Yup, I said it and I don't regret it

Perhaps a better title for this article would be the ghost of posts past.  January of 2016 will mark the seventh anniversary of this blog. I don't know whether to cheer, cry, or sigh. I have already provided labels to make it easy for you to find the posts that I think are most representative of my views on a range of topics, but I cannot resist adding some excerpts from posts that are unlabeled and in danger of being buried and forgotten. Chalk it up to a seven year itch or an unwarranted ego as you will.

From Obama v. The Dixiecans 3/9/2009:

“Rather than helping to cure the economic malaise, the Republicans have dusted off their credo from the days of the Great Depression: “If you can’t sit at the head of the table, piss in the soup!” The obstructionist tactics they employed at that time helped President Franklin Roosevelt get elected to four consecutive terms. And what did the Republicans learn from that? Well, they introduced the Constitutional Amendment that now prevents any President from getting elected to more than two terms.”

From Read All About It 2/17/2010:

“I am reminded of what Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall once said about Thomas Nast: 'Stop them pictures. I don’t care what the papers write about me. My constituents can’t read. But, damn it, they can see the pictures.' The constituents of today’s politicians do not read, but they do watch television... What bothers me is the mainstream media [and television networks]. They have traditionally felt a civic obligation to keep the public informed. Keeping the public informed means more than simply reporting statements that you know are lies; it means revealing the lies as lies and the hypocrisy as hypocrisy.”

From A Return To Sanity 4/1/2010:

“As I have said before, I honestly believe that the survival of the Republican Party depends on the ability of its leadership to move it back to the center. I do not envy them. This is going to be a very difficult and risky task. They have danced with the devil, and he is not going to settle for a good night kiss.“

From Arrogance Of Wealth 7/28/2010:

“The Republicans sided with the insurance companies over the issue of health care reform. They sided with Wall Street over regulations to reform our financial institutions. They are now siding with the oil companies over liability for spills and compensation to the victims of those spills. They are siding with the wealthy over taxes while trying to deny the victims of this recession the benefits of unemployment insurance. How many ways can you say bought and paid for?”

From A Dismal Field 9/13/2011:

“Rich Perry: I won’t say, “this dog don’t hunt.” What I will say is that all he brings back are skunks. He calls Social Security a fraudulent ponzi scheme. He is in favor of the Ryan plan that would turn Medicare into a private voucher program. He even said that the progressive income tax is unconstitutional. These and other extreme right wing opinions are stated in his book 'Fed Up.'”

From Nothing To Offer 4/5/2012:

“The season in which mastodon bellows at mastodon, across the primeval swamp of reactionary politics is almost over. The oligopoly is asserting its will. Although a few rogues are still holding out, the pachyderms are falling in line. That they are not exactly singing songs of joy as they fall in line is to be expected. All they have to unite them is their hatred of President Obama.”

From Embarrassed Texans Are Not Alone 4/6/2013:

“Indeed, to those of us who are more rational it seems as though Texans have such a low opinion of all government that they consider political offices to be good, out of the way, places to deposit their lunatics and dumb asses.”

From Mocking Stupid 8/31/2013:

“The Republican dullards there [in North Carolina] actually buried an anti-choice provision into a bill prohibiting the establishment of Sharia law. What, did they think the pro-choice people would be laughing so hard over the absurdity of outlawing something already prohibited by the Constitution that they would not notice the anti-choice provision?”

From Cash Kashkari 5/31/2014:
“He [Neel Kashkari] wants us to believe he will make a better Governor than a politician would because “politicians don’t know how to earn money.” What? Does this lunkhead think the government should be a profit making organization or that politicians should use their elected offices to make as much money for themselves as they can?”

From Malpractice 7/29/2014:
“The Republicans have been fishing for votes in the shallow end of the IQ pool for over a decade now. I suppose the inevitable question is whether they have hooked stupid or stupid has hooked them. Either way, they now own it.”

From Rudy Rude 2/20/2015:

“Rudy Giuliani must have recently visited Florida to look at the ass prints he left there on the road to the white house. I say this because his envy over where President Obama resides is all too apparent.”

From Snippy Snippets 4/10/2015:

“The Republicans are trying to sell us the same wooden nickels they were selling at the time of the robber barons and well into the nineteen thirties, and they are still pitching the same bitch they pitched back then: “Big Government and Socialism are taking this country to hell in a hand basket,” they bark. If that were true I am sure the indignity of being carted off to hell in a hand basket rather than an Armani Bag would be particularly odious to them!”

