am reacting to a local church that has become too aggressive in teaching and promoting its anti-science ignorance. Hummm.  I guess I should rephrase that. Lets face it, any teaching or promoting of anti-science ignorance is too aggressive and stupid. If you think “Big Bang” is a scientific description of your faith crashing, you obviously have a problem with your faith!  My own opinion is that a faith that fragile is more likely to end with a tinkle than a bang.