From Go Left My Lady 4/12/2015
"Up until Ronald Reagan it was Democrats who talked about the undo influence “special interests” had on the Republican Party. What the Democrats meant by special interests were large corporations, the Chamber of Commerce, and the large financial institutions (you know, the people who crashed the economy in 2008). Reagan turned that issue on its head by re-defining “special interests” to mean labor unions, environmental groups, etc. (you know, the people who fought for living wages, safe work places, and the preservation of a beautiful place to live, work and play)."

From Forced Ignorance 6/13/2015:

“The only intelligent people who think ignorance is bliss are the people who blissfully exploit the ignorant!”

From Daddy's GOP 9/13/2015:

“...President Eisenhower saved the Republican Party by pulling it, kicking and screaming, to the political center. The problem is that this victory over the lunatic right was not complete. Like the Herpes Zoster virus that causes chicken pox and shingles, right wing paranoia and stupidity can never be purged from the body politic. And there are always Republican demagogues who are eager to stir up the fear and loathing that allows those right wing lunatics to re-emerge.”

From We Are The Losers 10/29/2015:

“... Privatization is what this villainization of Government and entitlements is all about. The Republicans want to throw your retirement funds to the Wall Street wolves. They do not care if you starve because your retirement fund fell victim to one of Goldman Sachs' 'shitty deals' or you fell victim to another Madoff or Keating. In fact, they want to serve the Greedy Old Plutocrats by removing any regulations that might protect you from such 'shitty deals.'”

From De Farce 11/11/2015:

“As the great God of Republican victimization knows, only a blasphemous liberal would fact check a Republican! Indeed, fact checking Republicans is like body checking people who are on crutches. How dare you trip up the willfully ignorant demagogues with facts!”

From Shame 11/20/2015:

“It is not really the events in France that are the causing this fear mongering; the heinous attacks there are just an excuse. The real cause of the fear mongering is a moral and intellectual bankruptcy that leaves the demagogues nothing else to sell!”

From Chickenhawk Guano 12/5/2015:
"What the Republicans are really protecting is free enterprise run amuck [rather than the second amendment]; they and the NRA are protecting the market – the ability of the gun manufacturers to remain neutral in the fight against terrorists and to sell arms to both sides."

Thank You EPI

See http://www.epi.org/publication/the-top-charts-of-2015/  (Sorry, it appears as though the EPI site has been hacked and the link I tried to provide here does not work.  Try a search. They will probably solve the problem soon.)

I am sure the Republicans will be quick to point out that as EPI said in its article entitled “Top Charts of 2015:”

“... the economy remains far from fully recovered—and is still failing ordinary Americans, who have endured decades of stagnant wages despite working more productively than ever.

But [what the Republicans will not tell you is that] the charts also make clear that it doesn’t have to be this way. They show that policies that enhance low- and middle-income Americans’ economic leverage—such as keeping interest rates low, raising the minimum wage, making it easier for workers to bargain collectively, expanding access to overtime pay, and eliminating discriminatory practices that contribute to gender inequality—can go far toward creating an economy where prosperity is broadly shared.”

In other words what you get from starve the beast and trickle down are stagnant wages, and what the Democrats have been trying to do would work if the Republicans stopped blocking them. The EPI' charts and EPI's comments about what the charts demonstrate are really quite illuminating! It is a pity that the woeful believers supporting Trump and other right wing Republicans are not bright enough to look at or understand the evidence, but that is just the way they are.

Let us not engage in a futile task. Let the base Republicans* wallow in the fear and loathing so generously supplied to them by demagogues like Trump and Cruz. Fortunately those people, who are suffering from bottom runger syndrome and refuse to share even when sharing is in their best interests, are in the minority. This is not a country where people have traditionally asked “who am I better than?” Rather it is a country where people have traditionally asked “how much better can I become?”

So let us focus our attention on the majority of our citizens and appeal to their better nature. You know the majority; they are the productive people who understand that resolute actions on behalf of all our citizens benefit everyone, whereas divisive tantrums born from ill-informed frustrations benefit no one! As I said in a post entitled “Farewell Mario,” Mario Cuomo reminded us that “this country is at its best when it offers opportunities to all and struggles to right its historical wrongs. It is at its best when it rewards the hard work of the many rather than trying to satiate the greed of the few.” It is Mr. Cuomo's appeal to our better nature and his belief about what makes our country so great that now distinguishes Democrats from Republicans. The evidence presented by EPI shows that following this better part of our nature is also a better economic plan than the failed Ayn Rand alternative the Republicans want to continue inflicting on us!

*In the unlikely event that the Trumpster or the Canadian Texas Turd should read this post, I am sure they would cast aside their objections to political correctness long enough to criticize me for calling their supporters base Republicans rather than the Republican base. Sorry but “base” (used as a pejorative adjective) is a fitting description of people who are so desperately afraid of a democracy in which they no longer constitute the majority that they fall easy prey to the dangerous fear mongering of divisive demagogues.

Incompetence or Worse

When Martin O'Malley ranted about the restrictive debate schedule set up by the DNC I thought he was over-reacting. I have changed my mind. I do not want to act like a Republican by poisoning the well or by throwing unsubstantiated accusations at anyone, but Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the DNC could not have picked better times to hold the last two debates if their intention was to decrease the number of people watching those debates. This is not lost on the supporters of Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley. They, the people who favor Sanders or O'Malley, are convinced that Wasserman-Schultz is purposely limiting the exposure of all the candidates so that the one with the most recognizable name (Hillary Clinton) will win.  Needless to say that the people who do not favor Hillary Clinton are screaming foul over this perceived stacking of the deck.

Whether those accusations are correct or not, the small number of debates and the scheduling of those debates is outrageous and horribly ill-advised. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley do not need the DNC to protected them from themselves by limiting their exposure; they are not factually challenged Republicans with foot in mouth disease.* All of those Democratic candidates are very competent people who have something important to say about the issues. Doing anything that decreases the number of people who will hear what those candidates have to say is as bad as imposing conditions that decrease the voter turn out. We are Democrats! We are better than that! We do not simply go along. We want to hear all serious candidates so that we can make informed decisions. Furthermore, decreasing the number of people who watch the Democratic debates leaves center stage to the Republicans. And abandoning center stage to the Republicans is not what anyone with more than a beer soaked peanut for a brain would call a winning tactic!

*People get foot in mouth disease; whereas animals get hoof in mouth disease. Although with so many of the fear mongering Republicans acting like crazed bulls it is easy to understand why someone might get the two confused.

Fascist?

Who are You Calling a Fascist?  There is little doubt that Donald Trump can out demagogue, out fear monger, and out pout any fascist!

Yeah, but can he make the trains run on time?

Chickenhawk Guano

The Republicans say they are tougher than the Democrats and that they, the Greedy Old Plutocrats, will “keep us safe.” Yet a Republican Controlled Congress does not even have the courage or good sense to authorize the use of force against Daesh (ISIS) or to pass legislation to prevent people on the terrorist watch list from buying assault weapons. So how are the Republicans going to keep us safe? Their great plan is the same as always: make sure that every man and woman can buy big bad guns. That's right, they want to take us back to yesteryear when people were too self reliant to depend on law enforcement officers and often resolved their differences in the time honored tradition of the Hatfields and McCoys or the Earps and Clantons.

That ought to fix it! Those damned terrorists, no matter how well armed, will have to think twice before committing heinous acts when even granny is packing heat and ready to shoot. Never mind the fact that turban wearing Sikhs and young black men wearing hoodies are very likely to get shot just because someone thought they were a threat. The Republicans will express their regret over such tragic mistakes. They will even urge us to pray for the victims, but they will also tell us those deaths were a small price to pay for the security guns provide us.

This whole thing about the Republicans protecting Second Amendment Rights is pure chickenhawk guano. What the Republicans are really protecting is free enterprise run amuck; they and the NRA are protecting the market – the ability of the gun manufacturers to remain neutral in the fight against terrorists and to sell arms to both sides. And many Republicans, such as Trump, are doing this while insulting Muslims who could be our allies.

Far from keeping us safe or protecting us, the Republicans are increasing the dangers we face!

God Won't Fix It

Dailykos called this article in the New York Daily News the best response to the San Bernardino shootings, and I agree. But words, no matter how poignant they may be, are not enough. Thirteen people were murdered and twenty were injured. Praying for these victims is not going to do any good either, particularly when the hypocrites calling for the prayers are highly paid lackey's of the NRA. It ain't God flooding the streets with so many guns that virtually anyone can obtain one.

If you are so gullible and paranoid that you believe the government is going to take your guns away from you, you just might be dangerous enough to make serious people consider whether or not you should own a gun. Even so, there are very few people who would advocate taking your guns unless you commit a violent crime or demonstrate that you are a threat to others or health care professionals say you are a danger to yourself and/or others. 

I am a gun owner and I know many responsible gun owners; we all favor responsible gun control!  It is time for all of us to stand up to the NRA and its fear mongering. Lives are more important than the gun manufacturers profits! Demand reasonable gun laws and let the politicians know you will vote against anyone who does not support such gun legislation!